Dust Bunnies and Fuzz Balls: The Corruption of Light

Light only acts like a wave in specific environments. The sharp definition of our noon-day shadows is more proof that light travels in a straight line. The sharpness of our shadows proves that light strikes [something] first and only then does it appear to start making waves. Step outside some night. Choose the dimmest star you can see. Mark it well in your mind.

Drive east to west in the country for 10 miles and look at that same star. It is the same strength, is it not so? It is the same size, is it not so? Now drive from west to east; stop as often as you wish. Measure this star each time you stop. It is identical at each stop; is this not so?

Now jump in a spaceship and leap into orbit around Mars. Is there enough difference visible in that star to make a tempest in a teapot boil over? None. Jump 10 light years straight up and measure again. It is appallingly obvious that star retains the same brilliance and the same dimensions.

What is the message? That star and every star was made in order to fill the immensity of space with its light. Every inch in any direction that you move your position those beams of light are coming straight to your newest position. Unless some matter [or power] comes between yourself and a clear view of that star it remains the same. Isn't that amazing?

Now let's make a grain silo five stories high. A tin roof covers our silo. In the top of that tin roof, we tap a small pinprick hole that lets a tiny stream of sunlight pass through it somewhere near the noon hour. At that time that stream of light passes through the aperture and strikes the toe of your shoe where you stand on the clean floor.

But what if farmers begin to fill our silo up with grain? Suddenly the circumference of our stream of light spreads out much wider and it is full of particulates that boil up and down and around and around inside our stream of light. They rise to that tiny hole and are snatched out of our . Our teakettle is boiling over. The circumference of our light is no longer sharp and clear as it strikes the floor. Can you postulate a problem that would cause this much confusion? I always say that If you can identify any problem you have you are halfway to the solution. In this situation, we have introduced grain into the silo.

Dust bunnies, fuzz balls, and other lightweight particulates are agitated in the stream of light and each one of them is tumbling upwards in that light stream As each side of those particulates turns upwards a tiny proportion of those dust bunnies trigger new flashes of light. In a matter of nanoseconds our entire silo is saturated in streams of faint light, each one still fulminating in a vast metric of straight lines that are triggered to fill every dark shadow in our silo, but regardless of the complexity of the permutations presented to our eye, each beam is still traveling in a straight line. However, that is only a straight line from the last time it bounced off of one of the dust bunnies, fuzz balls or particulates. Colloidal particulates are everywhere around us.

Have you ever watched the sunset? Those streamers of often beautiful sunsets are caused by light from the sun bouncing off those colloidal particulates. Just remember, the sun never sets. If you could run fast enough to keep up with the sun's glory you would see an endless display of magic streamers, some made from dust, some made from smoke, and others from grime, moisture, volcanic ash and even mirages and glints from still other sources.

Even when your eyes are telling you the sky is clear there is debris floating around in your sky. Our space telescopes will avoid many of the problems of ground-based observatories, such as light pollution and distortion of electromagnetic radiation (or scintillation). In addition, ultraviolet frequencies, X-rays, and gamma rays are blocked by the Earth's atmosphere, so they can only be monitored accurately from space. Out in orbit around the the Hubble observatory brings in some astonishingly brilliant pictures of the utter immensity of our universe.

There is a dream maturing of orbiting two identical space telescopes in deep space, that region more than 400,000 miles beyond Pluto. An orbit in deep space is practically stationary. Then having two telescopes working in tandem will validate what other hazards might lie out there, waiting for that Intrepid Engineer from earth.