The mystery of Astrophysics

 

NASA's Fermi gamma ray telescope team recently released a catalog of nearly 2000 objects with high emissions (1) . Nearly 1/3 of these objects are mysterious in that they cannot be associated with any known class of objects or phenomena.

This is instructive. Planet hunting has become the most popular activity in Astronomy lately and although it is interesting, finding a new planet or even a dozen of them do not substantially advance our understanding of the system. Granted, every now and then people get excited about finding "an earth like" planet or a massive planet too close to the star – as if "earth" is something special and they are surprised that classical Physics does not always work. Since there is only a limited band width of brain and observational power available, it is important to allocate that in the most profitable way for humanity. If fundamental questions remain about the structure of the universe, then it is important to focus on it first to get a higher level of understanding. The fact that dark matter, energy and flow remain to be "plugs," in the equation with no new insights, should give scientists pause.

The mystery unearthed by LAT is yet another example that we are nowhere close to a reasonable understanding of the system. Such experiments, that study the fabric of the universe holistically, are much more important than finding water molecules in some obscure planet. We already know water and planets exist and thus there will always be planets with water – it does not require a lot of energy and time. It may be time to reevaluate our priorities.

(1) http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/gamma-ray-census.html