By Lubna Abdel-Aziz With dark skies at night, and blazing sunlight by day, do we ever stop to wonder what lies beyond? How did we come to be? Are we alone, or are there others? Are we the product of evolution or creation, or both? Such thoughts have crossed our minds casually, but infrequently. We have too much to worry about down here - school fees, car repairs, electricity bills, H1N1, the list is endless. Have we any time to look up to the skies and wonder about the mysteries of our universe? There is good reason why this is the year to gaze upwards: 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy (IYA), launched together with UNESCO under the theme: "The Universe, Yours to Discover." It is a global effort to help the citizens of the world rediscover their place in the universe, "through the day and night-time sky, and thereby engage a personal sense of wonder and discovery." If it has not reached you yet, it has reached millions worldwide. The date, 2009, coincides with the 400th birthday of the telescope. Over one million people have already looked at the sky through a telescope, for the first time. Countless other projects have been ongoing in over 100 countries that have participated in this celebration. In Busan City, South Korea, 400,000 people gathered for the Sunrise Event on New Year's Day. In Brazil, the 2009 Brazilian Olympiad of Astronomy and Astronautics saw more than 750,000 students participate from 32,000 schools. In Paraguay the IYA launch featured a concert with more than 1,600 musicians and an audience of over 15,000. In Norway, every student from grades 5-11 received an astronomy kit, including a Galileoscope and an educational guide. The Galileoscope is the main project of the IYA. 160,000 Galileoscopes have been produced at a low cost, providing views far better than those obtained by Galileo Galilei some 400 years ago. The IYA donated 4,000 Galileoscopes to organizations and schools in developing countries. It is one step further to making the skies accessible to all. For the first time in postal service history 70 postal services round the world have issued 140 new stamps inspired by astronomy. What are we to gain from contemplating the skies? What is it to us what the ultimate fate of our Earth is, or how old it is, or how it will die? Need we worry about the Milky Way Galaxy? Should not all this be left to a few good men of science, or should it? Celebrating the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observation by Galileo is worthy enough for us to give our universe a more than a casual thought or two. Are we alone? This is one of the major questions that occupy mankind's scientists and laymen alike. Do we have an answer? NASA has just discovered evidence of water on the moon, only in dark craters in the form of ice, still valuable information, worth NASA's $79 million expenditure. "This is a great day for science and exploration," says NASA. Some believe the $79 million could have been put to better use, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, etc. But how can we deny science? Where would we be without it? Thanks to technological advances we have been able to look deeper into the structure of the universe. The telescope helped us solve one mystery, the moon rocket another, but how many mysteries remain unsolved in the wide blue yonder? Peoples everywhere throughout history have created their own myths about the starry heavens and its myriad celestial bodies. It has inspired poets, embraced lovers and peaked the curiosity of scientists and philosophers. Still there remain more questions than there are answers. Was the world made in 6 days? Scientists no longer believe that, nor do the vast majority of us. What about all the religious beliefs? Adam and Eve? Heaven and hell? We have always been taught to believe all the teachings of the Holy Books. Yet, learning about the universe, about the development of Homo Sapiens, about the Big Bang theory, we ask where does the truth lie? Is it likely that Adam was formed "out of the dust of the ground," or is that simply the continuation of the story of man which started billions of years before the Bible, Koran and the Torah? It is not inconceivable to believe in both the religious and scientific theories of creation, it we do not stick to the letter of the holy books. Scientists cannot disprove that God created the universe, therefore with that premise, they can proceed with their theories without conflict. They can count their billions of years and zillions of stars. They can contemplate other planets harbouring other lives. There is no contradiction. However, if there is such a high probability that life such as ours, or similar to ours, exists, why have we not found it yet? We keep seeking, asking, enquiring, wondering. Only then may we find answers to the mysteries of the magical, mystical, puzzling universe. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it revealed many secrets, solved many mysteries, answered many questions, cured many diseases, discovered many territories and on and on. Without curiosity there would be no science, without science there would be no progress, without progress would there still be the human race? A dear friend, the late Kamal El Mallakh, who had the most curious mind, once observed that Adam could not have had an umbilical cord, or Eve for that matter. Therefore all the paintings in history were wrong in painting Adam with an umbilicus. The information was transmitted by Reuters, AP, UP, and all news agencies across the world, causing a stir amongst artists and art critics. It may not have changed the fate of mankind, but it illustrates how a curious mind works. The power of the human mind is the miracle of mankind. It has brought us so far through time, conquering riches, power and force. Let us work our minds and never cease to wonder. The future belongs to those who use the richness, force and power of the mind Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another. -- Plato (420 -- 348 BC).
