RIPPLES ON THE COSMIC OCEAN

Taking the wide view.

From the ancients to the Newtonians, humans found comfort in the regularities of the heavens—the rising and setting of the sun, the steady light of the fixed stars. But the invention of telescopes in the 17th century revealed more erratic changes in the cosmos, arrhythmias in the scheme of things that spurned the steady cycles of wake and sleep, sow and harvest. In this gorgeously illustrated, richly researched book, Degroot, an environmental historian at Georgetown University, explores the ways in which “real or perceived changes in cosmic environments shaped affairs on Earth.” In the late 1700s, the astronomer William Herschel discovered that the sun’s brightness is inconstant and that changes in solar output can affect our weather and food production. Solar storms turned out to wreak havoc on technology. A 1967 burst of radio waves that scrambled U.S. radar stations left Air Force officers thinking the Soviets had jammed their equipment. Space weather can mean the difference between war and peace, but, on the flip side, Degroot suggests, our understanding of space is itself a reflection of earthly sociopolitical and cultural concerns. Tracing fascinating tales of astronomers, scientists, and reporters who conjectured the existence of massive cities, forests, and even beavers on the Moon, Degroot reveals that they were seeing their own zeitgeist through their telescopes. When, for instance, scientists saw canals on Mars, powerful El Niño and La Niña events on Earth were causing massive droughts that killed millions. “The idea that Martians had engineered their planet to survive the ultimate drought naturally captured widespread attention, and, for a while, convinced many scientists,” Degroot writes. His historical analysis is so persuasive that, when he espouses a kind of techno-utopian vision of space exploration at the book’s end, it’s hard not to read that, too, as a reflection of the hopes and anxieties of our present age.

A sweeping, stunning account of our place in the cosmos and its place in us.