|
The inside story of Star Place Star Place was launched with the idea of creating a site whereby visitors could experience the universal sense of time and space in their lives as opposed to cyberspace. As we began to develop the site, we became aware of the knowledge common to everyone on the planet: the Earth is flying through the universe. We do not experience the sensation of flying, but we know the Earth spins around the sun because of night and day, and the seasons. Accordingly, we change our clothing and what we eat, and our lives evolve. The Earth's speed -- 30 kilometers per second -- is much faster than anything we can feel. This fact amazed us the most. We tried to create a Web site that would express our emotions simply, and the result was the top page of Star Place. (Indeed, the solar system moves extremely fast within its galaxy, and the galaxy moves through space even more quickly than does the solar system. Every second, we fly through the universe at an extraordinary speed.) The Star Songs, which came about as we planned Star Place, were developed in collaboration with an artist, KINOCLINIC. Shooting stars are a phenomenon caused by the Earth plunging through cosmic dust at 30 km per second. The intense friction of the burning dust and the Earth's atmosphere looks like shooting stars from the ground. (The sensation is analogous to that of raindrops crashing upon the windshield of a car.) As the Earth revolves around the sun, the cosmic dust of comets gathers in pockets. When the Earth passes through these pockets, shooting stars are more prominent than usual; in technical terms, such shooting stars are called meteor showers. The Perceid meteor shower, which reaches its peak on August 12 each year, is the most well-known. Shooting stars are the only astronomical phenomenon through which you can actually realize the Earth's speed, which we show at Star Place. We hope this page makes you want to look at the night sky, then we-- KINOCLINIC and the sensorium staff -- will have achieved our goal: using illustrations and verse to express the dynamism and beauty of astronomical phenomena. For information about the Star Place production staff, please see the Staff Page. |
[previous page]
Enter your opinions, comments and questions in the comments page.