On 11 April, a meeting was held in a “talk show” format between VSU scientists: lecturer of the Faculty of Physics Tamara Chevychelova and lecturer of the Faculty of Philology Ekaterina Strelnikova, PhD in Philology. It took place at the Atomic Energy Information Centre and was dedicated to the Cosmonautics Day. The topic of the announced event was a conversation from two conventionally “opposite” points of view about outer space, stars, the secrets of different planets, and science fiction.
As a lecturer from the Department of Optics and Spectroscopy of the Faculty of Physics, Tamara Chevychelova spoke not only about stars, but also about how we can observe them from Earth and about exoplanets located outside the solar system.
“Around stable stars similar to our sun, there are so-called habitable areas that are favourable for the origin of life. If an exoplanet belongs to such a region, astrophysicists consider it to be potentially suitable for habitation and try to study its characteristics in detail. Sometimes a planet goes around not one but two or three starts and has a complex orbit. And life may also be found there! And there are also beautiful sunsets, like on the planet Solaris from the novel of the same name by Stanislav Lem,” said Tamara Chevychelova.
Ekaterina Strelnikova continued her colleague’s story with an even more detailed discussion of science fiction works by the Polish writer Stanislaw Lem, known for his provocative approach to solving the main “cosmic” question: how high are the chances to really apprehend something alien and unfamiliar, something that does not belong to us and seems like a heaven but it is actually not.
“To solve the mystery of the famous planet Solaris, one should turn to (according to Lem himself ) the philosophical ideas of Immanuel Kant, who invented the concept of “thing-in-itself” (Ding an sich). From this point of view, Lem’s rationality looks pessimistic: there are boundaries that we cannot overcome, and the apparent “a priori” nature of our knowledge is not really like that. But to be a hero in such conditions, when people understand all of the circumstances but do not stop trying, means to talk, to make contact, to learn more about yourself, if not about something alien,” said Ekaterina Strelnikova.
After the speeches, the audience asked their questions. For the best questions they received popular science books about space as gifts.
“The evening turned out to be educational and inspiring: on the one hand, we talked about the physics of the movement of exoplanets, and on the other, we discussed the problem of interaction between two different forms of life: for example, on Earth and on planet Solaris. Thanks a lot to the AEIC team for the opportunity to hold such wonderful meetings!” said Tamara Chevychelova.
Photo by: AEIC Voronezh
