Charlestown’s Dark Skies Important As Well As Beautiful
Are Charlestown’s Dark Skies Important As Well As Beautiful? Writing to the Charlestown Town Council in support of our town’s lighting ordinance, Dr. Giovanni Fazio, who is Senior Physicist at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and a visitor to Frosty Drew Observatory in 2012, answered that question:
“The night sky has inspired humanity for thousands of years. Science has progressed because of it. Studying it has shown our place in the Universe and led to more stories, spiritual, philosophical, religious, social and emotional revolutions than any other part of our world. Young students have been inspired by it and have gone on in life to outstanding careers in science, engineering, and technology, which have greatly benefited our society.”
Dr. Fazio went on to say the following about the environmental impact of unnecessarily lighting the night sky:
“There are also important environmental impacts resulting from the expanded use of white lighting sources, accelerated most recently by the development in solid-state lighting. The illumination of the night sky by artificial lights can adversely affect biological activities such as animal orientation and human vision and health. The protection of the dark sky is important also to the birds, animals and plants that live in the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge.”
Dr. Fazio’s story is a prime example of how the inspiration of the night sky can lead to a career in science that expands our understanding of the world in which we live.
As a child he attended a small school in a rural town where he was fascinated by balloons and the world above him. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and went on to be the principal investigator for instruments on three space telescope missions and co-investigator on a fourth. He was the principal investigator for NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope/Infrared Array Camera that observed the Universe for more than sixteen years. He has served on numerous NASA advisory committees and has received many national and international awards.
Dr. Fazio gave a tour through the Universe to an audience of Charlestown’s youngsters during his visit to the Frosty Drew Observatory. Dr. Fazio was amazed at what Charlestown’s schoolchildren knew and the in-depth questions they asked him.
Just this past June, the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association hosted Dr. Fazio as part of its Science Speaker Series. Dr. Fazio’s presentation, entitled “Where Are We? What Is Our Place In the Universe?”, is a grand tour of the Universe, beginning at our planet Earth, traveling through our solar system, galaxy, and into extragalactic space, and ending at the edge of the known Universe.” If you would like to experience the journey with Dr. Fazio, you can watch the video below.