Washington Post article by Joel Achenbach, August 26, 2022, “The very distant universe looks a little different than expected . . . A general assumption had been that early galaxies – which formed not long after the first stars ignited – would be relatively small and misshapen. Instead, some of them are big, bright and nicely structured. . . .”
“The models just don’t predict this,” Garth Illingworth, an astronomer at the University of California at Santa Cruz, said of the massive early galaxies. “How do you do this in the universe at such an early time? How do you form so many stars so quickly?”
Ty’s office was at a secured experiment facility further from the atomic energy plant core and building where Marty worked. Still, he managed to have lunch with her at the large central cafeteria nearly every day. Sometimes Dr. Ty Anderson was engaging and other times his mind seemed elsewhere. She knew what he was doing had something to do with lasers and was hush, hush. She imagined the documents that crossed his desk were top secret. When confidential documents came her way, Marty would pretend to be a spy and take pictures of the intriguing, shadowy information with her Wagner College graduation ring.
“Do you think that someday we will have telescopes that can see back to the Big Bang?” Marty asked Ty just as they sat down to the small empty table they managed to find in the busy lunch room.
Ty’s big smile testified to one of the things he liked about the unusual girl. “Do you stay up at night thinking up these crazy questions?”
“No really. I really wonder about these things. If we could see the beginning of our universe, what would we see?” It was the Sixty’s but Marty wondered if there could someday be such a telescope.
Marty drew imaginary pictures in her mind. She could see herself as a scientist demonstrating how this telescope might work. She enjoyed her and Ty’s lunch room discussions.
“You know all we would see is past light. The very early universe is mostly dark matter and we cannot see dark matter except maybe by something they are working on called gravitational lensing. But if by chance we can see just a few 100 million years after the big cosmic inflation, I don’t think it will be a muddled and jumbled as many might think.”
Marty was not surprised at Ty’s remark. As she finished her lunch, she remembered many times Ty talking about his belief that dark matter is really spiritual matter and the first seven billion universal years were spiritual creation followed by the six billion plus years of physical creation. “I would become a believer if we could look back and see the spiritual creation.”
“Not necessarily,” Ty had an annoyed look. “Skeptics always find some other explanation.”
She didn’t like being called a skeptic, but she also knew she was not a brother of Jared who saw Jesus as a spirit simply because he believed so strongly. * If the Book of Mormon story is true, she realized this would mean spirit has a perfect everlasting age and form. That would mean the spiritual universe would be organized at a perfect age and form; only the physical universe has to evolve, age, and die. Marty knew she had to try to understand Ty’s point of view or change his point of view. She couldn’t imagine losing her new friend. “I really like that scripture, you know the one you always quote, ‘God, created all things . . . spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth.'”
Ty’s elbow was propped on the table holding his head in his hand, thinking, while eating with the other. He shot up in his chair, smiling at Marty’s obviously uncomfortable effort to get back into his good graces. “Well, ‘Doubting Thomas’ Marty, I suspect you will ask question after question until you sort it all out and know what’s true. Just hope you realize I’m right before I die.” He laughed at his intended arrogance as he finished his last bite of food and stood to leave. “I’ve got to get back to work. I’ll phone you tonight.” And off he went.
Something was going on. Was their relationship cooling. It wouldn’t be the first time Marty had lost a friend because of her candor. Maybe Ty was still seeing Kerry. She had asked her friend Maggie and Maggie had said not to worry about Kerry. Maggie had heard Kerry was thinking of moving to San Diego. That was far away, the farther away the better she thought.
This short side story agrees with same timeline as Chapter 15 of the novel, Marty’s Dark Matter. To learn more about this book — click M. KASEY, AUTHOR, above.
- Ether 3:6-16, ** Moses 3:5
M. Kasey 