Space Bound*

It was a regular family gathering afternoon, my family was invited to my uncle's house for a Friday Feast, everyone had just finished their lunch, and were now drinking tea and chatting, it was then when I sneaked out and left the crowed to go to my uncle's office where he had this huge library, I was about 7 years old, I can hardly reach the top shelves that held the heavy old looking books, so I settled for the ones my tiny hands could reach to avoid the trouble I would get into if I needed anyone to help me to get to the ones on the top, because that would end up with my mother freaking out and me outside the office which was not an option!

I grabbed a couple of books, sat on the floor, and started to flip through the pages, the book was in English, so I didn't understand a thing and kept looking at the photos in it, now from the title of this blog you’ve guessed already what that book was about, it was about Space! More specifically the Solar System, which at that age barely knew anything about, anyhow that didn’t stop me from flipping for more pages and gazing at more photographs, it was a few minutes later when my little sister had found me hiding in my uncle’s office, she came in, looked at the book and then asked ‘what are these things? Basma, do you know what are they?’

‘What are these things?’

By the time she came in I was staring at a drawing of Saturn, it for some reason captivated my attention because none of the previous drawings of planets had any rings around them, so my sister’s question was about the rings, now I myself didn’t know what were they, but it was shameful for me to seem so ignorant in front of my little sister, because after all I was the ‘smart mouthed’ kid in the family, I had the answers to everything, how can I not know ‘what were these things’ so I made up a story and told  my sister that they were advanced antennas for alien satellites and that she shouldn’t ask anymore questions because it would  be dangerous, of course I only said that to scare her away from asking me any more questions that I had absolutely no idea how to answer them.

She left the room and never asked me anything related to space till this very day, except our usual ‘do you believe in alien life’ arguments now and then, now I understand why she doesn't believe in intelligent alien life, I think I scared her for good!.

My family's weekly visits to my uncle's were the highlight of my week because it meant more time for me to sneak to his office and flip through the pages of the space books he had. I had so many questions but I was afraid to ask, because then they would find out that I was disappearing into his office which was a forbidden zone for the children in the family, so I settled for only looking at more drawings, and oh man I was hooked!

In our school systems, they only teach you about the Earth, moon and Solar System, so you grow up thinking that the universe is that limited. That is if you’re thinking about the universe in the first place.

For the most part while growing up I wondered about the shapes that appeared on the moon and if they meant anything, now I know there’s no man on the moon and there’s no rabbit either, but in fact it’s ‘maria’ that resulted billions of years ago when a giant asteroid hit the moon and caused the lava to expand to the other side of the moon which we now see as dark regions. 

As I grew older my love and fascination with our ever expanding universe intensified, I’m often asked ‘What is a Laboratory Medicine student doing reading about pulsars?’ or why do I spend hours in the library chasing down an information about the history of the universe, I can list a million reasons to why, but I think one is enough.

It’s love.

During a long exhausting day of lectures, whenever I have a free hour, I would run for my life and I mean RUN, to my university's library just to escape into a parallel universe outside the pressure of lectures with ‘Heaven & Earth’ 

  After 2 weeks of library deprivation due to my hectic schedule,
 I came back to find my baby alone and dusty!  

Somehow when having a regular conversation with a friend, no matter what the topic, I end up turning to space in an attempt to ‘clarify’ my point by either using Einstein’s general relativity theory in comparison to why we as humans are attracted to grand things, don’t they usually say ‘The Bigger the Better’ or as a Palestinian would say it ‘estakber.ha walaw kanat 3ajra’ which is usually a failed attempt mostly because no one knows what the hell I’m talking about.

With my friend Randa at our university's library ,
where I spent a good 40 minuets explaining to her what was a 'Hubble Deep Filed'

I remember once a my friend Raghda was traveling to Qatar and it was during the tough times of Rafah Crossing, she texted  to tell me that she finally made it outside Rafah Crossing boarder, and I replied ''congratulations, you made it to the other side of the black hole''

One time when I was visiting my family in UAE  I went to my mother's office to help her out, I met some of her co-workers, all nice people and got to know them better, of course they noticed my Space Geekiness, because it was the 7^th of March and there was a huge Solar Flare heading towards the Earth and I was on my mother’s computer following the progress of the Flare online.

So it’s no question that the perfect gift for someone like me was ‘The Night Sky’, which was exactly what I got when I went in for the last time to say Goodbye before heading to Gaza! Imagine how happy I was to get it. I carried the book like it was a newly born child and refused to let anyone touch it or even smell it!

Heading home with my new best friend! :D

More more Love

-It was a regular night in Gaza and by regular I mean there was no electricity, I was sitting in my bed with a small searchlight in my hand to help me read ‘The Night Sky’ I happened to be reading about pulsars when the Israelis decided to bomb near by, of course I freaked out for a second but when I noticed the irony I exploded with laughter, oh Gaza you always know how to ‘blast’ my mood! :D

-On my way home one afternoon, I shared a taxi with my dear friend Rana, we were talking on the drive home and of course, again, somehow I ended up talking about space! I started about the space-time continuum and drifted to a completely different world and started to explain to her using my hands, how Einstein said that space and time are interconnected like a fabric, days later she told me that the guy that was sitting next to us in the taxi ‘freaked out’ according to Rana he did ‘’especially when u got excited and started to talk about space there were some birds flying above his head’’..Call me crazy but I enjoyed it! :D

-After a bad day or a long exhausting day, the only thing that would lift my spirit  is looking at NASA’s Astronomy Picture Of The Day website to find the dancing Nebulae speaking to me and only me about the secrets they so creatively keep. Or sitting on the rooftop with my mug of coffee listening to Umm Kulthum while watching the stars, these luminance wonders so far away that they almost seem mythical.They never fail to spark optimism in my soul.

It’s magic.

Though my soul may set in darkness. 

It will rise in perfect light. 

I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night

- Sarah Williams

When everything seems to be dark as the dark matter, the only thing that would bring back lost hope is looking at the starry night sky, even though in Gaza sometimes the sky is feared because it carries the war planes that bear destruction, so if you’re ever in Gaza, never mistake a passing flash in the night sky for a supernova, it’s most likely a just a ‘light bomb’ or what is locally known as ‘Qanadeel’ which is their attempt to light the night sky to get a better visual. 

Gazan Moon! Photo taken from my rooftop! :D

The way I feel about Space is the same way Elizabeth Gilbert feels about travel, and this quote pretty much says it all:

‘’Still, despite all this, traveling is the great true love of my life. I have always felt, ever since I was sixteen years old and first went to Russia with my saved-up babysitting money, that to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice. I am loyal and constant in my love for travel, as I have not always been loyal and constant in my other loves. I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless newborn baby - I just don't care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it's mine. Because it looks exactly like me. It can barf all over me if it wants to - I just don't care.’’ – Eat Pray Love

When you love something this badly you don’t need a reason to explain it to others, they can see it in your face and the sound of your voice when you speak about it, I know it might be weird and uncommon for someone to care this much about what seems to be useless to others, but like Elizabeth Gilbert said, I don’t care!

Antares :).
My favorite Red Giant 

‘’We are StarDust.We are golden. We are billion year old carbon’’

The quote is from the song by Woodstock which was inspired by Carl Sagan.

Every atom in your body was once a part of a star. But how you may ask. You may know that heavy atoms only result from the nuclear fusion of smaller atoms which can't occur on Earth. This only happens under extreme heat. Which is called Thermo-nuclear fusion. This reaction only occurs inside the core of massive stars. They are the giants that harbour this immense heat. And when the star dies and goes supernova more heavier elements will be created.

Anyhow, you may find this hard to process but that’s not what I’m getting at by quoting Carl Sagan.

My point is, if you believe that you are something more than the flesh and bones that make you. That you are indeed a supernovic pulsating star of life. You can’t imagine the countless astonishing achievements you can, yes YOU can achieve. You only have to open your mind and B.E.L.I.E.V.E. 

''Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known''

 - Carl Sagan

Great references if you’re interested:

 Documentaries:

 -Journey To The EdgeOf The Universe.

-The Known Universe.

-The Universe.

Websites:

NASA Astronomy Picture Of The Day

Astronomy Picture Of The Day Arabic

  Music

*The blog title  inspired by Eminem's hit ''Space Bound''