ABSURD  SUNSETS AND MOONRISES

 In Isaac Asimov’s landmark book ‘Nightfall’ there is a night coming up on a planet perennially lit bright by the sky by six suns for two millenniums. There could have been any number of moonrises and moonsets on the first night on that planet. What a sight they may have missed all the nights. Contrarily it has never occurred to the inhabitants of the planet how they would spend that horrifying night.

 However that is not the topic. In the cosmic set up of things the above sight is not rare. In fact we could see why such many more permutations and combinations are not possible. For us living on the Earth with one sun and one moon and a background of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way and stars around in the night sky this imagination is not the end. In reality it brings many more possibilities we had never thought off. We have in fact very closely lost on having another sun in the form of Jupiter which could have become another star had it gained some more matter when the solar system was being formed. It would have started glowing into another dim star with interesting combinations of sunrises and sunsets to our very own earth. In what way life could have evolved is another matter to meditate and ponder?

 Now, thinking of such a phenomena and their effect on our day to day life. Darkness purges lots of metabolic activity in our physical being according to biologists. It could be very emotional like Asimov and Silverberg describe the night that befalls after a long period of two millennium of light. How to litup has never occurred to the inhabitants of ‘Kalgash’ and they face tremendous mind upheaval on account of the dark. Even the stars glittering in the night sky stimulates the deepest of horrors. The importance of flames that bring heat and light never bothers them once there is daybreak after the tumultuous night. All this may sound amusing but it could nevertheless be a reality on some other planet if there could be one with life.