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August 25, 2017
Robert Scherrer, a professor of in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Vanderbilt University, waited patiently for more than four decades to see his first total eclipse of the sun.
As a child growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, Scherrer read about a total eclipse in 1970 that was visible along the East Coast. The newspaper article said a total eclipse of the sun would be visible in St. Louis in 2017.
“I thought, ‘OK that’s probably the one I’ll see,’” said Scherrer, a parishioner at the Church of the Assumption in Nashville. “I’ve been waiting for it since I was a kid. … When my son was little, I told him we would watch it together.”
On Monday, Aug. 21, Scherrer got to do just that at his home in Nashville.
“It was great,” he said. “We had all our kids in town” to watch the total eclipse, which was last visible in the Nashville area about 500 years ago. The three oldest of his six children, who range in age from 22 to 7, were able to schedule their return to college after the eclipse so they could see it, Scherrer explained.
A friend of one of his sons came over with a solar telescope. “We saw sun spots,” he said.
Scherrer also saw the phenomenon of shadow bands that are visible during a total eclipse. Dark and light wavy patterns could be seen moving up the street as if in waves, he said.
“I had never heard about them until a few days ago,” Scherrer said. They are believed to be caused by the atmosphere bending light as it passes through, the same thing that causes stars to twinkle, he explained.
About 1 p.m., roughly 25 minutes before the total eclipse, Scherrer noticed that it was starting to get darker as more of the moon cast a shadow over the earth. “I was very impressed how rapidly it got dark,” he said. “It was getting dimmer and then it was like somebody turned the lights off.”
During the time of totality, which lasted about a minute in Nashville, “there was a lot of yelling and hooting,” as he gathered in the street with neighbors to watch, Scherrer said.
Scherrer is a physicist and astronomer, but his area of research doesn’t involve the sun. Nevertheless, before the eclipse, he was expecting quite a spectacle. “It’s one of the greatest astronomical events you can view, really.”
After the eclipse, he said, “I think it was impressive. Our 7-year-old said it was not quite as good as Disneyworld but I think everyone else was impressed.”
“I really enjoyed it. Maybe I can see the next one,” which is expected to cross the United States from Texas to Maine, including the cities of Dallas, Little Rock, Indianapolis, Cleveland and Buffalo, on April 8, 2024.
“I have relatives in Little Rock,” Scherrer said. “They’re already planning a party.”
Eclipses are unique. “There is something funny about the eclipse,” Scherrer said. “It’s really an amazing coincidence that we have eclipses at all.”
Even though the moon is much smaller than the sun and the sun is much farther away from the earth than the moon, the moon can appear to completely cover the sun because the ratios of the differences in size and distance are the same, he explained. The sun is 400 times larger than the moon and is 400 times farther from the earth, according to the website, www.greatamericaneclipse.com, which called the phenomenon a “celestial sweet spot.”
However, “I’m not going to argue God put that up there for our entertainment,” said Scherrer.
In fact, total solar eclipses eventually will disappear, Scherrer said, because the moon is moving away from the earth. Eventually, the ratios in the differences in the size and distance between the sun and moon will change and our view of the moon will no longer completely cover the sun.
Scherrer’s primary area of research is cosmology, which is the science of the origin and development of the universe. “It’s the study of the universe as a whole on the biggest possible scale,” he said.
“For me personally, I felt this was one of the most interesting fields to be in as a Catholic,” Scherrer said. “I was always fascinated with the biggest questions” about the universe.
Scherrer’s research focuses on the behavior of the universe in the first few moments after the Big Bang, as well as what is happening in the universe now as it continues to expand at an accelerating rate.
“Another question I’m interested in is what’s the ultimate fate of the universe,” Scherrer said. “It’s really hard to predict. … It’s a fun thing. I don’t think of it as a major part of my research.”
As a Catholic, Scherrer is interested in the intersection of science and faith. He is one of the founding members of the Society of Catholic Scientists, and serves as the secretary of its board.
According the Society’s website, www.catholicscientists.org; “The Society of Catholic Scientists exists for the following purposes: to foster fellowship among Catholic scientists; to witness the harmony between the vocation of scientist and the life of faith; to be a forum for reflection upon and discussion of questions concerning the relation of science and the Catholic faith; and to act as a resource for Catholic educators, pastors, and lay people, and for journalists and members of the general public who have questions about the significance of scientific theories and discoveries and about the relation of science and faith.”
The Society held its first meeting in April in Chicago, where Scherrer gave a talk on Msgr. Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian priest, astronomer and physicist, who is considered one of the fathers of the Big Bang Theory of the origin of the universe.
“Most discoveries in science have many fathers,” Scherrer said. “He was one of the people early on who understood the implications of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.”
“It was a big success,” Scherrer said of the Society’s meeting in the spring. “We had to turn people away.”
The Society, only a year old, is growing. “We’ve got over 500 members now,” Scherrer said. Its meeting next year will be held in Washington, D.C., and will address consciousness, quantum mechanics and materialism.