The Magicks of Megas-tu

[soot]

​

I've always scoffed at the premise of The Magicks of Megas-tu: "For years scientists have theorized that if our galaxy was created from a great explosion then the center of the galaxy might still be creating new matter". It sounds like a very poor interpretation of the Big Bang theory, missapplied to individual galaxies instead of the whole universe.

However, I came across an interesting paper from 1978 the other day (I'll admit, I was Googling on the job):
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1978Ap&SS..57..401H

It talks about a theory for explaining the shape of spiral galaxies called "the explosion model," which was "prompted by direct observations of explosions in galactic centres" and explains that "the spiral arms are a result of the ejection of gas from the galactic nucleus". It also admits that "we are at present unable to specify a physical mechanism leading to our hypothetical explosion." I haven't found anything about the current state of this theory.

It's still a silly episode, but I thought it was interesting that this aspect of it may have a bit of an explanation available. Since I'd never heard of it before I thought it may be of interest to some others here.

 

[Christopher]

Actually the cosmology in "Megas-tu" wasn't based on the Big Bang theory, but on the competing Steady-State or Continuous Creation cosmological model that was still considered valid by many cosmologists at the time, most prominently Fred Hoyle.

How it all started: Edwin Hubble discovered in the 1920s that the universe was expanding, that the galaxies were moving apart from one another. A lot of cosmologists were uneasy with the idea that the universe was changing rather than existing in a steady state. Even Einstein, who had previously and independently calculated from relativistic theory that the universe must be expanding or contracting, had introduced the "cosmological constant" as a fudge factor to preserve the steady-state notion, though he retracted it once Hubble's observations were announced. The discovery that the universe was expanding led to the conclusion that there must have been a time when it was all compressed into a single point, that it had a finite age and a beginning, and that led to the Big Bang Theory.

However, not everyone accepted this. Hoyle and others proposed the Steady State theory in 1948, suggesting that as the universe expanded, new matter was created to take the place of the old, so that the universe's matter density remained constant and there was no need to presume a finite age to the universe. There were various ideas as to where the new matter came from, but one was that it spewed into our universe through white holes connecting to other universes (i.e. what fell into black holes there came out here). Such "white holes" were one proposed explanation for quasars, so the idea that there were white holes in the centers of galaxies was not unknown in the '60s and '70s.

Today we see the Big Bang as the default theory for the origin of the universe, but that's because of all the evidence that has accumulated to support it over the past few decades. In the early '70s, some of that evidence had begun to emerge (mainly the cosmic background radiation, the afterglow of a vastly hotter early universe), but most of the evidence we have today hadn't been found yet, and there were still a lot of supporters for Steady State as an alternative model.

So the writer of "Megas-tu," Larry Brody, either was a believer in Steady State or decided it offered better story possibilities than the Big Bang model. Either way, he took a gamble on one of two competing theories and just happened to back the wrong horse. Which is an occupational hazard of science fiction.

 

[Timo]

...Of course, since so many things are clearly present in the Star Trek Milky Way that aren't visible to us living in the real-world version of it, it could be argued that we are being kept in the dark about all the goodies, including "constant creation". Perhaps Earth is surrounded by exotic and currently unobserved phenomena that dampen our enjoyment of the galaxy outside, hiding all those bright nebulae and galactic barriers and whatnot from our view? If so, the core of the galaxy would be all the better hidden, and a process of material creation (or perhaps conversion of exotic forms of matter into those observable by current science) may indeed be underway there, necessitating an expedition like the TAS one to establish a sufficient line of sight.

Clearly, the Big Bang model is considered valid in the cosmic scale in the Trek Universe. But "galactic abiogenesis" might exist as a parallel phenomenon, perhaps relating to the way black holes behave in the Trek universe.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[soot]

Thanks for the information, Christopher! That does shed some light on what the thought process was. It still seems like there was some embellishment in claiming the galaxy was created in an explosion, but that's to be expected.

...Of course, since so many things are clearly present in the Star Trek Milky Way that aren't visible to us living in the real-world version of it, it could be argued that we are being kept in the dark about all the goodies, including "constant creation".

That's probably the only explanation that allows for all of Trek's zany phenomena, though it kind of rankles me to resort to it. But come to think of it, the episode doesn't necessarily confirm the theory it mentions. We could infer that matter is spewing out of the Megas-Tu universe into ours, but it's certainly not explicit as I recall.

 

[Captain Robert April]

Of course, the whole point of the episode isn't discovering what's really going on in the center of the galaxy, but that even Satan deserves a good defense attorney.

 

[Timo]

...Indeed, for the purpose of arguments on "how fast was warp again?", it should be noted that the episode never actually says that our heroes reach the center of the galaxy. What Sulu says they reach is a line of sight to the proceedings - which Kirk declares "the creation point", and Spock doesn't disagree with this outright.

Further study of what they see might disprove the creation hypothesis, but Spock doesn't see anything worth correcting in Kirk's early claim that "the theories about this place seem to be right". Usually, he isn't that forgiving of hasty conclusions.

Whether the "whirlwind" that catches the ship is the same phenomenon as the one that Kirk says confirms the theory, we don't know. It could be something completely unrelated, in some completely different place far away from the center of the galaxy.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Captain Robert April]

Artificial wormhole generated by Lucien to draw in the Enterprise?

 

[Timo]

That's more or less what you'd expect of those zany Cytherians...

OTOH, Lucien's folks need not exactly live in the center of the galaxy. They could just live within that spatial whirlwind which happens to lie in a location that Starfleet used for surveying the center from afar. Just like Sha Ka Ree might lie relatively close to the Federation, merely in the direction of the core, and just beyond the rim of the Great Barrier that limits the UFP from the core side.

It's also possible that Megas-Tu is everywhere and nowhere, in true superior space alien style. But those folks there seem to take a particular interest in the affairs of Earth (and not the Federation, but Earth specifically), so one might speculate that they live relatively close to Earth. Perhaps they have similar soft spots for a couple of other worlds familiar to us - but if they were everywhere, their focused interest in Earth would be out of place. Why not play their strange games on the history of Cait or Edo or Vulcan, which are also represented in the crew of this vessel that came a'knocking? This lack of "universal" interest suggest a more localized region of interest. And once the interest goes local, we can further assume that while Cait, Edo and Vulcan probably are within the region of interest, these fairly locally playing Megas-Tu people can only spare attention to a select few worlds within that region, and Earth is one of those while Cait is not.

Timo Saloniemi