The vernal equinox is the first day of spring, the occasion par excellence for honoring the sun and every gardener’s unofficial national holiday. From our earthbound vantage point, the equinox feels like the solar system’s yearly reboot: calibrating the seasons and the circadian clocks that tell our minds and bodies what time it is.
From Thursday forward, the sun will arc ever higher over the earth, reaching its peak on the summer solstice, the first day of summer. In the coming months, we can bask in the prospect of more sunlight and heat, longer days and shorter nights and a thriving solar-powered landscape, exploding with life, color, aroma and abundance.
NASA’s dazzling new images of the sun, taken by the Parker Solar Probe, (go.nasa.gov/38KOBvj) bring us ever closer to our neighborhood star. The solar close-ups, taken from a spacecraft the size of a compact car about 4 million miles from the sun’s surface, are the closest so far.
However, the luminous images of roiling gases fall short of bringing the sun back home. Instead, they remind us of the sun’s utter singularity, unfathomable heat and daunting remoteness.
Back here on Earth, there is something new under the sun. A consortium of 35 nations is collaborating to create the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, www.iter.org the first humanmade star on Earth, sited on 444 acres in a small town in southern France. Scheduled for completion in 2025, the megaproject will allow scientists to re-create the forces powering the stars. The goal is to determine if nuclear fusion can safely serve as a carbon-free and inexhaustible source of energy for the world.
A new, humanmade sun is an inviting prospect. The original sun, one of the more than 350 billion stars in the Milky Way, has been with us a while, debuting 4.6 billion years ago. Equal in mass to 109 Earths set side by side — it cannot readily be shoehorned into a medieval village in southern France.
If you wish to bring a star to your home, there’s no better place to start than a garden. Step outside to experience the sun in all its power, glory and majesty. In your garden, you can marvel at the miracle of photosynthesis, the miraculous conjunction of sunlight, water and carbon dioxide that creates the sugars that engender plant life, and, for that matter, all life.
Your home’s solar laboratory offers a season of delectable and beauteous discoveries that you can see, touch, smell and taste — all sponsored by the sun, our local star.
George Ball is chairman of W. Atlee Burpee Co., Warminster, Bucks County, and past president of The American Horticultural Society, Washington, D.C.
