Much of the country – if not the world – was watching, fingertips crossed, as the Artemis II capsule was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, April 1, the first space mission to orbit the moon in more than 50 years.
For Oak Park resident Jim Sweitzer the mission has special resonance.
His fascination with space was sparked while attending Boy Scout camp in Michigan in 1969, just a few weeks after the Apollo 11 mission had landed the first astronauts on the moon. As part of a ritual to earn his Order of the Arrow, Sweitzer was blindfolded, marched to an open field and left for the night.
After removing his blindfold, Sweitzer was overwhelmed by the brilliance of the stars in the pitch-dark sky. The experience, combined with the excitement of the moon landing, was life-changing and eventually led him to pursue master’s and doctoral degrees in astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago, one of the world’s leaders in astrophysical research.
Shortly after graduating in the late 70s, Sweitzer was invited to teach at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium and he discovered that he enjoyed it. His career trajectory pivoted from research to education.
“Popular astronomy was burgeoning at the time. The first Star Wars movie and Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series were huge successes. I taught a class on Stephen Hawking’s book, A Brief History of Time, and it was packed with more than 100 people. People really wanted to learn about the universe, and the Adler, with its focus on education, was one of the greatest places to be,” Sweitzer said.
Sweitzer eventually became assistant director of the planetarium, responsible for developing exhibits and sky shows and pioneering the use of remotely operated telescopes by the public.
He left the planetarium in 1991 to co-direct under the auspices of the University of Chicago the team building the first astronomical observatory in Antarctica. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the launch of the Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica was a mammoth interdisciplinary effort, including teams of scientists as well as construction crews. Sweitzer made the arduous journey to the Center twice.
“When you first get off the plane at the South Pole, all you see is white – like being on whipped cream. It was something else. I remember thinking that it was the closest I’d ever get to experiencing another planet,” Sweitzer said.
Antarctica is ideal for the work Sweitzer was doing – using radio telescopes to observe radiation from the Big Bang – because it is extraordinarily dry. In addition to his research, he conducted an educational video conference with Chicago Public Schools that allowed students to take a “field trip” to the South Pole.
Sweitzer and his family moved to New York City in 1996 when he was hired as director of special projects at the American Museum of Natural History. He oversaw the renovation of the Rose Center of Earth and Space and the creation of the new Hayden Planetarium, the first major digital planetarium in the world. He also managed a NASA grant to develop the digital galaxy project, an electronic map of the observable universe.
Living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the family took full advantage of the cultural opportunities available in the city. His wife, Cathy, is a writer and taught writing at Sarah Lawrence College in Westchester County; his son attended New York University filmmaking; and his daughter studied violin at the Manhattan School of Music.
But by 2002 they were ready to come back to Chicago. They moved into Cathy’s former family home in Oak Park and Sweitzer joined DePaul University where, as director of the Space Science Center, he coordinated science outreach between NASA and a seven-state educational network in the Midwest.
For the past two decades, Sweitzer has been an in-demand consultant for planetariums and science centers across the globe because of his broad experience working with scientists, architects, engineers, museum staff and educators.
One of his largest contracts was with the Shanghai Astronomy Museum, a sprawling 38,000 square meter comprehensive astronomy campus and the largest planetarium in the world. During the five-year project, he had a hand in all its 300 exhibits.
“I have great respect for the Chinese. There is nothing like the Shanghai museum in the West,” Sweitzer said.
During the COVID lockdown, Sweitzer and his wife, who received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English at Rosary College (now Dominican University), wrote a book to help “lay people” understand some of the most interesting contemporary topics in astronomy. The book is written as a series of letters to Galileo, one of Sweitzer’s heroes, updating him on the mind-boggling astronomical discoveries made since his time.
The book tackles dark matter, which Sweitzer considers the most challenging question puzzling researchers today.
“We know that more than three-quarters of the universe is made up of invisible matter, we just don’t know what it is,” Sweitzer said. “We can’t see it but we can see its effect on stars, galaxies, clusters and the Cosmos.”
Sweitzer understands the public’s interest in black holes, which he refers to as “like lasers for cats.”
“When I talk about black holes, people pay attention. They are fascinating. They pull in all space and time and anything that enters a black hole is on a one-way trip.”
In his book, Sweitzer explains that black holes are stars that have run out of nuclear fuel and imploded from the force of gravity. According to Sweitzer, every galaxy in the universe harbors a black hole in its center.
From his own backyard, Sweitzer can see the influence of the nearest black hole, Gaia BH1, with his smart telescope, an instrument that uses onboard computers to find deep space objects in relatively light polluted skies.
Referencing Artemis II, Sweitzer said that, while Gaia is in our neighborhood, at 1,500 light years away, it would take the capsule 42 million years to reach.
Although Sweitzer has spent almost 50 years dedicated to the art of visualizing the universe for the public, he now spends quite a bit of time creating fine art for himself, a pursuit he started two decades ago as a way of communicating (and competing) with his sister and mother, both of whom were accomplished artists. He regularly takes classes at the Oak Park Art League, where he is a long-time member, and has participated in several shows.
But he hasn’t given up on science.
“Some people do crossword puzzles [to unwind], I study quantum field theory,” he said, laughing.