Microbursts

of thought,  actually...

A lot of things about our little piece of creation are pretty clear at this point.  It's certain that our solar system is a lot bigger place than they lead us to believe back in school.  That's ok,  they didn't have the data that we do.  It does point up one thing,  of course - Don't refuse to change your outlook when those nasty old facts make your opinions obsolete.

That new data makes it clear that our solar system stretches a significant way towards the next nearest one. That and there are many Big Objects out in the Kuyper Belt.  Some really would be classified as planets,  based on size.  And they follow 'rude' orbits. That's one of the things that got Pluto kicked out of the Major Planet Club. The latest I heard, they've found some 4,000+ bodies in that belt. Some are bigger than Earth. They noticed that there was a peculiar empty(ish) region out where the edge of the solar system was thought to be and have got wondering why. They're looking for Planet X and I sincerely hope they find it! The alternative, to my mind, is that there is a black hole orbiting out there perturbing asteroid orbits and eating various trash to boot. So let's hope for a rogue planet.

So many things have been happening in the odd corners of science. Some good, some rather disappointing. One of the cruddy ones: waiting until 2032 before NASA launches a Mars mission, at the earliest. And have you seen the capsule? Not even a proper ship! It's designed to carry 3 people on the 3 year trip. And that in a space about twice the size of an Apollo capsule. What they have NOT mentioned is how they plan on keeping them sane. Cooped up in a small box with zero room for exercise and no mental input, they may last a few weeks. It should give Vegas bookies income, though: do they just go crazy or will one kill the others and then themselves? Maybe the design will change before then...

One bright spot, I think, is that they have found that the moon Ganymede is an onion-like thing made of layers of ice and water. Who could guess?

I've been puzzled, lately. I'm seeing a lot of airtime spent on the origin and ultimate fate of the universe. And I'm wondering why. Are people afraid it'll happen next Thursday? Are they afraid they'll miss it? I don't know. Ask me again in about 20 billion years...

I love that astronomers are now discovering so many exo-planets. They are finding that there are far weirder ones out there than anyone ever imagined. A planet that orbits its sun in less than a day? Outrageous!

Umm. We've been told that the most massive things around are black holes. Also, that there must be 'dark matter' in order for the universe to add up to the right amount of mass. Did they add in the super-massive black hole at the center of every galaxy? Who knows? And with all the new planets they're discovering every day in our galaxy alone... At least it will keep the people who love big numbers happy.

On another note, I will try to post at a reasonable rate. I know I've been slack, but typing things on a phone screen isn't fun. I've had to put the replacement computer off another year. Losing both the desktop and the laptop to catastrophic hardware failure in one year is hard to work around.