Hayter for May 14, 2023
“I See the Light”
Today’s topic has dazzled my mind, and I’m
fairly sure it will dazzle something of yours. It has to do with the Final
Frontier, or what Cap’n Kirk calls “Space”. – So, I’m going to go ahead and
take off.
I choose to start with the largest explosion in the history of the Universe. I capitalized the word “Universe” because it’s big. It’s so big that it supposedly goes on forever. Begging the question, “How long did it take the Universe to grow that big?” And, if it’s the Universe, where did it find a neverending place to gobble up?
Try to get that out of your mind, because right now, I am going to share a fascinating discovery that I read in a science magazine. The article had really big words in it, so I’m taking it as fact. The fact is that scientists have determined that the greatest explosion in the Universe occurred at a place 8 billion light years away from Earth. The explosion was caused by a gigantic space cloud of hydrogen that swallowed up a massive black hole.
I’m assuming the light from the explosion just recently got to us, and when it did, someone calculated how far away the explosion occurred, and how long it will take for the SOUND of the explosion to reach us, keeping in mind that sound waves don’t travel in space.
One other question, if I may, did the explosion travel in every direction? Up, down, outta town? Are there beings on other planets just now getting light of this light? More than that, you’ve got to ask yourself, “Where was God standing when this thing went off?” – (Had I thought that God didn’t have a sense of humor, I would not have made that observation.)
Yes siree, that was the most bizarre news item I came across last week. A second one that is worthy of note, has to do with the number of moons circling our eight planets. Keeping in mind that our ninth planet Pluto lost its planetary designation because it had trouble maintaining a rotation. In other words, Pluto never was a planet. It was a cheater.
Of the eight true planets in our solar system, Jupiter has the second-most number of moons. When I was in school Jupiter had 12 moons. My seventh-grade science teacher said there were only five, and I believed her because I had never heard of the 12-moon theory. Over many decades, 83 more moons have been found circling Jupiter, upping the number to 95… and counting.
The extra moons didn’t just show up. They were there most of the time. It’s just that we never could see them until we started sending up satellites with keen eyesight. Then when the James Webb Space Satellite went up a couple of years back, moons came out of nowhere!
Saturn has more moons than any other planet, 145. One of the moons that was located in 1990 is shaped like a ravioli. It’s flat with a bulge in the middle. I kid you not. It’s an insult to moons everywhere. And, get this, seventeen of Saturn’s moons travel in the opposite direction of its other moons. I don’t know why. More importantly, I don’t know how. I’m not even sure scientists know, but I have every confidence they’ve come up with something I can’t argue with.
Let’s not ignore our other mooned
planets. Venus and Mercury don’t have any moons… that we know of. Mars has two,
Uranus 27, and Neptune 14. Pluto had five up to the time they discovered it
wasn’t a planet. I assume a scientist pulled Pluto’s five moons out of the air,
so he could name one after each of his kids. That’s what’s called an educated
guess.
Before we leave our steller realm, (as if it’s possible!) I will now address what I consider to be the most valuable scientific innovation since rearview mirrors. Obviously, I’m talking about the creation of the James Webb Space Telescope mentioned earlier. That son of a gun was shot into space two years ago and is now a million miles away from us. And, get this – It is not orbiting Earth, it’s orbiting the sun! The earth’s gravitational pull keeps Webb from taking off on its own. We couldn’t let it do that because the light from the earth and the sun would’ve messed up most of the photos it sends us.
What they had to do was, uh… Tell you
what, let’s listen to NASA’s chief Scientist explain it to his work staff. -- “Okay, people, listen up! This James Webb Telescope
thingy has got to travel a million miles away from Earth, all the while facing
the dark side of the Earth while moving at a speed that will let it maintain a
perfect line with Earth without actually orbiting it. It must orbit the Sun, or
else we’ll get lousy photos! I need to see something by Thursday next week.
Everybody get busy!” -- Does that sound
anything like your boss? Or, spouse?
One last thing before you pass out. Do you remember me mentioning a few minutes ago about the great explosion that occurred eight billion light years away? Well, the James Webb Space Satellite has discovered another speck of light coming from 13.5 billion light years away. That’s the furthest light that’s ever been noticed from Earth… so far.
It begs the question, what’s the
farthest inhabited planet from Earth whose scientists have discovered light
from our sun? Are any of the inhabitants visiting? If so, has any one of you
introduced them to HEB’s Creamy Creations Texas Starry Night Ice Cream? I
discovered it three weeks ago. Things haven’t been the same since. – That’s the
last thing I wanted to share with you because it’s got “Starry Night” in it. That,
and it’s really good. – Till next time!
end
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