there were several fascinating events in (and related to) space recently. last week, when the shuttle docked with ISS, a record was reached because 13 humans were floating around in one place in outer space. monday was the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. thursday brought a total solar eclipse as the sun rose over india.
perhaps most interesting to me was the impact on jupiter. it seems a small comet smashed into jupiter on sunday leaving a scar the size of the pacific ocean in the planet's atmosphere. the mark was first noticed by an amateur astronomer in australia. the timing is bizarre because exactly 15 years ago, comet shoemaker-levy 9 broke into 21 pieces and slammed into jupiter.*
jupiter took another bullet for us. instead of wasting time praying to imaginary gods, humans should thank actual forces and things that exist for their lives. if jupiter were not in our solar system sucking up debris, earth would have likely been hit by many more celestial objects. all you have to do is spend a day watching the history channel to know that even a "small" (one-mile wide) object would end life as we know it. thank you, jupiter, you sweet suckass.
*exactly: shoemaker-levy 9 actually hit over a period of six days july 16-22, 1994; this event is believed to have occurred july 19, 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment