Asteroids — the poem
Ceres is Queen of the belt. She’s the best-a.
Her husband is Pallas. Court jester is Vesta.
She makes up a third of the belt on her own
She’s cratered and icy and sits on her throne.
‘Oumuamua: the gift that keeps on giving
Planets and bread may have something in common. The starter. Some of the best breads use a yeast starter. A starter is just a small piece of dough from an older batch of bread. The starter provides the yeast for the next batch. Each batch builds on the last one. An essential ingredient for today’s…
‘Oumuamua: was it aliens? (spoiler: no)
Imagine this. You’re drinking your morning coffee. A small blob zooms at top speed through the kitchen, into the hall and out an open window. You only catch a quick fuzzy glimpse before it’s gone. What was that thing? What’s your first guess? A neighborhood cat? A squirrel? Maybe something more exotic like a raccoon…
Comet Interceptor!
A space mission to intercept an Oort cloud comet — or, if we’re lucky, an interstellar object like ‘Oumuamua.
How planets die: pulverized in a deluge of asteroids and comets!
Where would we be without the occasional asteroid crashing into the Earth?
How planets die: roasted, toasted and swallowed by their evolving stars!
Just like people, stars age. Their planets go along for the ride and are often killed or maimed in the process….
How planets die: climate catastrophe!
If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason. — Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey This series is about how planets die — it is introduced here. Earth is a cosmic freaking paradise. Just look at our neighboring planets:…
How planets die: Fried by tidal volcanoes
If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, just let them go because, man, they’re gone. — Deep thoughts by Jack Handey This series is about how planets die — it is introduced here. What do you think of when you hear the word tides? Ocean waves? The Moon? Maybe sitting…
How planets die: When good Jupiters go bad
Gas giants have murdered rocky planets (or their building blocks) around ~5 billion stars in our galaxy! (Usually by dropping them onto their Suns!).
How planets die
Just like people, planets are born and they die. We know how people die. But google “how planets die” and you’ll get the wrong answer.
Can moons orbit moons? — the poem
Can moons orbit moons? wondered Juna and I.
Some planets have moons, you know, up in the sky
But none of those moons has its own moon around it.
When Juna’s son learned this he just was astounded!
