Super Saturn

Outer space seems to be getting progressively more awesome every week.

Image source: Washington Post

Behold J1407b, and its rings, and its rings, and its rings, and its rings...

The rings surrounding this planet dwarf Saturn's by a factor of 200. Two. Hundred. They're literally big enough to blot out the sun. That's not hyperbole: if you put them around Saturn, they'd be visible from Earth, and much bigger than the disc of the moon or the sun.

When you put it like that, I'm actually really surprised this wasn't spotted a lot sooner. (Image source: Washington Post)

Ringed planets are a concept I've only seen sporadically in serious sci-fi. They seem to be much more endemic to "kiddie" stories, or birthday party supplies and the like. And there are those times when they get it wrong. Oh so very wrong.

I love this game but YEEARGGHITSSOWRONG

I've never seen anything like this in fiction. If anyone else has, let me know. But now that we've got evidence of this kind of thing, the onus is on writers to use the concept. I'm thinking of something along the lines of this game: characters duking it out in a universe full of asteroids and nothing else. Heck, if I can tear myself away from the Internet long enough I might write it myself.

Breaking: Search for Planet X Back On - If It Was Ever Off

Today I got my attention directed to a news article indicating that two planets, larger than Earth, may exist beyond the orbit of Neptune.

Image found here. Original creators: NASA/JPL-Caltech

My first thought was, "I gotta blog about this." Which is pretty shallow. But now that I'm over the coolness of this idea, I realize it isn't really news.

The gist of the article is that those Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) out there, like Quaoar, Sedna, Haumea, Makemake, Orcus, Varuna, have some unexpected orbital parameters. For example, one would expect their orbits to be in the same plane as those of the major planets, with an orbital radius of 150 astronomical units (AU), give or take. But their orbits are inclined by as much as 20 degrees, and they are highly elliptical, taking these objects from 150 AU to as far as 525 AU. That's 525 times the distance from Earth to the Sun. 525 x 150,000,000 km = 78,750,000,000 km (roughly 48,700,000,000 miles).

"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." - Douglas Adams (Image source: NASA)

The lead author of this new analysis, Carlos de la Fuente Marcos of the Complutense University of Madrid, suggests, "This excess of objects with unexpected orbital parameters makes us believe that some invisible forces are altering the distribution of the orbital elements of the ETNOs, and we consider that the most probable explanation is that other unknown planets exist beyond Neptune and Pluto", and that while additional planets may not be the only possible explanation of this data, "our calculations suggest that there are at least two planets, and probably more, within the confines of our solar system".

Hmm, if these are discovered, might I suggest we call them...Tyche and Nemesis?

The idea of a large planet, or even a small star messing with the Oort cloud and sending objects into the inner solar system, possibly even causing mass extinction events on Earth, isn't exactly new. But when a mainstream news release (reported by NBCNews) catches ahold of something like this, they tend to make it sound bigger than it is. I imagine some will take this to mean "There are planets beyond Neptune!" rather than "We have a small but significant bit of evidence that there are planets beyond Neptune." Much like how the news has reported the same thing over and over through the last decade: a planet that *may* be capable of supporting life *may* have been discovered. I wouldn't even interpret this to mean "There's a new hypothesis" but instead as "There's some new evidence for an existing hypothesis that isn't very well-known."

But that doesn't diminish the significance of this discovery. It reminds us again that the world (or more accurately, our understanding of it) is constantly changing. And I for one am excited at the prospect of more planets in our own solar system. Why should all the other stars have all the fun, right?

Aluminum Christmas Trees

I can still talk about Christmas in January because technically Christmas, as a season, lasts until Epiphany (that's where the "Twelve Days of Christmas" come from).

If you grew up with A Charlie Brown Christmas, you can probably guess from the title of this post where I'm going with this. If you didn't, I suggest you watch it at least once; you've still got a day or so before you have to wait until next year to do so.

Not pictured: explanation for selling fake trees outdoors. (Source: http://www.acartoonchristmas.com)

As a kid I was confused by the total absence of a normal green tree in that tree lot Charlie Brown and Linus visited, the closest thing being some kind of clipped branch. Growing up in my house, we had a fake (non-aluminum) tree, but it was green like a real tree, so that was ok. And while I can sympathize with the special's commentary on the rampant commercialization of a religious holiday, I remember our tree saved us money and maintenance; my folks are still using it after decades.

You may be surprised to learn that these aluminum non-green trees really existed even before this aired in 1965.

Source: Wikipedia

I look at that tree of a different color, and I begin to wonder whether such a thing could exist on another planet.
Imagine a planet though, with a cold climate (though not quite as bad as Coldstone), with forests of these things, with their colors (read, photosynthetic pigments) varying by climate zone, altitude, etc. They would really have aluminum integrated into their structure to make them more durable too. Of course, they might have some other metal that's less reflective; reflective plants probably wouldn't take in as much light or heat from the sun.

Tree colors are randomized here. As I've said before, what one would expect doesn't always correspond to what one finds in reality. Also, I think I've actually gotten worse at rendering planets.

For bonus points, maybe these evergreens bear bioluminescent fruit, so at night they really do look like Christmas trees strung up with lights!

I'm going to call this planet "Linus", as a tribute to the Peanuts gang for giving me this idea.

Merry Christmas, and have a good 2015.