Lost In The Blue Holiday Cosmos, Baby
Lost In The Blue Holiday Cosmos, Baby
A Giant Among Giants
December 4, 2018
The Forgotten Giant
Neptune is four times the diameter of the Earth, it's blue, it's the furthest known planet from the sun (because Pluto got jacked) and it's believed to have a lot of ice and rock.
No one talks much about Neptune because they're usually discussing stupid things instead like the economy or war. But this week Neptune is in our telescope, if not our spotlight, because, according to our friends at the McDonald Observatory in Texas, you can see Neptune much easier than usual because it's about a degree left of Mars in the night sky.
Mars passes by Neptune every few years and they usually reminisce about the last time they saw each other and comment that they each "look like they've lost weight."
Neptune was named after the Roman god of the sea and while it's a nice name Neptune would much rather be called Zeke or Rocco.
Paul Newman has been in Heaven for ten years and Neptune is one of his eyes.
The Three Kings were guided by the Star of Bethlehem but it might have been Neptune. What if the first human on Neptune was a king who had built a superdupersonic rocket ship because he wanted to be the real Santa Claus but instead was taken off course and ended up shooting straight to Neptune?
The king would sit among Neptune's soft but wicked blueness and stare back through space and time and wonder what the children - who would have grown old and long since died by that point - had thought when they never got the toys they were waiting for on that Christmas Day.
If you're still decorating your Christmas tree please consider a Neptune ornament and please consider placing it high upon the tree near the angel, near the star, near the sky, where everyone can see its cool blue singularity.
And when you walk by wink and say "Merry Christmas, Neptune."
Just try it. Someone will hear you across the sky of ice and space. Hope and memory. --TK
Tuesday, December 4, 2018