Astronomy is Pretty Cool

I was reminded of that fact when I clicked this link, suggested to me (for reasons beyond my understanding) by Gmail (which does many things beyond my understanding, only a few of which are dumb and most of which are scarily ingenious**). Long story short, the link says that the Sun's core is probably spinning five times as fast as its outside. How can they tell? It's hard to say. Why should anyone care? Ditto. But I defy you to think it's an uncool piece of information.

I really really really wanted to be an astronomer when I grew up from about second to about eighth grade. That's an eternity in child years. This determination probably sprang from the fact that planets are pretty.
























Planets are so fascinating; wonderful and horrible at the same time. And the wonder and the horror have the same reasons; they're so far and so massive and so alien. Can you imagine traveling to any of them? How long and lonely it would be, through those unimaginably vast expanses of nothingness that are still tiny gaps compared to the emptiness between stars, let alone between galaxies. Can you imagine being right above the surface of Jupiter, knowing that were you on its surface, its gravity would crush you but then again that there was no surface, only clouds and storms and swirling winds? How cold would Pluto* feel, if only you could survive it?

It's too bad astronomy involves so many numbers and stuff. Gross.



*If it was a planet when I memorized them in second grade, I say it's a planet now.

**I tell ya, all we can hope for is WHEN Google takes over the world, they'll be benevolent dictators. Odds are good!