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THE WORLD AROUND US
Mountain Views News Saturday, January 23, 2016
CALTECH RESEARCHERS FIND EVIDENCE OF A REAL NINTH PLANET
Caltech researchers have found evidence of a
giant planet tracing a bizarre, highly elongated
orbit in the distant solar system. The object, which
the researchers have nicknamed Planet Nine, has
a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbits
about 20 times farther from the Sun on average
than does Neptune (which orbits the Sun at an
average distance of 2.8 billion miles). In fact, it
would take this new planet between 10,000 and
20,000 years to make just one full orbit around
the Sun.
The researchers, Konstantin Batygin and
Mike Brown, discovered the planet’s existence
through mathematical modeling and computer
simulations but have not yet observed the object
directly.
“This would be a real ninth planet,” says
Brown, Caltech’s Richard and Barbara Rosenberg
Professor of Planetary Astronomy. “There have
only been two true planets discovered since
ancient times, and this would be a third. It’s
a pretty substantial chunk of our solar system
that’s still out there to be found, which is pretty
exciting.”
Brown notes that the putative ninth planet—at
5,000 times the mass of Pluto—is sufficiently large
that there should be no debate about whether
it is a true planet. Unlike the class of smaller
objects now known as dwarf planets, Planet Nine
gravitationally dominates its neighborhood of the
solar system. In fact, it dominates a region larger
than any of the other known planets -- a fact that
Brown says makes it “the most planet-y of the
planets in the whole solar system.”
Batygin and Brown describe their work in the
current issue of the Astronomical Journal and
show how Planet Nine helps explain a number
of mysterious features of the field of icy objects
and debris beyond Neptune known as the Kuiper
Belt.
“Although we were initially quite skeptical
that this planet could exist, as we continued to
investigate its orbit and what it would mean for
the outer solar system, we become increasingly
convinced that it is out there,” says Batygin, an
assistant professor of planetary science. “For
the first time in over 150 years, there is solid
evidence that the solar system’s planetary census
is incomplete.”
The road to the theoretical discovery was not
straightforward. In 2014, a former postdoc of
Brown’s, Chad Trujillo, and his colleague Scott
Shepherd published a paper noting that 13 of the
most distant objects in the Kuiper Belt are similar
with respect to an obscure orbital feature. To
explain that similarity, they suggested the possible
presence of a small planet. Brown thought the
planet solution was unlikely, but his interest was
piqued.
He took the problem down the hall to Batygin,
and the two started what became a year-and-a-
half-long collaboration to investigate the distant
objects. As an observer and a theorist, respectively,
the researchers approached the work from very
different perspectives—Brown as someone who
looks at the sky and tries to anchor everything
in the context of what can be seen, and Batygin
as someone who puts himself within the context
of dynamics, considering how things might work
from a physics standpoint. Those differences
allowed the researchers to challenge each other’s
ideas and to consider new possibilities.
“I would bring in some of these observational
aspects; he would come back with arguments
from theory, and we would push each other. I
don’t think the discovery would have happened
without that back-and-forth,” says Brown. “It
was perhaps the most fun year of working on a
problem in the solar system that I’ve ever had.”
You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@
MtnViewsNews.com.
OUT TO PASTOR
A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder
CHRISTOPHER Nyerges
DYLAN VS. BEETHOVEN: A LESSON
IN FAMILY COMMUNICATION
NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO COUNT SHEEP
All my life, sleep has been a
most trusted companion. I
never leave home without it. It does not matter
where I am or what I am doing, I can sleep at the
drop of a hat.
For years, I have heard of people who had
problems sleeping at night. I have never been one
of those people. I can sit down in a chair and in a
few winks, the snoring machine begins.
I can never understand people who could not
sleep. I always thought they were kind of joking
about the whole scenario.
Then it happened to me this week.
Whatever led up to this occasion, I am not sure,
but all of a sudden, I found myself in bed at night
and my eyes would not close. Every time I closed
my eyes, they snapped open almost violently.
I tossed. I turned. I did everything I could think
of but nothing seemed to help me go to sleep.
This is the first time something like this has ever
happened to me. No matter what I did, I could
not go to sleep.
I lay quietly staring up at the ceiling. Nothing
seemed to work.
Thinking if I got up and walked around a little
bit, maybe get a drink of water, it would help me
relax and I could lie down and go to sleep. It did
not help. I was just as wide-awake when I got
back to my bed, as I was when I left it.
When I got into bed, a thought struck me.
Out in the kitchen were some fresh chocolate
chip cookies that the Gracious Mistress of the
Parsonage had baked that day. Of course, she
gave me the usual warning that I was not allowed
to touch them. This, however, was an emergency.
What if eating one of those chocolate chip cookies
made me relax enough to fall asleep? I think the
proof is in the eating.
Slowly I extricated myself from bed and my wife
muttered, “You’re not getting up are you?”
“I forgot something out in the kitchen that I need
to go get now.”
“Remember,” she said in somewhat of a stupor,
“do not touch those cookies.”
Thinking to myself as I shuffled off into the
kitchen, “What if eating one of those chocolate
chip cookies made me fall asleep?”
I must confess that I have a curiosity streak in me.
I like to explore things and find out if something
is true or not. Moreover, this cookie-sleeping
solution was intriguing me so much that I really
did not hear what she was mumbling.
Tiptoeing out into the kitchen, I turned on the
light as carefully as possible and walked over to
where the cookies were. They looked so delicious.
They looked so inviting. In fact, I think one of
them winked at me.
“She won’t miss one cookie,” I thought to myself.
After all, there were dozens of cookies there on
the cookie sheet.
Very carefully, I lifted one from the cookie sheet
and took one luxurious sniff. Wow!
I have not smelled anything like this for a long
time. Nothing quite compares to the smell of a
freshly baked chocolate chip cookie.
Before I knew it, that cookie was in my mouth
and quickly melted into a delicious sauce of
warm delight and it was gone. It tasted so good.
In fact, it tasted like another one.
I am not sure how many cookies I ate that night,
but they were delicious. After this eating frenzy,
I thought it was about time to slip back into the
bedroom and go to sleep. I should be ready to
sleep now.
I laid myself down and tucked myself in hoping
that sleep would invade my body.
Unfortunately, sleep was nowhere to be found for
me.
I once heard somebody say that if you cannot
sleep at night, start counting sheep and within no
time you would fall fast asleep. At this point in my
sleepless night, I would try just about anything.
So, I started counting sheep. One, two, three, four
and I kept counting until I hit 197. At this point,
I could not fall asleep because all of the bleating
of the sheep in my room kept me awake. They
simply would not quiet down.
I laid there quietly waiting for the sheep to leave
and for the dawn to arrive.
I heard my clock click on the hour every hour.
Then a light began to glow through my window.
It was the sun. The night was over and the day
had begun.
About this time, I fell asleep.
“Wake up,” someone was saying as they were
violently shaking me. “You’re not going to sleep
all day are you?”
I got up, drug myself to the bathroom, then went
out to the kitchen to sit down for my morning
coffee.
The night is over and another day has come.
I was reminded of a special verse in the Bible that
says, “It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up
late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth
his beloved sleep” (Psalms 127:2).
As I meditated upon this verse, the thought came
to me; the more I try to do something, like sleep,
the less successful I am. What I need to learn to
do is to give everything over to God and trust
Him.
[Nyerges is the authorof
10 books, conducts
survival skills classes,
and has a weekly
podcast at Preparedness
Radio Network. He can be contacted at www.
ChristopherNyerges.com, or Box 41834, Eagle
Rock, CA 90041]
One Saturday, with no warning, Paul Martinez
engaged my father in the relative value of pop vs.
classical music. This was probably around 1964
when Bob Dylan was the king of pop, and seemed
to be the messenger of the “secret messages” to
the younger generation. All my older brothers
could fairly accurately be called Dylan fans, if
not Dylan worshippers. We all seemed to regard
listening to Dylan as a more meaningful spiritual
experience than sitting through Mass at Saint
Elizabeth’s.
No one remembers how it began, but it was a
legendary conversation that lasted for hours. My
father’s argument was that the music and lyrics of
Bob Dylan were of no lasting value and the young
people were simply too ignorant to realize it yet.
Frank, my father, said that Dylan would be forgotten
in a few years. He compared Dylan to Beethoven
and Bach, and other classical musicians, and
explained that Dylan was not in any way at the level
of the classical composers. Paul wholeheartedly
disagreed.
Their conversation began in the living room
where Frank would sit in his easy reclining chair
and watch TV. Paul sat near him on the couch.
Everyone in the household only became aware of
their conversation wAhen we realized they were
still at it after about an hour. As the conversation’s
volume level would rise from time to time, we could
all hear what they were saying: “Of course you can
put Dylan in Beethoven’s category,” said Paul in
his deep and sincere voice. “Have you actually ever
listened to what he’s saying in his songs?”
“He just cackles,” said Frank, “and you really
can’t even make out his words most of the time.
And I’m not even talking about the words. And it’s
only important, as you call it, if you take an hour to
explain it all to me. I don’t need any explanation
to know that Bach’s music really is good,” said
Frank as Paul patiently waited his turn in this lively
exchange.
Well, I’m not saying that Dylan and Bach and the
other classicals can be compared directly. Obviously,
they can’t,” said Paul, giving some ground to Frank.
“But there is obviously something that millions of
people are responding to that you aren’t seeing –
or hearing. Dylan is not just music; he is also the
message. So we’ve got to examine some of the words
and see what he’s really saying.”
This went on, back and forth, quiet and loud,
for another hour. They opened up the record player
and began playing select songs for the other to listen
to.
We prepared the usual Saturday night dinner –
something like hotdogs and baked beans and salad
and some other vegetables. We took a plate into
Frank and Paul, and we didn’t expect them to come
into the kitchen as their debate entered the third
hour.
We heard silence and then the lyrics of Dylan. Sad
Eyed Lady of the Low lands. Hey Mr. Tambourine
Man. Blowing in the Wind. The Times They Are A
Changing. After each short selection, there would
be a brief silence, presumably as Paul removed
the needle, and then they would talk about it. We
couldn’t hear all the details. Then there would be
a round of some of the classical musicians’ work, a
silence, and commentary by Frank.
We cleared the table and washed the dishes, and
I set up the chess board and began a game with a
neighbor who dropped by. Our game lasted nearly
an hour, and Robert won. The Dylan-Classical
debate continued.
And then, all of a sudden, Frank and Paul were
standing in the kitchen doorway, shaking hands as
Paul had to depart. My brother David hadn’t said
much the whole night, but he never did.
It was late and Paul had to go home and so it was
over. A stalemate, we presumed. No clear winner,
each side having done their best to promote their
own arguments to win over the other. But both Paul
and Frank were unbudgeable and they each stuck to
their guns.For the rest of us, the conversation about
the conversation had just begun.
“Why doesn’t he ever have meaningful
conversations with us,” David asked to no one
in particular. “He engaged with Paul when Paul
challenged, but shouldn’t he take it upon himself to
engage us,” asked David. No one really cared, but it
was clear in the conversation about the conversation
that David didn’t really care about whose music was
best. To David, the conversation was an example of
a father that didn’t take adequate interest in his own
children, but would take extra time and supreme
effort in a very engaging discussion – but not with
David.
I inwardly agreed with David, but I didn’t say
anything. In some very primal way, I am sure that
I longed to have a father who took an interest in
me, who talked to me, who taught me things, who
engaged me in his activities for our mutual benefit.
I am sure that David had a good point that Frank
should do these sorts of things, but I was not bitter
about the fact that he did not do so.
The rest of us had probably long ago accepted
Frank for what and who he was. To me, Frank was
neither good nor bad, right nor wrong – he simply
was my father, doing what he did in his patterns
of somewhat predictable behavior. But to David,
Frank’s conversation was like a slap in the face,
saying that he can take the time with a friend of the
family, but would not take the time with his own
children. At least that’s how I took David’s reaction.
Depending on who you asked during the various
conversations about the conversation in the weeks
and months that followed, the entire event was
amusing, meaningless, interesting, a waste of time,
insightful, and/or demonstrated that Frank was
capable of in-depth abstract thought and could
maintain an intellectual conversation and hold his
own for hours.
Though I generally disagreed with Frank’s premise,
his performance definitely boosted my image of
him. And likewise my image of Paul was greatly
enlarged. Here was a peer of my brother who
could debate with intensity and authority, and try
to convince my father of a point of view which I
held, but felt totally unable to communicate in any
meaningful way.
Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com
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