Planetary

“Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly 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

This past week scientists at Caltech announced that they have some evidence of an actual ninth planet well beyond the orbits of the rest. In 2014 two guys published a paper about 13 objects in the Kuiper Belt that had strange orbits. This paper piqued the interest of some others, and they began a year long look at these KBOs (Kuiper Belt Objects).

What was strange about them is that they were all on elliptical orbits that all point in the same direction. Also they were in a tilted orbit of about thirty degrees off from the plane of orbit of the other planets. In our solar system the odds of that would be about .007 percent. Yeah pretty low.

So they threw different ideas in and shot them down as they came. Back and forth until finally they put a planet in, with a mass about 10 times that of Earth, and found that if the closest apporach to the sun of said planet was 180 degrees away from the closest orbit of the KBOs everything lined up.

This planet, as I said, would be about 10 times the mass of the Earth, it would likely be a gaseous planet close to Uranus and Neptune. It would have an orbit that would be an average of about 20 times that if Neptune. And in case you want to know that distance, Neptune orbits around 2.8 million miles from the sun. So this orbit would be huge and would make one trip around the sun in about 10-20 thousand years.

There is more evidence and answers by having a large planet like this in this weird orbit as well.

"A good theory should not only explain things that you set out to explain. It should hopefully explain things that you didn't set out to explain and make predictions that are testable," says Batygin.

Right now there are three known objects that travel in a perpendicular orbit to the planetary plane. While they were running the models, it also put these in their place. This is awesome to me. I mean we can tell there are planets around stars, by reading the dimming of their light, at light years away, yet we can still find something amazing in our own backyard. Sometimes things rather absurd end up being real.

Conspiracy theorists are already saying this is the fabled planet Nibiru that the ancient Sumerians supposedly said existed thousands of years ago. Even if it is not the same, it gives even more things to add to our great imagination. More fuel to feed excitement and fan the fires of our young to want to learn more, be more, explore everything. I think even if this turns out to be something else, or just a coincidence, this is exciting.

Thoughts and Prayers Problems

I spend a lot of time on the internet. Way more than I care to admit. If we could jack the internet directly into our brains, I probably would. I love being connected, I love the wealth of information that you can get by a push of a few buttons or screen presses. And since I am on the internet a lot I read a lot of stuff. From funny jokes, to combative posts on why religious people are dumb, to curious observations on the current state of everything.

I recently read a joking post on a popular Facebook page with an info-graphic making fun of people using the term "thoughts and prayers" when ever something bad happens in the world. At first I got mad like a good Christian American at the attack on what I believe. But then like a good Christian in general, I realized the attack was not an attack just a comment on what people are saying and doing in the world.

This phrase is often used when another shooting happens. "I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers." And as I thought about thoughts and prayers a thought occurred to me how little thought goes into that phrase usually. (I thought that the thought of the last sentence had just the right about of thought thoughts in it.) "Thoughts and Prayers" (From now on will be called T&P.) is a phrase that shows just enough care that you feel good about how you are seen by other people. I am sure there are people who do pray about it, which any Christian should be doing everyday without ever mentioning it. It is something that should be so deeply part of our lives that every thought should be a prayer. I suck at this but we all know that that is how close we should be to Christ.

See, I think T&P is not enough for us to do. Yes we should pray all the time, about everything, giving praise, asking for help, comfort, guidance, and whatever else we may need. But there comes a time when thoughts or prayers need to turn into action. When faith becomes more than a belief and turns into who we are. Wouldn't you like to be called "The Faithful" and really be that? There is a time when our words against violence needs to be action against sin.

At some point, we need to actually take steps into being Hands. When a tragedy strikes, we should be the first to be on the scene with food, water, clothing, or whatever the circumstance is. If a shooting, then we should be there as Ears and offering Hearts to everyone. Sometimes T&P are nothing more than words. As James said, 

"15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." 18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.

 You see, if we truly loved God with everything that we are, then we would want to do everything we can to let people know about him in deeds and in words. We need to begin to be action oriented people instead of those quiet people in the back. I do not feel this should be done with picketing anything, but by loving and supporting and doing things for people because they need it. Look at the causes of the tragedies and find ways to fix them. Love does not end wars, prayer alone does not fix problems, thoughts generally do nothing at all. It is not the thought that counts, but what you do with the thought. Action is always better.

Next time T&P is used by you or a close friend, ask yourself, or them, to go a little further and actually be the thoughts and the prayers that others are giving. Show the world God is working with more than hollow words. We are the body of Christ. Bodies do not think, they work, they do. Let's go Do.