Unbeknownst to science until relatively recently, the ingredients for making the soup of life were brewed elsewhere, not here on Earth. In the beginning of our solar system this “third rock from the sun” was not yet claimed by all living things.It was barren and in upheaval, withstanding violent geologic forces that evolved from a gaseous formation which struggled to solidify itself. Of all the planetary ‘bodies’ in due course that locked into orbital patterns around the immense gravity of the sun, this crusty, molten body assumed a special place in its elliptical orbital radius around this new sun and its recent origin of a complement of planetary complexes.
Long before the Earth and its sibling planets assumed their now familiar astral positions, a giant field of planetesimals was randomly wending its way throughout our galaxy, pulled this way or that by gravitational fields of large scale matter which it encountered in its wide swath.
This gravitational pull and tug throughout galactic space randomly propelled these planetesimals in the direction of our sun.The path of the planetesimals was so wide, that it was a veritable giant river of asteroids flowing throughout this universe of space and time. Billions of entire solar systems were swept up or invaded by the enormous scale of it all.
Within all the millions of each of these distant solar systems there was a probability that there resided a “third rock from the sun.” These virgin “Goldilocks planets” rested in orbital stasis. If the space river of planetesimals should come through their solar system they too would be bombarded.
In this galactic orgy of space rocks lay the seeds of the building blocks of life. These teddy bear blocks would help but not guarantee an orbiting planet might reap a host of life-bearing benefits.
Like millions of other barren planets, Earth, in its circumstellar habitable zone, enjoyed an orbit that was neither too close, nor too far from its sun. Neither was it too hot nor too cold.
It was already on a several billion year journey when this hit and miss space river of asteroids flowed toward Earth’s solar system. Our solar system, like millions before it, was about to be seeded in this peak of galactic intercourse in the sky.
Vidda Crochetta
Brattleboro
Earth, the Marvelous Blue Orb
The film by the Space Station accompanying this article is stunning to look at, especially in widescreen.
The third rock from the sun is a pale blue dot, the only one we know. As time passes and the roll call of exoplanets found by NASA’s Keplertelescope and other efforts grows, I can’t help thinking that it is looking rarer and rarer.
As T.S. Eliot wrote in “Four Quartets”:
We shall not cease from exploration,
and the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time.
What happen to the planetesimals?
The debris from those planetesimals is now part of the asteroid belt and forms an eggshell-like giant band of asteroids that encircle the entire solar system. It is from this solar eggshell where asteroids and comets break free and populate the inner orbital planetary systems.
As the planetesimals barrage indications, impact events on Earth that originally seeded this barren, thirsty rock can now destroy the very life it helped to create.
Science knows that creating spacecrafts capable of intercepting near-Earth asteroids is not very realistic. Even with ten NASA like budgets, the planning, designing, construction and implementation of a protective space force would take years, assuming the technology and the means to do it are there.
Of course, earthling’s have better things to spend their money on.
JUST DISCOVERED IN AUSTRALIA: THE LARGEST ASTEROID IMPACT EVER
The new discovery in Australia dwarfs Meteor Crater in Arizona, one of the best preserved meteorite craters in the world. The crater in Australia is nearly 250 times larger than Meteor Crater.
A long time ago, a huge meteorite entered the earth’s atmosphere in a screaming fireball. In its last violent moments, it split into two massive pieces, each at least 6 miles across, and slammed into the earth, creating twin impact craters spanning nearly 250 miles of the Australian countryside.
The crater can fit 13 Grand Canyon’s inside of it!!
It might as old as 300 million years, near enough to be part of the field of planetesimals… amazing…
Hey Vidda,I heard from a friend of a friend
Hey Vidda,I heard from a friend of a friend you are seriously ill. Hope you recover soon. There are great writers on here I enjoy, but there is no one like you. Galactic Orgy shows what an incredible mind you have. Best, Toby
Thanks Toby
I’m afraid your FoaF is right. There comes a time to face the decomposition field that awaits us all. It has always been illogical to me to fear being dead. But it’s the way you die – now, that takes some doing.
Like the planet we share, my future is uncertain. Maybe I’ll pop up a few more times. Ah, well. It’s been good, real good. Is there a phoenix in me? Only the ashes will tell.
Hang in there...
That’s unfortunate news to hear, Vidda, but you seem to be in relatively good spirits for whatever is to come.
Re-joining the cosmic dust isn’t quite on my to-do list yet, as far as I know, but it is a good, dusty family to have around.
…
Some 1960’s string theory from George Clinton and Funkadelic:
“We’re just a biological speculation
Sittin’ here, vibratin’
And we don’t know what we’re vibratin’ about”
Hey Vidda, I'm so sorry to
Hey Vidda, I’m so sorry to hear that you’re ill. I have always enjoyed your thoughtful and sometimes provocative (!) postings on here. Sending you good thoughts and wishes for a peaceful and dignified journey – wherever it takes you. Be kind to yourself.
Kris
Senate Bill S.2689 Continuous Glucose Monitoring Access Act
Thanks Chris and Kris. You , Toby and others who have contacted me are thoughtful. I appreciate it.
I am alerting people to Senate Bill S. 2689 The Medicare CGM Access Act of 2014 (or the 2015 equivalent). Apparently Medicare does not cover CGMs for people 65 and older.
“Continuous glucose monitoring” can save lives (like mine) because we can be alerted when our blood sugar is too low or high and treat it accordingly with insulin or food. Too low and you die in your sleep, too high, well you get the point.
Why the Congress and Medicare are so evil as to fail to cover the insurance payments for this lifesaving device is well understood by anyone conversant with the war between conservatives and liberals, and all in between.
There is a malaise in this land, not just my body. And, there is no end in sight. I will not likely benefit from this device but maybe a few of you can speak up for others.
At nearly 66 I’d like a bit more of these vagaries and joys of living.
But having had a charmed existence most of my life there is much in me that knows how fortunate I’ve been.
I’m sorry too many of our billions of bi-pedal creatures, even now, do not and never will know the joys that is me. Nearly 2 billion people do not have potable water, many must carry what little they have miles from the source to their homes, if they can call it home in the way many of us here do.
I regret and am ashamed of being part of a species with the most incredibly ugly callous regard for other living things. Nevertheless, humans for the most part have been a great joy to me.
Live Long and Enjoy.
Vidda
Vidda
I am sorry to hear about your illness. It stuns me as your prose has always been full of life and vigor; evidence of a (very) fertile mind.
While we have disagree and clashed from time to time here, I have always respected your ability to raise awareness to a number of issues, but mostly, you have made me think outside my box of comfort. Even in this time, you continue to bring up issues that help all of us when many would be concentrating on themselves.
Continue to be yourself, with respect and all the love in the universe, fishboy
Thank you Fishboy
It’s moments like this when in all the universe I wonder what other lives’ has such gifts as these you and others share. I’m quite content to have shared this space with you under any terms. I appreciated your spirited drive, fishboy.
Happy trails to you.
Vidda.
This Greenback Snake of a Congress
I can’t likely beat the odds this Greenback Snake of a Congress has set upon seniors 65 and older by denying the struggling diabetic population vital continuous glucose monitoring to protect us night and day. How many Americans have died in their sleep or fell down on the street unaware their sugar was dangerously low, went blind in midcourse in an activity because their sugar glucose was critically elevated?
Goddamn the United States Congress. You already have a piece of tens upon tens of millions of Americans – you sent and send our work overseas, you lock us up for personal behavior choices, you take what you want for yourselves and deny it for others, you make and profiteer from war, you sell death in arms and tobacco subsidies, you keep us divided us with your monstrous two-party horserace elections, you make choices based on greed not fairness or science, you steal from us in taxes and fail to represent our best interests, you invade the sovereignty of our brother and sister nations, you militarized our peaceful coexistence and destroyed our pursuit of happiness, and you use the people who believe in the name of their God to enlist them only to betray them and take down everyone else with or without creed…
Goddamn the United States Congress, this Greenback Snake of a Congress. May a field of planetesimals bombard you into darkness and despair….beyond repair.