Chet The Dog

Posts Tagged ‘Milky Way’

Yikes (or Birthday Thoughts)

“Well,” says Spence, “the earth has circled the sun once again.”

“Moving at 67,062 miles per hour, by the way,” says Admin, “so we’ve been in motion, if nothing else. And that’s not even taking into account our speed in orbit around the center of the Milky Way, to say nothing of the speed of the Milky Way itself, still zooming away from the Big Bang starting point, and at a velocity that seems to be increasing, meaning this particular universe is a one-time event.”

“It’s a lot to think about.”

“Cheers.”

(photo – Randi Baird)

Starry Night

We’re out back at night, behind our place on Mesquite Road, gazing up at the sky. Me, Bernie, Charlie.

“See,” says Bernie, pointing. “Right there.”

“That fuzzy line?” says Charlie. Fuzzy line? I don’t see it.

“Exactly,” says Bernie. “That’s the Milky Way galaxy. There are at least one hundred billion stars in it, including our sun.”

I still don’t see it. Milk has a special smell, real easy to identify. I sniff the air. Not the slightest whiff of milk.

“We’re in the Milky Way, Dad?”

“Way out at the edge. Which is probably a good thing – lots of powerful forces are in action toward the center. Just this week they found these two huge bubbles of energy that have exploded out from the core.”

Charlie squints at the sky. “What do they look like?”

“Can’t see them with the naked eye,” Bernie says. “They used a special telescope that picks up a kind of radiation called gamma rays. No one seems to have a clue yet about what this means, but apparently it’s not dark matter. One quarter of the universe is apparently made of dark matter, but it hasn’t actually been found yet. So it would be nice if dark matter starts showing up.”

“Are we ever going to understand everything, Dad?”

Bernie gives Charlie a long look, then musses up his hair. We all go back to gazing at the sky. I remember this woo-woo-woo thing I sometimes do at times like this.

Peace on Earth

“And what about other planets?” Bernie says. “Any idea of the number of stars in just our own galaxy?” I love when Bernie talks like this, but what it means – I’ll leave that to you.

Merry Christmas to everybody, plus happy Festivus (to Diane B.), and great holidays all around.

Galaxy Update

Sunday. Which is the only day I know, on account of Elvis gospel on the radio. Milky White Way is our favorite. Bernie says the original, by the Trumpeteers, is on youtube. Elvis pretty much copied it note for note, he says. Is that bad or good? Don’t ask me.

Bernie also says we live in the Milky Way, which is kind of confusing. In fact, he says, we’re in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way. Arm? The human arm is a big subject. Maybe we’ll get to that another day.

And thanks for all the great pics coming into Friends of Chet – Admin.