When I was a sophomore in high school I thought I was pretty hot stuff because I could name all nine planets. I even read up on Clyde Taumbaugh who discovered Pluto in 1930. It turns out me and a bunch of other people didn't know all that much.
In the late 1990's Pluto was declared a no-no. It's now referred to as a Planet Dwarf; not exactly politically correct but astronomers are still running with it. Then, around 2011 another planet came along and it's called Planet X. That name doesn't seem to have the pizzazz of a Saturn or Venus but until something else comes it is what it is.
Believe it or not I read an article in a science magazine around 2 am this morning. I was having a very difficult time falling asleep and I hoped it would be my cure. It wasn't. Anyway, There's a definite possibility there might be five more planets coming along.
Considering I know as much about our solar system as I do performing heart surgery I'm not qualified to offer my insights. Besides, all I do is pass along info, sort of the way Cliff Clavan did on the tv show Cheers.
What really impressed me about this particular article is that it stated scientists are almost certain the Milky Way is 200 million light years across. Wowie! Still, that doesn't mean a great deal to me so I went to the NASA website for a precise definition:
'For most space objects, we use light-years to describe their distance. A light-year is the distance light travels in one Earth year. One light-year is about 6 trillion miles (9 trillion km). That is a 6 with 12 zeros behind it!'!
When I read this material and begin to consider the expanse of the universe, well, it's absolutely beyond my comprehension.
Basically, it makes me feel miniscule.
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