[image: c4338ec2eab7800c906a025b93d92d61324bb047_00.jpg]
*Anteros: * Avenging Love Unrequited
It is the rare person indeed who goes through life knowing nothing of
unrequited love's poignant anguish. Most people are quite familiar with
the special pain engendered by having professions of ardent love elicit
little more than a faint smile, an indifferent shrug or, worse yet, amused
titters. After the rebuke, the timid lover retreats into isolation to
nurse the grievous wound while the undeterred lover persists in the
infatuation until realizing that neither eloquent entreaty nor earnest
devotion will persuade the object of their affection to requite the offered
love. As we all know, it either happens or it doesn't. When it doesn't,
well, the spurned suitor tends to wander misty moors chanting lamentations
to the cold and fruitless moon. (i.e. watches Dr Who reruns while being
comforted by the knowledge that romance is for sissies, anyway.)
Although those down-in-the-mouth cognitive psychologists ascribe these
intense emotions to the workings of the amygdala, hippocampus and other
limbic system constructs, we sensible people know full well that
Aphrodite's wicked son Eros is largely responsible for them. Known to
most by his Roman name Cupid, Eros is said to wield a weapon more
formidable even that Zeus' thunderbolts: the golden arrow. Anyone
punctured by this gilded projectile will fall passionately in love with the
next person they see. However, Eros also possesses a quiver of leaden
arrows. Anyone shot with one of these lead-tipped bolts will develop a
deep revulsion for the individual within immediate sight. It is Eros
malicious practice to sometimes fire both a golden arrow at one subject and
a lead arrow at the other, so that the former falls passionately in love
with the latter who, in turn, can't stand the sight of the former. (It was
Eros, after all, who induced Apollo to pursue Daphne while ensuring that
Daphne couldn't abide the presence of Apollo.) So, unrequited love is
merely an elemental mix-up between gold and lead.
While Eros is responsible for unrequited love, his less-well-known brother
Anteros only purpose is to avenge the unrequited love. Almost identical
to his brother in appearance except that he sports butterfly wings, Anteros
also possesses quivers of arrows, both golden and leaden. He hardly
uses them, however, unless he wishes to smite a person for mocking another
for offering him/her unrequited love. He famously avenged the
excruciating pain that the Athenian Meles inflicted on the metic* Timagoras
who professed his ardent love for the former. Meles responded with
mocking derision and encouraged Timagoaras to hurl himself off a cliff.
After Timagoras did precisely that, Anteros fired a lead arrow into Meles
as he stooped down to drink water from a pond. Meles became so repulsed
at his own reflection that he threw himself off the same cliff where
Timagoras had met his fate.
Eros and Anteros are two members of The Erotes, the collective name for
Aphrodite's retinue of minor love deities. This assemblage includes
Himeros ("fleeting love"), Pothos ("love for the absent"), Hedylogos
("sweet talk") and Hymenaios ("Bridal Hymn.") Every type of love, be it
forlorn or requited, is personified by the Erotes who, arguably, are the
most powerful entities governing the mythological Universe.
*Metic = foreign resident of Athens
THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
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Julian Date: 2459225.18
2020-2021: LXIX
THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Monday, January 11, 2021
Exploratorium IV: Before and After Tycho's Formation
*Part I: Before*
*Location*
Moon (43° 18′ 36″ S, 11° 21′ 36″ W )
[image: Lage_des_Mondkraters_Tycho.jpg]
*Time*
108 million years ago
Well, this is a fine box of fruit, isn't it?
Our inaugural voyage brings us to a region of nearly perfect desolation.
We survey our surroundings to behold a bleak grey terrain fiercely
illuminated by a white-hot Sun in a star-adorned sky. Yes, we're on the
moon, but not the moon of today. Instead, we are standing on luna firma
108 million years in the past. Specifically, we're on a spot along the
moon's 43rd southern latitude. (On Earth, the corresponding latitude
intersects Tasmania, a southern island state in Australia.) As you
can probably tell from its appearance, we didn't choose a particularly
distinct area. Or, at least it isn't particularly distinct now. We can
see distant crater rims cast in a stark white luster over the shadowy
terrain. Other smaller craters, some quite minuscule, pockmark the
surface around us. However, in about 25 days from now, this spot we
occupy shall become ground zero: the impact point of a massive asteroid
that will form what modern humans call "Crater Tycho."
____________________________________________
*CRATER TYCHO*
[image: 800px-Tycho_LRO.png]
This immense crater spans 86 miles and is nearly three miles deep. The
central peaks extend approximately one mile above the surface. Those
mountains are believed to have formed in a rebound event following the
initial impact compression.
______________________________________________
We needn't worry, though. We'll be long gone prior to the impact. Our
aim here today -or more than 100 million years ago- is to observe. What
can we see and how much can we know? Also, what are the all important
interconnections pertaining to Crater Tycho. that "moon navel" observers
can readily see?
First, however, let's look at the sky! Bereft of any atmosphere, the
moon's sky is beyond bedazzling! Though the Sun is above the horizon, the
stars well away from it remain visible. In fact, let's do this:
*Time*
one week later
There. That's better. We probably should have started here. The Sun,
which had been around the meridian (noon position) just set a day or two
ago. The Sun remains above the horizon for just about two weeks due to
the moon's slow rotation. (More on that in a moment.) We can now see
the moon's oxymoronic sky: Brilliantly dark. However, we shouldn't
bother trying to identify any constellations. None of them exist at the
moment. Our solar system is on the far side of the galaxy relative to
the position it will occupy in modern day. The solar system completes one
orbit around the galaxy every 225 million years. Moreover, many stars
that will adorn Earth's modern sky haven't even formed yet. Betelgeuse,
for instance, will become an active star in about 99 million years.
Though it may be bright, the sky is wholly unrecognizable.
We look at Earth to regain a sense of the familiar. However, even Earth
seems a bit strange to us. Yes, Earth is perceptibly, but not
dramatically larger (about 1.01 percent) in the moon's sky than it will be
during the Apollo moon landings.
As the moon recedes from Earth at about 3.8 centimeters per year, the moon
is 2,541 miles closer to Earth now than it will be in modern day. Of
course, unless you're one of the twelve Apollo astronauts, you've never
seen Earth from the moon and so have no standard of comparison. One
consequence of this diminished distance pertains to rotation. The farther
away the moon moves from Earth, the slower the rotation becomes. According
to current estimates, the day's length increases by 0.0017 second per
century. Consequently, the day is about 23.5 hours long now as opposed
to the 24 hour modern day.
The moon's rotation is slightly faster as well, but by a lesser amount.
The moon's rotation rate is directly related to its distance because its
rotational and revolutionary period are equal. The rotation rate is
slightly lower now than it will be in modern day, but the change is so
slight that the moon's day is still more than 27 Earth days long, almost
equal to the modern day 27.5 day length
So, in this instance, size doesn't really matter. What does, however, is
Earth's appearance. The continents are a mess, at least from our
perspective.
[image: 105m-years-ago.jpg]
Fortunately, the exploratorium is well equipped with an abundance of
anachronisms, such as telescopes available 108 million years in the past.
Through them we observe a strange planet indeed. A substantial body of
water separates the two immense land bodies that will be conjoined to form
Africa. Scandanavian countries are in tatters while much of what will
become the southeastern US is under water. In 19 million years from now,
India will become detached from Gondwana. In 29 million years, the
continent modern humans call Australia will separate from Antarctica. We
are witnessing a brief moment in the slow but inexorable tectonic plate
motions that will eventually arrange the continents as they appear in
modern day. For now, though, the world looks profoundly different.
While we stand here admiring the scenery, we should be aware of the hefty
boulder careening through space en route to this very spot. Though
invisible now, the 5.5 - 6 mile wide asteroid will eventually appear in the
sky. Initially, the sun's reflection will lend it a star-like appearance.
However, as it approaches, it will grow to a disc-shape, its features
still indistinct. As it nears the surface, the asteroid will accelerate,
brighten and expand from our vantagepoint. Despite its rapid descent, it
will still seem to be in slow motion. Unlike projectiles that collide
with Earth, no frictional heating will precede the impact due to the lack
of an atmosphere. In fact..
*Time*
18 days in the future
Here it comes and heavens it's casting quite a shadow.
Ok, let's dash!
*Time*
One minute later
*Location*
Earth
Welcome to the Cretaceous period!
Yes, the last of the three "dinosaur ages." Like our evolutionary
forbearers, we're now nestled away within the underbush well away from our
fierce and formidable foes of the clade dinosauria. Granted, were we to
actually appear here now physically, dinosaurs would be the least of our
concerns. The true challenge would be literally paradoxical. On day one
at the Causality Violation Academy for Aspiring Time Travelers, pupils are
warned about the perils of paradox: the dangers of encountering your
ancestors or, worse, yourself. Well, we needn't be concerned about them.
After all, the first primates are going to appear for at least the next
23 million years. However, all the particles comprising your body are
loitering about. For instance, the same oxygen molecules that are
involved in aerobic cellular respiration inside you right now are hanging
about in the atmosphere or in the rocks or the water or somewhere. It is
highly likely that a few of them will be whistling across our skin on
arrival: the same molecules occupying two places simultaneously would prove
so problematic that we don't know precisely what would transpire. Yes,
all the component parts of your body are here, albeit in various forms
scattered around the world.
Leaving that matter aside, we look up at the moon at -WOW!- see a dazzling
flash of light. The asteroid we watched approaching the moon has just
landed on its surface, releasing many megatons of energy. The impact
that will gouge out Crater Tycho has lit up the moon and cast a flash over
this dinosaur-plagued planet.
Amazingly, this impact is merely the beginning of our excursion.
Join us tomorrow for the aftermath.
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