70 Falmouth Street Portland, Maine 04103
(207) 780-4249 usm.maine.edu/planet
43.6667° N 70.2667° W Founded January 1970
If we had the chance to actually know the true size of the universe, how do you think this would affect our approach towards life?
Such knowledge should instill in us a sense of rapture so profound as to be indistinguishable from mania. In fact, our current knowledge of the Universe, scant though it may be in proportion to that which remains unknown, should already engender in us an unalloyed and imperishable joy simply because we exist within it. Because we are here: leading lives that, when regarded in relation to the fullness of the cosmic life cycle, last only for nanoseconds. Because our ephemeral bodies, fashioned literally of star dust and constructed through an unfathomably complex sequence of physical and biochemical processes, house minds that somehow resonate with the cosmos that gave rise to them.
Some people insist that the developments of the last few centuries, such as the Copernican revolution that displaced Earth from its privileged central position and the advent of Darwinian evolution which has revealed that instead of being masterworks of Godcraft we actually share a common ancestor with skunk cabbages, have rendered us negligible. That we’re the accidental by products of a nihilistic universe: cold, indifferent, bereft of both meaning and purpose. Like Hell we are.
We are intensely alive beings within a prodigiously creative Universe that not only produces approximately 4,800 stars every single second but is capable of crafting some of the most elegantly beautiful constructs we have ever beheld.
Eagle Nebula [Image credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)/J. Hester, P. Scowen (Arizona State U.)]
If we allowed ourselves to know the true scope of the Universe with its octillions of stars, equal or greater numbers of planets, and the proliferation of life within every little niche that is conducive to its development, we’d recognize the magnificence inherent in our ‘negligibility.’ That we are minute, but fully conscious parts of a vast cosmos spawning torrents of new worlds and other forms of life without a moment’s respite. Although our place in space-time somewhat limits our capacity to observe, our imaginations remain unbounded. If, through our contemplations we can perceive that which existed during the previously 13.8 billion years that, to us, was a timeless oblivion, our mental fetters would fall away. If we imagine the dynamism of the present moment throughout the universe and look forward to the billions and billions of years of new constructs, to the rise and fall of species on the billions or trillions of life-bearing worlds not yet formed, we’d want to be fully conscious to every experience available to us. In short-far too late- we should be breathing fire every second simply because we’re alive.
Why don't we just send a Pioneer or Voyager type space craft to where we think Planet X is and verify its existence one way or the other, once and for all?
This “why question” prompts a few answers.
- In order to deploy a spacecraft to another planet, one needs to know every aspect of that planet’s orbit. Remember that directing space probes is a highly complex process because the probes are being launched off a moving platform toward moving objects. Consider the following graphic
[Image credit: NASA/JPL]
In order for the Voyager probes to conduct fly-by missions at the outer planets, the engineers needed to know the precise positions and speeds of the planets at any given moment. They also needed to calculate the precise trajectory of the space probes themselves, in order to ensure that the crafts would rendezvous with each planet on the itinerary. Not a trivial matter. We know very little about Planet X, if it even exists at all! If it does exist, planetary scientists would need to have a series of direct observations of it in order to determine its orbital elements. For now, presumptions of its existence are predicated on observations of distant dwarf planets and Kuiper Belt Objects whose orbits might be affected by a highly massive body within the vicinity. (Some researchers are dubious about the findings.)
- Planet X -again, if it exists, is moving along an immensely wide orbit. Its presumed semi-major axis (average distance from the Sun) could be about 610 AU, or 610 times greater than that of Earth. Our most distant spacecraft, Voyager 1, is currently 158.8 AU from the Sun. This vessel was launched in 1977 and its distance is only 26% that of Planet X’s semi-major axis. Even though current technologies enable NASA to construct faster spacecraft, such as the Quartz, such missions still require gravitational slingshot assists of other planets in order to accelerate to even greater speeds. Even if we didn’t miss the target -which we most assuredly would since we don’t actually know its current or future positions- the ‘flight time’ would encompass the better part of a century, if not longer.
- Finally…
The image above is of Sen. Bill Nelson, the current NASA administrator. Can you imagine that anyone at NASA would be bold and audacious enough to propose a Planet X mission to this formidable fellow?
- planet’s position uncertain
- planet’s existence uncertain
- probability of rendezvous with planet 0.000000000000000000001
- cost: > $1 billion (based on costs incurred by the construction and deployment of New Horizons and inflationary factors)
- mission duration: 50 - 100 years. During this time, planetary scientists would either have discovered it directly or would have concluded it doesn’t exist at all. If the former occurred, we’d be fairly certain that the billion dollar probe would miss the target. If the latter occurred, we’d be absolutely certain that the billion dollar probe would miss the target.
In short -too late- NASA has many other priorities that take precedence.