“Comet 45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková was first discovered 13 orbits ago in 1948 and has returned to the inner Solar System. It is physically ancient. It spends most of its time near the orbit of Jupiter and last neared the Sun in 2011. Over the past few months, Comet 45P’s new sunward plummet has brightened it considerably. The comet is currently visible with binoculars over the western horizon just after sunset, not far from the much brighter planet Venus. Comet 45P was captured last week sporting a long ion tailwith impressive structure. It will pass relatively close to the Earth early next month.”
Notes:
- Source: Astronomy Picture of the Day. Image Credit: Fritz Helmut Hemmerich (Dec 24, 2016)
- Inspired by Albert Einstein’s quote: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
- Related Posts: Miracle. All of it.
Live & Learn 
Definitely. Reading about planets, comets, space is such a humbling experience. Human race have advanced so much, yet there are so many things thats outside our intellectual purview. Miracles, God’s creation – these labels definitely help 😉
Was thinking about something similar this past weekend. There is a constant study/analysis regarding atoms and molecules, and composition of all the things around us. Extrapolating this concept to space, what if there is a world bigger than ours out there, the alien world, and they are watching us, studying us akin to atoms and molecules. Kind of scary but very much possible. What if our solar system forms the nucleus of some unknown galaxy out there.
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So well stated. So advanced in some ways, yet life and the universe remains one beautiful mystery.
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Thank you again for sharing. Your wonderful thoughts triggered a memory of these two passages:
Even though we’re making our way through an enormous mystery, we often think we do a pretty good job of trying to explain just how things are—until we actually experience the thing we’re trying to explain. Then we realize our words and ideas are like trying to grab a single drop of rain in a thunderstorm.
~ Ed Brickell, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
We must get back to faith and hope and belief — things we’re all born with. But unfortunately we’re also born thinking we’re the center of the universe. And of all traumas, that one is the biggest and most difficult to get rid of. And the hardest principle to absorb is the Copernican one: that you’re just another speck on this planet, which is a speck in the solar system, which is a speck in the galaxy, which is a speck in the universe … which is a speck in something even bigger that we don’t have the minds to contemplate.
~ Leonard Bernstein, Dinner with Lenny: The Last Long Interview with Leonard Bernstein (Jonathan Cott) (Oxford University Press; January 8, 2013)
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These passages are perfectly captures my thoughts. Thanks for sharing this.
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Adore that Bernstein quote. Maybe it’s odd, but I find the knowledge that I am but a speck strangely comforting. Removes some of the pressure to ‘always get it right,’ ya know, ’cause in the grand scheme of things….
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Yes. I have yet to find and settle into the “comfort” zone that you have found. Not close.
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Didn’t say I LIVED there, pal, but I do pass through the neighborhood now and again….😉
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and your words still have me thinking (Thank you!), another passage that brought me back:
The passage into mystery always refreshes. If, when we work, we can look once a day upon the face of mystery, then our labor satisfies. We are lightened when our gifts rise from pools we cannot fathom. Then we know they are not a solitary egotism and they are inexhaustible.
—Lewis Hyde, “The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World,” (Vintage Books, New York, 2007) p. 25
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Smiling. Thanks for sharing. This is so true. The concept of “not a solitary egotism and they are inexhaustible” applies to both our gifts/talents as well as our lives. What legacy do we leave behind us.. how do we make a difference.
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I was looking for the meteor shower that was supposed to be visible here on January 3, but I guess I missed it. Beautiful skies though.
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Agree. Skies have been spectacular.
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Happy new years!
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Thanks. Happy New Year to you too!
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Fantastical
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There is something about the heavens that never ceases to thrill me….
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The vast sparkling unknown.
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