Holy white stuff all over the ground, Batman!

So winter got a late start this year.  Its ok, I don't think you will hear too many complain.  Unless you are a polar bear or a penguin, I doubt too many have really had too many personal gripes against the climate change our sweet little blue planet has been experiencing. 

Let us not forget the fact that our tiny little dot in the cosmos has gone through many climate changes over its 4.5 billion years of existence.  In fact, if you had been here 3.9 billion years ago, it would have been too inhospitable for any kind of life to exist.  Earth was about two thirds its current size, and got smashed into by a planet the size of Mars. 






What would result from this cataclysm was a molten glob with an accretion disk surrounding it, the precursor to the Earth-moon system. If you were to have been here during this time, you would definitely have complaints about the weather. Not only would it have been "hella hot'" but it would have been raining a lot. Of space rocks, that is...because the early solar system was a lot more crowded than it is today. It would resemble the asteroid belt throughout the inner solar system.

So many different factors throughout the history of the universe have "conspired" to create the delicate biosphere that we take for granted.  For instance, if it were not for our lunar companion, life as it is wouldn't exist.   The moon has taken many beatings that would have otherwise been meant for Earth.  Just look up in the sky on a clear night with binoculars.  You will see the pock marked remains of these impacts.

It is also thought that the lunar cataclysm "jump started" the molten core into a rotational pattern that generates the magnetic field that protects us from the sun's harmful solar wind, ie cosmic particles, gamma radiation, etc.



Also, if it weren't for the moon, we would not have tidal shearing causing the planet to be stretched and pulled like a ball of clay.  You can see evidence of this if you spend a day at the beach (ocean, not Paint Creek), as the tide will ebb and flow, every single day.  Imagine how our calendars have been effected by this stately dance.  Note that the female menstrual cycle is 28 days, just like a lunar cycle.  Coincidence?

Lets face it, the planet is warming up once again.  This has happened over and over again without the aid of humanity.  Perhaps we humans are providing the catalyst for accelerated change, in that we release greenhouse gases faster now than at any point in Earth's history.  Perhaps the sun is expanding and getting closer to us, which it is.  There are all sorts of factors that play into the equation.

When you look into the sky and see the sun, just know that the light that is hitting your retina, the photon as it were, has spent the better part of a thousand years getting to you from the nuclear furnace within the sun.  For the sun is so dense, filled with so many particals, that the photon released from the fusion process (which we have discussed in earlier blogs) is bounced around and absorbed and spat out again, from the core through thousands of miles of plasma, only to burst out of the suns corona, to make its eight minute trip to Earth through the vacuum of space.
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Also, when you think about light, keep in mind that it has been travelling at the cosmic speed limit its entire existence.  Which means, since all of its energy is spent travelling through space, it doesn't move through time at all...which means.....that a photon exists in a state of timelessness. 

Hard to wrap your head around?  Well, God isn't a dummy.  He made a pretty elegant universe for us to enjoy.  Let's get it today, my friends!