The Ninth Planet and Giant Mirrors

It's busy up in space, so NASA have created this useful spread for us.


I'm a little underwhelmed by the hyperbole around Ceres, though.
Can't help feeling there's something - missing ?
Oh yes, the mysterious ' lights' in the Occator crater ?


Speaking of missing, they've 'found' a Ninth planet in our solar system - well, to be precise, the scientist responsible for the Pluto downgrade has allegedly found a new ninth planet, four times the size of Earth, with an orbit taking 10 - 20,000 years to loop around the sun.
Except, they haven't actually found anything.
Its existence is based on the unusual orbits of other bodies.
Beware the hype !

Orbits which supposedly prove the ninth planet exists ©Caltech / 

There is a live feed from NASA which allows you to watch the building of the Webb telescope
Hardly world shattering, but don't forget, when this thing gets to space, it will be able to see further than ever before, with its infra-red capabilities and position on the second Lagrange point at a distance of 1.5 million km from Earth.
Okay, October 2018 is the projected launch date from French Guiana, so a little wait yet,
although I'm sure citizen astronomers will be on the case already.

Znamiya 2.5             pic Triz Journal

Productivity bonus!
There once was an attempt to turn night to day, thus enabling more productive times on Earth - well, Cold - War era Soviet Russia.
Far from being a flakey idea, the man behind the huge space mirror created the spaceship docking system still in use today at the ISS.

In other non-news
There is a new allusion to illustrate quantum mechanics, which says that three pigeons can be put in two holes without the same pigeons occupying any hole.
Which is like saying that a thing does not exist until it is noted.
I think.
My problem with this example is why not have two pigeons in one hole without being in the same hole ?
Surely that is more quantum ?
Remaining in the realm of hypothesis and brain-ache , two strands of possible systems are being reconciled - yes, they have found common ground between string theory and looping quantum physics , which may close the chasm of incompatibility.
For the layman like myself, it just means that interstellar travel may be possible sooner .
Or at all.
My brain hurts.

Final words in a pointless post
In my endless drifting through the world of social media news aggregates (tough, repetitive work, but someone has to do it), I notice with dismay the new tendency to over-use superlatives.
It's almost as though everything is awesome incredible shocking.
I suppose in our news hungry modern world, these are the superlatives needed to grab attention.
I can't help thinking though, that ultimately something really amazing will be overlooked, and left ignored, swamped by a sea of viral puffery.
For those who wonder what 'puffery' means, it's pointless trivia like this :
Did you know that the Wikipedia article on Jesus has been edited more than 25,000 times?
That's more than the article on The Beatles (only 22,000 edits, approx}.
So it's true to say that Jesus is more famous than The Beatles, now.
Which is only slightly funny for a few people.
Oh well.