A Very Blue Moon

by Penny Costello

It is Halloween Evening 2020 as I write this. Tonight there will be not just a full moon, but a Blue Moon, that relatively rare event when we experience two full moons in the same month. The last time the moon was full on Halloween was in 1944. I guess if any year was ripe for a repeat of such an event, it would be 2020.

In other news this week, scientists discovered a rogue, untethered planet the size of Earth traveling through our galaxy. While that may sound frightening, it turns out that an Earth-size planet is considered tiny in galactic terms. And scientists believe that there may be billions of untethered planets that are not gravitationally-connected to a star as Earth is to the Sun meandering along the Milky Way. In fact, those planets may outnumber the planets that are tethered to stars. We just can’t or don’t see them.

We can’t see them because they have no host stars from which light reflects upon them, making them visible to us, or on which they exert gravitational pull that we can detect and measure. The ones we do see appear to us through an effect called gravitational lensing, a facet of Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

Gravitational lensing happens when one of these planets passes between an Earth-based observer and a distant star. The gravitational field of the rogue planet deflects and focuses the light from that star, and the observer measures a short brightening of the source star. The smaller the light-bending object, the briefer the period of perceived brightening.

Apparently, we got very lucky to even have detected this Earth-sized little rogue. And if you want to know more about the science behind how we detect such phenomena, the link below will take you to the source article.

But as I read this, a few thoughts emerged:

1) Of course we would detect a rogue planet “careening” through our solar system in this of all years, and just days before the most inflammatory and divisive election in my lifetime.

2) The headline, “An Earth-size planet is careening untethered through the galaxy, scientists find” certainly is a grabber. But when I read the article, it turns out that it’s not that unusual. These types of planets may well outnumber the exo-planets orbiting stars in this and billions of other galaxies across the universe. Not only that, but this careening rogue planet is tiny in comparison to the untethered heavenly bodies previously detected. It’s so tiny, we are lucky to even have detected it.

3) These bodies are numerous, very possibly tremendously more numerous than the planets we have been taught and have come to believe are supreme in the cosmos. But they have not been illuminated in a spectrum visible to us. If we can’t see these planets, what else are we not seeing? And if we can’t see them, does that make them any less real?

Meanwhile, back on Earth, I’m struck by some pretty powerful parallels with our current reality. First of all, I think it’s fair to say that one thing we all have in common is a planetary feeling of ‘Good grief, what next?’ Pick your particular flavor of fatigue. We have COVID fatigue, election fatigue, Zoom fatigue, economic uncertainty fatigue, shutdown fatigue, news fatigue, and the list goes on. The fatigue and its toll on us are real.

The news media, social media, and propaganda purveyors all battle to catch our attention, our clicks, and our likes with headlines of unending sources of Mayhem, yes, Mayhem careening toward us. When the actual scale of what is careening may have the impact of a speck of dust that, worst case, will cause us to sneeze. Or it could hit the surface of the Earth with the power to blot out the Sun and cause mass-extinction in a matter of days. Perspective fatigue, anyone?

And finally, if we can’t see something, is it any less real? The famous Washington Post tagline, “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” is compelling to be sure. But systemic racism does not die in darkness. Police brutality, economic inequality, migrant abuse and exploitation, domestic abuse, child abuse, animal abuse, environmental and planetary abuse thrive in darkness as much, apparently as do untethered planets.

We must continue to strive to illuminate what we can, and to be the light when and where we can. So, my wish for all is to be illuminated, to be seen, warmed, nourished and fed by the light of love, knowledge, friendship, community, and peace. And for tonight, Halloween 2020, I’m going to light a fire on my patio and bask in the splendor of this very Blue Moon. 

Tomorrow, I will strive again to be the light for someone or something. And again each day after that.

 

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