But the thing with the universe is that it’s kind of a largish place. However sophisticated our current equipment may seem, it’s still the equivalent of shining a cereal-box flashlight into the ocean to try to spot the bottom. So whenever new technology enters the game, new data enters the equation, and we have to revise our appropriate terror levels for it. For instance, the new Pan-STARRS telescope system has, within the past five months alone, found no less than 19 completely unknown asteroids that pose a potential danger to Earth. And these have been buzzing around a mere 7.5 million kilometers away. Universally speaking, that’s not on our doorstep — that’s right in our goddamn living room, ransacking our drinks cabinet and making offhand remarks about our place looking really flammable and how “It would be a shame if anything bad happened to it.
I bought a copy of Universe Sandbox (pictured) during the last Steam sale. It was well worth the couple of bucks I spent (it’s back up to $10, which might be a bit much) to play God.
So far I’ve just been tootling around our Solar System, which is a nice enough little neighborhood, all things considered. It’s a bit disconcerting, though, to watch those hundreds of big rocks whizzing around up there. And those are just the ones we know about.
Sweet dreams and sleep tight.
