
What is that little thing?
I’m good at avoiding the trivial (yet am pretty good at trivia – go figure). Twitter brings hints that there’s a wider world out there – a mention of a footballer here or a pop star there. If what ever it is that they’re doing (besides shifting tabloids) explodes into something big enough to become a movie or get referenced in a (good) tv show then off I’ll go to Wikipedia for the context. I’m aware Michael Jackson died, but I’ve heard maybe four of his songs. I did actually buy the Thriller album on vinyl, but for the Vincent Price bit after seeing the John Landis video – still confused why they ruined a perfectly good zombie/werewolf short with all that dancing crap. Come to think of it I’m not sure I ever played the other side of that record.
My dad had a lot of Johnny Cash and Charlie Parker records.
But let’s get back to that little pixelated white dot. Little doesn’t mean trivial:
Descent of Phoenix with a crater in the background taken by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
The Reddit thread I spotted this on is worth a read.
“Although it appears that Phoenix is descending into the crater, it is actually about 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) in front of the crater.”
O_0
All this made me think of Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot. Good to revisit that every now and again – Voyager 1 is too busy.
Next time you get bored of the tabloids or are about to complain about the weather just look up. You need really good eyes, but the imagination part is helped along a lot by some little metal things doing their thing on an entirely different planet. On behalf of us.
High five.

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