Things that Don’t Ring True

Saturday, March 1, 2014 3:56:04 AM

Things that Don’t Ring True

i think i have a good sense of when something Rings True or Not.

Many of these things come from very authoritative Sources, Most specifically; Science programs on TV that say The Darnedest things.

Recently; The Science Media Sources have been ‘Revealing’ that Astronomers have been Discovering lots of New Planets orbiting other Stars, But do these sources reveal how they were discovered ? i suspect that most lay persons believe that they were spotted through bigger & more powerful telescopes, & they’re seen with The same clarity that one might view a Robin Red Breast from your Kitchen Window with a Common Pair of Binoculars.

No.

That’s Not exactly it.

First of all. Stars are very, very far away.

& Although some Stars are much bigger than our Star ( The Sun ),

When you consider how far away they are, they’re very small.

The Very Odd & Curious thing about seeing Stars in a Night Sky from your Backyard, is that that all of these Stars are made ‘Easier’ to see by The ‘Blurring’ of their very feeble Light through The Atmosphere. If there were No Atmosphere, if you were standing on The Moon, these Stars would be so very, very tiny, they’d be very difficult, if Not impossible to see with The Naked Eye.

Our Astronauts give conflicting reports on this, saying in one interview that The Stars are either very easy to see, or impossible to see ( ??? ) Does this confusion lead us to be more suspect that The Moon Landings were a hoax ! Can’t they get their stories straight ( ? ) !

Anyways; Everything we do ‘Know’ about Stars, would suggest that they are very far away, & would appear very, very tiny.

Their Planets then would be even Tinier. Much Tinier.

The Stars themselves would usually occupy less than a single Pixel on a Modern Telescope’s CCD ( Charge Coupled Device ) or what used to be called ‘Film’.

If a Star is Less than one Pixel, how are they ’Seeing’ Planets ?

They aren’t.

They’re seeing These Tiny Specks of Starlight Jiggle & Flicker & they ‘Surmise’ that what they are seeing is Planets Affecting The Motion or Brightness of their Host’s Star.

The Great ‘Harm’ of allowing people to believe so many ‘Dumb’ things is that it prepares them for every new round of Dumb Things.

If you easily Accept when they’re telling you today, it makes it easier to accept when they tell you tomorrow.