Treasure Planet

I think most people would have heard by now, but this National Geographic article got me super excited last week. This news totally had my national pride/geek nerves tingling, if that made sense.

As little as I actually know about outer space, I have to admit that outer space has fascinated me for as long as I remember. You could tell, if you saw how badly ripped my Children's Encyclopedia on the Solar System was. Then that year when I was eight, when NASA had the rocket to mars will carry your name initiative and everyone signed up on the website (especially because internet had just become big among us kids that year, it was so fascinating). Then even now, every time I go to the smithsonian, I always stop by the Albert Einstein planetarium at the Air and Space Museum to watch a show.

Pretty things in space.

Personally, I've always been curious about the theory of the big bang and dark matter and whatnot. That, and about the battle between the Sith and the Jedi, and how the Millenium Falcon flies. Oh, and the Death Star.

You get it, fascination of space, of sci-fi and stuff. Distant planets, aliens, etc, etc.

Back to the NatGeo article, it said that a team of scientists in the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany had found what was thought to be the oldest planet in the universe, formed less than a billion years after the Big Bang at what was considered the dawn of the universe. By then, our Milky Way galaxy hasn't even been completely formed yet.

Artist's rendering of the two oldest planets orbiting their star.

There's honestly a lot more info about the planets' lifespan and all that in the article, which I do believe will explain much better than I can about the issue.

Fascinating, really, to think of the existence of planets and stars beyond our realm of sight. More fascinating to think of how old they are and what seems to be eternity. Makes you believe even less in superstitious things like 2012 and the rapture and stuff. Of course, damnation by natural destruction led by human activities seem plausible, yet.

It is said that it is unlikely that these two planets will survive another 13 billion year, which I unfortunately will not live to see. Planets and stars are so incredible, they make you feel so small and insignificant. Even the span of 75 years is considered a long time, and yet stars live for billions of years. You would think you're relatively big in the equation of everything, but we don't even know the span of everything yet.

The biggest question, as always, is if the universe is endless. If one day you could really hit a point where you can't travel anymore, and realize that we're stuck in a sphere. Or we're actually part of an online game for some supernatural superpower or the sort, and the map just ended (they need to update with a new patch, please).

This is making me feel smaller than ever.

But back to the article. One of the things that amazed me the most was the fact that the team leader (this was, I swear, discussed in the NatGeo Indonesia article) was Indonesian. So for once, a rarity, this blogpost is a tribute to a fellow Indonesian, Dr. Johny Setiawan.

I creepily googled the guy and found his legit personal website. You think I only do that with K-Pop stars? Ha, think again. On that note, I haven't been able to locate tour schedules for BIGBANG's 2012 world tour. 

Of course the rest of the team is awesome as well, it's just that my nationalistic blood gets pumping every time I hear a major, world-changing achievement by an Indonesian scientist.

Always excited to spread good news like this. Yes, we are a fully evolved, non-primitive race who value intellect. And no, I do not ride elephants to school.

It's always so much more preferable to read these kinds of articles instead of reading articles discussing how inept development in our country is, which isn't entirely true, methinks.