Man plans and G-d laughs! We’ve all heard this old Yiddish Proverb: Mensh tracht, Gott lacht. I saw these Hubble pictures and videos last night, and I laughed too. We have a new planetoid named Sedna. Well, not really so new because scientists think it has been around from the original formation of our solar system. It is the farthest known object in our solar system. Sedna was named for the Inuit goddess who ruled over the seas.
Apparently, the scientific community has known about Sedna for almost five years. I only found this out last night! There are several curious facts known so far:
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As of yet, we haven’t found a moon for Sedna. -
Sedna takes between 20-50 days compared to our one day of rotation.
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It’s path around the sun is not elliptical.
I don’t even want to think about how old I’d be if I lived on Sedna, if one could live on a -400-degree Fahrenheit surface! This planetoid is only about 1000 miles in diameter, yet it rotates slower than any other planet, all of which are bigger than Sedna.
I’m sharing this information not only because it is interesting, but also because this serves as another example of how whenever we think we know the whole story, G-d changes the rules. We humans can never have all the answers, because we can never know all that G-d knows! There is always something new to discover. I’d love to know what you think!
For more in-depth information on this planetoid, go to the Hubble website at http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/entire/pr2004014c/.
