NorthJersey.com
For fun, Raymond T. Pierrehumbert likes to consider what conditions are like on a planet called WD 0137-349B. Nuzzled up close to a white dwarf star located 330 light-years from earth, WD 0137-349B is a big planet where surface temperatures hit 3,100 degrees. That’s hot enough to vaporize rock into gas. What happens next? Pierrehumbert likes to picture it.
All that superhot gas goes racing across the fiery surface of WD 0137-349B until it reaches the planet’s dark side, where it cools to a gray dust. Pierrehumbert plays with this image in his mind, a perpetual avalanche of radioactive snow falling through a night without end.
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Photo by Wikimedia Commons
I am Christian by tradition. I celebrate Christmas and all the family events associated with Christmas. However, I’m also a naturalist in the sense that I observe natural phenomenon and I note how natural phenomenon impacts my life. The Winter Solstice is one natural event that is particularly important to me because it signals the return of the growing season and the lengthening days of sunlight.
We are traveling this year, so we won’t get to hold our annual solstice bonfire on the beach. In years past we would go to Ocean Beach in San Francisco and build a big bonfire and roast hot dogs and have a winter picnic with the waves crashing nearby and the wind howling all around us. This year I don’t know what we are going to do. Our current campground doesn’t allow campfires because of fire hazard. Maybe we can find a lake shoreline nearby but I’m not holding out a lot of hope.
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Kump Corner
This Sunday will be the fourth and last Sunday in Advent, and many Christians will celebrate by lighting four candles on an Advent wreath. The candles often represent Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace. In 2020 we need these signs of hope during the Covid-19 Pandemic when modern Americans fear for their lives and economic stability.
This Advent tradition is much like older festivals of light that celebrated the return of the sun all over the northern hemisphere at the time of Winter Solstice. Last week’s column described some of the Asian and Native American festivals of light honoring the return of the sun, and this week we will look into some of the ancient European customs that came before the Christian Church.
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