During the past day or so, big, grand Jupiter passed by the black hole known as NGC 4594. Why do we care? This famous galaxy when viewed through a telescope takes on the appearance of a sombrero, thus it bears the nickname, the Sombrero Galaxy. In the early part of the 20th Century it had northern Arizona hopping. Vesto Slipher, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory, detected the first galactic redshift indicating the Sombrero Galaxy was outside our galaxy and verified the expansion of the Universe. Presently, Jupiter the planet known to stretch, expand, embellish and exaggerate, lines up with a point noting that we are indeed moving away from what appears to the Big Bang. Symbolically, the new, extreme and any implications of unending discovery come to mind.

Overlooking the obvious (also a Jupiter trait), I’ll ignore baseball players who lie to congressional hearings regarding illegal drugs, cloned dogs and new terrorism threats. Instead let’s consider a few other pertinent findings. As you probably already know, the next planet in the solar system gained notoriety one week ago. The controversy within astronomy circles is amazing. Many astronomers pitch such a fit when considering the acceptance of a new planet even thought their fit defies the nature of unending searches of the great beyond. Some try to minimize Pluto’s planetary status again, arguing that including 2003 UB313 as a planet could mean we need to expand the number of planets by about a half dozen or more bodies. One proposed rule stated: Pluto’s it. Larger is a planet. Smaller is not. One astronomer argued that because this body is so high in inclination it stands out of the plane of the ecliptic, therefore it’s not a planet. I find that silly. It goes around the Sun and it’s large enough. That’s like saying Ophiuchus should be an astrological sign because it technically touches the ecliptic. As astrologers contend with what sign UB313 ultimately rules, and with the likelihood of more planets, the words were uttered by unnamed astrologers, “Crap, we need more signs.”

The reason we found out about 2003 UB313, 2003 EL61 and 2005 FY9 (which most people haven’t heard of at all) when we did holds a very interesting background. There’s a big international (not interplanetary) astronomical gathering in September. You can bet some of these juicy morsels were waiting for release there amongst applause and ooh and aahs. Somehow, someone hacked into the databases of the astronomical sites hiding these planetary nuggets from us concealed in alphanumeric code like all your passwords should be. Evidently others were training telescopes to right places and were fixing to steal the discoveries. So, they hurried the announcement so the proper people get the credit. Imagine, someone was trying to steal planets! If you read the history and controversies surrounding the discoveries of Uranus and Neptune between the Brits and the French, it was quite a race and the rivalry bitter and ferocious and if either country had a chance, you can bet they would have stolen it. Sadly for the English astronomers, they got beat by an amateur with Uranus and the by French with Neptune.

The bottom line: Astronomical discoveries are withheld because of the politics, funding, claim and fame. Parts of the data have been hard to acquire. I did e-mail the Gemini Observatory where FY9 was discovered. Jeez, it just occurred to me. Since I submitted names for two centaurs do you think they think I was trying to pilfer the planets? They do know I’m an astrologer.

But here’s some cool new stuff we do know. 2003 EL61 has its own moon, which orbits the body every 49 days. After Pluto, 2005 FY9 is the 2nd brightest Kuiper Belt object, 2003 EL61 is 3rd and 2003 UB313 is 4th. Though UB313 is larger, it’s also more distant. The current position of 2005 FY9 stands as 20 Virgo 16 (Aug 08) and it orbits the Sun in 308.33 yrs.

Most amazingly, UB313 now posts as not just a Kuiper Belt Object, but a Scattered Disk Object, falling in the same category as Sedna - one of the bodies tossed out above and beyond the others by Neptune. An astronomer who claims to know promises a great name for the body suggesting it goes in new naming directions. We may not know a whole lot more until September, but some Mercury retrograde posts indicate it will be named next Monday.

Back to the controversy. Look at all the new things people must now dance around. Everything is changed - astronomically and more. For astrologers, new thoughts and important conclusions that most have never considered now appear before them - the assigning of a planet to a sign. That might be only the beginning. The recent disclosures, however they came about, prevented planetary theft and changed world and universal views forever. Jupiter dances a rousing Mexican hat dance with the Sombrero galaxy. Simply everyone’s dance increases, or stands to increase. How about you? Where are you including new images, visions, aspirations and relationships? According to the metaphors of space, entirely new things lie before you that perhaps you’ve never considered before. If you claim and embellish the creativity within, apply to these unfolding images and develop a brand-new dance, no one can cut in.