I must admit it slipped by me. Every day I check the postings of new bodies on the Minor Planet Center’s site looking for new Kuiper Belt discoveries that might shape/shift astrological implications. One of my favorite pesky bodies received a number at some point in the recent past and I missed it.
Minor planetary body, 308933, formerly known as 2006 SQ372, received sanction that astronomers are reasonably confident of its orbit as it took on an official numeric designation. Why do we care about a distant Kuiper Belt body that is somewhere between 40 and 110 kilometers in diameter, which when at the most-distant point from the Sun is some 1,788 astronomical units away from our star? Wait! 1,788 AU? Doesn’t the 11,000 year orbital period Sedna only go out to about 1,009 AU? Yes, that’s correct. So the big deal about 308933 is that it is a body orbiting our Sun maintaining an orbital period of somewhere between 27,270.45 years and 29,976.47 years (depending upon Minor Planet Center data or JPL data, respectively).
Remember back before 2003 when we thought the period of Pluto’s orbit of 248 years and some of the cubewano Kuiper Belt bodies in the 300-year range was really extreme? Then in 2003, we found out about Eris’s 556 year orbit and Sedna’s 11,000 plus year orbit. And in 2006, 308933 blew out the stops. Whew! That’s a lot to process.
With the refinements to 308933 we now know that the north node is 17 Libra 24 and the perihelion is 19 Aquarius 58. Can we extract a message? Perhaps something along the lines of: Space is infinite, but the planet known as Earth and its resources are finite. Maybe getting along is a good thing to do. Today, with no clear transits to this body (but the implication is a neat fit), North Korea, now under the reigns of Kim Jong Il’s son, Kim Jong Un, agreed to halt nuclear tests at the controversial Yongbyon facility in exchange for food for the people. Good trade, especially given North Korea’s recent history.
Wait! There’s more! Somewhere in the fourth two-week interval of 2012, astronomers located a previously undetected Kuiper Belt body, designating it as 2012 DR30. With a likely diameter of between 70 and 230 km, again there’s a huge need for fuss over a very small body.
Originally, I wrote this post on Wednesday. Then, on Thursday, the data had radically changed, prompting a need to revisit all the calculations. Now, the post is headed to you before I have a chance to review potential changes on Friday. Regardless, even if the data is somewhat different, the main points remain.
Indeed, the diminutive 2012 DR30 retreats in space 2,187 AU and holds a semi-major axis of 1,101 AU, which when converted to orbital period indicates that the body takes between 36,532.6 and 36529.6 years (depending upon MPC or JPL data). The node of this object lies at 11 Pisces 28 and the perihelion, according to current data is 26 Vi 40, in conjunction with the dwarf planet Makemake. However, this data is new and will no doubt be refined. The only trustworthy marker here is the degree of perihelion. The orbit is likely to change as is the degree of perihelion. By comparison, the orbit of 308933 shrank to its existing value from early data declaring an orbit of a bit more than 30,000 years. (Wednesday's data had the orbital period at more than 64,000 years).
Here's another oddity for 2012 DR30, as far out in space as it goes, it comes into 14.52 AU when at perihelion. That's just about halfway in between the perihelion distances of Saturn and the perihelion of Uranus! From that close to that far!
Given Mars is in Virgo, someone's gonna ask. Where is it? As of March 4th, 2012 DR30 can be found at 16 Virgo 59, pretty dang close to Mars. 2012 DR30 is retrograding; on March 27th it will pass through 15 Vi 20. As for 308933, using the latest data I found (2010), it is now roughly at 8 degrees of Pisces.
Still! Consider the implications. In less than a decade we have expanded the range of planetary periods from 300 to 36,530 years. This means that in the course of ten years, our comprehension of what is “in” our solar system, as described by a body orbiting our Sun, has expanded by approximately 147 times!!! Our solar system’s radius, is 147 times wider than previously believed. What potential for expansion of consciousness!!
In pondering the implications of this body that I’ve overlooked for about a fortnight, it occurred to me that it likely associates with “the Cloud.” Where is that stuff stored on the touted infinitude of the cloud? Will the Virgin Galactic ex-atmospheric test flights targeted for later this year collide with the cloud?
Another possible implication has political themes. Many of the proposed doctrines of the conservative political leaders running for president, according to those objecting to said doctrines, would set humankind back at least fifty years, possibly even centuries. Is this a desperate shoehorn effort to squeeze our consciousness back to within the limits of Pluto’s orbit? Undisputedly, many of the proposed policies support a blatant plutocracy. When will they embrace the Eris-tocracy, in which no human is left out, left behind, discarded or kicked when down? Our new solar system member notably promotes a Piscean north node as a dharmic agenda, requiring understanding, compassion, tolerance and funds for mental health care for those not coping so well (as in the case of the shooters in Chardon, Ohio this week, and Tucson and Norway of the recent past).