UK readers may have been lucky enough to catch the first installment of Brian Cox 's 'Wonders of the Solar System' on BBC2 on Sunday night. It was really excellent and Prof Cox's enthusiasm for 'Space' is infectious. In an age when earthbound problems fill our minds it's so refreshing to see.
There were many wonderful explanations including the fact that the world's water cycle is powered entirely by the Sun - all the water in the rivers was lifted and dropped at some point. Probably even more wondrous was the concept of the Oort Cloud, the farthest boundary of our Solar System. The cloud is a hypothetical haze of debris one light year away yet still bound to our Sun's gravity. If you were there you'd be a quarter of the way to Proxima Centauri, the next nearest Star!
See you there for tea and biscuits!
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I didn't watch it because BBC factual series appear to have become very dumbed down of late. Seems I might have made a mistake with this one.
ReplyDeleteUou 'oort' to watch it on Iplayer. Follow the link on the 'Wonder of the Solar System' in the blog post.
ReplyDeleteGood advice - but jokes that bad could be considered a form of mental abuse? ^_^
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