The recent discovery of rich, life-giving amino acids in the tail of a comet points perhaps to the fact that the entire Universe can support life; if conditions are right. This Web series explores the possibility that all planets in our neighborhood support life not just precious Earth. Each planet in our neighborhood is unique with special characteristics, colours and attractions that make them special and perhaps harbouring hitherto unknown bacterium or specks of thirst-quenching life. This is a journey across our skies, from Neptune to Mercury, ending at the life-giving Sun.

2006 – 2009 Critical Years

Recent times have seen a complete revolution in our idea about planets. The first occurred in 2006, when the International Astronomical Society, defined what, “a planet,” actually is. The second came in 2009, with the discovery of complex amino acids, or life’s building blocks, in the tail of a comet. The discovery strengthens the Theory of Panspermia – that life is seeded through the Cosmos. You just need the right conditions for it to grow.

The first was a redefining of what a planet is. A planet now is:

1. A celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant

2. Not large enough to cause thermonuclear fusion

3. Has cleared its’ neighborhood of planetismals (asteroids, dwarf planets and assorted debris).

In light of all of this the solar system has eight planets, with Pluto losing her status as a planet, becoming, a “dwarf planet,” along with its’ twin, Charon.

In the second critical year, 2009, complex amino acids were discovered in the tail of a comet. This implies that comets carry the needed compounds to create living things and the possibility of life permeating the cosmos became a distinct reality. These discoveries strengthen the argument that all the planets are alive.

Extra solar Planet and this Web series

The possibility of other planets outside our solar system was not confirmed until 1988 by Canadian astronomers Bryce Campbell, G. A. H. Walker and S. Yang by experimenting on the radial velocity, or rotation around distant stars, by their possible planets. By detecting the slight shift of a star’s brightness they could say that a planet was moving across the star’s face. As measuring devices become better, in 2003, the first extra solar (planet outside our own solar system and orbiting another faraway sun or star) was cemented. In light of this, this Web series excludes the over-300 extra solar planets for another future Web series. Our own eight living planets are enough.

Planet One – Neptune

This Web series starts on the outermost lip of the solar system with the eighth big and icy planet – Neptune. Named after the Roman God of the Oceans, Neptune, this planet is an extraordinary-blue. What makes Neptune unique is:

· She’s bloody freezing. -270 degrees Celsius on a fine day.

· It is a giant, fifteen-time bigger than the Earth with exceedingly-strong weather

· Storms racing at 2 400 km/hr in the top atmosphere.

Wobble Me Hard

Neptune is the first planet discovered in a similar manner to how exoplanets were in 2003. Detecting a wobble from a nearby object, in this case the planet Uranus could reveal another planet, here Neptune. Queerly, Neptune also makes internal heat, but not enough to make thermonuclear energy.

Urbain Le Verrier, of France, discovered Neptune in 1845.

Out, Pluto, Out!

This Web series might have started with Pluto. Pluto is worth a note, for the fact that from 1979 – 1999 Pluto was inside the orbit of Neptune and closer to us. This was when Pluto was considered a full-grown planet. So, Neptune was then the most-distant planet for twenty years.

When what in fact a planet was finally decided upon, Neptune became the only ever furthest planet, because Pluto lost her planetary-crown. Pluto is now merely a speck and a “Dwarf Planet.” Remotest Neptune then, our eight farthest neighbor, spins wildly at 29 Astronomical Units (AU)*, around the sun.

Icy Wash

When the Voyager Spacecraft 2 flew by Neptune for the first time in 1989 amazing things were found. Images of roaring jet-streams, a dark spot in the Southern sky and whirling upper eddies of the most vivid blue were spotted. The tiny probe beamed back results of what that weather comprised:

· Choking tempests of hydrogen, helium and ammonia, ripping by at speeds of 2 400 km per hour, high in the skies

· Ginormous blizzards

· An electric blue, frigid-vaporous ball 15 times bigger than Earth.

A typical morning on Neptune would see you freeze, become dust then get blown away.

Les Lunes Acune Racune

Neptune is blessed with a bevy of moons, 13 in total. Triton is the largest orbiting around Neptune in a retrograde (or against the other moon’s revolutions) orbit.

Triton was photographed in 1989 as a place with a slushy cold sea. Neptune holds diaphanous-rings, too, indicating the 14th moon might have popped in the past.

· Triton is the largest moon of Neptune and resembles a cantaloupe

· Triton may be a hostage of Neptune thanks to its’ backward spin

· Triton has an ocean of iced water. It might provide us with water for life.

Haiku for Neptune

Neptune dazzling-blue,

Freezing with storms and tempest,

Yet warm from within.

More Cosmic Writing by this author:

The Life of a Star

*An Astronomical Unit: The distance of Earth from the Sun 93 million miles or 15 million kilometers. Neptune is 30 astronomical units from the sun.