What To Make of the Latest Atlas Space Phenomenon

Well, first off, it’s almost certainly not what some might be tempted to call a “spaceship.” Back in the day, numerous religious groups claimed that “the end-time” was coming. Many groups claimed that “Heaven’s Gates” were about to arrive to rescue their believers. I have not yet heard of any group making such claims about the recent puzzling visitor passing through our solar system, dubbed “Atlas.”  

           At the other extreme, many astronomers have argued that this phenomenon is merely a minor anomaly in the vast emptiness of outer space. The puzzling thing about this approach is that, unlike other passing visitors to our solar system, Atlas behaves quite sporadically and unpredictably. Indeed, its speed far surpasses that of the planets.   

  Specifically, it travels at amazing speeds and alters its course unpredictably. I certainly am not an astronomer, but even those folks seem astonished and puzzled by this “stranger” that seems to bob about at various high speeds and come and go as it pleases. In short, Atlas seems oblivious to the regular trajectories of our planets and moves at speeds that far exceed those of the planets (130,000 MILES AN HOUR). In other words, it is a self-propelling object that can ignore the planets of our solar system, even the sun. Indeed, the most amazing thing is that Atlas spins around in our solar system, here, there, and everywhere, at its own speed and trajectory. It’s every bit like it is inspecting our planets, etc., for further exploration.

           Atlas seems to simply fly around within the solar system on its own course, darting here and there, this way and that, unaffected by the gravitational force of even the sun. All of this idiosyncratic behavior has led some to suggest that Atlas might well be some sort of spaceship conducting a “flyby” investigation of our solar system. My own tentative conclusion is that Atlas, far from being some sort of Divine emissary from some sort of “Heaven” or simply a space oddity, might well be a visitor from a not-too-distant planet, busy exploring our universe. Hopefully, it will be peaceful and helpful in the cosmic struggle for a meaningful, sustainable future. Let’s keep looking.  :O)         

OUR TRIP THROUGH EGYPT AND MORE

The Aswan High Dam

 

Years ago, Mari and I had the opportunity to travel through Egypt as part of a Finnish tourist group during our January vacation. We met up with the tour leader, a bright Finnish fellow with many contacts in Egypt. We started out in Cairo and traveled by a small but comfortable tour boat all the way to the Aswan Dam. Our guide had made many friends along the way on previous trips, so we met many Egyptian people. It was, then, both a relaxing tourist trip and a fascinating visit to many great historical ruins of ancient Egypt. 

Of course, the chance to be right up beside famous and monumental ancient Egyptian ruins and sites was a special treat for me because I had studied off and on a good deal of Biblical history involving Egypt. But being amidst, beside, and under many of these great monuments was quite different from reading about them. It was also fascinating to meet occasional Arab folks along the way in villages and cities where our guide had made friends. Of course, we started out with a visit to the Great Pyramids near Cairo, where I had the great privilege, years earlier, of actually climbing to the top of the famous Cheops Pyramid.

While in Cairo, we learned that we could rent a car and driver to take us just across the border into the Nubian Desert, barely into Sudan, to the place where the United Nations had arranged to relocate some of the Great Pyramids of Lower Egypt so they would not be swallowed by the rising waters of the now-dammed-up Nile River. This, incidentally, was a multimillion-dollar project involving numerous countries worldwide. Most of these monumental temples had been relocated from Luxor in Lower Egypt. It truly was an amazing experience and a privilege to see these vast monuments, beautiful frescoes and all, which, if they had not been cut up into movable pieces and transferred way upriver, would have been lost to the world forever under the southern Nile.

We had gotten up hours before dawn and been driven for four hours, watching the sunrise across the desert, but it was clearly a once-in-a-lifetime thrill to see and walk through these ancient Egyptian monuments. This experience was similar to crawling into Cave #1, where the Dead Sea Scrolls had been hidden 2,000 years ago and were only discovered in our time. Sometimes I wish I had become an archaeologist.