“Astronomers have found at least seven Earth-sized planets orbiting the same star 40 light-years away, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The findings were also announced at a news conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
This discovery outside of our solar system is rare because the planets have the winning combination of being similar in size to Earth and being all temperate, meaning they could have water on their surfaces and potentially support life.
‘This is the first time that so many planets of this kind are found around the same star,’ said Michaël Gillon, lead study author and astronomer at the University of Liège in Belgium.”
Sometimes, as a widowed person, I read something or see something or hear something, and the ONLY thing I want in life in that moment, is for my dead husband to not be dead, so he can read or see or hear it too, because that thing Im reading or seeing so reminds me of him.
That was the case when I read this incredible story today, about this NASA conference, and how they found 7 new planets around the same star, that show strong evidence of supporting life. That is absolutely amazing, and wondrous, and the kind of thing that I desperately want to hear my husband’s take on.
He loved science and he loved astronomy. He would watch all of those documentaries on the Science Channel and The Learning Channel about planets and stars and galaxies and trips around the sun. I always felt like his student when he would talk about stuff like that with me – always learning from him. He was so smart, and so humble, and so willing to share knowledge about anything that he felt a passion for. I could listen to him talk about anything for hours, and just be in awe of the sounds coming from his lips.
Because his death was so sudden and not at all expected in any way, (pretty much the most shocking thing that’s ever happened to me, ever) we never really talked much about death, or about what we would do if one of us were to die, or about what the other person would or should do when it came to things such as cremation or other decisions. However, I know that Don was more of a spiritual person than a religious one. Much like me, he believed in the concept of a God or a higher power, and believed that God is Love and all good things.
He didn’t really believe in Heaven or Hell, but we did talk about energy, and how science states that energy cannot be destroyed. I remember him saying to me one time as we lay in bed chatting, that “maybe when we die, we become part of the stars or particles of the universe or the galaxy somehow. That’s a really cool way to think about it I think.”
And so, that is exactly what I try and do, whenever I miss him so much that I can barely breathe. I try to remind myself what he believed, and what is true about energy, and that the cells inside of us are energy, and cannot be destroyed. So maybe Don does know what went on today in this NASA discovery. Maybe he is part of it. Maybe he is billions of particles inside of one of these planets. Or maybe his soul and his energy wanders from air space to air space, and he flies around me when I really need him, and hangs out on the moon or the sun sometimes on other days.
Or maybe Im just slowly losing my mind. Who cares. I miss him and I want him here, and when Im struggling like Ive been struggling lately in life, it helps a tiny little bit to think that he is somehow still part of me. Still with me. I cant live my life thinking or believing or knowing that he is gone forever. I cannot survive that way. Its hard to breathe if I think that he is just gone from everywhere.
He is not here physically, and I hate that every single day, because life is so damn hard without him. But if he still exists somehow, some way, somewhere, that helps me to breathe a little bit better. It helps me to inhale and then exhale, and then go about my day, knowing that he is not nothing.
