Loner 308.9, plus a send off for Mother Earth.

PL Asphalt Galaxy #1  © the cinemascapist

I was reading about CFBDSIRJ214947.2-040308.9, or as I like to call it, Loner 308.9. A vagabond planet (Isolated Planetary Mass Object) that meanders through our galaxy without any concern for planetary responsibilities or cosmic hierarchy. While it is a registered member of the Milky Way Galaxy Club, it is without a star. It doesn't spend its life endlessly circling and twirling around a parent object. It is free to explore the galaxy and to enjoy all the sites and sounds there are to offer. I'm sure there is probably some added safety and security when you belong to one of the millions of solar systems in the galaxy club, with gravity and all that orbital path chaos that seems to protect and detour debris that could cause a nasty crash and gash with a planet, but who wants to live a solitary, sheltered life in a boring planetary system? Where's the culture? What about the other corners of the galaxy? What about even hopping out of the galaxial orbit into the nothingness between galaxies?

This got me to thinking about Earth. How cool would it be for Mother Earth if she decided to drop out and run away from home, leaving her 7 siblings planets and parent star behind (I grew up thinking she had 8 siblings, but it turns out that Pluto, the runt of the litter, was cold, unfriendly, and not even family. What a liar and a douche). Doesn't she deserve a break? Being covered with lava filled boils for centuries, her face frozen for years and years, giant clumsy bird-brain lizards galloping freely, followed by the current day rash of advanced apes tinkering and probing at her. I'd have taken a flea bath long before now if I was her.

My hope is that we can somehow find a way to exist on our own in the galaxy/universe, get off her back and give her a nice little shove to send her off, breaking her orbital chain. Before you tree huggers start crying that she's too sensitive and fragile for that, she needs to be taken care of, she will perish out there, etc... guess what... she's a giant fucking space rock with a molten core. She doesn't need this atmosphere with it's lush trees and pristine waters, and she definitely does not need us. She is a sexy, young space chick that will be the envy of all the planets and solar systems that she comes across.

She is a rock star and I wish her a long, safe journey.