Epsilon Eridani

Ugh. Whoever invented cryostatis needs to get a swift kick in the cajones. Or at least whoever forgot to make aspirin strong enough to whack the massive, feels-like-a-30-year-frat-party-hangover headache you have when you wake up. Damn! “You may feel some mild discomfort.” I’d hate to see serious discomfort, then. Ugh. I woke up yesterday, and the data screens are still making my eyes feel like stabbity death.

Thankfully I won’t have to go through that for a good chunk of time, though, ‘cause we’re here!

The Epsilon Eridani’s solar system, man! 10.5 light years away from Earth! I wonder what folks a couple hundred years ago would have said if they knew humanity would travel such ludicrous distances, or see star systems other than our own.

Anyway, according to our current course chart, we actually entered EE’s space yesterday. We missed seeing the outermost planet, unfortunately. Too busy puking up that nasty nutrient fluid they make you drink before chryo. So we missed seeing Bacchus. I wanted to see the Drunken Planet! Heh. Ah well.

For those of you who don’t know much about the Epsilon Eridani system, here’s the figure from my old Space Science textbook.




See why it’s called Bacchus? Even scientists can have a sense of humor sometimes.

So, as you can see, we’re up to our butts in asteroids right now. By 0800 tomorrow we should be passing Oceanus. The beacon probe in orbit around the planet is already transmitting some gorgeous shots of the planet. Oceanus is named for, well… take a wild guess. You already know about Bacchus.

Next is Ceres. I’m not sure why they named a monster gas giant, with boiling storms of hydrogen and helium all over it after a relatively benign goddess. It’s actually even bigger than Jupiter. But it doesn’t have that cool red spot. Instead it’s got these wild green and brown swirls. Maybe that’s why it got named after the goddess of agriculture.

And then, yes, there’s ANOTHER goddamn asteroid belt! It’s actually amazing there's anything left of Minerva with that nearby. But the planetary scientists say that between Ceres’ huge mass pulling some of the loose belt bits towards it, and with Iapetus running interference for rogue monsters, Minerva is supposedly pretty well sheltered. But they still get loads of meteorites. How cool must the night sky look on a clear night?

I gotta hit the gym. I haven’t had a good workout in years! Har har. I’ll leave you with a photo of Oceanus to oogle. Next stop? Ground Zero Station, Iapitus!

I can’t wait.