I have read that when the Sun becomes a red giant it will push the Earth out to about Mars' orbit. When it finally blows off it's fuel and becomes a white dwarf, will all of the space junk orbitting the Earth become part of the nebula? Dave -----Original Message----- From: Chuck Hards [mailto:chuckhards@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2002 10:40 AM To: Utah-Astro Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Galileo, time I thought for sure that more people would have an opinion on where to scuttle the Galileo probe! Galileo is yesterday's news anymore, I suppose. On another matter, watching PBS recently, I noted that the designer of Mt. Rushmore allowed 3" extra material on the sculptures, to allow for 300,000 years of erosion. In other words, the sculpture will not acutually be finished for that lenght of time (assuming the erosion will be uniform, which I doubt). Even so, that is but the blink of an eye in terms of geologic (or cosmic) time....The show reinforced in my mind the notion that one day, the only remaining relics of mankind will be deep-space probes such as the Pioneers and Voyagers....everything here on earth is doomed to the slow but sure process of subduction, and eventual absorbtion & incineration by the elderly, red-giant stage sun. What we discard in the cold depths of interstellar space will be our only lasting legacy, enduring long after we have died out as a species. What's that, you say? We are not going to die out? OK, hold onto that thought if it makes you feel better. It's wrong, but hold onto it... Chuck __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ _______________________________________________ Utah-astronomy mailing list Utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy