A leak in the solar system

There is a leak in the solar system.

Actually, I discovered recently, there’s more than one leak.

While reading Bill Bryson‘s delightful book, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, I came across this:

“The most remarkable part of all is your DNA (or deoxyribonucleic acid). You have a meter of it packed into every cell, and so many cells that if you formed all the DNA in your body into a single strand, it would stretch ten billion miles, to beyond Pluto. Think of it: there is enough of you to leave the solar system.”
—Bill Bryson, The Body

Think of that; a strand of the DNA from a single human being is long enough to escape our solar system.

Then there’s the email Celia wrote to Scott, our yoga teacher, explaining why we hadn’t been in his Zoom class last week:

“We’ve had some impediments—sickness (not Covid!), leaks in our solar system…”

She was referring to this unwelcome development in our solar hot water and radiant floor heating system, which I installed in 1983.

To which Scott replied:

“I’m loving ‘the leaks in our solar system’ … I think I know what you mean … But it could be even more of a universal statement describing 2020 in general  :)”

And then there’s the picture at the top of this post, courtesy of NASA: an artist’s conception of the atmosphere leaking into space from a planet orbiting the star DMPP-1, about 200 light-years away. This distant solar system is literally leaking into space.

But let’s go back to Scott’s reply. I’m loving ‘the leak in the solar system’ … I think I know what you mean. 2020 was a crazy year for just about everyone. We can’t do anything about a leaking solar system 200 light-years away (not that we need to, thank goodness). On the other hand, I can fix the leaks in my solar system perhaps with a plumber’s help.

In between, I hope that, collectively, we can fix the leaks in the world that 2020 has brought us. And, in this, my last post for 2020, I wish you a much better year in 2021.

Photo attribute: NASA — This Four-planet System is Leaking