Friday, April 5, 2013

Planet List


I just had a revelatory experience.  
while surfing for “extrasolar planets” 
Feeling sad for Pluto 
Demoted to a dwarf planet.

I happened to click here
then scrolled down.  
Try it; I’ll wait here. . . 

You feel it?  
I knew we had discovered quite a few, 
but scrolling through them 
makes the number visceral. 

And these just in our backyard
out here in the suburbs 
of the Milky Way.  

Once TESS deploys, 
and then the Webb
the list is going to explode!  

Our galaxy alone 
Is estimated to have 
at least 160 billion planets.  

Forget Pluto!  
I just want to see the list 
of the first million planets found 

The first 0.00000625%.  
We’d need 160,000 such lists 
to cover them all.  

So you tell me:  

Are we alone?