Planet Hell

This very detailed simulation of large scale structure was created as part of the Illustris simulation. The distribution of dark matter is shown in blue and the gas distribution in orange. This simulation is for the current state of the Universe and is centered on a massive galaxy cluster. The region shown is about 300 million light-years across.

My personal views regarding the existence of Hell have changed a lot since my childhood days, when I grew up in a little fundamentalist country church and believed everything I was taught in Sunday school. Nowadays I know that the word “Hell” isn’t even in the original translations of the Bible. We got “Hell” from the Vikings. And that whole fire-and-brimstone thing? No. I do believe that a condition exists that we could call Hell, but I think it’s simply a realization (and the subsequent regret) of one’s own misdeeds in life, when all attempts at self-justification, and all excuses, are stripped away. As to whether or not such a condition is eternal, that’s a whole ‘nother matter, one that is also not confirmed by the original translations of the Good Book.

If the Fundamentalists insist on a literal fire-and-brimstone geographic location, though, it seems NASA has provided them with one. Planet 55 Cancri e revolves less than 1.5 million miles from its sun, about a quarter of the distance Mercury is from our own sun. Says NASA: “Imagine if Earth were much, much closer to the Sun. So close that an entire year lasts only a few hours. So close that gravity has locked one hemisphere in permanent searing daylight and the other in endless darkness. So close that the oceans boil away, rocks begin to melt, and the clouds rain lava.” In other words, Planet Hell.

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Categorized as darkness

By The Evil Cheezman

Purveyor of sacred truths and purloined letters; literary acrobat; spiritual godson of Edgar Allan Poe, P.T. Barnum, and Ed Wood; WAYNE MILLER is the head architect of EVIL CHEEZ PRODUCTIONS, serving up the finest in entertainment and edification for the stage, the page, and the twain screens, silver and computer. He is the axe-murderer who once met Andy Griffith.

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