Snow on the
Green Planet
12/26/16
Was there snow on the Green Planet?
U2- named by an astronomer with a sense of humor- always reminded him of the rock band. Band of rocks he would say at cocktail parties when congratulated for discovering the small green planet. He promised himself that, he would find a better name for his discovery- someday.
When in a foul temper, he would remind everyone that the atmosphere and surface were made of halogens- poisonous greenish yellow gasses and boulders. "Too bad," he mused, "there are no lamp factories near my planet." Then he would castigate himself for his egotism - as if he owned the little green orb. He wondered if people who had too much money would one day buy small planets the way they currently bought small islands.
U-2 had a cult following. They believed it was a portal into a parallel universe. They claimed the name said it all: "Universe Two." Although the discoverer, Asimov, could get his mind around the mathematics of multiple universes, there was something philosophically repugnant to him about the idea. He felt -irrationally-and wondered if all feelings are irrational or are meta-rational- that "We are small enough without having to go and make the scale of things infinitely bigger than infinitely big."
No matter. Asimov didn't really have a choice when he was chosen to be lead astronaut on the wormhole mission to explore U-2. There were trumped up charges leveled against him and he faced life imprisonment if he stayed on earth.
He knew of ways to escape the prison colony on Mars, but all things considered, he preferred to be an explorer rather than an outlaw.
A man with children and grandchildren but whose wife had divorced him for spending more time with his research than connecting to her, Asimov promised to send tweets about his journey. He often kept in touch with his extended family electronically so there might not be much of a difference on that front.
The biggest problem he saw was his late middle age crush on Juliyang, his much younger co-pilot- that and the almost continual meteor showers. Unlike those in most parts of the known universe, meteors on U-2 went in both directions. The combination of low gravity and heavy pull from the seven moons created something like Van der Waals effects. This weak attraction between molecules amused him because it always reminded him of geckos whose ability to scale der walls - sounded like Van der Waals - was enabled by this force.
Asimov Diderik was Dutch - but nobody cared. Well, maybe a few terrorists who had long memories.
Asimov ‘s great-great grandfather Hendrik Casimir had started out aiming to compute the Van der Waals force between polarizable molecules.
When Asimov was a small child, he was fascinated by charting the sizes and relationships of different piles of jellybeans. Like his great-great grandfather, Isamov was drawn to history and philosophy as well as science. Though unlike his great-great grandfather, he was interested in all types of history - especially Old Testament history and philosophy - whereas the very old man (he was one of the first successful cryogenic patients who later received many robotic organs was happily working at the ripe old age of 323) focused on the history and philosophy of physics. 323 was a special birthday, as was 121 and perhaps, he mused 4321234. He did want to live forever; there were just so many interesting things to explore.
So, inspired in so many ways by Old Casimir, a few decades later, thawing from the semi frozen state, Asimov implemented the plan he had concocted. It seemed no more absurd or stupid to him than any of the science fiction movies of his youth and actually had a scintilla of a chance of success.
Hovering above U-2, he directed his crew to collect samples. After analyzing them he directed them to pour chemicals which would combine with the local elements to form soil. Then he created a small star to warm the place. He planted trees - rapid growth variety, brought up the oxygen content of the atmosphere, added hydrogen and water forming clouds, the sky turned blue, rapid phase proliferation of birds and insects he had brought along and in less than a year, U-2 was a veritable garden of Eden. He realized after all this time that he wanted to call the planet "Earth."
His diligent team however found no portals to parallel universes and his copilot turned out to be married and faithfully so and not attracted to old Asimov. Nonetheless it was a successful voyage and they returned home to a hero's welcome.
Of course, all this happened billions of years ago in a parallel universe.