BEYOND THE COURSE—After nearly 4 billion miles and 10 years of space travel, it lands!
IF YOU THINK A 600-YARD HOLE IS LONG?
After nearly 4 billion miles and
10 years of space travel, it lands!
If you think a 600-yard hole is long, then you’re not a astrophysicist. Last November a mobile laboratory the size of a washing machine made history when its slow-motion descent settled down on the surface of a comet 311 million miles from Earth.
Named the Rosetta mission, it was conceived in the 1980s to learn more about comets that formed from the same mix of gas, dust and other ingredients believed to have formed the sun, Earth and other planets. The Rosetta orbiter was launched in 2004 with the mobile lab lander (Philae) strapped to its side.
Together, they flew around the inner solar system that took them past Earth three times, past Mars once, and through the asteroid belt twice. After nearly 4 billion miles and 10 years of space travel, including an unprecedented hibernation for 3 years, Rosetta and Philae met up with comet 67/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Now, do you think a 600-yard hole is really that long?
[Editor’s note: For overweight people, this space mission is encouraging. Scientist Karl Battams informs us while Philae weighs 220 pounds on earth, on the surface of the comet it weighs just one gram — about as much as a penny cut in half!]
MORE TIME TO PLAY GOLF IN 2015 ……
WELL, KIND OF
Golf fanatics are always looking for more time to play golf. Rejoice, 2015 is giving you that extra time… well, ah… kind of. 2015 is a “Leap Second” year. 2015 is going to be exactly one second longer than 2014.
Astronomers at the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service in Paris who measure the Earth’s rotation comparing it to the time kept by atomic clocks discovered the extra second. The extra second will be tacked on the final minute of June 30. July 1 will continue as usual.
$245,340 STRAIN ON YOUNG MIDDLE-CLASS GOLFERS TO RAISE ONE CHILD
“It will cost an average middle-class family nearly a quarter of a million dollars to raise a child — and that doesn’t even count paying for college, according to a new report,” wrote Walter Hamilton in an August 2014 edition of the Los Angeles Times.
Hamilton noted a middle-income family with a newborn last year can expect to shell out $245,340 through junior’s 18th birthday, according to an annual estimate from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The price tag escalates to $304,480 if inflation is factored in.
The range of key expenses that families incur include housing (30% of the total), child care (18%), education (18%) and food (16%). Middle-income families are defined as those earning $61,530 to $106,540. Outlays vary significantly based on household income, according to the report. A family earning less than $61,530 a year is likely to spend $176,550. One with a household income topping $106,540 will spend $407,820.
The effect these financials will have on the junior golf population is yet to be determined. One implication is that the tendency for kids from higher economic families to play golf versus those from lower economic families will stay intact.
