Look! Up in the sky!

Nope. Not Superman. I have so ODed on superheroes, and there are more interesting things to be seen in the sky (though you may need a Really Big Telescope).

Such as? A planet(s), perhaps?

Pluto closeup (Thank you, New Horizons)

How many planets does the Solar System contain? Have you gotten over Pluto's demotion? Are eight planets too few for your taste? Planets being large, is "dwarf planet" an oxymoron? Good questions, all.

Help's on the way -- a new definition of planet has been suggested, the least of its features being a return to planetary status for Pluto. Said trial balloon has, as of yet, no official status, but still ...

To summarize that proposal, if an object is sub-stellar (and exhibiting, or having undergone, fusion is a pretty unambiguous characteristic) and it's basically round: that's a planet. None of the "cleared out its orbital neighborhood" judgment call, the cause of Pluto's demotion. The proposed rule would apply nicely to bodies orbiting other stars, where we have no possibility (for the time being, anyway) of knowing what orbital neighborhoods have or have not been cleared. By this definition, dear old Sol has about a hundred known planets (with the familiar Moon becoming our closest planetary neighbor)! For more about this proposal, see "Behind the Push to Get Pluto Its Planetary Groove Back."

It's an interesting concept, but I'm not completely on board. I like that mass -- which can be ascertained across even many light-years of distance -- is the determining factor:

• Anything massive enough will collapse to be basically round. 
• Anything too massive will sweep (or have swept) up enough hydrogen from its precursor nebula to initiate fusion ignition.

I don't like that in the new proposal the distinction between orbits-a-star and orbits-a-nonstar would go away. IMO -- and I'm not the only person to express this opinion -- we have a perfectly fine label for any round sub-stellar body: world. I'd be for world to be the label for any sub-stellar body that's round. There would then be three classes of worlds: planets (orbit stars), moons (orbit planets), and free-floating (orbit neither stars nor planets [but likely orbit much larger constructs, like star clusters or a galaxy as a whole]). Less massive objects, never round, would still be called asteroids.

Speaking of orbiting things ...

It keeps going, and going ...

The Energizer bunny, you say? Sorta kinda. The topic for today's post is my 2012 technothriller Energized. Which is to reveal (dramatic drum roll) ...

Energized has been picked up by Arc Manor, for its Phoenix Pick imprint. This will be my third reissue via Arc Manor, and my fourth book overall with them. (Last year's Dark Secret was also published by them but as its first release.)

The original/2012 Tor Books cover

Hence: Energized will be returning to print and all the popular ebook formats. (The novel remains available in a plethora of audio formats.)

When? I've found that it's safest not to mention a specific publication date -- these things change -- any earlier than when typeset page proofs have made an appearance. Not too long, I hope. When I can venture a reasonably solid prediction, you'll see it here first.

Meanwhile -- and especially if you're curious about the splendid nearby/original cover (that object in the foreground is a solar-power satellite, miles square) -- check out what I posted when the Energized first made its appearance ...

Stranger than fiction?

Analog has just posted the finalists in its most recent annual readers poll, aka the Analytical Laboratory, aka the Anlabs. Prestige-wise, we're not talking Oscar or Tony Awards here -- but among genre aficionados, to be recognized by readers of the premiere hard-SF magazine is a high honor. So ...

I am delighted to report that all three of my 2016 fact articles, the latest installments in my The Science Behind the Fiction essay series, were among the finalists. They are: 

• Human 2.0: Being All We Can Be, January/February 2016 & March 2016.
• Here We Go Loopedy Loop: A Brief History of Time Travel, May 2016 & June 2016.
• A Mind of Its Own, September 2016 & October 2016.

The 2016 Anlab finalists -- in story, poetry, and nonfiction categories -- are newly posted on the zine's website. That's some fine reading, from authors both long familiar and new! (But this opportunity, as they say, is For a Limited Time Only! And they are wise.)

In May, the winner in each category will be announced.

And who knows? Lightning could strike a second time. The second essay in my long-running SBtF series, aka “Faster Than a Speeding Photon: The Why, Where, and (Perhaps the) How of Faster-Than-Light Technology" was, as I discussed here, some years back, the Anlab nonfiction winner for 2012.