Urana’S Seven Daughters: An Atomic Coming of Age Saga

By Michael Brown

Up for an atomic saga? But first, if little atoms could only talk, just think of the stories they could tell us about our planet and universe. This is a voyage of discovery on a celestial and planetary scale. Seven lovely little atoms are born in the Oort Cloud. They are thrown into a beautiful blue-water planet and are split up. They soon find that this water planet is the best atomic amusement park ever. They will meet and be hosted by many simple and complex life forms. They will suffer through earthquakes, asteroid strikes, thunderstorms, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions. They will see the best and worst of an emerging mankind. None of them will suffer, and all will have the fun of many lifetimes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781532039744

Michael Brown

I am Michael Brown and I was born in Baltimore Maryland in 1948. No, I had nothing to do with New Orleans. I have lived in Texas, but now reside in Western Maryland. I am the product of Maryland schools having attended both high school, my freshman and sophomore college years in Anne Arundel County. I am a graduate of the University of Maryland and Southern Methodist University. At University of Maryland I majored in Mathematics and at S. M. U. I majored in Liberal Arts. I served in the U. S. Army and was assigned duties in weapons research. I am a successful applications programmer in a variety of industries, which has allowed me to observe a wide range of environments, attitudes, techniques and personalities. I like art history and have traveled to Europe in a self styled grand tour. Discover other titles by Michael Brown at Smashwords.com: Operation Invisible: A Tall Tail of the American Revolution. - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/300820 Operation Invisible Briefing Book. - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/301529 Urana's Seven Daughters - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/371232

Book preview

The Warm Start

F rom the darkness, someone shouts, Urania! Urania! Urania are you all-right?

Creeeeek!

Somewhere off to the side, a door that needs oil on its hinges, opens and, in the background behind the door, the Garde Républicaine thunders a French military serenade. A well-dressed woman appears, turns on the lights to a strange room and enters through the door. The room is cluttered with telescopes, globes of several planets, models of space satellites, etc. She shuts the door and the serenade disappears.

As the woman walks towards you, you can see she has on a sharply-cut bar jacket, which traces her body’s curves, clings to her waist and elevates her bust. The white bar jackets is a part tuxedo, part coatdress and is paired with a pale blue skirt. Yes, the House of Dior has taken inspiration from the classical past. Fantasy has given way to reality. This woman is self confident and a free spirit.

The woman tosses books and loose paper from the chair, makes room on the desk by tossing more items on the floor, sits in a chair, faces you and says, "My sister Urania just tweeted me. The Urania, who tweeted me, is my sister. I am Clio and I’m a muse and so is my sister Urania. Urania and I just realized you have no idea what is going on. You are going to need help with this story and a historian’s touch is needed. I will narrate the rest of this story for you. Bye the way, some of my other sisters may chime in from time to time.

To understand this story you may need to bone up on your astronomy, quantum mechanics, the fundamental forces of physics and elementary chemistry. You won’t need to plunge into such things like sub-atomic particles, anti-mater, anti-energy and anti-forces. A little cellular biology might be useful.

No, we are not at Mount Olympus. What do you think of our chalet on Mount Helicon? Urania keeps a messy room with all of this astronomical stuff spread around. My room is just as crowded, except I keep my scrolls and books in neat stacks. However, my room will improve in its neatness, because I just got an Internet Tablet.

I was scheduled to help David McCullough work on the details of his latest inspiration. Dave doesn’t know it, but I had his typewriter serviced. We don’t want any keys sticking, nor ribbons getting tangled. All I need is Dave. I got a tweet from his publisher, which says he put down his paintbrush and has gone on an extended book tour to France. I guess I am on a hiatus, so that is why I was in the Clarendon Bar playing pinocle with some friends.

It’s a good thing I read my sister Urania’s tweet. She said that someone might need help. I will to take up the task to pass the time. My sister Urania is on her way to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to help with the Euclid Project. By the way, I know the boy the space telescope project is named after. He always is trying to prove things. Every time I have talked to him, he keept looking at his feet. He should find soul mate at the National Security Agency.

The Urania in this story is a uranium atom. The mass of matter, where she and other atoms reside, has just undergone a bath in high intensity gamma rays. Some atoms have died and been replaced by new atoms with a different atomic number.

But, just who is Urania?

Let’s begin at the beginning, shall we. In the beginning the Universal Egg hatched with a Big Bang. The new chick, that became of our universe, was made of the stuff that would later become matter, energy and space.

Then there was cosmology, astronomy, atomic physics, followed by temporal, chemical and biological phenomena. But now that we have gravity and three other basic universal forces to orient ourselves, let’s throw a really hot party. We will spare nothing, now that we have all of these vast resources to use. Gravity, curve some space and make us a dance hall. Make it somewhat parabolic like Antonio Gaudi, who will make popular at a later time. Electromagnetism, we need a thunderous sound system and orchestra to dance by. My sisters Terpsichore and Polyhymnia will tell you what we need. Don’t worry about finding musicians, this place abounds with strings. Get it done! No need for bouncers, because everyone is invited. Strong Force, see that they all attend. Weak Force, see that this party does not break up before last call.

The main event at this party was the debut of Mademoiselle Higgs, one of the Boson sisters. Not to be outdone, the Muon sisters made a scene that would make any sorority raunchet blush. The Tau sisters egging them on.

However, the games that subatomic particles play are a bag of worms we need not open in order to examine Urania’s journey. This is not a Joyceian epistle.

The post Big Bang primordial quark soup has fermented, the last dance for the Hadrons is over, so it is time for them to put on their evening wraps and leave the dance hall. So the Weak Force screams, Last Dance!

Yes, the dance and party are over. This cosmic furry has left a raft of bad hangovers, but the Big Bang Gala was the talk of the new inflating universe.

Like the last call of a 70’s disco, the Baryon boys elbow their way off the expanding dance floor. Since quarks can’t stand alone, they form proton carriages for the ride home. The proton carriages form brood pairs and the brood pairs pair off with available electrons for an evening of atomic delight. The cool three thousand degree Kelvin night helps those couple up, who want to find the one they are going to love. Even the ugliest hydrogen ion and chunkiest lithium ion finds a partner for the rest of the primordial night. Yes, little Miss Lithium was not left out. As the couples join their atomic hands, flashes of light are flicked about. As they sashay into the darkness, the newly formed atoms are smiling.

By breakfast, the revelers have bathed in a tub of photons. The photons are now exhausted and have stretched out for a rest. But wait, when do photons ever rest. It’s the other revelers, who need to rest.

Unlike a 70’s disco queen, the newly formed protons and electrons failed to take the precautions needed to avoid unwanted offspring. I am sure that my sister Erato has a hand in this.

The universe has blimped out into a plethora of galaxies and suns. Turn on the light, the primordial party is over and the celestial baby needs feeding. My sister Terpsichore has to come up with the pinwheel waltzes of the galaxies and solar systems to shut the kids up. Urania wanted to stay with a filament structure, but Terpsichore insisted on spirals.

As Terpsichore said, You can’t dance in a filament, but you can in a spiral.

Shhhh! Don’t tell Terpsichore, but I think she forgot about line dancing.

Then Terpsichore had to teach my sister Urania the steps. Oddly enough, Urania quickly picked them up and really liked the rhythm. Urania saw the wisdom in the proposition and the kid was given a spiraling lullaby.

Shhhh! Astronomers, if you want to know all about dark energy and matter, ask Terpsichore. She arranged for the stars in the galaxies to maintain their proper position, while spiral arms dances about.

Population I stars have been born and died and now Population II stars are doing the same. Elements are being born and are partnering up to form chemical molecules. Oodles of black holes are belching, farting and hurling Hawking radiation all around the new universe.

The baby galaxy’s arms reach out and she screams mine, while grabbing anything she can.

Some of the galactic babies are short and fat, while others are long and slim. Some are dirty and grimy with dust all over their faces. The Seyfert boys have bright shiny faces and are well behaved. Some, like the quasars, are obnoxious brats. They always have red faces. Others are little cannibals and gleefully eat each other. My sister Urania keeps telling me this is not chaos. Does she have an over active imagination!

The Supernova And A New Sun

A huge star is suffering from iron indigestion, so it is time to retch. There is a mammoth explosion and elementary debris is thrown outwards. Neutrinos, gamma rays and x-rays fly about. The huge star collapses at 1/3 the speed of light. The shockwave from the hypernova explosion creates elements heavier than iron. There are gamma rays bursts coming from hypernova explosion. Then a black hole starts its gluttonous feeding.

Nucelosysthesis is the collapse of a type II supernova core and the shockwave that goes through uncollapsed stellar matter. A stellar implosion converts heat from gravity.

Urania was born a spark of this heavenly fire. She was created during a hypernova burst. Hypernova explosions will reach well beyond two to three billion degree Kelvin. Yes, Urania was born in a ten-billion-degree Kelvin neutrino driven wind, which came from the newly forming black hole. She came together in a storm of free neutrons and protons.

In a region away from a newly forming small sun, ice begins to trap heavier elements including Zeke and Urania.

The first time Zeke, who is a zirconium atom, saw Urania he asked her, Have you seen some of my old zirconium buddies?

She could say nothing, because she was an atomic baby, who absorbed most of the photons that struck her, except for the yellow ones. Those she reflected elsewhere. When Zeke realizes this, he says, Your name is Urania.

An undiscovered property of quantum entanglement allows thoughts of these atoms to be communicated with each other over reasonable distances. Likewise, as you will find out, atoms have personalities.

In deep space, Zeke, several of his zirconium buddies and his silicon and oxygen friends, form a zircon crystal with Urania in the middle. They will parent her as best they can.

Zeke explains, My zircon buddies and I have been through at least two supernova explosions. We know how to survive without undergoing atomic death.

More ice and grit collect, forming what will become the core of a space rock. Zeke, his buddies, friends and their new protégée, Urania, now form a family in the cosmic lint.

Narrow jets of gas are ejected at the poles of a nearby young Herbig-Haro object. For a few thousand years electromagnetic emission from this object causes a shockwaves, which collide with the interstellar gasses. Then a full-blown star is born and starts to shine in all of its glory.

When this sun is fully fired up, there is a shockwave and, soon, afterwards Zeke, Urania and her mentors see hydrogen and helium blown away from the new star. As the new sun leaves its birth nebula, they all feel its first solar winds. The space rock that Zeke and Urania are now in is dragged along with the new sun.

Urania and her mentors are now apart of the flotsam of the creation of a solar system. They are now apart of a dust particle that was swept into the new sun’s solar disk. She is apart of a planetesimal or space rock. Urania’s space rock is trapped in the new sun’s solar system, which moves into the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. Urania’s space rock was adrift for a long time and other elements, such as hydrogen, iron and carbon, have crept into the new solar system formation. Some have collided with Urania’s space rock and others have joined the planetesimal.

Urania is slimmer than other uranium atoms, making her a full figured petite gal. Her electron clouds surround her give her a cloudlike farthingale. She has a pear-shaped nucleus, which is reflected in her farthingale’s cloud of electrons. She is both physically and emotionally dense. She is a highly reactive, metallic element, who has the highest of all atomic mass of any naturally occurring element.

Zeke’s fear is that she will disassemble herself through radioactive decay. Zeke can’t stand lead, which Urania could morph into, if she undergoes radioactive decay.

Urania’s Litter

B efore I came into my sister Urania’s room, Urania and her zircon crystal were inside a gamma ray burst that had come from a supernova. Zeke had just shaken off the effects of neutrino narcosis, so he called out to Urania, Are you all right?

Zeke and Urania’s zircon crystal had cracked, when she and Zeke were doused with intense gamma rays and neutrinos. Urania shuddered and underwent rapid disintegration activity. Zeke’s worst fears have come through and Urania has undergone disassembly. But wait! There is no thorium, barium or worst of all lead.

It was right after the gamma ray dousing that Zeke shouted, Urania! Urania! Urania, are you all-right?

I don’t see her, shouts another zirconium atom named Zak, who just snatches a free floating neutron.

These zirconium atoms are a lustrous, grey-white metal. If they were on Planer Earth, you would find them in gemstones and some sands. Right now they are in a zircon crystal crafted in deep space.

Hay our zircon crystal is cracked, shouts Zeb, yet another zirconium atom. There is a hole where Urania once stood. Maybe, she leaked out of one of the new fissures?

Hay where did this copper atom come from! shouts Zak.

I see a silicon and aluminum atom that wasn’t here before, counters Zeb.

Zeke starts mumbling to himself, Has Urania undergone some kind of fission? But wait! Three new atoms? No, it can’t be!

Guys, I think Urania has undergone some kind of nuclear spallation that is perhaps influenced by the doses of X-rays, gamma rays and cosmic radiation we were just went through, shouts Zeke. Look around for more strangers!

A head count is taken and in addition to the new copper, silicon and aluminum atoms, two carbon atoms and a calcium atom are found. None of the new atoms can speak.

Urania has undergone what has to be seen as an immaculate spallation, says Zeb. I know it’s possible, but I have never known it to happen, until just now.

These new atoms are spall litter, snaps Zak.

Wait, I have just done the math and a lot of electrons and protons are unaccounted for, says Zeb.

I think I am the oldest atom, so I claim the naming rights, asserts Zeke.

Not so fast, shouts Fenia, a nearby iron atom. It is fitting that a feminine beauty like me names these newcomers.

Not gonna happen! Zeke stands his ground. I have been through three supernova bursts. Fenia, you have only been through one.

There is more wrangling, which we won’t go through. All you have to know is that Zeke won. As for the new comers, well the two carbon atoms were named Charmaine and Cheryl. Charmaine and Cheryl like to absorb all of the photons that strike them. The calcium atom was named Caroline. The copper atom - Cullie. Red and brown photons bounce off of her. The silicon atom - Siarra. And the aluminum atom is named Alice. Alice, Caroline and Siarra like to reflect most light that strikes them, but, when it does, the photons are deflected in another direction. This makes them appear silvery.

Right after naming, Charmaine attaches herself to one of the nearby hydrogen atoms and calls him daddy. The hydrogen atom wants nothing to do with his new partner.

Stop picking on the girl, shouts Zeke. She’s a baby carbon atom. Carbon atoms are quite sociable.

There is another surprise. A violet photon appears from somewhere in the cracked zircon crystal. It was a nitrogen atom, who Zeke named Naomi. She was hiding in a crack in the zircon, until she farted a photon.

Fenia starts to scold new newly named Naomi, Child, you have no manners! Don’t you ever do that in public again!

Fenia color goes from pale green to violet and then to brown. Her color comes from the light that strikes her and is reflected.

Zeke, these sisters must learn to immerse their personalities to the stable arrangements of the chemical molecules they are to become a part of, shouts Fenia to Zeke. They must always behave as guests in a molecule and never the host. They must never become ions for any length of time. They should never explore their ionic personalities. We atoms are social creatures, who are only fulfilled, when we enter into a stable chemical bond. We don’t want them to become old maids.

Fenia is an iron atom, who is attached to a subservient oxygen atom. Fenia’s subservient oxygen atom says in a squeaky voice, But Fenia, dear, there just children.

You speak only when you are spoken to, she puts her subservient oxygen atom down. You need to set an example for these sisters. They too should only speak when spoken to.

Blow it out your electron shells! You are not behaving like a good guest, snaps Zeke. You are a lousy host! It is you, Fenia, who needs to set an example for these young girls.

Fenia says, I beg your pardon, I am setting a perfect example. I am being a gracious host to this lone oxygen atom, aren’t I, darling? Young ladies, a small molecule is a more fitting place that those in paunchy molecules in that zircon crystal. Fenia throws an electron in the direction of Zeke’s molecule. I was once in a molecule of 30 iron atoms. Too big! None of us knew our proper place in the molecule.

It was a cluster dear, squeaks her adjoining oxygen atom.

Yes, it was a cluster. And a very unstable cluster at that, answers Fenia. We were simply too big, so I broke away and found my dear consort. Each of you needs to do the same thing. Find a stable consort and love him.

The child rearing argument goes on, with Zeke emphasizing survival, while Fenia tries to emphasize sociability.

Look, I know how to survive without undergoing atomic death and I want these sisters to be able to do the same, states Zeke. As for the personalities of chemical molecules, I find that ridiculous. We atoms are fickle and are always disassembling our chemical molecules into newer ones. These sisters need to learn how to live unattached to any chemical molecule. They need to learn how to stand up for themselves."

Zeke, you are trying to create tomboys and not proper little ladies, accuses Fenia. They will become too head strong. Fenia then starts flipping her polarity causing her and her molecule to become red hot with anger. Fenia’s vibrations start to annoy the other atoms.

We atoms must lend a hand in educating the new arrivals, but not you, Fenia, Zeke insists.

The other atoms insist that Fenia has a hand in raising the sisters. As they undergo their atomic educations, the sisters, who have affection for Zeke, become further annoyed the way Fenia is treating their Uncle Zeke. Yes, Zeke has definitely become Uncle Zeke to these sisters. They do what little girls usually do toward an overbearing woman. Over time, they will keep asking questions, talking amongst themselves and also they like to scream. There are impish screams and not frightful ones.

One day, Charmaine and Cheryl are snatched up by other carbon atoms to form a Bucky Ball. As the Bucky Ball is created, it pushes other atoms out of the way to gain space. This annoys the other atoms in the rock fragment. Once Charmaine and Cheryl are apart of the Bucky Ball, the carbon atoms start a mirthful dance, which annoys the other atoms. They trap Fenia in a side of the Fullerene, which makes Fenia even angrier. Fenia tries to break through the mesh of the Fullerene. She fails.

A crusty old carbon atom in the Fullerene’s mesh says, Good carbon atoms keep iron atoms in line.

Charmaine and Cheryl start wobbling the Bucky Ball, which further offends Fenia.

You young ladies should never wobble, screams Fenia. That is disgusting behavior.

The other atoms are further annoyed by the Bucky Ball’s vibrating in and out. The other atoms don’t like the rhythm, so the Bucky Ball starts a syncopated rhythm, which brings on more anger.

The carbon atoms have formed a Bucky Ball to protect themselves from deep space collisions, Uncle Zeke explains. You have a bodyguard, whether you like it or not. They all have a right to dance.

Now for a few anecdotes: Carbon atoms really like each other and will form into rings and lovely lattices. A Bucky Ball is composed of 60 Carbon atoms all linked to one another in a closed-cage structure. It is composed of 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons. Bucky Balls are nanotubes. A Bucky Ball is any Fullerene that is a true hollow sphere. It was named buckminsterfullerenein honor of Richard Buckminster Fuller, an architect, who created the geodesic dome. Yes, high strain energies contribute to reactivity. A Fullerene is a superconductor metal. Also, my sister, Terpsichore has choreographed all Bucky Balls dances.

As cosmic rays whiz by, Naomi tries to dance with them by wobbling around. She releases orange-red, blue-green, blue-violet and deep violet colored photons.

Fenia notices Naomi wobbling and scolds her, I told you, good atoms don’t wobble. Not ever! You have become a little unstable by shifting your internal cargo of protons and neutrons within their respective shells. Stop deforming yourself. You are not radioactive and if you keep doing that you run the risk of breaking yourself apart.

Collision Course And Impact

A toms have no sense of time, night or day. This is because there is nothing in their nucleus that needs the maintenance of sleep. As a matter of fact, it is an important clue in that famous atomic defective story Atoms Never Sleep. It is apart of the panspirmia lore of the Milky Way Galaxy. The story has yet to be published for wily simian entertainment. Essentially, the plot is about a crusty old potassium gumshoe, who has to track down the kidnappers of a fair young sodium atom. Ms. Sodium was kidnaped on the eve of her wedding to the handsome Mr. Chlorine. The gumshoe finds the oxygen bullies, who did the deed. Well, Uncle Zeke is about to tell the sisters the showdown scene, when he is interrupted.

Hay, that neutrino came from the wrong direction, snaps Zeb.

There is another one and yet another one, shouts Zak. They ain’t coming from the same direction.

Uncle Zeke stops his story, thinks and says, I also feel the pull of gravity coming from more than one place. There are two strong pulls. I’m not sure what this means. Watch out for neutrino narcosis. Too much neutrino adsorption makes me black out.

Not me, I get hallucinations, barks Zak.

What, all I see are things from my past, adds Zeb. But it is only the light neutrino that give me a buzz.

You know, those deep space heavy ones have no affect on me, barks Zak.

As for those pesky neutrinos, well they pass through anything, including atoms, without physically changing things. This makes them hard to detect, except for most individual atoms, who can detect them. On the individual atomic level, neutrinos can be annoying to an individual atom. A bath of too many neutrinos affects different atoms differently. Some atoms get atomic headaches, while others hallucinate and some simply black out and loses consciousness. Amongst the world of atoms, this is called neutrino narcosis.

Uncle Zeke returns to his story, but only after Caroline tells him where he left off.

What has happened is that the Sun’s Solar System has crossed the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy and a large brown star in the plane of the galaxy has disturbed the Solar System’s Oort cloud. The meeting of the solar system with the large brown star has perturbed the Oort cloud, spawning comets, some who are falling toward the center of the solar system.

As Uncle Zeke starts another story called It’s a Matter of Mayhem. He and the sisters’ space rock almost collide with another space rock. The merger causes their space rock to spin toward the Sun’s Kyper Belt. Uncle Zeke and the sisters’ space rock bound through the Kyper Belt, where they merge with other larger Kyper Belt objects. The collision is the first time the sisters have felt severe vibrations and shockwaves. They scream, but Uncle Zeke, Zeb and Zak calm them down.

Then, the larger Kyper Belt object has spun around, merged with other large Kyper Belt object and formed a short period comet. The comet starts moving toward a strong source of gravity - the Sun. As the comet moves toward the gravity source and gains speed, Uncle Zeke sees a ball of hot plasma and feels more neutrinos’ passing through him.

Uncle Zeke says, It’s a sun and we are heading toward it.

As they plunge toward the Sun, photons, neutrinos and electrons start to irritate the sisters, who, in turn, irritate the other atoms in the space rock. A neutrino knocks an electron out of Naomi’s orbit emitting light. She giggles and finds the experience tickling.

I like seeing the light fly away. How do I do that again? quips Naomi.

You are a rude vulgar little raunchet, Fenia shouts. I told you to never do that in public again.

As the space rock hurdles toward the Sun, it is deflected by Jupiter. Part of the space rock is torn away and Uncle Zeke can see outside the space rock’s mass. Uncle Zeke gets a good look at Jupiter.

What is that bright orange thing, Uncle Zeke? asks Siarra.

I don’t really know. The light it radiates is weak and there are no neutrinos coming from it, announced Uncle Zeke.

It ain’t a sun! adds Zak.

As they pass through Jupiter’s Van Allen belt, then iron and cobalt atoms start to itch and get magnetic hives in its electron shells. The nickel atoms are also showing magnetic hives and start to get really jumpy.

Uncle Zeke realizes, Yes, we are on their way toward a sun.

Then Uncle Zeke sees the main body of the comet appear and disappear from view as does the Sun. He realizes that this space rock is really a moon of a larger comet.

Next Uncle Zeke and the sisters weather the plasma from a solar flare. As the intense solar x-rays and radiation heats the space rock, once again the sisters scream. These are screams of the frightened. Yes, the trio of zirconium atoms calms them down.

Alice sees a bright blue ball and asks Uncle Zeke, What is that blue ball over there? She points with one of her electrons.

Uncle Zeke gets a good look at Planet Earth and replies, I have no idea. I have heard old atoms’ stories about things called blue marbles. Maybe, that is what it is. Whatever it is it is big, because it is round and I can feel the pull of its gravity. The problem is, I don’t feel any neutrinos, so it’s not a sun. The way that blue marble is moving across our path, I think we are going to find out.

Don’t worry, this blue marble is another very strange space rock like ours, but bigger, Caroline surmises.

The Sun’s rays bathe the rotating space rock, releasing water and drenching the elements near the surface matter of the comet. This comet has a solid nucleus, on fire, blazing, glowing. It also has a vast mass of gas heated to a white heat and enveloping the nucleus. The sisters, Uncle Zeke, Zeb and Zak feel heat rippling through the space rock. Once again the sisters scream. High heat is something new to them. Once again Uncle Zeke, Zeb and Zak calm them down.

A nickel atom near the surface matter of the space rock, is fervently chastised by Fenia for releasing a photon, which amongst atoms is like farting in public.

I can’t help it, screams the offending atom. You’re an iron atom. Don’t you feel the electromagnetism! You should be itching all over, I know I am.

Then it happens, something no one on the space rock would ever believe would happen - Fenia farts a bright green photon!

How dare you do that! Fenia is blaming her oxygen partner.

Sorry, dear, her oxygen partner replies. I won’t do that again.

You better not, quips Fenia, but her oxygen partner has graciously help defend her amour propre.

The space rock passed through the Earth’s Van Allen belt. Photons of reflected light whizz by and then things start to turn blue due to Rayleigh scattering.

Then Uncle Zeke feels cosmic rays and shouts, Cosmic rays are the birth cries of an atom. This could get ugly and dangerous for all of us.

Cullie gets a glimpse of the Earth’s moon and asks Uncle Zeke, What’s that?

Cullie, dearest, I have no idea, answers a concerned Uncle Zeke.

Uncle Zeke sees other chunks of rock traveling in the same direction toward the blue marble. One of the chunks that is ahead of them, starts to glow and burn in the atmosphere.

Zeke thunders, We are next! Watch out for the oxygen bullies!

Flames from the space rock, that Uncle Zeke and the sisters are on, blocks Uncle Zeke’s view. The oxygen bullies rip through everything they can. Atmospheric atoms brush against the daughters. Heat energy increases. The sisters scream with terror - shrill screams.

Uncle Zeke sees the sisters ripped off of the space rock mostly by oxygen bullies. The Bucky Ball is the last thing torn apart by the Earth entry. Fenia is thrown away from her oxygen companion.

No! No! I’m an ion! Somebody help me! screams Fenia.

From a distance Uncle Zeke hears, Free at last! It is Fenia’s oxygen partner and he is not squeaking. He is shouting in a rich tenor voice.

Then another iron atom slams into Fenia. Before they can part ways, three oxygen bullies grab the two iron atoms and form an oxide. Fenia is now apart of a molecule she cannot dominate. Again she screams, Somebody help me! Then the new iron oxide molecule fades from Uncle Zeke’s view.

Solar x-rays die away, as the sisters land on Planet Earth. The sisters will survive the shock and awe of a cometary impact. Some of the sisters find themselves in an ocean plasma. Other sisters get caught in water vapor droplets and fall to the earth in rain droplets or snow flakes.

On Planet Earth, there is blowback from an earlier space rock’s impact. The upper ozone layer is blown away by the comet’s impact. The impact blast heats up oxygen and nitrogen forming nitric acid in the atmosphere. There is a chain of earthquakes. The severe earthquake activity sees liquefaction all over Planet Earth. Volcanoes are revved up. Tsunamis abound across the planet’s oceans. Black clouds cover the Earth, while burning rocks and hot debris pelts the Earth. There are ground fires and soot covers everything. Soot and ash fall into the Earth’s oceans changing its pH. Plant growth cycles are destroyed and the food chain collapses. For more than ten thousand years the Earth’s climate is in chaos.

The Ocean Floor

S iarra was ripped away from the space rock, spun around and is now apart of a silica impact spherulite. Her spherulite circles the Earth for a while, until it becomes trapped in a water vapor droplet, which merges into a cloud. Later, Siarra’s water vapor droplet becomes part of some rainfall that falls onto the ocean.

Siarra and her water vapor droplet land on the ocean surface in a pelagic region, where she begins to feel the tidal force of the Earth. This is because, in the Devonian, the moon is closer to the Earth than it is in our civilized era.

Little does Siarra realize, but Urania ‘s daughters were on an Earth-bound comet, which has impacted the Earth in its prehistory. Urania’s daughters have landed on Earth during the Phanerozoic Eon. They have taken part in the Frasnian extinction event or the Kellwasser event in the Devonian Epoch. Their impact event is apart of a cometary or Bolide impact, which took place 374 million years ago. Their cometary impact has created the Siljan Ring in Sweden.

Siarra and her spherulite are pulled under the waves of the Panthalassa Ocean and towards shallower waters. In the shallows of the ocean, she notices that bottom dwelling filter-feeders are being covered with mud and rocks. Then they pass through several filter feeding animals. She sees oodles of the Panthalassa Ocean’s nekton. Siarra and her spherulite are spun about in a benthic storm. In the underwater equivalent of a sand storm, she sees sediment fly all around her. She and her spherulite are pushed towards by the storm into a deeper part of the Panthalassa Ocean.

Then she passes through the bathyal zone and starts to falls towards the ocean’s abyssal floor, which is around 5,000 meters deep. She notices that the water is saltier, colder and denser than the water on the surface, where she landed. She sees photons appear and disappear. Each flash of light is like someone winking ar her. She has encountered deep ocean bioluminescence.

From there she is pulled into the hadal zone or ultra-abyssal zone. Siarra’s spherulite is being pulled along in the Thermohaline circulation or global ocean conveyor. The current is much like today’s Antarctic Circumpolar Current. She notices that the ocean’s chemistry is changing. The new anoxic water is holding less oxygen and has more salt. She is falling from lighter briny layers to more denser briny layers. She sees strange sea creatures falling to the ocean floor.

What is that? she says.

"That is Dunkleosteus terrelli, answers a glass molecule atom in her spherulite. Haven’t you seen a Dunkleosteus terrelli before?"

No, I am new here, she replies. Mister, who are you and where am I?

I’m a glass molecule and this place is just known as Planet Earth, replies the glass molecule. Actually, the glass molecule is made of moldavite, which is a rare green and glassy gemstone. It is the by product of a previous meteorite impact. You obviously haven’t been on the surface before. You are one of those deep earth silicon atoms, who dominates their molecule - ain’t ya.

I don’t know about being deep earth or anything like that. I was on a space rock a little while ago, replies Siarra. Then things got hot and I saw an orange and then a blue ball. Things got hot again, then they cooled down and got blue. The next thing I knew, I was hooked up with you guys and found my way into this water bath.

Damn, you’re not a deep earth silicon atom, you are a deep space silicon atom, exclaims the glass molecule. I’m Glen and welcome to Planet Earth.

The other atoms and molecules introduce themselves and welcome Siarra to Planet Earth.

Now, I suspect, that as a deep space silicon atom, you have been an ion a lot of your time, Glen remarks. "But, if you are good to the other atoms in your molecule, they will be good to you and help you along. They work really well as a team. Be gracious and please share your electrons with your new team mates.

I notice that new surface ocean chemistry brought about by your comet or asteroid’s impact is killing a lot of the marine flora and fauna. I have seen this thing before. There is a great dying taking place across this planet. See this rain of detritus all around us. Since this ocean is deep, the pressure and anaerobic bacteria will decompose the detritus into more basic molecules. We will have some new friends to meet."

As Siarra’s spherulite moves along, she sees oceanic bacteria pounce on the detritus and start producing methane and other gasses. Then she notices calcareous shells dissolving. Nutrients are being stirred from the ocean bottom.

Eventually, she is taken near an ocean sea mount by the current. She sees an underwater feeding dike. Then she sees hydrothermal vent surrounded by trilobites, crabs, muscles and alvinellidae or deep-sea polychaete worms. She is carried upwards by the hot water in the hydrothermal vent’s chimney. She realizes that the salt, which once surrounded her, has thinned out and has been replaced by other elements such as manganese, titanium, sulfates and more silicon. She floats laterally for a time and distance.

Then she is carried by a deep oceanic current, until her spherulite falls over a deep ocean briny waterfall and plunges further into the abyss. There are no photons to liven the place up, none at all. Finally, she sticks to some green palagonite, which is a form of volcanic glass. Siarra’s spherulite sticks to it, because is made mostly of silicon.

One of the green palagonite molecules introduces himself to the new spherulite molecules. He acts as a tour guide and announces, Beneath this palagonite there is a shard made from a fragment of a Eurypterida or sea scorpion.

As more molecules are added to the shard’s bounty, Siarra introduced herself to the new manganese, cobalt, nickel and copper oxyhydroxide molecules, which start sticking to her and her palagonite shard. She tells the new friends that she was on a comet. So were some of the other new atomic friends she has made, but they spent time in deep earth. They were released by way of a hydrothermal vent.

In some frivolous play, Siarra goads the metals to suppress their molecular personalities and reveal their ionic personalities. She likes the copper atom, because it is a lot like her sister, Cullie. She runs into an iron atom, who she does not like, because it reminds her of Fenia, who she had to put up with on the comet.

Siarra has become part of a manganese nodule. She will ride on an oceanic plain and then start a ride beneath a continent. She won’t be bored, because the other atoms have stories to tell her. Yes, more panspirmia lore.

Rainfall, Landfall and the Jet Stream

L ike Siarra, Alice was ripped away from the space rock, spun around. She is now apart of an impact spherulite. Hers is an anthorite feldspar spherulite. She too circles the Earth for a while, until her spherulite becomes trapped in the water vapor in a cloud. At first she was in an altostratus cloud, but her cloud developed into an altocumulus, then a fractocumulus and, finally, a cumulonimbus cloud.

Alice’s water droplet is folded into a larger droplet and falls towards the ground in a rain storm. As she falls toward the surface of the planet, she feels the drag created by the nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide molecules, who get in her way. Alice’s water droplet runs into streams and rivers. Alice sees dying plants everywhere. Nitric acid rain and soot have fallen to the planet’s surface and they are killing everything they can get to.

Alice’s spherulite feels vibrations coming from the water molecules tapping the side of the spherulite.

Brace yourselves, I know this place, so get ready for the ride of your life! shouts one of the water molecules, who is ahead of Alice’s spherulite.

Alice’s spherulite is whipped around by the turbulent water molecules in the river. Finally, she feels another free fall. Alice’s spherulite plunges over a waterfall. As her spherulite spins in the sunlight, she can see the photons from a rainbow just above a cloud of water and spray.

Splash!

Her downward motion stop, but her lateral motion has not. There is more turbulence. More water and minerals land on top of her spherulite and they push her forward down the river. Some falling water and minerals behind her, cause a splash and flips her spherulite into the air. While in the air, she sees, several water molecules make their escape into the atmosphere.

She and her spherulite then run over some impervious rocks and several new rapids. Some of the waters on the way are calm and then the waters become turbid. Her spherulite makes its way into a flood plain, where it settles in shallow water.

We are finally at rest, mumbles another molecule. We need the rest.

Several days and nights pass. This is a new experience, but Alice figures it out. Let’s see, there is a period of absolutely few photons, then over here, photons will appear. The over here, she is referring to, is really in the east.

The photons will come in at different angles, until they disappear over there.

The over there, she is referring to, is in the west.

Then Alice losses track of time, because sand, clay and mud molecules have covered her spherulite. But this didn’t last long. One day Alice’s spherulite feels vibrations, is uncovered and flipped into the open river by a nearby landslide that created turbulence and a shockwave.

She takes another ride and is finally deposited into the ocean on a shallow shelf. At first, she is deposited near of dark ooze or sludge, which is called sapropel. It will sooner or later become petroleum and natural gas. Then a benthic storm moves her about. After some more time, Alice is swept up by a deep current and deposited near an undersea methane hydrate ice lake. The lake bed shimmers in what little light strikes it.

What is that over there, she asks of anyone, who will answer her.

Its large amount of methane is trapped within a crystal structure of water, comes from the darkness. There are bacteria munching on the ice.

What are bacteria? she asks.

In the feint light, no one answers her, so she just admires the glimmering lake. Then a bubble or two float away from the surface of the lake and toward the surface of the water.

Bubbles, giggles another voice from the dark.

Dummy, the bacteria are creating carbon dioxide, shouts the first voice she heard before. Wait until they use up all of the sulfates.

So, bacteria make carbon dioxide and eat something called sulfates, thinks Alice. Uncle Zeke mentioned nothing about this.

Now, as for Cullie, her landing was not so benign. She lands in the ocean near land. Then she is pulled along at first in a post impact tsunami, is thrown into the air via blowhole and hurled back into the ocean. She settles in some sea mud, having met no friendly sole nor seen anything of significance.

In the throes of the impact, Naomi finds out that she is not as sticky as the oxygen atoms she bumps into. Oxygen is a sticky gas, whereas nitrogen gas is not. Oxygen gas likes to adhere to other matter. This is why oxygen gas molecules are seen as such bullies. For some reason, the oxygen bullies have left her alone and gone after the more metallic atoms. Perhaps, she has more grace than Fenia was willing to give her credit for. Instead, Naomi finds another nitrogen atom and binds to it.

Due to the excessive heat, she is slammed into a water molecule and she is now in a molecule of aqua fortis. Aqua fortis is also called nitric acid. She has finally connected with an oxygen bully, but the bully is throttled by a hydrogen atom.

She and her aqua fortis buddies are always colliding with other airborne molecules. She and her aqua fortis buddies are thrown up into the jet stream by a cometary backblast. There she can survey the damage of the cometary impact. She sees wildfires on the planet’s landmasses.

What’s that stuff rising toward us? She asks.

Dioxins and aromatic hydrocarbons are rising in the smoke from the clouds, says the hydrogen atom. We are going to make contact, so get ready to rumble.

Naomi and her aqua fortis buddies collide with a dioxin molecule. She doesn’t have time to get to know the dioxin molecule, because she and her aqua fortis atoms tear it apart. She finds herself bound to another nitrogen atom, who is now her dance partner.

Naomi discovers she likes dancing. As she dances about, she can see there is dust and carbon dioxide everywhere. She and her dance partner bump into several of them.

Oh dear, we better not let Terpsichore know about Naomi’s love of dance. Actually, let’s put that off for later. We don’t want to ruin Naomi’s initiative.

Naomi notices that the global dust clouds are starting to block out the sunlight. The temperature starts to fall and Naomi and her partner start to slow dance.

Caves And Currents

U nfortunately, Charmaine could not outrun the oxygen bullies. Two of them found her, helped tear apart her Bucky Ball and pulled her into a carbon dioxide molecule. Like her other sisters, her carbon dioxide molecule became caught up in a water vapor droplet. Her droplet captured dust particles from the comet’s impact. None of the particles in her water vapor droplet are her sisters.

Her droplet romps through a raft of cloud types like Alice’s did and falls to the Earth in the form of rain. Charmaine manages to fall on dry land and here her water droplet is now apart of the ground water in the area where it fell. After a lot of time, she and her water vapor droplet pass through a layer of surface sand, where the dust particles that were in her droplet are left behind. Charmaine seeps into a limestone karst cave, crawls down an angel’s hair stalactite onto a stalagmite and into a cave’s pool of water. She is lucky, because she does not get up in the caves cementation.

Miss Spelunker, says one of the water molecules she is trapped within.

If you say so, she politely replies.

Her carbon dioxide molecule is swept down a conduit by neighboring water molecules. She and her carbon dioxide molecule have been lucky so far, because a calcium molecule hasn’t scoffed them up to form a calcium carbonate molecule. She makes a tour through a gallery. She them passes some moon milk and slope into a ponor. She finally slips into a syphon and finds herself in a sea cave, which takes her toward the ocean.

She is pulled toward the floor of a shallow lake, where passes a strange looking creature. It has a long slender body, with a rounded forked tail. The body does not have uniform thickness, instead, right after its tail, it is the thinnest. As you look toward its head, it becomes wider, but it remains rounded in its shape. It has three appendages on each side. It has two long appendages, one on each side, which it seems to be using to feel out what is ahead. It has two smaller appendages at the front or its head. It has slots on its front at each side. It has a claw like mouth. Charmaine has no idea what they are for. She is astonished at this bundle of atoms and molecules. What Charmaine doesn’t know is that this creature is a Jaekelopterus rhenaniae or the sea scorpion. It is a eurypterid. It is one of the two largest arthropods to have ever roamed Planet Earth.

She finally makes it to the ocean, where she passes by some cyanobacteria with two different bacteriophages undertaking infection. As the sunlight strikes the infected cyanobacteria, the cyanobacteria goes into overdrive releasing oxygen into the water. Then Charmaine becomes lost in the vast ocean.

Now, Cheryl too is ripped from the Bucky Ball, runs into two oxygen atoms and binds into a carbon dioxide molecule. Yes, her molecule gets caught in water vapor droplets, romps through a raft of cloud types and fall to the earth in rain droplets. But, she lands in the ocean, where she is pulled along by a strong El Nino current. She gets to ride toward the top of the Panthalassa Ocean.

Cheryl notices a plethora of strange looking shapes. Some are spherical and studded with knobs. Others have a flat beveled point, followed by a fat shank, which tapers into a smaller shank. At the end of the small shank there are several clamps.

What are those? she says.

They’re called viruses, says one of the oxygen atoms in her molecule. I’m Oren and this is my friend Ossie.

Viruses are the most abundant critters in the seas, adds Ossie.

Those bigger things are bacteria and algae, explains Oren.

What are they doing over there? asks Cheryl. She points with one of the electrons in the molecule.

That’s a bacteriophage starting to infect a seaborne bacterium’s cell, explains Oren.

As Oren explains the nuances of life on Planet Earth, Cheryl’s carbon dioxide molecule runs through a fish’s gills. After the carbon dioxide molecule leaves the gills, it brushes against a Dunkleosteus terrelli, which eats the fish she has just left.

Dunkie needed a snack, quips Ossie.

Ossie and Oren further explain things to Cheryl and, finally, they rise toward the surface of the sea, where they are washed over seaweed. They settle near land, but not until after being hammered a few