Deep Space Mysteries

Astronomers have discovered a fifth planet that as part of a cluster, is orbiting a star outside our Solar System. But what fascinates them the most is what they can't see. "There is an intriguing, mysterious gap between the fourth planet out around 55 Cancri and the Jupiter-like planet that's far away," said Professor Geoff Marcy of UC-Berkeley. They suspect that smaller, rocky planets like Venus, Mars or Earth are in that void. "It's a little hard to imagine that there's just nothing there in this big gap." Astronomers are exploring deep space in earnest, with landmark discoveries of planets, pulsars, quasars and black holes.

And as astronomy evolves, so too does astrology. Astrologer and software developer, Michael Erlewine, defines our particular preoccupation as "the study of the life and death struggle of stars and the various kinds of light they produce." His enlightening article, The Astrology of Space, helps make sense of shifts in astrological awareness, including a re-orientation to what's called the Galactic Center (at 26 degrees Sagittarius). Sometimes called "the Sun of our Sun," the Galactic Center is said to have a large black hole in the center. Astronomers have picked up immense energies coming out of the GC, which has captured the attention of many astrologers.

For both astronomy and astrology, time and research will lead to greater understanding of the Universe. Erlewine describes overcoming that sense of deep space as out there, cold and dark. "We are already out there! We ARE in deep space and have been there from eternity until now," he writes. And being created of the same cosmic energy, taking astrological study ever further into the Galaxy only leads to greater understanding of ourselves.