Tuesday, 22 March 2011

(60558) Echeclus, reunions

(60558) Echeclus is a centaur discovered in March of 2000 and rediscovered in the year 2002 (2000 EC98 = 2002 GJ27). It has a perihelion 5.9 AU and an aphelion 15.7 AU. Its orbit is between Jupiter and Saturn-Uranus. It has a diameter of about 85 km. In late December 2005 a cometary coma was detected. There is a prediscovery image back to September of 1979.


Reunions

At the beginning of the movie "Superman" (1978), Lois Lane is a small girl that is travelling in a train with her parents and sees through the window the young Clark Kent (her future work companion at the Daily Planet in Metropolis) running faster than the train. Similar reunions happen in the movies "Star Trek" (1979), "Tess" (1979), "Gangs of New York" (2002), "The Bourne Identity" (2002), "Dragonfly" (2002) and "Serendipity" (2001).

"The origin of his name is a bit unclear, but it may have come from the Greek word that translates as 'glutinous'...which means sticky, or glue-like." (Zane B. Stein)

(60558) Echeclus is related with reunions, like the repeated overtakes back and forward between the rivals of the race of snowboard in the video game "SSX" (PS2, 2000).

When (60558) Echeclus is activated, there are time connections between past, present and future. Usually something of the past has an imposing influence in the present, and something of the present can have an imposing influence in the future, and vice versa, like in the movies "The Kid" (2000), "Family Man" (2000), "Pay it Forward" (2000), "Frequency" (2000), "The Lake House" (2006, remake of "Il Mare" South Korean film of 2000), "Déjà vu" (2006), "Tomb Raider: Legend" (PS2, 2006).

Learning to switch time perspectives allows us to shift our attention easily between the past, present and future, and consciously adapt our mindset to any given situation.

[Related book: "The Time Paradox" (Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd, 2008)]