We humans have managed to accomplish a lot with our hubris - landing on the moon, curing smallpox, inventing the tele-vision, and so forth. But sometimes we make some really
prideful blunders, too. I fear that
Pioneer 10's upcoming encounter with
Jupiter
will be the blunderest of them all!
The astrologers have warned us many times about angering the outer planets. For millennia, they have kept the
gas giants
pacified and spared us from their wrath. Now that we are sending a probe to buzz
Jupiter
while snapping pictures like an hapless tourist, I fear that the astrologers will no longer be able to contain the
gas giant's wrath.
If
Jupiter
decides to unleash a flurry of comets and trojan asteroids in our direction as penance for our
disrespectful probing, we shall have no-one to blame but ourselves.