Kevin Milne: Comet 2023 A3 and thoughts of the past and future

A rare celestial object has made an appearance in the skies over New Zealand. 

Comet C/2023 A3 hasn’t been seen in our skies in for 80,000 years, and with the length of its orbital period, it’s not going to be seen again by anyone alive today. 

Kevin Milne caught sight of A3 passing by on Wednesday, and it got him thinking about the last time it passed by, and the next time it’ll show up. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
B sixteen past nine on your Saturday Morning Jack. I
don't even follow soccer, but I'm with the Auckland team
coming on board. I'm so nervous. I'm excited. I think
soccer is growing. Here go the Phoenix is Lee Jack?
What was going media stadium beforehand? It's Mount Smart It's yep,
one of the same. Oh this is bad. I guess

(00:33):
I was in my excitement. I was listening off all
the amazing sports this weekend. Okay, so let's try it
again because I missed, missed rather an important one. Okay.
We've got the White Ferns making the tea tw any
Women's World Cup at Women's World Cup final. We've got
the black Caps in a remarkable position against India. We've
got Liam Lawson kicking off his qualifying in just over
an hour for the first sprint race of the US

(00:55):
F one. We've got the football and I don't know
if you've heard, but it's match point in the America's Cup. Whoops,
a little bit of a little of a missed one there,
see what I mean? It is a remarkable weekend. To Sport.
Kevin Melner is with us this morning. Morning A Kevin.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Ejack, Did I hear you say we don't have any
rugby on this weekend? We do have the semi finals
of the NPC with your team? Yeah? Yeah team.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well, well what I should have said is we don't
have an all bax test. We don't have an all
backs test.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Is that?

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Is that?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
I know, I know you're right because I actually do
love the I love the I love the NPC. So
I that was very REMISSI with me, Kevin.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
I'm sorry that I can forgive you because cricket has
been absolutely astonishing, hasn't it ever the last few days,
particularly last night.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, yeah, last night was so good. I just know
it's so good. I mean, look, I'm the first to
bag tea twenties, you know. I just it feels, honestly,
it just feels like you're rolling the dice most of
the time for me. But they have given the record
coming into this competition, uh, and the pressure that was
on the White Ferns, and given how they have performed,
I just think I don't think it's incredible. So yeah,
and that last over from Susie Bates. My goodness, it

(02:09):
was exciting. So yes, lots to get excited about this weekend.
And you've had excitement in your week already, Kevin, you
saw the comet pass by.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
I saw the comet. I saw the comet where our
house is in the perfect position. We looked straight out
and see straight to the western horizon. And so I've
been staring out that window most of the week, starting
from Wednesday on. And I saw the comment on Wednesday
which people have been saying. There's been warnings that it

(02:40):
may well have been the flight, the Auckland and christ
Church flight in New Zealand, and in the way, if
it was, it doesn't matter, because the thing is that
for me, seeing the comet, or what at least I
thought was the comet, filled me with awe. It gave
me much to think about. It's a comment that the
newspapers tell me hasn't been seen in our skies for

(03:03):
eighty thousand years. I don't know how anyone could have
seen it in our skies eighty thousand years ago. The
human history of New Zealand only dates back what seven
hundred years? There wouldn't have been anybody here to see it.
Maybe some animals or birds. Perhaps eighty thousand years. It's
a hell of a long time ago. The world's first

(03:25):
ever structures had only just been built by Homo Zabbians
in Africa. But what I found more consuming was looking ahead,
because other reports reckon comet twenty twenty three A three
won't be seen in our skies for another eighty thousand years.
I'm not sure if that's correct, actually, but it made

(03:46):
me consider how we're all going to be looking in
eighty thousand years. We're going to be dust. Jack, You
the handsome young guy, me the old guy, are finally
going to be looking the same, indistinguishable, just dust. If
you're miss seeing the comet this week, Jack, we can

(04:07):
say with a large degree of confidence you're not going
to see it next time. Then it went through my mind,
will there be anybody living in New Zealand to see
the comment in eighty thousand years time, in the year
eighty two and twenty four, will there be anybody still
living on this planet anywhere? I put all these huge

(04:29):
questions to Linda, my wife, but unbelievably, she was more
interested in whether Christian Cullen was going to win celebrity treasurala.
Sometimes Jack, I wonder how Linda and I have survived
forty six years of marriage.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
It's probably precisely why you've survived forty six years of marriage,
I would think, given, yeah, ah, that is so special
that you saw it. It's funny, oh, how like there's
something primal in us, like when you have that a
little cosmic connection, like I just find it, honestly, you know,
because I spend so much time in cities. When I'm

(05:04):
out in the wilderness and I see star, I there's
something quite profound that happens.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
You know.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
There's that way you get that sense that you just
that you are just to speak of dust and the
context of the entire universe. You know, it's something there's
something really exactly, yeah, really really profound about that, And
honestly pound something profound about watching Christian Cullen on SBRI
and Truser Island as well. I loved it. I thought
he was he was the star for me, you know,
the way for.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
Me too, the way that's quite slightly awkward kind of
guy apart from when he played the game, was going
to turn out to be the star, the lovely, lovely guy.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, yeah, but but not only that. I just loved
episode one when Michelle Langstone was so excited to be
camping and out and he was like, I hate I
hate camping, I hate sleeping around other people. I don't
really like the outdoors. And then you already say he said,
I haven't really done any exercise since I stopped playing
rugby years ago. You're like, okay, wonderful mother. Yeah he was,

(06:06):
he was. He was a real talent on that show.
I'd loved it. Hey, thank you so much, Kevin really
appreciate it. Look this just We've got Allie Williston in
the World Champs, writing to you know, writing to win
in the elimination race. It's remarkable. We've got Lydia Coe
playing in Korea. It really is an amazing weekends.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
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