Vissiniti is the website of Margaret Murphy, an amateur planetary scientist and aspiring screenwriter.
She has a few ambitions: to finish her screenplay, to work with other writers, to embark on a PhD in planetary science (well, maybe not this year). Beyond that, she is open to suggestions. Exploring the moons of Mars, perhaps.
She hosts this site for her own entertainment where she talks about planetary science, sci-fi and anything where she can weave in a circumventous route back to asteroids, comets, meteoroids, meteors and meteorites, in fact or fiction.
She compiled the Index of Moving Pictures about Asteroid and Comet Threats, and since planetary scientists are obsessed with acronyms, you can call it IMPACT.
But science fiction isn’t science fiction forever. You only have to read a few classic Robert Heinlein novels to realise that, or listen to Elon Musk talk about going to Mars (please take me with you).
The subject of asteroid spectral types and taxonomies is a particular favourite of hers but it can be a bit tedious at times, which you can experience by reading her popular essay covering the half a century of asteroid classification systems. It’s a long read that might just keep you busy for as many years again.
Prior to that, she undertook a deep dive into the compositions of spinel group minerals in meteorites that took many months to compile, but then shelved it due to lack of inspiration (actually, it defeated her—the vicissitudes of trying to do research without funding or access to data) but it may resurface one day if she ever has time to properly resume academic activities.
One flew east, one flew west…recalling what another (Mc)Murphy said, “a little change never hurt, a little variety,” so you may see articles on this website on subjects completely unrelated to planetary science and wonder what on earth they are doing here.