While this New Year’s may not be the best that we have come across in a while, 2019 still has a lot to offer to every one of us. Whether you are a movie addict, an avid reader, a binge watcher, a space enthusiast or just a human being in general, you all have something to look forward to this year. So, with some optimism, allow me to introduce you to the list of things to look forward to this year.
1) New Year’s Day Flyby. This New Year’s Day may have been cold and rainy in many parts of the world, but it sure was a festival of celebration in outer space. Precisely 33 minutes after the year started, the NASA satellite New Horizons spacecraft just whizzed past the “Ultima Thule,” which puts this spacecraft at approximately 4 billion miles from the sun. This holds the record for the “most distant flyby to be achieved by man.” The Ultima Thule is a mysterious object in the Kuiper belt, home to the frozen leftovers from the birth of our solar system. The spacecraft flew past the Ultima Thule at a mind-boggling speed of 32,000 mph and it took the signal 6 hours to reach back to earth!
2) Five Eclipses. Hey space enthusiasts, don’t be disheartened that you missed the New Year’s Day flyby because I have some good news. You can look forward to five eclipses this year, with total, annular, and partial solar eclipses and total and partial lunar eclipses. So, dust off your eclipse glasses and stay tuned.
3) A ton of anniversaries. If you are a fan of what happened 50, 100 or 150 years before 2019, you’ll love this next bit. This is the year a table turns 150. No, not an ordinary table. It’s a special table, one we have used at least once or twice. That’s right you guessed it. The periodic table turns 150 this year. In other news, the Grand Canyon National Park will mark its 100th birthday as a national park (not the Canyon itself, which is at least 6 million years old). The first men on the moon, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins will celebrate 50 years of successfully completing the Apollo 11 mission. So, I guess you can look forward to new Google doodles on these days.
4) Books and TV. In this genre of entertainment, we have some significant strides waiting for you, including a sequel to Margaret Atwood’s famous novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” titled “The Testaments,” slated to release in September of this year. The violent misogynist society portrayed through the book has found a new audience after the TV adaptation of the book. You might want to check if you live under a rock if you didn’t know that the final season of Game of Thrones will be out this April. This news GOT (or got, if you prefer) all the fans riled up for the end of the most watched TV series in the world. Speculations about the ending, fan theories and spoilers are all on the internet if anyone wants it. But if you’ve waited since 2017, you can wait for a couple of months more. For all Stranger Things fans out there, stay tuned for a season three of Mike and Eleven.
5) Movies. This is the year for Disney’s big takeover in the movies. From reboots of classics like “Lion King,” “Aladdin” and “Dumbo” and a fair share in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), they are bound to make a profit. Slated this year are movies like “Captain Marvel,” “Spiderman: Far From Home,” “X-Men: Dark Phoenix,” “Shazam” and a couple of DC’s animated films. One obviously cannot ignore the release of the final installment of the Avenger’s franchise, called “Avengers: Endgame,” to see how our heroes recuperate after Thanos’s snap, “The Decimation.” But don’t feel bad about this, aspart of the journey is the end. It will be the end of an era. So, you might want to start saving up for all those movies and the popcorn.
6) Games. For all you gamers out there, warning! You may go broke this year if you haven’t already. This is the year a lot of uplifts and sequels to old games we love are going to be released. Some of the most anticipated ones are “Resident Evil 2,” “The Division 2,” “Mortal Kombat 11,” “Far Cry 5” and “Anthem.” The trailer release of the long-awaited game “The Last of Us – Part II” at PSX 2016, drove the crowd crazy. It is also expected to release towards the end of the year.
I would like to conclude that this year might not be as boring or as monotonous as the ones before and that we do have a lot to look forward to. Couple this to your friend’s birthdays, anniversaries, your own birthday or even your dog’s, all we can conclude is that this year has something for us all (unless you believe that this will be the year that the world as we know it will end, and we will be living in a post-apocalyptic, zombie-infected place). If not, I think we’re good. Good day and good luck for the year ahead.
