I love this. With all our knowledge, science and capability, we are just now learning that comets are not snowballs.
It simply demonstrates how little we actually know about the universe around us and why we should always be skeptical of those who claim the science is “settled”.
That is correct. What passed as "common knowledge" just 200 years ago would seem ridiculous today. Such as blood-letting to cure diseases, that the speed of sound was a physical barrier and the notion that it was impossible to have a man-made machine fly.
Two hundred years from now, educated people will look back to us today and shake their heads on how primitive and ignorant we were.
And that cycle will be repeated again 200 years hence.
Many mysteries of the universe will remain unseen and unseeable for human beings. We will never attain "all the knowledge" out there due to the limitations of our physical senses.
Think about how a dog can hear sounds that cannot be heard by humans. That is but a tiny fraction of what's out there that will never be heard or seen by any living creature.
Just consider the Brady Bunch TV show for example. Observe a still photo from the show below and analyze it. Now this is just one instant from a frivolous TV show from the 1970s yet that one still will continue to yield new things for many generations to come. For instance, why are they carrying shopping bags when there is ample room in the carts?
Why did I pick this show to make my example? I could have picked anything at all. It was entirely random. Just like our universe.