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Lonecat in Orbit 16 |
 Lonecat here, reporting back to Earth and hoping your are all handling the economic crises on Sol-Three reasonably well. Viewing Earth from this distance and seeing it as a gently rotating, calm and beautiful blue and white planet, apparently undisturbed by anything for the the last couple of hundred million years, I get to thinking about what things in this universe should be considered as important and what others not so important. The wars and hatred that I could not handle when I was on Earth seem now distant and unreal, yet I know that this is not really so. Are there other planets beyond our reach which are suffering similar problems? Are there "fundamentalist" philosophies which seek to impose their ideas on the inhabitants of other planets? Are there religions which claim to have the only and absolute TRUTH way beyond the confines of what we call our Solar System?
As I gaze through the observation WINDOW of BoT-O.S.V. and confirm what I see on the flickering visi-screens of this space ship everything seems to happen in slow motion. Phases gradually change: planets move (to the human eye)as they are accustomed in slow and stately procession. But... things are happening everywhere, all the time, sands are shifting both on Earth and Mars and on our Moon and other moons, too. The dust of our Moon may move more gradually under the impact of meteors and human boots, but in reality normality, continues to reign everywhere. Up is up and down is down. Winds on Mars model dunes just as they do on Earth and elsewhere. Water makes its mark and leaves its trace on this world as on any other. So, what do we mean by "Alien"? To me, the rocks on Mars or the mountains on the Moon and Venus and even the landscapes of Titan seem very familiar and hardly "alien" at all. I believe that evolution takes a similar course on any world that is similar to Earth and that, when we finally do come face to face with beings from some other world I feel am sure they will not be all that different from us.
Forgive me for all this speculation but when you are alone out here in orbit, apparently hanging motionless in space you tend to be given to philosophy.
This past week have been very eventful indeed. In fact, one could almost think in terms of "Death and Resurrection" wghen we consider the demise of "Phoenix" on Mars and then the supposed death of Spirit because of the martian sandstorm which covered its solar panels and thus was presumed to have lost its source of energy: the Sun and later was pronounced as being "STILL ALIVE!" We'll come to that in a moment or two but first, let's breathe a sigh of relief at the successful launch of the Space shuttle ENDEAVOUR.
SUCCESSFUL LIFT-OFF FOR ENDEAVOUR
BBC article here with a video of the launch of the space shuttle...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7730099.stm
An updated Link about the Mission:-
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts126/081113preview/
PLANETS IN OTHER "SOLAR SYSTEMS" PHOTOGRAPHED FOR THE FIRST TIME
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/11/14/2419973.htm
Also, see this BBC report on this rather sensational event, but with a photograph which gives a much clearer impression of what this is all about.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7725584.stm]BBC contribution
THE END OF THE PHOENIX MISSION
Sad news indeed but Phoenix did a good job and lasted a lot longer than was planned
http://tinyurl.com/5hcs7e
STILL ON THE SUBJECT OF THE LATE PHOENIX MARS LANDER...
Here is the picture which caused technicians on Earth to exclaim "Holy Cow!"
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/
AND NOW A VERY GOOD VIDEO
Here is an excellent video depicting the launch and landing of a Mars rover on the red pld planet. It is clevery made to coincide with the duration of the music ("Mars the bringer of War" from the Planets Suite by Gustav Holst) which is just over seven minutes. I thought I'd post it near the beginning of this week's Lonecat in Orbit just in case you don't always read it right to the end and might miss it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
http://www.redrovergoestomars.org/
IT'S STILL ALIVE!
Mars Lander lives on after dust storm------Short little article with a video letting us know, It's ALive!!!!!
IT"S ALIVE
RICHARD DAWKINS'S JAW-DROPPING TALK ON "OUR BIZARRE UNIVERSE"
I really think you see this video. It is qite fascinating and lasts only 23 minutes
23 min - 27/09/2006 -
Richard Dawkins is Oxford University's "Professor for the Public Understanding of Science." Author of the landmark 1976 book, The Selfish Gene.
See this video: video.google.com
Ver vídeo aquí or here:
http://tinyurl.com/5m76wb
Diving into the Deep Galaxy Pool
Anyone who has wondered what it might be like to dive into a pool of millions of distant galaxies of different shapes and colours, will enjoy the latest image released by ESO. Obtained in part with the Very Large Telescope, the image is the deepest ground-based U-band image of the Universe ever obtained. It contains more than 27 million pixels and is the result of 55 hours of observations with the VIMOS instrument.
http://tinyurl.com/5gm7hw
THE COSMIC RAY REVOLUTION
An interesting article here about where cosmic rays actually come from and the UHECR Puzzle (Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray Puzzle). It is rather technical but none the less interesting for that.
"Cosmic rays, the high energy protons and helium nuclei that constantly bombard the Earth, have puzzled astronomers for the best part of one hundred years. Where do they come from and how are they accelerated to energies in excess of 10^20 eV—that’s about the energy that Roger Federer gives a tennis ball during a serve? (By contrast, the Large Hadron Collider will be able to accelerate protons to a mere 10^12 eV.)
To tackle these questions, astronomers have built a giant cosmic ray telescope about the size of Rhode Island in Argentina. It’s called the Pierre Auger telescope and in the short time it has been operating, it is already challenging astronomers’ views about the origin of cosmic rays. In particular, it’s beginning to look as if the highest energy comsic rays come from active galactic nuclei.
Serguei Vorobiov from University of Nova Gorica in Slovenia summarises the highlights. Worth a read if you want to get up to speed on a new generation of astronomy".
http://arxiv.org/abs/0811.0752
ORBS IN ASTRONOMICAL PHOTOS?
No. There are just dust particles. Nice, though. Like it.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/
TO END here is another stunning photograph from the Picture of the Day series :
I hope you all have a happy coming week. I hope to be back this time next week. Lonecat.
This is what I can see from the BoT-OSV!
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081005.html
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