The curious case of Triton4/23/2018 This is Neptune's moon Triton. It was first discovered by William Lassell in 1846. It was found just 17 days after Neptune and the first of Neptune's moons to be discovered. It is one of only 5 moons in the solar system though to be geologically active, it has the coldest surface temperature in our solar system (at-235c/-391f) and is the only moon in our solar system with a retrograde orbit (traveling in an opposite rotation to its planet). The reason Triton travels in a rotation contrary to Neptune is because it did not form with the planet. It originally belonged in the Kuiper Belt (like Pluto) and was captured by the planet. Though it looks like a dirty snowball left over at the end of winter, Triton is a pretty interesting place...actually it was considered one of the most interesting satellites in the solar system until we discovered that the moons of Jupiter as well as Saturn had sub-surface oceans and then Triton was overshadowed by an abundance of water-worlds. Terry Hurford, planetary Scientist at NASA, examined Triton and believes that it is also hiding a sub-surface ocean. Hurford is hopeful that we will revisit Triton with our scientific instruments in the near future. Much of this information about Triton comes from the Voyager 2 spacecraft which did a quick flyby of the moon in 1989. The New Horizons spacecraft did a flyby of Neptune and Triton exactly 25 years later, on its way to Pluto, but didn't get close enough to get much data. Aside from those short lived and near-by visitations, we have only been able to get to know Triton from our Earth based telescopes.
They see things beyond that which exists in the evidence. Connections are drawn between ink blots, as the inventor formulates an image that isn't there. This ability to create a basis for believing without a reason, or perhaps without the faculty of reason, reminds me of the Dunning-Kruger Effect which is a cognitive bias where below-average individuals mistake their intelligence as being above-average because of how little they actually know. When there is so little data on a place, just some old photos taken in the dark of space on a 1980s digital camera and some basic qualitative data, it is possible to infer but improbable to do so accurately. Certainly there could be life on Triton but probably it is not intelligent and we have no reason to presuppose so. If there were evidence of intelligent aliens, or whatever, on Triton, or wherever, how would you separate the truth from the speculation which saturates the environment? is the truth still out there? Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/ (Triton)... https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/... http://www.seasky.org/... http://www.astronomy.com/... https://www.space.com/... https://www.astrobio.net/... http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/... https://www.nasa.gov/... https://gizmodo.com/... https://science.nasa.gov/... https://www.youtube.com/ (Proof of alien life)... https://www.youtube.com/ (Triton is inhabited)... https://www.youtube.com/ (Massive structures on triton)... http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/... https://www.metimeforthemind.com/... http://mysteriousuniverse.org/... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ (Dunning-Kruger)... http://www.patheos.com/...
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Beneath the ice in the salty ocean4/21/2018 Meet Europa. It is the smallest of Jupiter's four moons which were discovered by Galileo. Europa is smaller than Earth's moon(~65%), but larger than Pluto. It's surface is a thick layer of smooth but scarred ice, obscuring an ocean underneath which is able to remain liquid due to the tidal flexing between the moon and the planet. Scientists think that there is an ocean of salty water located just beneath the surface due to a special magnetic field that Europa has, which was measured by the Galileo Mission. NASA's preliminary plans for reaching the saline moon, The Europa Clipper, could allow us to touch the icy surface as soon as the 2030s, at the same time that we are hopefully in the beginning stages of getting people to Mars. The reason Europa is so interesting is because that liquid ocean is very similar to sub-glacial lakes that have been found on earth and it is thought to be old enough for life to have evolved there. In the timespan of roughly 400 years, we could go from discovering a celestial body to having found life on it. That is truly amazing and a credit to all of the people who have built made it a possibility, many of them working on thankless tasks but for an amazing cumulative effect. Of course there are many people today who suggest that such missions into space are a waste of money, resources, time. We have a collective legacy as explorers, often fraught with the terrible actions of colonialism, but this is a legacy that we should continue and improve as we extend our reach into outer space. With reasonable certainty we can say that life exists outside of our planet, but without finding evidence of it we can never be absolutely certain. As we venture forth, it will be a search for more than life but for scientific discovery in general which will ultimately give us insight into our own planet, about the origins of our solar system, the galaxy and our universe. Research and development created for these ventures will also give us new technologies that could make life on Earth better and more sustainable. Trying to see, to understand and to touch ever farther beyond our planet is a heroic task that will ultimately aid the survival of our species. Is the truth still out there? Photo Of Europa taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft and found on page 115 of Der Weltraum by Klett and located in the Bibliothek Andreas Zust. Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/... https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/... https://www.space.com/ (Life?)... https://www.space.com/ (Facts)... https://www.youtube.com/... https://www.popsci.com/ (Europa Lander)... https://www.independent.co.uk/... https://www.popsci.com/ (Seafaring robots)... https://www.outerplaces.com/... https://phys.org/... To the moon, maybe4/19/2018 The moon is our closest extraterrestrial body. It has protected us from meteoric impacts and regulated life here on earth. If we manage to become a multi-planetary species, it will be the first step in extending our reach towards that goal. The ESA has plans to create a permanent settlement on the moon called "Moon Village", NASA is looking to use the moon as a launching point to get to Mars on the Orion spacecraft. NASA has even scheduled a test launch for Orion as early as 2019 but reaching Mars is not likely until at least the 2030s. The previous American presidential administration hadn't planned on returning to the Moon, and was going to shoot directly for Mars, but the current administration changed the plans... This photo is from the index page of the stunning book 'Lunar Panorama' by Lowman which is located at the Bibliothek Andreas Zust. Two other recent American presidential administrations have planned to get to the moon (the Space Exploration Initiative during the George H.W. Bush presidency in 1989 as well as the Constellation Program during the George W. Bush presidency in 2004) though neither resulted in boots on the lunar terrain as the last human crew departed the moon in 1972. Luckily though, if the American government doesn't come through, again, there are plenty of other national and private organizations who are looking to take advantage of the vacuum in endeavors for space colonization. For example, private startups from India, Israel, and Japan, along with a Silicon Valley-backed space-exploration company called 'Moon Express' are all shooting for the Google Lunar XPrize, big companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are also working on concepts, and governmental organizations for Russia, China and the ESA are all working towards returning to the moon and beyond. The ESA's 'Moon Village' (mentioned above) is particularly interesting as they plan to use inflatable structures and 3D printing with regolith (lunar soil). With all of this being said: the future plans, the present efforts and the history, there are still many people who don't believe that the original moon landings happened...According to a 1999 Gallup Poll, approximately 6% of Americans believe that it was a hoax and 5% are undecided. Of course some of these conspiracy theorists sound ludicrous but others propose sound arguments for why they do to believe that it never happened. For an example of some pretty convincing arguments, check out this video by a mustachioed gentleman. This TIME article even looks to it as one of the world's most enduring conspiracy theories and there is even a Wikipedia page for it. Even though people have tried to document the sites of the Apollo landings, conspiracy theorists hold strong to their belief. One example is Marcus Allen who has said that 'photographs of the lander would not prove that America put men on the Moon'. When does our skepticism stop being healthy and start being detrimental to society? Is it that our egos get in the way, as we refuse to accept that there are people who know more than us and that such knowledge is potentially trustworthy. When we don't trust people who have spent their entire lives in search for the truth on the environment/climate, astrophysics, biology, quantum mechanics, whatever...doesn't it hurt all of humanity for us to ignore these people? And why do some of us refuse to believe them while those same people choose to believe individuals who obviously know nothing? Is the truth still out there? Some links to provide more information on future travel to the moon: https://www.popularmechanics.com/... https://www.space.com/... https://news.nationalgeographic.com/... http://www.iflscience.com/... https://www.nbcnews.com/... http://www.esa.int/... Links to provide information on conspiracy theories: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/... http://content.time.com/... https://en.wikipedia.org/... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/... M.P.BronsteinA scientist who exists outside of the time-space continuum, looking for the truth, but unsure if it still exists or if it has become extinct. ArchivesCategories
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