A love letter for Hubble4/25/2018
I think we both remember that you had some problems at the beginning, it was worth it though because those first pictures you took inspired a generation of scientists, and others, to search for answers to the mysteries of the universe. In all of the years of our collective relationship, you have shown us the history of our universe and thereby, our own history. You have told us when the cosmic birthday is. You have shown us what our universe looked like when it was, relatively, a newborn. You have proved us wrong in our assumption that the expansion of the universe was slowing down, when in fact it is speeding up. We have learned about supermassive black holes and exoplanets from you. You haven't restricted your lessons to distant space either, as you have also taught us about our own solar system. You've showed us liquid water on the moons of Jupiter in Ganymede's sub-surface ocean and the liquid plumes that shoot into space from Europa. We also know how many moons Pluto has because of you and that Eris, the dwarf-planet in the Kuiper belt, even exists. Galaxy cannibalism, protoplanetary disks, and clumpy dark matter are all discoveries that we can attribute to your presence in our lives. You were not our first space-telescope, and you won't be our last, but the influence you have had on how we perceive/imagine the vastness of space, cannot be overstated. During moments when the political-climate is anti-science, the images that you have produced can still induce wonder in even the staunchest anti-expert and give reason for the expansion of our scientific knowledge. You have given humanity so much and we can never repay that service. I only hope that more people can appreciate your efforts the way that I do. Please keep doing what you do because it makes the world a better place. Love, M.P. Bronstein Sources:
http://bigthink.com/... http://www.spacetelescope.org/ (spacecraft images)... https://www.spacetelescope.org/ (28th birthday)... http://hubblesite.org/... http://mentalfloss.com/... https://news.nationalgeographic.com/... https://globalnews.ca/... https://www.space.com/... https://en.wikipedia.org/...
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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/... Mysteries in Roswell4/18/2018 Why do we love a mystery? The possibly unattainable goal of finding out its answers are able to absorb our search for decades and even whole lifetimes. That driving curiosity imbues a parching thirst for a solution to our quandary, which may ultimately never be reached.
The incident itself, which you can read at Wikipedia, is interesting but what is even more so, is the effect that the incident had in sparking curiosity which led off in numerous directions of imaginative speculation, fiction, tourism and citizen-detective work. But it wasn't immediate, the story gestated for some 30 years before public interest in Roswell reignited. The ambiguity and the uncertainty of the situation, led for a search for truth. In chapter 9 of 'Transparency and Conspiracy: Ethnographies of Suspicion in the New World Order', the authors cite the Roswell Incident as the key example of how discourse can migrate from the fringes of society to the mainstream: "public preoccupation in the 1980s with "conspiracy, cover-up and repression" aligned well with the Roswell narratives as told in the "sensational books" which were being published." Though the widespread interest in Roswell diminished in the 1990's, there are still numerous believers who actively search to answer the question of whether a UFO crashed in New Mexico in 1947. The research into the incident started in 1978, by UFO researchers Stanton T. Friedman, William Moore, Karl T. Pflock, and continues to this day by many more though all of that time searching has led to nothing conclusive. Those who believe, point to the easiest answer which is that there is a conspiracy within the American Government to hide the evidence of a UFO crash. That is certainly a possibility but it would be an incredibly complicated task requiring the utmost competence of many personnel over a long period of time, even after their retirement, which seems pretty improbable... Is the truth still out there? Images from pages 48/49 of the book 'UFO' by Brookesmith located in the Bibliothek Andreas Zust. The first is supposedly the original debris recovered from the Roswell crash and the second is an artist's depiction of the "actual" crash site. 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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