The Rosetta Comet Landing

 An amazing thing happened on November 12, 2014.  Humans managed to land a spacecraft on a comet moving through space at 80,000 mph at a distance of 300 million miles from Earth.

The first part of this truly monumental technical achievement came this past August with the European Space Agency's successful rendezvous with a  comet  known as  67 P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Not only did Rosetta rendezvous with this comet, it put itself into orbit around  the 2.4 mile wide celestial object. [ see my blog from August 7, 2014 ]

It got even better on November 12th  when the Rosetta comet orbiter released it's Philae lander vehicle. After a seven hour free fall descent, Philae successfully touched down on the  67 P Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet's surface. 

I believe this comet rendezvous and landing must be counted as one of the greatest human achievements of all time. If we are capable of pulling off technical feats as unlikely as this,  I have to ask myself, 'why can't we thoughtfully address and solve global scale challenges like climate change right here on Earth?  

Here is a link to the European Space Agency website for the Rosetta Mission...  http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Highlights/Postcards_from_Rosetta

Rosetta Rendezvous

An amazing feat of aerospace engineering and celestial navigation has just culminated as the European Space Agency's Rosetta unmanned spacecraft arrived at the comet kinown as  Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Not only did Rosetta rendezvous with this comet, it put itself into orbit around  the 2.4 mile wide  comet.

67P/Churyumov-Gerisimenko

Rosetta was launched on its mission in 2004.  Over its ten year journey, Rosetta travelled 4 billion miles, before 'catching up' and putting itself into orbit around the comet.    Rosetta will soon release a 200 pound lander that will descend to the comet's ice and stone surface.

In a news cycle dominated by reports on the fighting in Iraq, Gaza, and Eastern Ukraine, the brilliant success of Rosetta seems to have been lost in the shuffle. The media coverage of Rosetta's successful rendezvous has been modest thus far. I hope that changes. By any measure, sending a spacecraft hundreds of millions miles to connect with a speeding object just a few miles wide is a historical achievement for all humankind. 

Here is a link to the European Space Agency website for the Rosetta Mission...  http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Highlights/Postcards_from_Rosetta

Carl Sagan's Warning

Carl Sagan passed away in 1996. He was a truly exceptional human being: one of the great scientific minds of all time.  By trade, he was an astronomer, and he made many important contributions in that arena. But his greatest gift was his ability to communicate and educate the masses about science. His Cosmos TV series was extraordinary. I had the opportunity to meet Sagan one time in  Los Angeles. It was during the time that the NASA Viking Lander first began sending pictures and data back from Mars.  Sagan was brilliant, but he was also warm and caring. I read his books and watched when he was on TV.  I won't deny that I revered the guy.

Dr. Carl Sagan

It's hard to believe that 17 years have gone by since Sagan left us.  These days,  young people are mostly unfamiliar with this great man.  They would surely benefit from his wisdom and inspiration, as I did.

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."

                                                                                                               Carl Sagan
                      

In the video clip that follows, Sagan expresses deep concern over the fact that too many of the people we elect to represent us in government are ignorant, even hostile to scientific reason and understanding.

Here is the link to a brief 'You Tube' clip of Carl Sagan in his last TV interview talking to Charlie Rose... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iyFw8UF85A

ESA Video Map of Our Galaxy

This video is amazing.  It is built on a star survey done by satellites launched by the European Space Agency.   What this animated rendering shows is that we earthlings reside on a speck, dwarfed and unremarkable when viewed on a galactic scale.  It is humbling and awe inspiring. How lucky we are to have this place we call Earth.

Milky Way Galaxy

Here is a link to ESA' s very impressive video map of the Milky Way,  our galactic home... http://spaceinvideos.esa.int/Videos/2013/11/Guide_to_our_Galaxy

Earth from Saturn

The following image was taken July 19th by the NASA Cassini space probe orbiting Saturn.  In this image, our Earth is 900 million miles away, roughly ten times the distance of the Earth from the Sun.

Earth (see arrow)

It's deeply humbling to see an image of ourselves from this perspective. Where the universe is concerned, we are a mere speck on the horizon.

Cassini approaching Saturn

Aurora Borealis

The Aurora Borealis, aka 'Northern Lights' is an amazing night sky phenomenon, seen only at  extreme polar latitudes.  The first time I saw an Aurora was in 1999 while on location in Northern British Columbia, shooting a documentary on the Canadian raincoast.   It was clearly visible, but not in spectacular fashion.  The second time I saw it was a few years later in Iqaluit on Baffin Island above the arctic circle in Northeast Canada. On this occasion, the Aurora displayed itself in truly amazing fashion.  Though Iqaluit is the capitol of Nunavut province, it is a small community,  accessible only by sea or air link from Montreal.  The manager of the hotel where we were staying drove us to a park outside of town to give us a view of the dancing lights of the Aurora.  She did warn us to be on the lookout for roaming polar bears, which apparently are quite common in that area and are very aggressive and dangerous  predators.

Anyway, that night in Iqaluit, in the park away from the city's lights, the Aurora was truly awe inspiring. For more than an hour, we stayed there gazing up at the night sky, mesmerized by the Aurora's immense natural beauty.  I would not choose to live in the remote, far north regions where one can experience the Aurora regularly, but I am grateful for the opportunity I've had to see it twice in my life.

Here is a link to a beautiful, awe inspiring video of the Aurora
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG8gZcAzfDI


Here is a link to a brief video that explains the physics behind the Aurora phenomenon.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJBrMXSn-hU


Here is a link to a video of Aurora images accompanied by a wonderful music track. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sU6CpQz-D4

A Collective Response from Humanity

The UN has just decided to go after asteroids.  More correctly, potentially hazardous objects coming at us from space. Yes, it now seems, given the meteor that exploded over Russia the other day and the 'too close for comfort' passage of a number of large asteroids recently, that world leaders are sufficiently concerned to mount a serious effort to deal with this threat. 

This is not the first time a concerted global effort was focused on a global threat.  It happened when humanity worked together to moderate the threat from 'holes' in the atmosphere caused by ozone depletion.

I applaud this civilization scale focus on this exo-threat looming from space. It is a threat. But, let's put it in perspective. As threats to the planet go, there are a number of others that that are much closer at hand and more likely to happen than getting hit by a rock from space. In fact, some some of these planetary scale threats are already happening. I'm talking about climate change driven by our fossil energy dependence.  I'm talking about extreme human overexploitation of the planet's natural resources, including our oceans, forests, and fresh water supplies.

I'm glad we're coming together to deal with asteroids.  Why can't we give the same kind of thoughtful attention to the very real, human induced threats that are already impacting life on Earth. 

Here is a link to the story about the UN's asteroid warning system initiative. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/9888866/Asteroid-early-warning-system-taking-shape-at-UN.html

Another Asteroid Close Encounter

About a month ago - January 13th to be exact - I posted an entry about asteroids and PHOs (potentially hazardous objects).   I wasn't expecting to add another entry on the subject so soon.   However, I just learned of another close encounter - even closer than the one I reported on previously. 

This asteroid is called 2012 DA14. It's about fifty meters across. On Friday, February 15, 2013,  DA14 will miss planet Earth by about 15 minuites, passing within 17,500 miles.  In celestial terms, that is an exceedingly close shave.

Here is a video of science educator Bill Nye talking about asteroid DA14.
http://youtu.be/6Xo-TW_cOOQ

Close Encounters with Asteroids and PHOs

On this day, January 13, 2013, an asteroid named Apophis will pass the Earth at a distance of just 9 million miles.   Apophis is about 275 meters in size. If it ever struck the Earth, it would release about ten times the energy of the largest hydrogen bomb ever detonated on Earth.   Looks like we'll get a free pass this time. The odds are less certain in 2036 when it shows up in our neighborhood again. At that time, the astrophysicists who keep watch on these celestial objects project that Apophis will pass within 100,000 miles of our planet. That's shaving it pretty close considering the Moon is 238,000 miles away.  Though the odds of Apophis colliding with Earth in 2036 are small, the possibility remains plausible enough to be unsettling.

 

About 65 million years ago, an asteroid six miles wide, hurtling through space at more than 20 miles a second, slammed into the ocean near Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.  The cloud of dirt, dust, and debris it threw into the atmosphere cut off the light from the sun for several years. If you've ever wondered what happened to the dinosaurs, this is the answer scientists provide.  Without sunlight, the food chain collapsed. If you didn't suffocate from all the dust and crap in the air, you froze to death or starved. Of course humans weren't around at that time. If we had been, we would've been wiped out right along with the other large animals.

Up until recently, no one was paying much attention to asteroids. Now we have scientists who specialize in searching out these objects with advanced, automated telescopes.

Asteroids are chunks of material leftover from the  formation of the solar system. There are likely between one and two million in number. Between 500 and  5,000 are thought to have the potential to be hazardous to the Earth. The ones that could do us harm are called potentially hazardous objects or PHOs. Fewer than 30 percent of those have been found.  

Not only do we have people looking for all those missing PHOs. We also have people who are developing ingenious ways to steer those PHOs that become a direct threat off in a harmless direction. 

It's an ugly thought, but we humans are increasingly making a mess of our own dominant time here on Earth. Getting struck by an asteroid would  be catastrophic.  It would wipe out most of us.  In a perverse way, it might also provide the best chance for nature and the biosphere to recover from the unprecedented stress caused by seven billion plus humans,  all seeking a piece of the planet's finite resources.

On a planetary scale, getting struck by an asteroid would hurt, probably a lot, but the Earth would survive and the biosphere would heal itself, just as it did 65 million years ago. 

Here is a link for NASA's  'Asteroid Watch' webpage...http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch/

Here's a NASA video that reports on an asteroid scheduled to pass very close to Earth 1n February, 2013.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwidzVHvbGI&feature=player_embedded

The Known Universe - A Digital Tour

The known universe is enormous. Something on the order of 15 billion light years across.  If time and tangible existence began with a big bang, the result was a colossal  and by all appearnces endless expansion of known space. Billions of galaxies with billions of stars in each, all flying away from eachother as the universe expands outward.

Carter Emmart and his team of astrophysical wizards at the American Museum of Natuiral History have created an amazing digital rendering of what the living universe looks like, beginning on Earth and traveling outward to the edge of known space.

It's a remarkable six minute plus journey, and it can't help but leave one humbled by the awesome scale of it's vision.

Here is a link to Carter Emmart as he presents 'The Known Universe' to a TED audience...

http://blog.ted.com/2010/07/01/a_3d_atas_of_th/

Moons of Saturn

This remarkable image was taken by NASA's Cassini space probe in September, 2011. It includes four of  the planet, Saturn's moons, orbiting along the outer edge of its rings.

Satun's largest moon, Titan (3,200 miles across) is in the background. In the foreground just above the rings is the moon, Diode (698 miles across) . Just beyond the outer edge of the rings on the right is the moon, Pandora (50 miles across), and finally, just in the gap between the first ring cluster and the second is the tiny moon, Pan (17 mles across).

The image above is not an illustration, it is a photograph, made all the more amazing by the fact that Saturn is a billion miles from the Sun... so far, that it takes nearly 30 Earth years for Saturn to make one complete orbit of the Sun.

Here is an illustration of Saturn with the NASA Cassini Probe.

Science - It's a Girl Thing

I ran across a short promo video today called, Science - It's a Girl Thing.  It was  produced by the European Commission to encourage more young girls to choose science careers. What it surely has done is stir up a hornet's nest of controversy.

Here is the link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g032MPrSjFA

It's a music video.  It implies that science is a logical landing place for hot girls, showing off.

Wouldn't it have been more effective to just showcase some some real female scientists talking about what excites them about their work?  Though men do substantilely outnumber women in science,  there are still many extraordinary women doing science right now that surely would inspire young girls.

Jane Goodall is the most influential primate researcher in the world. Astronomer, Jill Tarter was a principle instigator for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. For  more than two decades, Tarter has led the SETI project, the world's most assertive effort to find life in other places in the universe.  She inspired an impressive growth in the number of female astronomers and cosmologists working around the world at the highest levels of the science

Here is one young scientist, astronomer, Megan Gray, commenting on 'Science - It's a Girl Thing.'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3eZQHwGQE0

The Symphony of Science

Hard to believe that Cosmos, the amazing multi-part science TV series,  first appeared on PBS in 1980. The host was the late Carl Sagan, the most charismatic presenter of sience of the time. Now, pieces of Cosmos and a number of other science TV shows have been re-engineered into a series of very clever music videos. 

Here is a link to the Symphony of Science website...  http://symphonyofscience.com/

Andromeda to hit head on with Milky Way Galaxy

Some headline, huh?  Two astronomical, galactic scale objects are on a collision course. Fortunately for those of us here in the moment, it isn't predicted to happen for another four billion years.  

It's really quite amazing that astronomers are able to recognize and put a timeline on such a colossal scale scenario.  Somehow, using data collected by the HubbleTelescope orbiting our Earth, they figured this out. Oh, by the way, our earth, our Sun, our solar system are part of the milky way galaxy.  So, look out earthlings living four billion years from now. You've been warned.

Here is the link to the article about this phenomenal bit of scientific gymnastics.

http://phys.org/news/2012-05-hubble-milky-destined-head-on-collision.html

Jupiter and Saturn up close

This remarkable video was made using NASA video footage taken during flybys by the Voyager and Cassini space missions. The video was produced by Sander van den Berg. It includes a simple but affecting  music track.

Jupiter

Saturn

Jupiter is the fifih planet from the Sun. It's distance from Earth varies between 392 and 576 million miles.   Saturn is the sixth planet, and is hundreds of millions of miles beyond Jupiter.

Here is a link to van den Berg's remarkable video...

http://vimeo.com/40234826

NASA Cassini spacecraft

NASA Voyager Spacecraft

When you look at van den Berg's video of Jupiter and Saturn, and think about the technology it took to go there and deliver this amazing video imagery, it is truly jaw dropping.  You have to wonder, when humans prove capable of such stupendous technical feats, why can't  we find the committment and the means to take better care of the Earth, the one little planet we all depend on for life.

Carl Sagan

When I was a kid, one of my heros was the great astronomer and science educator, Carl Sagan. I met him once. He was warm and bursting with charismatic intelligence.  I learned so much from reading his books and watching him on television.  He was a very serious scientist, but one of his greatest gifts was his ability to present complex scientific concepts as readily digestible bits of understanding.

Carl Sagan passed away in 1996. Others have stepped forward to pick up his mantle as science educator.  The shoes are difficult to fill. Carl Sagan set a very high standard for communIication about life and the sciences.  Without question, he was one of the greatest influences on my life.

Here is a link to a website maintained by his wife, Ann Druyan.  

http://www.carlsagan.com/

The Drake Equation

Frank Drake is a famous astronomer. He played a leading role in the establishment of the gigantic Aricebo Radio Astronomy Observatory in Puerto Rico. 

Frank Drake has long been focused on some of the most important questions known to humankind...

In the vastness of the universe, are we the only intelligent lifeform? Does life itself only exist here on Earth?

In 1961, Drake and his colleagues took a set of assumptions, based mostly on theory, and came up with a mathematical equation as a way of estimating the number of other places in the universe that might support life. It is now called, The Drake Equation.

Here is a video link that features Drake's colleague, the late, great astronomer, Carl Sagan, explaining, The Drake Equation...
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ztl8CG3Sys

Given the incredible expansiveness of space, and the near infinite number of galaxies in the universe, each filled with massive numbers of stars;  etc., etc....what comes out of this very engaging, intellectual exercise depends on the assumptions put in.   The Drake equation shows just how much that must go right in order for life to exist. Having said that, it also shows that though the conditions for life might be exceedingly hard to come by, there are so many possibilities in the vastness of the universe, that life, even intelligent life, could be common.  Then again, it might not be...  

Astronomers have been trying to detect incoming radio signals from every corner of space since the early 80s..  In all that time, nothing has come up that could be attributed to alien intelligent life from some other part of the universe.  The search continues...

The takeaway is there is no place in the vicinty of planet Earth that is particularly hospitable to life...at least not for life as we know it.  We humans may be unique.  We may well be alone in the universe.  We  have only one planet on which life flourishes, and we know that all seven billion plus of us humans depend on its rapidly dwindling, living bounty for survival. The smart play would be to appreciate what we have, and take very good care of it.  Unfortunately, that's not how it's going.  We need to mend our ways, and we need to do it soon, before its too late...