Our Home in 4K Video

Here we have a marvelous, high definition video of the Earth from space over four cycles of day and night. It was taken in May, 2011 by the  geosynchronous Electro-L weather  satellite.

I find myself in awe. The real Earth, the place we live, just seems so beautiful, so full of color, so alive.  It looks vibrant and alive. It doesn't look fragile, not at all... but what you can't see from 23,000 miles in space are the planet's 7.26 billion human residents. What you can't see are the relentless demands we humans put on the Earth's finite fresh water, forest, and  living ocean resources.  What you can't see is just how badly we humans have shredded the planet's living fabric.

When I look at this video, I want to nurture and protect this place. I want to stop people from abusing it.

This Earth is the only home we have...


Here is the link to a gorgeous view of planet Earth... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybh11kcDhfM#t=73
 

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

Hope You Can Swim

This is a public service announcement from the 'Ocean Overflow Protection Service'.  The subtitle of this silly but thought-provoking video is 'denial won't stop sea level rise'. 

Humor can sometimes draw attention to subjects like nothing else can.  Warning, people in Baltimore, Boston, Miami might be more alarmed than amused.

Here is the link to this goofy PSA  parody from The Center for Biological Diversity...   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PfHerJm6cY 

Americans Don't Trust Scientists

Sad but true. I can't remember a time in my life when there has been more distrust of what science has to tell us. The high level of public skepticism about global climate change is amazing given that about 99% of all climate researchers say the same thing: climate change is real; it's based on well understood atmospheric chemistry; it's a problem of immense scale that must be addressed with bold policy changes, without delay.

Why are so many people skeptical? Because hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to undermine the credible science on climate change by the fossil fuel industry, the chief cause of the air pollution that is driving atmospheric warming.  The people behind dirty fuels like coal and oil are aggressively attempting to corrupt the science behind climate change to preserve their own economic self-interest.  Fostering skepticism is a big part of their agenda.  If you want to know where the truth lies, there is an old adage that applies: 'Follow the money'.


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Americans Don't Trust Scientists

Reposted from The Huffington Post - 12-26-13

How much faith do Americans have in scientists and science journalists? Not a whole lot, a new survey finds.

In a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, only 36 percent of Americans reported having "a lot" of trust that information they get from scientists is accurate and reliable. Fifty-one percent said they trust that information only a little, and another 6 percent said they don't trust it at all.

Science journalists fared even worse in the poll. Only 12 percent of respondents said they had a lot of trust in journalists to get the facts right in their stories about scientific studies. Fifty-seven percent said they have a little bit of trust, while 26 percent said they don't trust journalists at all to accurately report on scientific studies.

What’s more, many Americans worry that the results of scientific studies are sometimes tainted by political ideology -- or by pressure from the studies’ corporate sponsors.

A whopping 78 percent of Americans think that information reported in scientific studies is often (34 percent) or sometimes (44 percent) influenced by political ideology, compared to only 18 percent who said that happens rarely (15 percent) or never (3 percent).

Similarly, 82 percent said that they think that scientific findings are often (43 percent) or sometimes (39 percent) influenced by the companies or organizations sponsoring them.

Republicans in the new poll were most likely to say that they have only a little bit of trust in scientists to give accurate and reliable information, and the most likely to say that they think scientific findings may be tainted by political ideology -- possibly reflecting distrust in scientists over topics such as evolution and climate change.


The HuffPost/YouGov poll was conducted Dec. 6-7 among 1,000 U.S. adults using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population. Factors considered include age, race, gender, education, employment, income, marital status, number of children, voter registration, time and location of Internet access, interest in politics, religion and church attendance.

The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov's nationally representative opinion polling.

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

Panspermia

The idea that life is exists everywhere in the universe is called panspermia. It was just a unproven theory, viewed skeptically by most scientists and labeled blasphemous by clerics associated with pretty much every form of human centered religion.  Not anymore.

How does one prove such an idea without traveling to other parts of the universe? On December 29, 2012, a small meteorite broke up over Sri Lanka. Debris from the object was scattered over the landscape. Many pieces of the meteorite were found and brought in for analysis. What they found was unexpected and quite amazing. The article below recaps the claims by scientists who have studied fragments of the meteorite closely. Turns out, it contains ancient fossils of lifeforms similar to microscopic fossils found here on Earth. This meteorite didn't come from Earth. It came from someplace else.  It appears to be the smoking gun that proves the existence of life in other parts of the universe.

Too soon to know how this finding will hold up.  For sure, it has to be troubling for people wedded to long entrenched religious dogma.

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Astrobiologists Find Ancient Fossils in Fireball Fragments

Algae-like structures inside a Sri Lankan meteorite are clear evidence of panspermia, the idea that life exists throughout the universe, say astrobiologists.

 

 

On 29 December 2012, a fireball lit up the early evening skies over the Sri Lankan province of Polonnaruwa. Hot, sparkling fragments of the fireball rained down across the countryside and witnesses reported the strong odour of tar or asphalt.

Over the next few days, the local police gathered numerous examples of these stones and sent them to the Sri Lankan Medical Research Institute of the Ministry of Health in Colombo. After noticing curious features inside these stones, officials forwarded the samples to a team of astrobiologists at Cardiff University in the UK for further analysis.

The results of these tests, which the Cardiff team reveal today, are extraordinary. They say the stones contain fossilised biological structures fused into the rock matrix and that their tests clearly rule out the possibility of terrestrial contamination.

In total, Jamie Wallis at Cardiff University and a few buddies received 628 stone fragments collected from rice fields in the region. However, they were able to clearly identify only three as possible meteorites.

The general properties of these three stones immediately mark them out as unusual. One stone, for example, had a density of less than 1 gram per cubic centimetre, less than all known carbonaceous meteorites. It had a partially fused crust, good evidence of atmospheric heating, a carbon content of up to 4 per cent and contained an abundance of organic compounds with a high molecular weight, which is not unknown in meteorites. On this evidence, Wallis and co think the fireball was probably a small comet.

The most startling claims, however, are based on electron microscope images of structures within the stones (see above). Wallis and co. say that one image shows a complex, thick-walled, carbon-rich microfossil about 100 micrometres across that bares similarities with a group of largely extinct marine dinoflagellate algae.

They say another image shows well-preserved flagella that are 2 micrometres in diameter and 100 micrometres long. By terrestrial standards, that’s extremely long and thin, which Wallis and co. interpret as evidence of formation in a low-gravity, low-pressure environment.

Wallis and co. also measured the abundance of various elements in the samples to determine their origin. They say that low levels of nitrogen in particular rule out the possibility of contamination by modern organisms which would have a much higher nitrogen content. The fact that these samples are also buried within the rock matrix is further evidence, they say.Wallis and co. are convinced that the lines of evidence they have gathered are powerful and persuasive. “This provides clear and convincing evidence that these obviously ancient remains of extinct marine algae found embedded in the Polonnaruwa meteorite are indigenous to the stones and not the result of post-arrival microbial contaminants,” they conclude.

There’s no question that a claim of this kind is likely to generate controversy. Critics have already pointed out that the stones could have been formed by lightning strikes on Earth although Wallis and co. counter by saying there was no evidence of lightning at the time of the fireball and that in any case, the stones do not bear the usual characteristics of this kind of strike. What’s more, the temperatures generated by lightning would have destroyed any biological content.

Nevertheless, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and Wallis and co. will need to make their samples and evidence available to the scientific community for further study before the claims will be taken seriously.

If the paper is taken at face value, one obvious question that arises is where these samples came from. Wallis and c.o have their own ideas: “The presence of fossilized biological structures provides compelling evidence in support of the theory of cometary panspermia first proposed over thirty years ago,” they say.

This is an idea put forward by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, the latter being a member of the team who has carried out this analysis.

There are other explanations, of course. One is that the fireball was of terrestrial origin, a remnant of one of the many asteroid impacts in Earth’s history that that have ejected billions of tonnes of rock and water into space, presumably with biological material inside. Another is that the structures are not biological and have a different explanation.

Either way, considerably more work will have to be done before the claims from this team can be broadly accepted. Exciting times ahead!


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Here is a link to the article as it originally appeared in teh MIT Technology Review webpagehttp://www.technologyreview.com/view/512381/astrobiologists-find-ancient-fossils-in-fireball-fragments/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130312
 

Permafrost - The Scary Tipping Point

One aspect of the threat from climate change that doesn't get much press is the situation  in the polar regions with permafrost.  When temperatures are cold enough year round the ground remains in a permanent frozen state. Scientists have long known that gigantic quantities of methane hydrate, one of the world's most potent greenhouse gases, is locked up in the permafrost at the poles. 

The problem we have now is the warming of our Earth's atmosphere has caused the permafrost to start thawing during Summer months. The more the permafrost thaws, the more greenhouse gases are released in the atmosphere, creating a situation that feeds on itself...in effect a runaway greenhouse feedback loop.

The prospect of this is very frightening. Once it reaches a tipping point, it appears there will be no stopping it, no matter how much we reduce human or anthropocentrically generated greenhouse gases.

Here is a very compelling  90 second video that explains that threat from melting permafrost.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdMLy--JxCQ&feature=player_embedded

A Fierce Green Fire

Those of us who care about our earth and are committed to saving the environment from polluters and people for whom profit is the be all and end all, can draw much inspiration from this new movie.

Here is a link to the movie trailer for A Fierce Green Fire...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94zbq5Vaod0&feature=player_embedded

Here is a link to the website for the movie...http://www.afiercegreenfire.com/

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

Nothing Like Nemo

An amazing snowstorm blanketed New England this past weekend. Called Nemo, it dumped up to forty inches of snow on Connecticut and thirty inches in Boston.

Boston after Nemo

I was born in New England and my earliest years were spent there. I loved winter and playing in the snow. It's great when you're a kid and your only concern is having fun.   I experienced some big snows, but nothing like Nemo.

As expected, there are climate deniers that claim Nemo is evidence that global warming is a hoax.  The opposite is true. Nemo was caused by a convergence of a Canadian cold front and a warmer system off the Atlantic that was loaded to the gills with moisture. When they came together, the result was Nemo with record snowfalls all over New England. The operative word here is 'warmer'. Even a tiny increase in temperature in the atmosphere over the ocean translates to substantively more moisture uptake in the weather system.

Climate change is not a hoax. The physics behind it are not complicated.  It's already bad and will continue to get worse.  Humans are responsible for climate change. Humanity must fix the problem. Now!

Here is a cool time lapse video of Nemo burying a street scene in Boston with snow.  http://vimeo.com/59328635

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

The New Abnormal

The attached video link is hilarious and also very much to the point. Colbert is a national treasure, right along with his friend and mentor, Jon Stuart.

Stephen Colbert

Here is the link to Stephen Colbert on climate change.  http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/423268/january-28-2013/the-word---the-new-abnormal

Video Tour - International Space Station

This is a very engaging tour of the International Space Station by the current commander, American astronaur Sunita Williams.

International Space Station

What makes this version so interesting is that astronaut Williams  takes the viewer through the entire orbiting station.

Astronaut Sunita Williams

Here is the link...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRzakuMjd5Y

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

Curiosity

It's an absolute marvel what NASA accomplished with it's latest Mars exploration mission.  The process of sending an unmanned spacecraft 350 million miles to a celestial object hurtling through three-dimensional space at nearly 25 kilometers per second is wonder enough.  NASA's navigation was thread-the-needle perfect.  They landed their Curiosity Mars surface explorer exactly where they intended.   The way they did it was incredibly complex.  The explorer itself weighs almost a ton. Previous methods of depositing an unmanned explorer rover on the planet's surface couldn't work. So, they engineered a complex plan to make it happen. Amazingly, it worked.

So, now NASA has a new car-sized rover named Curosity on the surface of Mars. It's loaded to the gills with cameras, and instruments, and systens for carrying out complex experiments.

I'm really glad we're getting access to all this new knowledge about Mars.  Congratulations to all the scientists, engineers, and technicians who collaborated on this achievement.  Awesome job.

So, now I keep going back to the same thought.  We are seriously screwing up our own planet. The only one we have. Why aren't we applying the same level of  intellect and intense focus on the global scale challenges we have right here on Earth?  It's not because we don't have good science, or because we don't have enough smart scientists and engineers.  They are doing their job.  We understand our problems. We know what global climate change is, and we know what we must do to fix it. The science is already in place. What we don't have here on Earth is the political will and the public policy to make things right.  

Anyway, here is a wonderful piece of NASA animation that shows how they managed to land the Curiosity rover on Mars...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4boyXQuUIw

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.