Saturday 17 March 2018

Aurora Called Steve, A Rover On Mars, A Map Of Venus, And Farewell, Professor

I think the cosmos has a great sense of synchronicity or something - 'pi' day, which marks the birth anniversary of Einstein, was the day that the great astrophysicist Steven Hawking died.
He was a role model to many, a great thinker and humanitarian, he championed the search for knowledge and refused to be limited by physical or mental restraints.
He said that religion was for people who were scared of the dark.
He also said that there were an infinite number of universes...
I like to think that he is coninuing his work in one of those universes.
"My life goal is simple - to understand the universe - why it is the way it is, and why it exists at all "




 Meanwhile, elsewhere on Earth


This article warns of the effect that human greed is having on the S.E.T.I. project , and the greed of algorithms feeding insatiable databases that is actually hindering the development of A.I : apparently, we should not fear a 'robot singularity' as current technological systems are  subject to random weirdness...

Apparently, the universe is expanding faster than it should be, giving cause for headaches to physicists around the globe.

Having reached the record breaking 5000 sols ( Mars days), NASAs  Opportunity Rover continues to surprise, currently examining Endeavour Valley for what may be evidence of a previously watery environment - speakng of which, it appears that Ceres once had an ocean that covered the surface, and the little dwarf world is still very geologically active with rock falls and ice-flows constantly revealing new material .
Here on Earth, four hundred miles beneath the surface, we find a rare form of water never encountered - until recently, it was only considered possible in outer space - speaking of which, did you ever wonder what Venus would look like if it were terraformed ?
No ?
Venus terraformed - tricky really, as the average surface temperature is 467 C, so presumably the blue oceans would be boiling...

Apparently the asteroid Bennu may strike the Earth in 2135. As I wearily added another pin to my wall map of Endtimes Predictions, I paused , because the name seemed familiar - yes, Bennu is the very asteroid chosen for the Osiris - Rex mission to collect and  return a sample to Earth.
The mission is scheduled to reach Bennu in December 2018. returning with its sample in 2023.
Thank goodness that we are ahead of the game, and will know the precise chemical composition of the asteroid long before it allegedly wipes us out.
So there's that...

As I mentioned briefly, back in April last year, there is a new aurora by the name of Steve. The name was initially a joke, but was given scientific gravitas with the official designation 'Strong Thermal Emissions Venting Enhancement'
Discovered by citizen scientists , the display of green and purple lights is primarily visible in the Calgary skies in Southern Canada.
More data and images can be found at this site.

Meanwhile, back in Blighty - I didn't know we had a National Quantum Technology Hub, but apparently such a thing exists, and from its base in Birmingham, it exports Quantum Gravimeters for the measuring of underground gravitational forces...just the thing for using on the lunar lava tubes...

Please excuse the random nature of this little blog.. I'm trying to dodge unwanted interest from a little smattering of trolls who seem to have ' adopted' my writings, with a view to ripping them off.

Thanks for bearing with me, though !

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