Astronomy

OK, I spent *way* too much time playing this game last night: Orbitrunner. And because I'm the kind of guy that I am, I wanted to inflict it on you.

It's actually a very interesting bit of gaming, for as simple as seems at first glance. Here's the description from the site:

Control the Sun with your mouse. Use it to manipulate the planets' paths. The Sun's pull gets stronger as planets get closer. If the gravity is at a right angle to the direction of travel, an orbit can form. Make sure planets don't leave the screen or collide!

I'm a space nerd, which means I love reading about what space geeks have discovered about our universe, and looking at the pretty pictures NASA releases. The Hubble Ultra Deep Space photo has been around for a few years now, so most of you probably have heard about it and seen it, but just for a refresher, here are some images. I've made the widest angel view of the image my desktop background. (As I said, a space nerd as opposed to a space geek.) And this YouTube video provides for a better perspective of just how small a slice of the sky these pictures are taken from.

Think about it: over 10,000 galaxies in what I think has been described as 1/170,000th of the sky. Each galaxy has between 100,000 and 100 billion stars, with varying numbers of planets. How utterly foolish it is to think that this big, wondrous universe was set in motion by a petty, belligerent war-god who gets pissed off if you touch a woman who's on her period or have sex before being married in his name.

Do you recognize these words?

"HOUSTON, TRANQUILITY BASE HERE.
THE EAGLE HAS LANDED."

Of course you do. That's the transmission sent to NASA Mission Control from the Moon on this date in 1969.

I was at a Boy Scout camp outside of St. Louis when it happened. That night, we all sat around a big firepit, and tried to watch a small black and white portable television with bad reception as Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin (Buzz) E. Aldrin, Jr. made the first human steps onto the Lunar surface and spoke these words (links to audio file on Wikipedia):

"That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."

And the world was changed forever.

So, where were you?

Jim Downey

(Cross posted to my blog.)

You may have heard - the Vatican has said that it is OK to believe in E.T. No, not that silly puppet, but actual aliens, "our brothers" (like this kind?):

VATICAN CITY - Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God, the Vatican's chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.

The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.

"How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?" Funes said. "Just as we consider earthly creatures as 'a brother,' and 'sister,' why should we not talk about an 'extraterrestrial brother'? It would still be part of creation."

Because - I shit you not -

Ruling out the existence of aliens would be like "putting limits" on God's creative freedom, he said.

(ACPA-london) Excitement is growing in the Northern England town of Huddlesfield following the news that a local man saw an image of the Big-Bang in a piece of toast. Atheist Donald Chapman, 36, told local newspaper, "The Huddlesfield Express" that he was sitting down to eat breakfast when an unusual toast pattern caught his eye.

"I was just about to spread the butter when I noticed a fairly typical small hole in the bread surrounded by a burnt black ring. however the direction and splatter patterns of the crumbs as well as the changing shades emanating outwards from this black hole were very clearly similar to the chaotic-dynamic non-linear patterns that one would expect following the Big-Bang". "It's the beginning of the world" he added excitedly.

Ever since news of the discovery made national headlines, local hoteliers have been overwhelmed by an influx of atheists from all over the country who have flocked to Huddlesfield to catch a glimpse of the scientific relic. "I have always been an Atheist and to see my life choices validated on a piece of toast is truly astounding" said one guest at the Huddlesfield Arms hotel.

Back in 2005, Stephen Darksyde published a fantastic article here at UTI called "Ancestral Magnitudes". It used the metaphor of the "generation", and colorfully described human evolution in terms of our ancestors.

[DarkSyde] If the idea of a flat-earth or the Sun-god is a part of that faith then you either ignore the science and live in willful ignorance-at least in regard to that conflict-and trust to faith, or you adjust your theology. Those really are your only two choices as far as I can see.

What your objection more than likely reveals is that you don't like the idea of being the product of 'random' physics and biochemistry, that you feel there is no room for a Creator in such a scenario. I cannot imagine greater natural evidence for the Brilliance of a Creator than complex process unfolding over billions of years through countless steps in exquisite order spanning the entire Cosmos. The technical skill and artistic vision of such is to be admired in awe, and in that context evolution should be worthy of your devotion, not your disdain.

I encourage you to read the whole thing if you haven't already. It'll blow your mind.

A few days ago, Xavier Onassis from the blog "Doubting Faith" published the same sort of mind-blowingly cool article about our universe, and it puts our place in that universe into stark, unflinching perspective.

[Xavier Onassis] Just for the sake of argument, let's assume that a universe this vast, and this spectacular could not be a random occurrence. Personally, I don't have a problem with it being one big coincidence. But, let's just say it's not.

Do you really think that a hypothetical all-powerful, all-knowing God, responsible for the creation of EVERYTHING in this incredibly vast universe would really give a flying fuck how you voted in the last election? Whether or not a couple of gay guys get married? Whether or not you keep Kosher or go on The Hajj?

Get over yourselves. You're not that fucking important. You need to look at the Big Picture and put things in perspective.

Just excellent. Highly recommended. Great job, Xavier.

I wrote this personal item for my blog this morning, but then realized that it was in many ways a perfect summation of how I see the world. Feel free to ignore.

Jim D.

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I commented via email to a close friend yesterday about the persistent fever my MIL has been running, 2 to 2.5 degrees above her normal. We'd seen fevers come and go for the last several months, but this one seems to have settled in for a while. I got back this:

Any particular reason for it, or is she just being like a star that's going into its final flameout?

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

*This post previously ran last year. And while some of the personal details mentioned in it have changed - I did indeed keep that promise to tweak my manuscript - the sentiment is the same.

Jim D.

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This has been a hell of a day. Not as bad as some, perhaps, but as far as routine days go, not the sort you want to pop up often in the queue. It started with my mother-in-law being ill. Now, most adults know how a young child (either their own or one they've babysat) can be when sick. Think intestinal bug. Think explosive diarrhea, of the toxic/caustic variety. Poor kid doesn't understand what's going on, or how to best cope with their misbehaving body (if they are capable of that on their own yet). Then picture that not in a toddler, but in a 95-pound woman well into dementia before the effects of dehydration and fever kick in. Took my wife and I two full hours to get her and the bedroom cleaned up.

Just curious, what would you do in the scenario outlined in this news item?

LONDON (Reuters) -- An asteroid is on a collision course with the earth and you have one hour left to live. What would you do in your last 60 minutes?

Not surprisingly, the majority of Britons questioned in a survey -- 54 percent -- said they would like to spend it either with or on the phone to their loved ones.

But the survey revealed a strong hedonistic streak -- 13 percent would sit back, accept the inevitable and reach for a glass of champagne.

Sex appealed to only nine percent while just three percent would turn to prayer.

Interesting. I wonder what the stats would be here in the much more religious US? Would more people "turn to prayer" in such a situation, or would the reality of immanent death show up their real priorities?

Me? Put me in that hedonistic crowd...preferably in the company of friends and loved ones. The thought of prayer wouldn't even cross my mind.

Jim Downey

So, Arecibo needs money. Not a lot of money. More than I have. But not a lot of money, as such things go.

Yes, the National Science Foundation has told the folks who run the Arecibo Observatory that they need to come up with outside funding to the tune of half their annual budget, or they will be shut down. How much is this? $4 million. From the news report:

But among astronomers, Arecibo is an icon of hard science. Its instruments have netted a decades-long string of discoveries about the structure and evolution of the universe. Its high-powered radar has mapped in exquisite detail the surfaces and interiors of neighboring planets.

And it is the only facility on the planet able to track asteroids with enough precision to tell which ones might plow into Earth -- a disaster that could cause as many as a billion deaths and that experts say is preventable with enough warning.

Pretty much everyone has had the experience of having your computer crash and take out data you hadn't backed-up properly. Whether it is some kind of hardware failure, or a virus, or a lighting strike, or even a malicious employee/spouse/whomever, at some point we have all lost stuff on a computer we thought was secure. If you're *really* lucky, you don't lose much, and you learn the painful lesson about keeping important information properly backed-up on recoverable media. If you're not really lucky, you learn the hard way that you can lose years of hard work in just an instant, with no recovery possible.

And that's the basic idea behind building a secure storage facility for the bulk of human knowledge, and perhaps even humanity itself, off-planet. The people behind the newly formed Alliance to Rescue Civilization want to do just that:

'Lunar Ark' Proposed in Case of Deadly Impact on Earth

I remember, when I was a kid back in the 60s, that it was still fairly common for people to routinely and without much thought to just toss junk out of their cars onto the side of the road. I'm not talking about the occasional idiot with no care for the environment - I'm talking about your typical American. The roadsides, as a result, were awful. This was also still the era of private and informal 'dumps' all through the countryside where people would just literally fill up a small creek valley with their trash and unwanted junk. It wasn't really until the nascent environmental movement got going that people started to think of the world a bit differently, and within a decade or so it was no longer culturally acceptable to just toss junk out of your car or dump your trash.

So, when I see this kind of news item, I am taken back to those days:

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A spacewalking astronaut tossed two large chunks of junk off the international space station Monday, hurling the old equipment into orbit.

Humans are still much better than computers with many types of pattern recognition. And a new effort called Galaxy Zoo is tapping into that ability, and the desire of many people to participate in scientific endeavours, to help sorting out images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. From the press release on the site:

Astronomers are inviting members of the public to help them make major new discoveries by taking part in a census of one million galaxies.

Visitors to www.galaxyzoo.org will get to see stunning images of galaxies, most of which have never been viewed by human eyes before. By sorting these images into “spiral galaxies” (like our own Milky Way) or “elliptical galaxies”, visitors will help astronomers to understand the structure of the universe. The new digital images were taken using the robotic Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescope in New Mexico.

In a few days I'll turn 49. Statistically, I've got a couple more decades to go. Realistically, I could drop dead tomorrow from an undiagnosed heart condition, develop cancer or some other terminal disease, or just get hit by a truck. You tend to take this sort of philosophical attitude when your own parents both died before they hit 40.

But that does not define my life - I do not constantly worry or live in fear. I don't panic when I hear that they've found a couple of car bombs in the heart of London, any more than I lose my head over reports of a new strain of bird flu discovered in Indonesia, or that there are weather conditions that favor the development of tornadoes in my area.

My friend Jim sent me a link to this strip called Diesel Sweeties - today's is particularly insightful & cutting. I'll leave it to Brent if he wishes to do a capture and add it here.

A brief note - I haven't been posting as much (nor as fully) as I'd like, due to some health issues with my mother-in-law (see profile to the left) demanding more time and energy. Playing it by ear.

Jim Downey

WASHINGTON - For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for “life in the universe.”

Wow. It may not seem like it, but the universe just changed.

No, this doesn’t mean that there is life elsewhere other than our little rock. Let alone intelligent life. But make no mistake - this is something of a milestone.

Welcome 581 c. Welcome to the history books.

Jim Downey

(Cross posted to CommunionBlog.)

So, let's see...tonight there's going to be a Total Lunar Eclipse, the first in over two years if memory serves.

Now we understand the phenomenon, thanks to science. But I'm sure in the past many pre-scientific people turned to religion for an explanation, and there were likely various types of sacrifices offered to the gods to appease them and bring back the Moon.

So, two thoughts occur to me - first, that this is a good opportunity to point out how science has killed off most of the old superstitions...and that maybe people should draw the conclusion that their new superstitions are really no better. And second, I need to research the favorite drink of Nicolaus Copernicus, and raise a glass of whatever it is this evening as my own personal tribute/sacrifice to the man who brought us the heliocentric model of the solar system. Anybody know?

Jim Downey

Just in case you need a little reality-check following too much celebration of New Years, stop by Bible Doctrine News. Just a taste of the insanity, in the entry for today:

January 1 (Day 1, Unity): The year 2007 means a category. The number, 7, represents a category. God completed the work of re-creation of the heavens and the earth in six days, and on the seventh He rested. Thus, the number, 7, refers to the completion of the category of one week, and the Sabbath day became a day of rest to commemorate Grace. In Grace, God does the work, and man is free to respond and reap the benefits of His completed work. At the end of the 7 days of re-creation, all of the categories of production for man had been completed. These categories included categories of animal species, plants, air, land, water, light, the heavens, and the Earth.

But to really have fun, poke around a bit. My buddy Gerhardt sent me the link to this site, pointing me particularly to this choice bit, about the planet Mars:

This has been a hell of a day. Not as bad as some, perhaps, but as far as routine days go, not the sort you want to pop up often in the queue. It started with my mother-in-law being ill. Now, most adults know how a young child (either their own or one they've babysat) can be when sick. Think intestinal bug. Think explosive diarrhea, of the toxic/caustic variety. Poor kid doesn't understand what's going on, or how to best cope with their misbehaving body (if they are capable of that on their own yet). Then picture that not in a toddler, but in a 95-pound woman well into dementia before the effects of dehydration and fever kick in. Took my wife and I two full hours to get her and the bedroom cleaned up.

Via BoingBoing  comes news that the folks at Celebrating Sagan are holding a blog-a-thon in tribute to the scientist and science educator on the 10th anniversary of his death (Dec. 20th).

Check it out, and consider what you might like to say about the man tomorrow.

Jim Downey