astro picture for the day/ Astronomy mysteries, Space Aliens, and Gods

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/John Landino

I've related the hypothesis about the U.F.O. craze that started up right around the time of the space age and gods before. My Thursday, March 3, 2016 blog post - astro picture for the day/ "In Search of . . ." as a window onto the mythmaking mind.  This desire to read into things "aliens/intelligence/gods" just keeps going(not that any of these people read that blog post).

This anthropocentric interpretation of anything weird in astronomical phenomenon goes back long before the two examples I'm about to show.  Back in the 1960s, Joselyn Bell and her colleages at first thought the impossibly regular energy bursts they were detecting with their new radio telescopes must be Aliens, sending out messages to us. They originally called these radio bursts - LGM's, little green men.  Here's Jocelyn's wiki - > Jocelyn Bell wiki . Scrolling down to "Academic Career", we see "In July 1967, she detected a bit of "scruff" on her chart-recorder papers that tracked across the sky with the stars.^[19] She discovered that the signal was pulsing with great regularity, at a rate of about one pulse per second. Temporarily dubbed "Little Green Man 1" (LGM-1)"  What she had in fact discovered were Neutron Stars - the compact remnant of a supernova explosion.   These were theorized before, but the theory seemed crazy at the time.  But, this craving to be saved by some intelligence has continued.

Around 2015, some astronomers were disturbed enough by a certain stars sudden brightening and dimming to suggest that, KIC 8462852, a star about a thousand light years away, must be Extraterrestrial Intelligences building a Dyson sphere.  A Dyson sphere is a kind of inverted solar collector completely surrounding a star.  So, the collective energies of the star is collected for as long as the star lives.  The smaller the star, the longer it lasts.  If you have a comparatively smaller star than our sun, this technology can feed a culture for trillions of years.  If you tap the energies of say a neutron star, or even a black hole, one could go for even longer periods, but that's beside the point here.   Here's the wiki - > KIC 8462852

Tabby's star, above, didn't get any E.T.'s.  So, the search has continued. Now, it's great radio bursts from billions of light years away. These impossibly energetic bursts must be E.T.'s accelerating solar sails to near light speed!  If not that, they must be E.T's, billions of light years away, trying to make contact with . . . us! Here's the fast radio bursts wiki - > fast radio bursts wiki Quoting from it(scrolling down to "Origin Hypothesis"), "Some have speculated that these signals might be signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.^["

While I'm at it, let's show some. I remember meeting some fellow Avionic Tech back in my navy days. Me and this guy actually went out some some American Civil war park in Tennessee.  Somewhere in there, he related something to me.  I mean I'm talking science, and his scientific excitement is . . . the face from Mars. Googling "face of Mars" didn't take me long to find this wiki -> Cydonia (region of Mars) . The first image is this famous "face of mars."

I'm willing to guess that I don't have to point out which mound on this Mars image is the face of mars.

Here's the recent imaging of this face of Mars,

The wiki link provided above even shows what E.T. dreamers hope is an Alien pyramid,

I can't even keep track of how many times  I've seen at Yahoo news, people viewing images from the Jet propulsion laboratory, have found some impossible space relic somewhere on the surface of Mars. There must be some shiny piece of an Alien spacecraft off in the distance. It just never ends.

Even some of the most rationalistic futurists, like Arthur C. Clarke was fond of reading into astronomical phenomenon, some intelligence.  I remember reading in some writing of his that one of the asteroid moons is hollow.  Ope!  says Arthur C. Clarke it must be some calling card from an ancient Extraterrestrial Intelligence.  There must be a library of knowledge in there that these E.T's must have left us to save us from ourselves.

I don't feel like rereading Isaac Asimov's "Extraterrestrial Civilizations", but as time goes on, the book takes center stage.  It was the original "Rare Earth Hypothesis."  And, it's a great rationalists book about Extraterrestrial Civilizations. It points out that the mythologizing of god(s) of ancient times is the same as the U.F.O. craze of today.

thought for the day - nanotech generalisation for Gospel of Truth - real life proof of fear

Image Credit: Rosetta OSIRIS-NAC

It's been awhile since I read Eric Drexler's chapter on A.I. in his "Engines of Creatoin."  So, I don't remember it all, and I don't feel like rereading it this very instant.  But, I recall him talking about how if someone uses a hammer, they view everything in terms of nailing things. I found a book, comparatively recently, called "Metaphors we live by" which is saying much the same thing that Eric Drexler says about the guy with a hammer.  That one often expresses, or understands everything in terms of some ingrained idea.  Intelligence is when one overcomes these very specific viewpoints.

If we are to make ethical anything, one should question everything.  One should seek the highest viewpoint. I agree with Jacob Bronowski, the highest viewpoint is mathematics. Understand how mathematics works, and understand how everything relates to that gives the wholistic viewpoint of everything else. I explain Jacob Bronowski's philosophy of mathematics a little bit here and there in my "Gospel of Truth."  But, for the most part, I concentrate on the mythology side first.

- My Gospel of Truth -  http://wwwscientifichumanism.blogspot.com/2017/01/gospel-of-truth-final-complete-version.html

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before they had electromagnetic radar, they had stone sound radars to detect aircraft - http://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/07/13/radar-used-giant-concrete-sound-mirrors-detect-incoming-enemy-aircraft/

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quote for the day,

“Seldom do those who are silent make mistakes.” Uncle Eunar, in Norse Mythology

for here, The Sayings of Hár - http://www.asatru.org/havamal.html

- this is real life data - not just some movie dramatization.  A Pamela L. Gay quoted it . . .

“Seldom do those who are silent make mistakes.” Uncle Eunar, in Norse Mythology by @neilhimself This is a lesson we all need now and then.

- Scientists today, it seems have a psychological problem.  They're worried about loosing their 'reputations' if they say one wrong thing. Wait a minute, how do we come up with a new idea if one doesn't come up with new ideas?  One should loose their reputations if they don't test their new ideas, discard it if it doesn't fit the data. Or, they should loose their reputations if they don't try daring new ideas.  If they hide behind all kinds of evasive language.

    Either through childhood experiences or they never learned the scientific spirit in the first place of being excited by new connections/ideas, the fact that scientists today are afraid to point out irrationality is proof of the power of the dark side of the force. My pun on all this fear/evasive language I've been pointing out.

fear/evasive language . . . Planet of the Apes

Astronomers have this volcano named specifically - Tvashtar Paterae. This video of an Io volcano was taken by the New Horizon's spacecraft.  The spacecraft that went on to image Pluto/Charon for the first time.

As with my "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" post, just below, see my Sophie and Silas post if you haven't seen it, or don't know what I'm talking about.

I'm amazed at seeing these great dramatizations of fear and irrationality from, probably non-mathematical scientists.  Maybe mathematical scientists don't have time to put these types of things together. People are generally too busy to stop and notice things.  It takes stopping to notice things.

I like to point out how a stream looks chaotic.  But, if you manage to pick a point upstream and follow it down about the same speed as the stream, suddenly a simple, stable pattern is revealed. It takes this type of stopping ones busy life to notice things, to do mathematics, and to notice these fear and evasive tactics. 

Anyway, let's do the Planet of the Apes movie highlights of fear/evasive language . . .

Here, Dr. Zaius, who's in charge of both the science and religion of the Planet of the Apes, comes in to see Taylor(the caged human who can talk). Dr. Zaius uses evasive denial language when he says "he has a talent for mimicry." Zira, the female Ape of behavioral science is stunned at the close-mindedness.  Dr. Zaius says "it's a question of survival."  Well, that's what's left out of this movie clip.

In the above outdoor cage scence. Taylor writes in the sand.  A Ape soldier says "I don't get it; what's Zira trying to prove?"  Dr. Zaius replies "that man can be domesticated" at which both laugh it off.  Dr. Zaius notices and then erases Taylor's writing in the sand.

- Some scenes not readily found on youtube right now . . .

Taylor is with Zira and her boyfriend/archaeologists Cornelius.  Taylor writes some letters(because he can't speak due to an injury); but, Cornelius is shaking his head in denial.  Zira is saying "don't you believe your own eyes?"

Taylor has a court hearing with Dr. Zaius and all his fellow believers.  Dr. Zaius tests Taylor by saying "what's the second article of the faith". I feel like I need to rewatch this part. Dr. Zaius is trying to disprove Taylor's story, and Dr. Zaius just thinks that if the ideas are not already expressed in the scripture, then don't listen to new ideas. - Cornelius starts reading Taylors letters, because the Court has already banned Taylor from doing any writing(which would prove his case).  They then stop Cornelius from finishing Taylors written testimony.

Taylor has a private talk with Dr. Zaius.  A highlight is Dr. Zaius says there's no conflict between science and faith - so long as the science is in support of the religion.

Here's the famous statue of liberty scence at the end of the Planet of the Apes movie. Dr. Zaius destroys the archaeology dig where Cornelius was digging to hide the evidence of a pre-Ape/Human world.  This is like Pres Trump today who want to shut up climate scientists, burn the books. If one tries to operate a piece of technology with illogical concepts, the machine doesn't work - in computer programming, this is called a bug. If one destroys rationality and science, then the science/technology world will fall apart.

fear/evasive language, and . . . Invasion of the body snatchers

Copyright ESA/Herschel/PACS, SPIRE/Hi-GAL Project. Acknowledgement: UNIMAP / L. Piazzo, La Sapienza – Università di Roma; E. Schisano / G. Li Causi, IAPS/INAF, Italy

More evasive language I've been finding that proves fear of thinking(for whatever reason) found in the movies "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."  The 1978 version even features Leonard Nimoy.

For those who don't know what I'm talking about, check out my Sophie and Silas post - Jun 8, 2015 post.

- The Invasion of the body snatchers is a kind of parable of how people pick up ideas and become cultish.  Of how people become conditioned in a given culture and incrowd.  Of how, if someone doesn't go with the cultural flow, they get pointed out.  This all seems surreal; but, the following Biblical quotes proves it!

2 Thessalonians3:6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us."

and another, "3:14 And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed."

Well, the first scene I can find that corresponds to my notes is the rat terd scene,

Here, Donald Sutherland, who plays Matthew, finds a rat terd in the food.  The owner uses evasive language, being in denial, and calls it a caper. Some of the rest of the scene that is not shone are the restaurant chefs acting offended at Matthews presence.  Then, when Matthew finds the rat terd, they go and egg his car.

One of the main characters, Elizabeth, explains to Matthew that her punk husband has changed.  She followed him once and noticed he's with others and they're all passing around seed-pods. This reminds me of religious people who run around passing out bibles.  - I further noted that this passing around of seed-pods is like Eric Drexler's "disruptive".  Everyone gets in the act - to be cool.

The scene above is a guy who's trying to whistle blow; but, Matthew just blows him off.  He doesn't want to think there's a problem.  He's a bit cowardly here.  The whistle blower runs and gets hit by a car.  They turn the corner, and they see everyone looking at the whistle blower in a rather empty feeling way. They're all the converted.

- There's a scene where Matthew is calling Elizabeth's huspand.  The husband doesn't say anything.  He just listens and hangs up so that Elizabeth can fall asleep and wake up as one of the pod-seed people.

Elizabeth tries to get one of the pod-flowers tested.  But, her boss is uncooperative.  He asks "how" and tells her "you're consistently late".  He doesn't want the flower tested.  He doesn't want information to get out until the pod-seed invasion of the body snatchers conspiracy is in full swing.

The above is kind of a central scene. Matthew and Elizabeth are found by the now converted Leonard Nimoy and some others. Leonard Nimoy and the others say, "It's so much easier if you just convert."  Then, they make a bunch of evasive spin doctor talk - "all are one", "born into an untroubled world", "no fears or anxiety", "no room for hate . . . or love", and "don't be trapped by old concepts."

This last scene is kind of famous amongst "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" fans. Earlier in the movie, when he, Elizabeth, and his other friends are running away from the pod-people, they learn that if they just act like the rest, they can walk amongst them - unnoticed.  The last scene is a play like Matthew has perfected this. One of his friends finds him and thinks he must know how to walk amongst the drones as well.  But, to her horror, Matthew screams and points to her, signaling to the others that he's found someone who's walking disorderly.

astro picture(s) of the day

Image Credit & Copyright: Ivan Eder

This picture has Cygnus X-1 - the first black hole discovered, in the 1970s. The blue bow shock is from the black hole's affect on the surrounding nebula.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, MAST; Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI, MSSS; Processing: Damian Peach

another great new picture of Jupiter from the Juno spacecraft

Image Credit: ESO, VLT Survey Telescope

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Reprocessing & Copyright: Raul Villaverde

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Reprocessing & Copyright: Raul Villaverde

Image Credit - NASA/ New Horizons

Image Credit - ALMA observatory - NRAO, NSF Math & Phys Sci, NAOJ

Image Credit - ALMA, NRAO, NAOJ ALMA project, Nature Astronomy

A Dark Winter Sky over Monfragüe National Park in Spain
Image Credit & Copyright: José Luis Quiñones (Entre Encinas y Estrellas)

and for the craziest astronomical discovery possible, a moon of Saturn!

I shit you not!

Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block, Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter, U. Arizona

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Reprocessing & Copyright: Jesús M.Vargas & Maritxu Poyal

UGC 12591: The Fastest Rotating Galaxy Known
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble

Image Credit & Copyright: Alyn Wallace Photography

One of the best Aurora pictures I've seen.

Credit:

NASA, ESA/Hubble . . . i'm not sure that these images are zoomable enough for my readers actually.  One should go to at least one source of my astro pictures - ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope and click some of the downloads on the right hand side.  Zoom up pretty close -just before you see pixels and roam around.  There's also a zoom movie at this link - > New Hubble image of Kleinmann-Low Nebula

Note further that the ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope webpage names this Kleinmann-Low Nebula, and not just Orion nebula.  The Orion Nebula has this Kleinman-Low part, and the Horseshoe nebula at another part.  You can see this viewing the zoom in movie at the link above.

astro picture for the day/ Juno spacecraft's Jupiter "Great Red Spot"

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstaedt/John Rogers

Acharya S "Respect my Religion"

Acharya S worked hard to reexplore and re-present the sungods astrotheology over the last few decades(since about 1999). Her "Christ in Egypt" and "Did Moses Exist" put her in a class all her own. There were some before her in the 1980s like Wells, and in the 1990s, there was Earl Doherty. I suspect her SunGods book might be a good read also.  I haven't read it yet. Remarkably, she died on Dec 25th, 2015.  The birthdate that so many sungods have.

I found her a bit temperamental, actually.  I remember trying to explain to her that Jacob Bronowski explains, in his "Science and Human Values" that mathematics and poetry share a common feature in analogy. And that mythology is also . . . poetry. She went off on a anti-rationalist tirade and even compared Spock to the devil and such. I posted a bunch of her findings, from her "Did Moses Exist", all based on confirmations of primary sources, and she comes in under some other name and says I'm plagerizing!  I know she delt with a lot of people; but, man, me and her never got along!  I mean she didn't "respect my rationalist religion".  She didn't stop to consider the ideas, either refute them with factrs or logic, or find them right after facts/logic.  Instead, she goes into some really weird psycho mode. I just can't help posting this great video of hers!  Some thought for the day along with this great new picture of the Great Red Spot of Jupiter!

astro picture for the day/ Gliese 710 and generalisations / Mike Brown's Planet9 and planet definitions

Image Credit & Copyright: John Gleason

- a famous picture from 1833 of a 'meteor storm',

I remember reading somewhere(sorry, I didn't keep track of the reference; I managed to find the picture above from Leonid meteor shower wiki) that astronomers determined that the reason why there was  a meteor storm instead of your usual meteor shower(usually a trickle; one a minute just isn't that exciting) in  1833 is because a big cometary debris passed by . . . dangerously close.  To have that many meteors going on(millions per second) means large enough cometary debris was passing by . . . one so large, that if it had hit, we wouldn't be sitting here today.

Astronomers have likewise noted all kinds of things that will happen on astronomical timescales.  The sun will turn into a red giant  . . . four billion years from now.  This may seem like a long time from now, but astronomers have further noted that the sun will start getting to hot in a few hundred million years from now.  The process to becoming a red giant starts in a few hundred million years.

Another major astronomical event that should prove exciting is the Andromeda galaxy will collide with the Milky Way galaxy.  It will start to do so four billion years from now, also. Astronomers will tell you that both these galaxies are so diffuse, the chance of stellar collisions is slight.  This may be so, but the energies put into the motions of the stars is likely to disrupt planetary orbits. The gases and dust that hide the gamma rays and such from the center black holes is likely to be disrupted.  Anyways, I bring these things up because astronomers have determined that a star is heading towards our solar system in about 1.35 million years from now.

Gliese 710 is likely to get within 77 light days of our solar system.  There's likely to be a comet shower(up to 10 comets a year) for millions of years.  The chances are pretty good more than one comet hits the Earth in this time. In fact, Gliese 710's cometary shower is likely to be the biggest such comet shower our solar system has ever experienced.

Astronomers and Space expansion enthusiasts have been championing space colonization to overcome humanity getting wiped out from some astronomical(or nuclear winter) since the space age.  Some of this still sounds astronomically far off; but, it can't be too early to start.



- Mike Brown's demotion of Pluto from a planet . . . definition of a Planet . . . and Planet 9

I don't remember if I've posted this before; but, it can't hurt to repost.  Getting back to Mike Brown's discoveries and demotion of Pluto from planet-hood . . .



Mike Brown discovered Sedna and Eris amongst others. Mike then used these plethora of discoveries to push for demoting Pluto from planethood.  I'm of mixed feelings about it.  Of further note about Sedna and other such trans-Neptunion objects, Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin have suggested some of these objects have odd orbits, suggesting the existence of a Neptunion like planet pretty far out in the Kuiper belt(not the Oort comet cloud even further out).



I recall people arguing against Pluto as a planet before Mike Brown.  But, there was little reason to till Mike Brown found so many close to pluto like sized objects even further out.  People noticed it was an iceball and an odd orbit for a long time. This is where I also argue the other way; yes, Pluto is different from the inner rocky planets and the gas giants; but, wait a minute!  The gas giants are different from smaller inner rocky worlds. So, to say Pluto is different in composition shouldn't demote it from planethood.



Mike Brown and Konstantin like to say that planets bully, or dominate, the gravity around them.  I just asked Mike Brown, "O.K. so what "planet" dominates the gravity of Charon - Pluto's moon?" 

I further pointed out the above about different compositions of the gas giants vs the inner rocky worlds. I then pointed out that Jupiter has a set of "planets" in orbit around  it much like the four inner rocky worlds and the four outer gas giants. I noted that the sun early on in its life, had stellar winds that pushed lighter elements further out in orbit around the solar system, leaving the heavier elements closer in.  The lighter elements formed the gas giants, and the heavier elemens the solar wind couldn't eject further out formed the inner rocky planets. Astronomers have shown that the Galilean satellites also display this difference in lighter and heavier elements.  The outer moons, Ganymede and Callisto, are made of more lighter elements than the inner "Planet" of Jupiter, Europa and Io. So, we could say that these round worlds(to distinguish from the comets and asteroids) are differentiated between inner and outer worlds, or planets. Likewise, we end up with icy round worlds even further out - Pluto, and now Sedna, Eris and more. So, we end up with three types of "Planets" - rocky, gas giant, and small icy worlds.


Scientists have known for a long time that the distinguishing feature of planets is that they have differentiation of elements(atom types).  They have an inner core that is made of heavier elements than the surrounding crust(or more layers).  This is an obvious definition of a planet from mere rocks(asteroids/comets and so on).



- I should have started this by pointing out that Planet is a vague word much like phlogiston was a pre- theory of fire before combustion was understood to explain fire.  Jacob Bronowski likes to point out phlogiston to explain his theory of knowledge.  I think this whole planet controversy is also an example of how people have a pre-vague concept, and then a later more mathematically well defined word.  See Jacob Bronowski's "Origins of Knowledge and Imagination."