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Last month ended with headlines hinting that our first glimpse of extraterrestrial life was just around the corner. " Discovery Alert: A ‘Super-Earth’ in the Habitable Zone " Pat Brennan, NASA News (January 31, 2024) " Scientists More Hopeful Than Ever That Perseverance Has Already Found Life on Mars " Carly Cassella, ScienceAlert (January 24, 2024) A week later, there's the usual politics and pandemonium in the news: but no space aliens. I'm not surprised. I'm not disappointed, either. I am, however, excited about what we've found in Jezero crater, and a new world that's not quite Earth 2.0. Perseverance on Mars: Sediment and Speculation Bacteria and Mars TOI-715 b: Habitable? Maybe — Worth Studying? Definitely! Extraterrestrial Life: Bat-People and Making Sense Anyway Evidence, Logic, and — Maybe — Extraterrestrial Life Earth 2.0, Reality, and an Op-Ed 'Because Aristotle Says So'?! Belief, Preference, and God Mor...

As I've said before, this isn't the world I grew up in. Back then, the Solar System had nine planets, assorted moons, and asteroids. Plus, of course, the sun. Now we've got planets, dwarf planets, minor planets, natural satellites, trans-Neptunian objects, plutoids, comets, centaurs, and small Solar System bodies. Just to keep things interesting, definitions for the new labels overlap. Some labels, like plutoids, didn't catch on; and it all keeps changing as we collect more data. This week I'll be talking about sednoids, another subset of trans-Neptunian object; 1 along with whatever else comes to mind. "All the News That's Fit to Print" — and Some That Isn't 'COMET PILLS! GAS MASKS!! GET 'EM WHILE YOU CAN!!!' Sedna, Sednoids, and Orbits: Traces of a Missing World? Beyond the Kuiper Cliff: An Unexpected Void and Wandering Worlds Charting the Borderlands of Sol Out of the Ecliptic, Beyond the Kuiper Belt To be Continued...

Nerd alert! This week I used words like deuterium and magnetohydrodynamics. And I may have gone into more detail that necessary about why we didn’t have fusion power generators in the 1960s. A British company's plans for test-firing a fusion rocket engine got my attention last week. I'd planned on writing about it then, but a dental procedure and household matters got in the way. So I researched and made more notes over the weekend, and when my town's power came back online late Monday afternoon: the notes weren't there any more. That's something I may talk about, sometime next week. Anyway, I re-researched, got stuck and/or distracted a couple times — I'll talk about tralphium and mindsets in a bit — and ended up with this post. Which, as it turned out, included a bit about NASA's interest in UAPs and the serious search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Sunshine, Energy and Mass: Fusion Basics Thermonuclear Weapons, History and Ideas: Ver...

There may have been times when one generation's world was much like another's. This is not one of those times. Science textbooks of my youth included speculation that Earth's mountains exist because our planet has been cooling and shrinking. One of my geology professors didn't "believe in" continental drift, and that's another topic. Back then, we knew that planets orbit our star, but weren't sure how the star we call the Sun and the Solar System formed. We still don't, for that matter. Not for sure. But the nebular hypothesis, or something very much like it, is a pretty good fit with observations. I'll get back to that, and some of what we've been learning about planetary systems: including TRAPPIST-1 and its seven worlds. More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (New planetary system pattern discovered. TRAPPIST-1 worlds. Solar System formation and evolution ideas, from Descartes to pulsar planets. Psalms 115:3.)

Venus is dead as a doornail as far as life is concerned. Life as we know it, at any rate, and already I'm drifting off-topic. Geologically, though, we've know that there's still metaphorical life in Venus. Or was, until very recently. Orbiters have sent back evidence of geologically-recent volcanic activity, including images of shield volcanoes and lava flows. But we had no direct evidence of a volcano that's active now. Until scientists sifted through data recorded and stored in the early 1990s. Observing Venus: Five Millennia in About 700 Words Telescopic Views Pulp Fiction and the Radar Astronomers Missions to Venus SAR, Science and Magellan Active(?) Volcano on Venus: Maat Mons From the Magellan Archives: a Changing Volcanic Vent — — And New Lava Flows, Maybe Hot Spots, Sulfur Dioxide, Venusian Volcanoes and Acronyms Missions, Maps, Maat Mons and Mor e "Greater Admiration" More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Views of Ven...

...The Webb data had already been used in 21 research papers, back in February. I'd prefer looking up a few of them, picking out one that sounded interesting, and talking about it. But I've had a distracted week. So today I'll focus on some really cool pictures from the JWST/Webb telescope. Mostly. NGC 1433: Hubble Space Telescope's View Abell 2744, 'Pandora's Cluster': Closer Look, New Details of Distant Galaxies Galaxies, Gravity and More Galaxies Lensed Galaxies: Showing How Gravity Lenses Work Earth-Size, But Not Earth 2.0 LHS 475 b: Methane, No; Carbon Dioxide, Maybe; Or Maybe No Atmosphere At All Terrestrial, Telluric, Solid, or Rocky: There's No Place Like Home More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (A closer look at NGC 1433, Abell 2744: and distant galaxies. LHS 475 b, Earth-size but not Earth-like. Defining terrestrial planets.)

It's been a year since I wrote about the Mars 2020 mission. This seemed like a good time to catch up on what the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter have been up to in Jezero Crater. The Ingenuity helicopter has been scouting ahead, giving folks back on Earth up-close aerial views of places the Perseverance rover will be visiting. It was a test vehicle for powered flight on Mars, so it wasn't loaded with a great many sensors.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . Studying Mars: Ancient Egypt, Schiaparelli and Lowell. Perseverance in Jezero Crater. Martian weather and climate: and maybe ice ages.

Several days ago, a robot on Mars selected a hollow coring bit from its tool kit, drilled into a rock, withdrew the tool and placed the core into a sample tube. At least, that's what should have happened. But just to be sure, Perseverance felt inside the tube and took a look before sealing it. Oops. The sample tube was empty. NASA's discussion of the robot's first try at collecting samples is more detailed and less anthropomorphic.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Picking up where I left off yesterday, Perseverance is on Mars. The UAE's Hope (Misabar Al Amal) and China's Tianwen-1 had already arrived. Misabar Al Amal is historically important. It's the UAE's first Mars orbiter. But today I'll be talking about Perseverance, JPL, NASA — but mostly how I feel about yesterday's and today's events. Which reminds me. NASA released a couple more images today. They're at the end of this journal entry.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

(Mars 2020 getting ready for launch last year.) I'll be looking at NASA's Mars 2020 Ingenuity helicopter, the spacecraft, and an experimental oxygen generator. With a quick look at news of the mission's landing this afternoon. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Mars is and will be in the news this month. The UAE Hope spacecraft settled into orbit around Mars Tuesday, February 9. Then, a day later, China's Tianwen-1 arrived.... ...The UAE's successful orbiter is historically significant. And China's Tianwen-1 may collect useful data. But I'll be focusing on the NASA mission. And Mars.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Part of the Arecibo radio telescope collapsed this summer. A supporting cable had snapped. Another cable gave way this month.... ...I'll be taking a quick look at the Arecibo observatory's origin and achievements. Make that achievements of scientists using the radio reflector. What? No Space Alien Conspiracies? Sic Transit Gloria Arecibo A Professor, Sputnik and an Act of Congress World's Biggest: 1963-2016 An Unexpected Spin-Orbit Resonance Pulsars, Planets and Prudence Science, Safety and Greater Admiration More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Falcon Heavy's test flight last week wasn't perfect. But I'll call it a success. That's good news for SpaceX. Not my opinion: the largely-successful flight. The test flight's dummy payload included an actual dummy. "Starman" is that mannequin wearing a spacesuit at the wheel of a red Tesla roadster. I'll be talking about that, how I see the news, technology, and humanity's new horizon.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

This universe is bigger and older than some folks thought, a few centuries back. I don't mind, at all. Besides, it's hardly new information. We've known that we live in a big world for a long time. " 4 Indeed, before you the whole universe is as a grain from a balance, or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth." ( Wisdom 11:22 ) If that bit from Wisdom doesn't sound familiar, I'm not surprised. It's not in the Bibles many Americans have. The one I read and study frequently is the unexpurgated version.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

We could detect oxygen in Proxima Centauri b's atmosphere. It's a biosignature, but not proof of life. Some extrasolar planets are like Earth, almost. Many are unlike anything in the Solar System. I'll be looking at recently-discovered worlds; some almost familiar, others wonderfully unexpected. Also an informal 'top 10 best exoplanets' list. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The world didn't end last Saturday. That's nothing new, and neither is another fizzled End Times prediction. I'll be talking about how a current End Times prediction affected someone whose name is the same as the wannabe prophet's; but is an entertainer, not a doomsayer. I'll also take a look at the continuing, and serious, search for Planet 9; predictions involving close encounters of the cometary kind; and what we're learning about the outer Solar System.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The Cassini-Huygens mission ends this week, after 13 years in orbit around Saturn. Scientists found answers to some questions they had, and uncovered new questions. I think they'll be studying Cassini's and Huygens' data for years. Decades. I'll take a quick look at what we've learned, and why scientists want follow-up missions to the Saturn system. The Enceladan subsurface ocean wasn't a complete surprise. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Danae's odd view of Papal infallibility isn't accurate. ( July 30, 2017 ) But I'm not upset by Non Sequitur's 'Church of Danae,' particularly since I see the funny side of the cultural quirks Wiley Miller highlights. I do, however, occasionally use Danae's distinctive theology and Eddie's "Biblical Prophecies" as a contrast to my faith. I'm a Christian, and a Catholic. I have well-defined views on social and legal issues: but I am not conservative or liberal. I'm Catholic. That means acting as if Jesus, love, and people matter.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I'll be talking about scientific research that may not be "fake:" but isn't reliable, either. The good news is that many scientists want to fix the problem. I'll also take a look at truth, beauty, Copernicus, and how a science editor sees faith and science. Faith and science Truth and Beauty "...There Will be Babblers...." Being Scientific News and views... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

What we're learning about Mars, and a new type of really small spacecraft, reminded me of earth, air and kilts. Also pharaohs, Thomas Paine, and Lord Kelvin. By then I was running out of time to write something more tightly-organized. I figured you might be interested in some of what I have written. On on the other hand, maybe not. So I added links to my ramblings before and after what I said more-or-less about the science news, and figure you can decide what's interesting and what's not. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .