First glimpses of a new world
... Titan's surface comes into view.
Titan, as you might have heard, is near the top of the list of places of interest for the exobiology (yes, there is such a field, notwithstanding that it does seem a bit of a non sequitur as yet) folk, as one of the more sensible places in our solar system to look for complex organic chemistry and maybe even, in some of our wilder dreams, an actual biology of some form. And in one interesting way, Titan's kinda like home, as outer solar system moons go, insofar as it actually has a substantial atmosphere--though Titan's also a lot smaller, colder, and more distant from the sun than are we, all of which probably has important ramifications for any speculations being made about the development of complex chemistries in such environments.
In any case I have to say I find myself watching the Cassini-Huygens stuff come back with some interest. Though the same is true, I guess, of pretty much any video from the outer solar system. Jupiter, Saturn, Io, Uranus, Neptune, Triton--all of these places have a cold, alien beauty about them only made more alluring by their distance from us, and the rather remarkable things that have had to be done to get those pictures back here.
Most of you who know me know that notwithstanding my involvement in software, I'm not really a gadget guy--the camcorder is actually my wife's, my computers (though yes, I do have several, and I do spend some time with them) are usually a few years old at least, and I know comparatively little about such technoboy subjects as cars and large jet aircraft equipped to blow things up. But those little robots NASA and company (the EU have got into this a bit too with Huygens) have sent out to the farthest reaches of the solar system, those make my eyes light up more than a bit. It's more than merely inspiring to see semiconductor technology and rocket propulsion systems applied to something that advances human knowledge, makes our world a little bigger. This, I find myself thinking, is one of the few things that makes it all worthwhile--learning, getting out there, becoming a little more than we were, by casting our gaze a little farther.
Fun fact for the day--Voyager 1--the more distant of the two li'l beasties carrying the gold records--is now around 93 AU (or 14 billion km) from the sun.
Quoting Sagan: "...The launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet."
Sail on, wayfarer.
Titan, as you might have heard, is near the top of the list of places of interest for the exobiology (yes, there is such a field, notwithstanding that it does seem a bit of a non sequitur as yet) folk, as one of the more sensible places in our solar system to look for complex organic chemistry and maybe even, in some of our wilder dreams, an actual biology of some form. And in one interesting way, Titan's kinda like home, as outer solar system moons go, insofar as it actually has a substantial atmosphere--though Titan's also a lot smaller, colder, and more distant from the sun than are we, all of which probably has important ramifications for any speculations being made about the development of complex chemistries in such environments.
In any case I have to say I find myself watching the Cassini-Huygens stuff come back with some interest. Though the same is true, I guess, of pretty much any video from the outer solar system. Jupiter, Saturn, Io, Uranus, Neptune, Triton--all of these places have a cold, alien beauty about them only made more alluring by their distance from us, and the rather remarkable things that have had to be done to get those pictures back here.
Most of you who know me know that notwithstanding my involvement in software, I'm not really a gadget guy--the camcorder is actually my wife's, my computers (though yes, I do have several, and I do spend some time with them) are usually a few years old at least, and I know comparatively little about such technoboy subjects as cars and large jet aircraft equipped to blow things up. But those little robots NASA and company (the EU have got into this a bit too with Huygens) have sent out to the farthest reaches of the solar system, those make my eyes light up more than a bit. It's more than merely inspiring to see semiconductor technology and rocket propulsion systems applied to something that advances human knowledge, makes our world a little bigger. This, I find myself thinking, is one of the few things that makes it all worthwhile--learning, getting out there, becoming a little more than we were, by casting our gaze a little farther.
Fun fact for the day--Voyager 1--the more distant of the two li'l beasties carrying the gold records--is now around 93 AU (or 14 billion km) from the sun.
Quoting Sagan: "...The launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet."
Sail on, wayfarer.
posted by AJM at 10:27 a.m. (Permanent Link)
