We recently spent some time on the road, and drove through some fascinating geology. I had a professor once who was known to wax poetic about highway road cuts, and he wasn’t wrong. Millennia of geological processes are exposed to the light. It got me thinking about geology in general and rocks in particular.
Here’s a general introduction that emphasizes the connection of geology to everything from plate tectonics to the location of our cities:
I’d rather have polished stones from my local highway than diamonds, actually. And for fun, here’s a video on labradorite, a very pretty example of Earth’s stone modification skills:
Thanks for taking us to the Geology Department open house that one time, Dad. I still remember the rock polishing demonstration:)
And if you have a moment next time you’re on the road, watch the road cuts as you go by. Earth’s secrets are out there, waiting for you.
Apologies for being ever so slightly behind the times on this, but we just (as in yesterday!) experienced aphelion. That’s right, on June July* 6th at 1:30pm EDT, the Earth and all of its inhabitants (that’s us!) were 152,087,775 kilometers or 94,502,962 miles away from our favorite life-giving ball of fire.
The Earth orbits the Sun in an elliptical path, which means that there is one point on the path closest to the Sun and one point that is farthest away from the Sun.
(* edited because it’s July now, somehow; catch up, brain! And on a related “really far away from the Sun” note, we just watched Project Hail Mary and thoroughly enjoyed it:)
Arnie said, “Get your ass to Mars”, but is it really a good idea? We asked the experts about our Martian future.
How likely is it that humanity will be able to live and thrive on Mars? Short answer, no. Longer answer? Still no! Doesn’t mean we can’t dream of new and exciting vistas in our future, though!
If you missed yesterday’s blue moon, don’t worry, it will still look full tonight too. And as I should also have mentioned, it’s a micromoon (the opposite of a supermoon). The moon is at apogee, or as far from us as it can get. Right now, that’s about 251,000 miles away.
Recently, Neil deGrasse Tyson visited Stephen Colbert to talk about aliens and his new book Take Me To Your Leader: Perspectives On Your First Alien Encounter. He discussed aliens, why you probably shouldn’t shake hands, and how they might mirror what they see of humanity.
It made me think of the story I wrote on that topic, and how I hope that humanity does more good than not. I’ve re-posted before but I like the story, so here it is again. Click through for the full piece.
And when those parachutes came out, when the mains came out, it was like God himself led us down to the water. And I had a big old grin on my face. It was intense. It went from intense to pure elation.
If you are curious about what it’s like to pilot in space, the difference between a touchscreen controller and stick-and-throttle hand controllers, or the “very intense” 13 minutes and 36 seconds of reentry, read on.
I was!
* * *
NASA/Jim Ross (left to right, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman)
NASA reminded me that we have a new, if transitory, neighbor in the skies overhead. The comet PanSTARRS is making a quick visit and tonight is the closest it will come to the sun.
This is a good weekend for northern hemisphere comet watchers to try to catch PanSTARRS an hour or so before sunrise, as the comet grows brighter approaching its perihelion on April 19. On April 26 the comet makes its closest approach to our fair planet but by then will be difficult to see in the solar glare. Good views of this comet PanSTARRS in late April and early May will be from the southern hemisphere.
And to save you from tracking down one of the many (many) space-themed Artemis links I’ve put up over the past couple of days, you can watch tonight’s homecoming here starting at 6:30pm EDT!
Since my recent posts have spent a lot of time in space, let’s take a slight break from the nonfiction drama of NASA’s Artemis II mission and shift over to the fictional world of space adventure.
In his books, Andy Weir (The Martian) works hard to bring scientific accuracy to his fiction. The challenge is balancing the demands of a thrilling story with the science that grounds it in reality.
While “Project Hail Mary” has its share of explosions and catastrophes, it’s the thinking that’s thrilling. Grace and Rocky must come together, with tools and whiteboards, craft and ingenuity, to solve a seemingly insoluble problem. They make mistakes, but they learn from those mistakes and from each other.
… when I walked out of a recent preview screening of the film adaptation of Andy Weir’s 2021 science fiction novel Project Hail Mary, I had tears of joy in my eyes. The filmmakers had done justice not just to the original story, but also to the science at the heart of it.
From NASA, with lots of interesting subsidiary links:
Let NASA shed some light: Explore the resources below to learn the science facts fueling the science fiction.
(Wait, Tau Ceti was also featured in fiction by Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Frank Herbert, Robert Heinlein, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Kim Stanley Robinson? And was the setting for Barbarella? This planet gets around!)
The final assessment of the science? Not perfect, but good. And precisely accurate or not, this promises to be another very entertaining movie. (I’ve read the book but haven’t seen the film yet. Yes, I am a little behind the curve!)
Since we’re here, how about an article on the movie as a climate parable? (warning, spoilers!)
You must be logged in to post a comment.