New Horizons Finds Flowing Ice On Pluto? - http://clapway.com/2015/08/13/new-horizons-finds-flowing-ice-102/

One month has passed since New Horizons finally made its flyby of Pluto, limning the surface in spectacular definition with its Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI). The best part of this having happened a month ago is that these following months may be the greatest treat of the entire ordeal, because only after New Horizons sifts through its data for weeks, only after NASA develops and analyzes received telemetry and data are we to see the secrets of Pluto’s surface for ourselves.

NEW HORIZONS CARRIES ON

Recently, a new batch of close-ups was released by NASA which reveals evidence of eccentric ice flows across Pluto’s surface, which means the Earth is not the only body in this solar system with glacier-geology. New Horizon’s LORRI shows a major ice sheet that has glided over the dwarf planet’s surface in a way very similar to glacier movement on Earth.

Here on the 3rd rock from the sun, glaciers usually progress by surface flows round the bends of obstacles, toward the vertex of deepest depression, usually creating a sort of swirly surface, as viewed from above. Now these photos from New Horizons’ LORRI have shown us that such topological patterns are not unique to Earth.

GLACIER’S LOCATION

Scientists believe that this glacier-like movement could still be in motion, but it is difficult to determine if this is the case from the photographs alone. The ice flow flows from the center of Sputnik Planum, a smooth, craterless plain which lies in “the heart of the heart” of Pluto. This region, estimated to be no more than 100 million years old (roughly 1.4 times as long ago as the extinction event of the dinosaurs), is not only young, but also probably still undergoing geological change.

“We’ve only seen surfaces like this on active worlds like Earth and Mars,” pointed out mission co-investigator John Spencer of SwRI. “I’m really smiling.”

ICE COMPOSITE COMPOSES PLAINS

Ice on Pluto’s heart-shaped plain is composed of mostly nitrogen, but there are also rich traces of carbon monoxide and methane. Ralph, New Horizons’ other instrument, showed that carbon monoxide levels in the ice gradually increases as the device is pointed towards the center of Pluto’s heart.

NEW HORIZONS FOR SEMANTICS?

In addition to eliminating Earth’s uniquity when it comes to glaciers, this recent discovery has led many to question the fundamentals of glaciers, such as whether glaciers of varying chemical compositions are still worthy of the designation “glaciers,” and whether the term can even signify extraterrestrial phenomena. But this isn’t an exercise in the philosophy of language, so we turn to the National Snow and Ice Data Center for a definition: Glaciers are an amalgam of fallen snow that’ve compressed into large, thickened ice masses over a good number of years. Since it is difficult to include nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane ice into a list of phenomena formed by snow, both the media and scientists are perfectly happy using the term “glacier-like” to refer to the above described phenomena.

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WANT YOUR KIDS TO GET OUT MORE? TRAIN THEM FOR SPACE!

New Horizons Finds Flowing Ice On Pluto?

Color me red -- #Saturn"s #Tethys moonlights #Red. - http://clapway.com/2015/07/30/red-graffiti-on-saturns-moon-tethys-353/

With all the hubbub about Pluto and extraterrestrial planets, no one seems to be paying attention to the fingerpaint-esque pan-gender celebration of passion apparently limning its way across the surface of one of Saturn’s moons. Known as Tethys, the heavily cratered moon has red graffiti sketches all over it, baffling scientists. The photos of Tethys were snapped up by NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft, a major interplanetary program that arrived in Saturn’s system eleven years ago, in 2004. Cassini will carry on in Saturn’s system until 2017.

GRAFFITI NEAR SATURN?

These strange scratches discovered on Saturn’s moon Tethys avoided scientists’ first meticulous gazes, when the first images of Tethys became available to NASA experts. Indeed, it wasn’t until they combined images with disparate filters–some green, others clear, a few UV and then also IR spectral filters–that the graffiti-like traces were caught.

SPECIAL METHODS USED ON TETHYS

The way they did it was by keeping their gazes (i.e. the researchers’) on highlighted anomalies of color webbing out across Tethys’ mad, wrinkly surface. They seemed indubitably the work of a master graffiti artist, “perhaps a Man from Saturn,” one man may have shouted, but then another shook his head in stolid disbelief, because these streaks would not be visible to human eyes; only with filters, may we see the red streaks.

HOW DID TETHYS GET A MAKEOVER?

This recent discovery is still a fresh mystery. Scientists and researchers alike have only opined an educated guess that may-haps the red arcs have been caused by ice on Tethys’ surface having been exposed to chemical impurities.

Still sounds like a robot could have graffitied the surface? Another hypothesis held that this could all just be an massive emission of gas coming out of Tethys’ surface.

More than how it got there, the very fact that the mystery formation is blatantly red confuses scientists. Nevertheless, scientists are doubling potential losses, and are already speaking of basing some of their understanding of the moon on this strange find.

THE NEED TO KNOW

But this isn’t the end of the story. Scientists fervently hold that a plenum of studies must follow this irregularity, that clearer pictures must be captured, that no means are to be spared to capture more images of Tethys, that no mental effort be stayed in the pursuit of understanding, when it comes to this Tethys. This is necessary because, to natural scientists, the presence of red lines generally indicates fractures on the moon’s surface, and the latests images inspiring this entire rodeo are not resolved enough to give merit to this usual conclusion.

This is also the first time any such phenomenon has been discovered on Saturn’s moons. There is a similar pattern one can trace resting on the Dione moon, but the other 62 moons have not a single hint of such colorful mosaic patterns.

DEATH OF A LEGEND

As was mentioned, Cassini will carry on its mission with Saturn until 2017, until which time it will provide scientists with additional pictures hopefully solving more than creating mysteries becoming endemic of the Saturnian system. When its mission is finished, scientists will guide Cassini in an intentional free-fall into Saturn’s atmosphere, leaving its instruments active and transmitting for as long as possible, until it is eventually quelled by the immense pressure of Saturn’s ancient winds.

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Red Graffiti on Saturn"s Moon Tethys

New Yorkers Asked to Join Stephen Hawking in the Search for ET - http://clapway.com/2015/07/26/new-yorkers-asked-to-join-stephen-hawking-in-the-search-for-et345/

Hailing back to the campfires of ancient nomadic hominids and their sky gods, the question of whether or not we’re alone in the universe is among the oldest that still goes unanswered.

But recently, New Yorkers and Stephen Hawking were asked to help the world search for other inhabited ones with their magnificent tenacity in a $100 million program set to scan the cosmos for extraterrestrial life.

STEPHEN HAWKING JOINS RUSSIAN BILLIONAIRE

The eminent astrophysicist Professor Stephen Hawking, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner agreed to fund a decade-long program named Breakthrough Listen that will search for advanced civilizations on other worlds by listening for radio signals.

Extremely powerful radio telescopes worldwide will coordinate while the data is analyzed with the supercomputing power of millions of PCs in homes and offices in every nation on Earth.

HOW ALL OF US CAN SEARCH FOR ET

The team of scientists led by Peter Worden (former NASA Ames Research Center director) will organize gathered signals, release them to the public, and analyze the data for traces of patterns endemic of intelligence.

Every telescope is expected to create massive banks of data, all of which will be immediately released to the public at large who will be able to download a computer program that will automatically sift through the cosmic waves alongside the most gifted scientific minds for minds from another planet.

OLD IDEA, NEW MEANS

And yes, it’s well known that other organizations have tried this before, so Breakthrough Listen is going to join the University of California in Berkeley’s Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) @home initiative , unifying new technology with good ol’ California grit (and is there any adjective less Californian than grit?).

The software to be used to sift through this cosmic data can actually be rewritten for improvements, so that anyone can customize their own SETI-style apps.

“Breakthrough Initiatives are also developing powerful software for analysing this data. All this software will be open source. The hardware and software used in Listen project will be compatible with other telescopes around the world, enabling them to join the search for intelligent life…[a]nd scientists and members of the public can develop their own apps to sift the data for phenomena of interest.”

WARY OF RUSSIAN BILLIONAIRES?

Yuri Milner Russian billionaire made his riches by making a series of wise investments in technology start-ups like Facebook, and he’s opined that other civilizations could probably teach us ways to handle some of our greatest social antagonisms, like how to allocate natural resources.

The world spends less than $2 million on SETI every year, which is pathetic, so this new source of relatively infinite funds from Breakthrough Initiative is a welcomed boon to the cause.

THE LIMITS OF PHYSICS, THE DRIVE OF LIFE

However, the limits of physics do rain on ET’s parade–any signal detected will almost certainly have been sent many years ago, possibly hundreds or thousands of years ago. It takes four years for a radio signal to travel from the Earth to the nearest solar system. Consequently, direct communication will not be available. Even if we find a signal, we will not be able to respond, except in kind, by radio, which would take just as long to reach them.

In one decade, Milner believes that his $100 billion will be enough for scientists to monitor not only the entire galaxy, but surrounding galaxies, as well.

“It’s the most interesting technological question of our day. If we’re alone, we need to cherish what we have. The message is, the universe has no backup,” said the Russian billionaire.

Professor Stephen Hawking fully condones and supports Milner’s project, but he is still starkly wary about the implications about making contact with a more intelligent species.

“We believe that life arose spontaneously on Earth, so in an infinite universe there must be other occurrences of life. Somewhere in the cosmos perhaps intelligent life may be watching these lights of ours, aware of what they mean.”

Stephen Hawking continues:

“It’s time to commit to finding the answer to search for life beyond Earth. The Breakthrough Initiate is making that commitment.”

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New Yorkers Asked to Join Stephen Hawking in the Search for ET