Tunnels on the Moon, Martian Landscapes, and the Storms of Jupiter

Investigations have revealed a network of tubes beneath the lunar surface , and arguments abound on whether to explore / inhabit them.
Personally, I think that moment has gone, as all eyes appear to be on Mars...speaking of which -

The diligent Mars explorer Curiosity still rumbles on, but is now showing signs of significant wear and tear on one of its wheels.
Fortunately we can view Mars from afar - this incredible animation was painstakingly pieced together from  available images.
Images from Hubble bring us two distant, interwoven galaxies
Juno is on its fifth Jovian flyby , with some  stunning results

Image from Juno , details here

Recent images from ESA show the many changes on comet 67P, indicating an active geology, surprising for a lump of icy rock in space..
I'm constantly impressed by the quality of images from space, and it's about to get better-
Nasa are working on a system of  ' broadband' for information packets from space.

 ESA have shared this , for those who might want to imagine themselves in the area of a black hole...




A Rant About The New Religion of Atheism

This week, I found myself debating atheism on social media, and being surprised at the arrogance on display -let's not forget that, when connected to the 'Big Bang' , atheism is nothing more than a faith - based belief system - i.e. you have faith that one day, someone will prove the theory.
I'm not impressed by the current wave of 'populism' , short on thinking and long on memes and soundbites, which allows people to parade half - truths as fact.
Ultimately, it harms the very mindset that claims to be advancing the 'clear light' of science,
and it smacks of  'the one true path ', a form of delusion which is normally found in religious zealots.
Science is meant to be a questing thing, a continual search for fact - based evidence, not an endgame.
For instance - has anyone actually managed to replicate a black hole under laboratory conditions ?
No ?
Their existence, then, is a matter of belief / faith...
The whole point of my rant (and thank you for bearing with me), is that quantum  mechanics looms larger by the day, bringing with it a whole new realm of chaos to upset science - from the very notion of 'entanglement' , which Einstein called ' spooky action at a distance', to a  theory that there was no big bang and the universe is eternal.
Regardless of its validity (further debate / testing needed) , it's a new idea, born of quantum science, not an extrapolation of extant physics.

'...nothing is written in stone.'                     pic:    Charlton Heston as Moses

I think the fractious, defensive noise we hear from some corners is insecurity - after all , there are people who have dedicated their lives to proving theories like the big bang.

Those who are genuinely curious either way, await the revelations from the James Webb telescope, which should be able to see as far back in space/time as the afterglow of the alleged Big Bang.
The telescope will be launched into orbit in October 2018.
At least until then, nothing is written in stone.
Including the Ten Commandments and the Big Bang Theory.*


G

* In this universe, it is equally true that The Big Bang Theory is a comedy show about a group of geeks , and The Ten Commandments  is a film by Cecil B DeMille.

The Ninth Planet and Giant Mirrors

It's busy up in space, so NASA have created this useful spread for us.


I'm a little underwhelmed by the hyperbole around Ceres, though.
Can't help feeling there's something - missing ?
Oh yes, the mysterious ' lights' in the Occator crater ?


Speaking of missing, they've 'found' a Ninth planet in our solar system - well, to be precise, the scientist responsible for the Pluto downgrade has allegedly found a new ninth planet, four times the size of Earth, with an orbit taking 10 - 20,000 years to loop around the sun.
Except, they haven't actually found anything.
Its existence is based on the unusual orbits of other bodies.
Beware the hype !

Orbits which supposedly prove the ninth planet exists ©Caltech / 

There is a live feed from NASA which allows you to watch the building of the Webb telescope
Hardly world shattering, but don't forget, when this thing gets to space, it will be able to see further than ever before, with its infra-red capabilities and position on the second Lagrange point at a distance of 1.5 million km from Earth.
Okay, October 2018 is the projected launch date from French Guiana, so a little wait yet,
although I'm sure citizen astronomers will be on the case already.

Znamiya 2.5             pic Triz Journal

Productivity bonus!
There once was an attempt to turn night to day, thus enabling more productive times on Earth - well, Cold - War era Soviet Russia.
Far from being a flakey idea, the man behind the huge space mirror created the spaceship docking system still in use today at the ISS.

In other non-news
There is a new allusion to illustrate quantum mechanics, which says that three pigeons can be put in two holes without the same pigeons occupying any hole.
Which is like saying that a thing does not exist until it is noted.
I think.
My problem with this example is why not have two pigeons in one hole without being in the same hole ?
Surely that is more quantum ?
Remaining in the realm of hypothesis and brain-ache , two strands of possible systems are being reconciled - yes, they have found common ground between string theory and looping quantum physics , which may close the chasm of incompatibility.
For the layman like myself, it just means that interstellar travel may be possible sooner .
Or at all.
My brain hurts.

Final words in a pointless post
In my endless drifting through the world of social media news aggregates (tough, repetitive work, but someone has to do it), I notice with dismay the new tendency to over-use superlatives.
It's almost as though everything is awesome incredible shocking.
I suppose in our news hungry modern world, these are the superlatives needed to grab attention.
I can't help thinking though, that ultimately something really amazing will be overlooked, and left ignored, swamped by a sea of viral puffery.
For those who wonder what 'puffery' means, it's pointless trivia like this :
Did you know that the Wikipedia article on Jesus has been edited more than 25,000 times?
That's more than the article on The Beatles (only 22,000 edits, approx}.
So it's true to say that Jesus is more famous than The Beatles, now.
Which is only slightly funny for a few people.
Oh well.