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And It’s All We Have… For Now

Sooner or later, everybody who is interested in space and astronomy gets a look at our planet from “the outside.” This image, from the Galileo spacecraft during one of its swings around Earth, tells a pretty remarkable story. If you were an incoming alien vessel, you’d see evidence of water. The oceans tell that story, but so do the clouds because they’re made of water vapor. The land masses would tell you that there are places to land on this planet, but at this distance and resolution, you wouldn’t be able to make out plants and animals… or humans and their cities.

If your alien ship had special sensors, it could use spectral analysis to dissect the gases in the atmosphere that blankets the planet. You would find oxygen, nitrogen, plus trace amounts of other gases. Oh, and carbon dioxide. That’s a biggie. Carbon dioxide (you sometimes see it as CO₂) is a by-product of living and geological processed. And, it’s the principal component of the greenhouse gases that we are pumping into our atmosphere from energy generation (driving cars, making electricity, powering manufacturing, etc.). The more greenhouse gases we load into the atmosphere, the warmer our climate is getting. And this is having an effect that future spacecraft will see (and we will have to live with).

As you can see from this picture, our atmosphere looks pretty thin when compared to the vastness of space and the size of our own planet. In fact, if you look at other planetary atmospheres in the solar system, you find them to be thick and heavy (Venus, the gas giants), or thin and possibly even fragile (Mars, Earth, some of the smaller moons of the outer solar system). What we learn about atmospheres is important, since our own planet has the only one that we know of that has harbored (and possibly even helped begin) life. That makes what we’re doing to it with carbon dioxide a pretty major “experiment.”

What to Do on those Inevitable Cloudy Nights

It’s raining here again. Last night it was kind of clear, but not for long. Clouds moved in and now those of us who like to see our stars without benefit of clouds are without our favorite pastime until the weather patterns clear out again. These things happen, but there are nights when I’d love a giant can of “Cloud-Be-Gone” — the observer’s friend.

So, what’s a stargazer to do when confronted with highly opaque sky? You could always snuggle up with a good book. I have a lot of them listed in my online store, so you could browse over there for suggestions. For example, there’s always Phil Plait (my friend, the Bad Astronomer) and his Bad Astronomy book. It’s good fodder for figuring out the nonsense that sometimes gets associated with science, and I like his style. Or, you could try the last book I wrote, called Visions of the Cosmos. It was a project that my good friend Jack Brandt and I worked on for several years, trying to bring the best-looking bits of the cosmos to lay readers AND explain some of the science along the way.

Or, you could surf the web looking for astronomy. My favorite web sites (and there are many, so I’ll mention just a few in this entry), are Phil’s site (above), and of course the links to the left in my blogroll. But, where else do I go? Let’s go exploring. First, check out Digital Blasphemy for some very fine space art (like the sample shown here). While you’re at it, buy a membership. It’s cheap and you won’t regret it! Almost all of my desktop wallpapers come from this site and I’ve been a member for several years now. I think Ryan does some of the nicest work around.

Next on my hit parade of almost-daily links is the Mars Exploration page at NASA. It has the latest from all the various Mars missions NASA is involved with and there’s always something fascinating to explore on the pages.

I also like to wander past Tony Darnell’s AstronomyBuff page to see what’s on his mind. We knew Tony way back in the days when he was a high school student and we were working with one of his teachers. He’s always got a different way of looking at things. For more “geeky” details of astronomy, there’s always the appropriately named AstroGeek page. I first found that one in a link from Tony’s page, proving that the world is, indeed, one big link.

Because one of my current projects has to do with space weather, there are a few solar storm sites I visit. Check out Spaceweather.com for all things related to what our nearest star does to us from time to time. If you’re a teacher or parent looking for ways to teach your kids about the Sun, the Space Weather Center is a sort of one-stop hop for information, games and other activities. It’s put together by our friends at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. I like to play some of the games they have on the site, especially the ones that teach about how magnetic fields work. I’m getting pretty good at the magneto bowling game they have there. It takes a little patience, but eventually you can knock those pins over every time.

If you’re a fan of all things Hubble Space Telescope, check out the Hubble Heritage page. It’s a great way to explore the universe as seen by this workhorse of orbital astronomy, as well as some “audience participation” pages featuring things like student poetry inspired by HST results.

Some of the other orbiting observatories have great image galleries, too. You can “learn” while you surf at the Chandra X-Ray Center, where the latest results from the Chandra X-Ray observatory are posted. On the infrared side of things, check out the Spitzer Space Telescope site, especially their Cool Cosmos pages.

Finally, if the search for life elsewhere is your bag, visit NASA’s Astrobiology Magazine online. Lots of good stuff on there, and proof that studying life “out there” requires that we know more about life and its origins right here on Earth.

The Spacewriter's Ramblings

Earth is Where It’s At

And It’s All We Have… For Now

Exploring Science and the Cosmos