Here is where I have a problem with the science: the corona of a star based on observations of our own sun have been shown to be several millions of degrees higher than the surface temperature (~6000K/10000F). Ignoring the effects of coronal mass ejections for a moment – such radiation on the outside of the planet and a core temperature of 1000F+ from the surface should provide sufficient energy for atmospheric molecules to vaporize off into space , be picked up by the solar winds, and blown off. In short - the planet shouldn’t have an atmosphere that close to the sun’s corona.

What then are we looking at? Most likely the culprit is superheated gas trapped in the magnetosphere of the planet providing the illusion of an atmosphere where none should exist. However even there we have a bit of a problem.

See – for the planet to have a rotation period equal to it orbital period – this would suggest that any internal metallic core had long since stopped spinning. This is in part what accounts for planetary magnetic fields. So if we can infer from the rotation of the planet that its magnetic field is weak then there shouldn’t be a residual atmosphere due to interaction with solar wind.

The other other two mechanisms I can think of that may be responsible for the presence of an atmosphere would be venting of carbon dioxide and methane from within the planet’s core as the planet cooks like being in a microwave oven. The issue with this theory is that for a planet to get this close to its star it is likely that any such residual gas may have leached from the planet surface millions of years ago.

The second mechanism is a combination of gravity and thermal currents that may cause molecules to bind more tightly to the surface of the planet. If so then it may be possible to get a much more accurate read on the size / mass of the planet simply by figuring out at what point the pull of gravity counteracts the vacuum of space considering the amount of heating that needs to occur to heat the planet’s surface temperature to 4000F.

Of course there is another possibility – the one which I found myself drawn to immediately upon reading the article. The science could just be out and out wrong. Personally I hope this isn’t the case as I would like to think that we can identify earth sized planets in other star systems that our children can one day visit. I’m just more than a little disappointed however that those people who purport to be on the cutting edge of this science who just out and out assume that what they are looking at represents an atmosphere without critiquing the possibility that what they are doing is inherently at the cutting edge.

It wouldn’t be the first time that humanity’s exploration of science has shot off on a tangent. Let’s hope that other communications about Kepler will be a bit more considered.

So let me see if I get this straight. The US has spent approximately $560B since 2002 on the war in Iraq in order to make the region more peaceful and gain strategic access to oil reserves which have experienced an almost 300% increase since the war began. This is considered to be money well spent considering the level of outsourcing that has occurred over the past 10 years, the steady increase in corporate profits on what earnings are made within the US, the $350B/year different between what oil should cost compared to what it is priced at today thanks to market speculators, and now a $700B bail-out package whose price tag is going up every day unless something isn’t done to get the money market moving again.

By comparison, a similar $560B investment in intermediate-green technologies, such as Rentech’s GTL technology, which could have put the US substantially on the road to energy independence including the necessary fuels required for getting into space in the first place, and augmentation of NASA’s space program, which creates high-end jobs in both R&D and manufacturing domestically, would have realized . . . what? . . . maybe a thriving sustainable economy that leverages the key strategic assets that can only be gotten from first world countries such as a solid educational system and population with disposable income willing to invest and support those same technologies?

Yep – I can see the benefits are paying off already.

All sarcasms aside – the point here is that its unfair to point the finger at NASA for a failure of vision when the Administration that is necessary in order to support any vision is so stuck in a 1950s McCarthy era mindset that it can’t see past its own fear mongering to establish a realistic vision for the country as a whole. And the unfortunate part in all this is that where goes the US goes Canada, Europe, and a host of other countries/economic zones that are so economically integrated with American policy that it becomes impossible to talk about issues at this level such that their impacts are only felt within the US itself.

As with most issues however it is always easier to focus on pointing a finger in one direction rather than looking at the larger picture. If NASA needs a vision for the future then I offer one up here for consideration:

What drives countries from economic have-nots to world super powers is not their resource base but rather their capability of mobilizing a society towards manufacturing and export. NASA vision should not just be to go to Mars but rather developing the infrastructure necessary to produce finished and semi-finished goods in low and very-low gravity environments. So for example, mining and exploration of asteroids and comets in near earth orbit. Establishing habitats for trades and craftsmen. Transportation systems for getting raw materials in and out of the central orbital planes between Venus and Jupiter with Mars representing the ideal central location for such manufacturing to take place.

Essentially, NASA’s role would become one of co-ordinating the US economic engine and logistics towards these goals rather than being directly responsible for their implementation. R&D funds and local commercial manufacturing would necessarily follow suit as priorities are set for specific levels of resource and manufacturing production. This would not only stimulate political will behind space exploration in our immediate local group of planets but also funds from the commercial industry as the potential for ownership and economic profits related economic drivers steadily increase.

Now I don’t know about you but a 250m hunk of rock spinning towards the earth with only 5 days notice doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. I mean – can you remember anything about this being in the media? We aren’t exactly talking dino-extinction here but at the same time we aren’t talking about a little tap on the shoulder here either.

Now what got me started on this again was a quick scan of CNN’s affiliate KTVU who reportedthat scientists are concerned about our preparedness bearing in mind that “A rock the size of the UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium is currently headed our way.” Huh? What rock? I can only assume that they are referring to Apophis which is scheduled to have two very close approaches: one in 2029 and another in 2036.

The one in 2029 is the one however expected to cause most of the issues. This one, based on current estimates, will pass between the earth and the moon, within reach of a number of geosynchronous communication satellites. The orbit isn’t well enough understood to know if it will hit any of those nor what effect such a collision may have on Apophis’ orbit. Beyond this is a further uncertainty factor that only additional measurements in 2013 will be able to unfold in addition to whether in 2029 Apophis will manage to thread a very narrow keyhole window that would most certainly result in a direct hit in 7 years time.

From a cultural perspective, let’s assume for a minute that NASA is yanking everyone’s chain and in fact Apophisis set to collide with the Earth on April 14, 2029. Do you tell anyone? At 270m in diameter it kinda makes the current US Financial Crisis a bit irrelevant doesn’t it? Do you carry on paying your bills? Do you throw away the moral code that governs a civil society? Do you embrace or abandon God? Considering the blast would be the equivalent to 100,000 Hiroshima bombs, this isn’t exactly something that would one effect the local area of impact.

Scientists are calling for a plan – something that could be put into effect in short order should we find another TU24 asteroid with 5 days to spare. On the basis of what happened last January I don’t see that call as being unreasonable. Especially if you consider how much preparation time NASA and other space agencies say they need to get a rocket off the ground never mind closing the gap in sufficient time in order to avoid a ‘confrontation’.

Herein however lies a fundamental problem. The most cost effective solution would be to have a space based system which is pre-armed with nuclear missiles. I say cost effective only because we have enough rockets and warheads to blow ourselves up several times over. It seems to be the nature of Governments to cop-out when faced with large issues that have remote possibilities to go for the ultra cheap solution under the assumption that the fallout (no pun intended) will occur on someone else’s watch.

My concern is that such calls to action would inevitably lead to the weaponization of space under the pre-text of benign intent. Considering the human race’s pre-occupation with killing each other, I’m thinking that while the call by these scientists is a good one, for the right reasons, that any such proposals need to be thought out extremely carefully. The path to many of today’s more interesting plagues has be fraughtwith good intentions which were never the intent of the original creators. Ideas become corrupted when opportunities for power and control become involved. Open the door just a little and people will find ways to open it the whole way.

You can think of this another way – how many asteroids has the earth been hit with over the past 100 years which caused significant damage? 1 Maybe? In contrast how many wars have we had in that period of time? As much as I really like the idea of supporting an Earth defensive shield against rouge asteroids, I think personally that I would rather take my chances with the asteroids and convince the commercial section that there ‘maybe gold in them there hills’. Mining the largest asteroids for raw natural resources may end up being a far more effective solution in the long run than figuring out ways to blowing them up or pushing them off course.

Or actually, maybe you don’t. You see I didn’t either until I started going back to my University physic and chemistry days and started thinking about the nature of atomic orbitals and then started to compare pictures from another fascination of mine, astronomy. So take this picture for example

Electron Atomic Orbitals

The essence of atomic orbitals is that as the number of protons, neutrons, and electrons increases, the shape of the atomic orbitals reconfigures itself so as to represent the minimum amount of energy to bind the electrons to the nucleus. So for Hydrogen with only 1 electron, the electron orbital property is given by the 1s orbital layer whereas carbon’s 6 electronic would involve 2 x 1s, 2 x 2s, and 2 x 2p atomic orbitals.

Loosely translated then, as atoms get larger in atomic mass their electron shells start to look more and more like an onion however where each layer looks like either an s-type, p-type, d-type, or f-type layer of skin in a massive and tightly packed jigsaw puzzle arrangement. (See WebElements for more)

What I found interesting in considering the question of “what element am I” was the symmetry I began to see when looking at these atomic orbitals and various pictures of supernovae. Take for example these images taken over the last 4-5 years from Hubble:

Ring Around Supernova 1987A (SN1987A) - January 8, 1999

Supernova 1987A: Halo for a Vanished Star

Dust Disk Fuels Black Hole in Giant Elliptical Galaxy NGC 4261

Now what fascinates me about these sets of images is how remarkably similar they are. Yes you could argue that because of the nature of spinning disks and the collection of matter and the way the light shines through the surrounding material that this is simply just a trick of the light – blah blah blah.

But what if its not? We are talking about thought experiments here so let’s throw out conventional wisdom for a moment and assume that somewhere along the way we missed the boat.

The old school of thought before quarks, leptons, and bossons was that the nucleus could be considered akin to a sun and the electrons planets. Now consider reworking that very simple analogy and instead each electron were akin to a individual sun on a micro level. Obviously stars have constituent parts just like electrons do. And funnily enough, the pattern of atomic orbitals look remarkably similar to that of nova and supernova. Is there a connection which is far more simple that what physics is trying to develop currently?

One possible implication is that atoms are essentially constantly in the process of atomic nova on a per electron basis which may explain why the patterns produced in nova and atomic orbitals are so similar. Especially if each ‘electron explosion’ can only occur in series rather than in parallel. What we are seeing then may simply be the resonance of quantum strings vibrating in response to these little electron novas occurring which give the perception of uncertainty when in fact none exists.  If each micronova occured in series then it would effectively shape each successive micronova that followed leading to the patters we see in the atomic orbitals. I dunno but this is going to be interesting following the chain of logic to see where it may break down. -K

What seems to be evident from this DVD series is that without these currents, the basic food sources in a specific area would quickly be consumed without opportunity to replenish. One of the implications is that early forms of life would have had a built in defense mechanism against other predatory organisms. It would be easy to imagine that with the very earliest forms of life such defense would have been surely a matter of dumb luck. However with each circuit around the ocean currents, specialization would occur through natural selection in which less migratory organisms would develop more aggressive, predatory tactics and the more highly migratory organisms (at least to begin with) would develop more defensive tactics.

Currently there is this big push on to see if life ever evolved on Mars. The essence of the theory is that where there is flowing water, there exists the possibility of life. My thought however is that it isn’t just flowing water that is a requirement. You need to show geological evidence of some type of circulatory system for water otherwise the processes of natural selection have no opportunity to influence the evolution of amino acids to single celled organisms to multi-celled organisms.

In the case of Mars while water does appear to exist, circulation doesn’t. So my thought is that the best we will ever hope to find is the precursors of life, but not actual life itself. For that, we might actually have a better chance of finding life on Titan. – K

So for example, wouldn’t it be neat if the impact was more on the order of say 65 million years ago rather than 3.9 Billion. Narrowing down the age and comparing it to impacts on Earth and other locations could potentially lead to a map which may establish whether there are certain danger zones around the galaxy where asteroid activity is generally more intense than at other times. We tend to think of our region of space as being fairly benign but since we are constantly moving at 600km/s there really is no guarantee that the near earth objects in our path today will be the same ones that will be there tomorrow.

Beyond this though is another aspect of geological behaviour that may be worth exploring. The Chicxulub meteor impact which was originally considered to have wiped out the dinosaurs may have led to another interesting phenomena such as the swelling of magma deep in the earth’s core. Its sort of like popping a water balloon. You push on one side and water comes gushing out at a 90 degree angle to the direction of the force.

We sort of see this with the revelation that the Deccan Traps lava beds in India were formed within 300,000 years after the Chicxulub meteor and are roughly at a 90 degree rotation to the meteor’s impact. These eruptions are now widely attributed to have been the final straw the doomed the dinosaurs. However, when we compare this to the Mars’ impact – a similar pattern seems to emerge. Leveling approximately 40% of the Martian surface, massive volcanoes seem to have sprung up from just around the impact area – something that would be consistent with the application of force to an area surrounded by weak spots.

The question now is – which came first – the meteoroid or the volcano? The suggestion in the article is that the volcano came first but I have a sneaking suspicion that when push comes to shove (okay – bad joke I admit) that both the Martian volcanoes and the impact crater itself are going to far less old than what is currently assumed.  – K