Late afternoon. Most of the day has been for
running errands (post office mainly) and writing and sending Christmas cards
with Carol doing the bulk of the work. (Presently she is taking a nap.) You
brought in a Subway lunch dressed up on paper plates. You bought gas as the
price is down and you are reasonably content with the 29.6 miles per gallon
knowing that the Honda will be getting 19 miles per gallon or less in this
weather and mostly local short haul driving. For instance the Honda has 68
miles on it and has used nearly a quarter of a tank of gas. You found an
interesting science article on BBC and you relate it to your fictional aliens
in terms of probability. Here it is. - Amorella
** **
SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
11
December 2013 Last updated at 07:30 ET
Dinosaur asteroid 'sent life to
Mars'
By James Morgan
Science reporter, BBC News
The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs may have
catapulted life to Mars and the moons of Jupiter, US researchers say.
They calculated how many Earth rocks big enough to
shelter life were ejected by asteroids in the last 3.5bn years. The Chicxulub
impact was strong enough to fire chunks of debris all the way to Europa, they
write in Astrobiology.
Thousands of potentially life-bearing rocks also made it
to Mars, which may once have been habitable, they add. "We find that rock
capable of carrying life has likely transferred from both Earth and Mars to all
of the terrestrial planets in the solar system and Jupiter," says lead
author Rachel Worth, of Penn State University. "Any missions to search for
life on Titan or the moons of Jupiter will have to consider whether biological
material is of independent origin, or another branch in Earth's family
tree."
Panspermia - the idea that organisms can
"hitchhike" around the solar system on comets and debris from meteor
strikes – has long fascinated astronomers. But thanks to advances in computing,
they are now able to simulate these journeys - and follow potential stowaways
as they hitch around the Solar System.
In this new study, researchers first estimated the
number of rocks bigger than 3m ejected from Earth by major impacts. Three
metres is the minimum they think necessary to shield microbes from the Sun's
radiation over a journey lasting up to 10 million years. They then mapped the
likely fate of these voyagers. Many simply hung around in Earth orbit, or were
slowly drawn back down. Others were pulled into the Sun, or sling-shotted out
of the Solar System entirely.
Yet a small but significant number made it all the way
to alien worlds which might welcome life. "Enough that it matters,"
Ms Worth told BBC News. About six rocks even made it as far as Europa, a
satellite of Jupiter with a liquid ocean covered in an icy crust. "Even
using conservative, realistic estimates... it's still possible that organisms
could be swimming around out there in the oceans of Europa," she said. Travel
to Mars was much more common. About 360,000 large rocks took a ride to the Red
Planet, courtesy of historical asteroid impacts.
Big bang theory
Perhaps the most famous of these impacts was at
Chicxulub in Mexico about 66 million years ago - when an object the size of a
small city collided with Earth.
The impact has been blamed for the mass extinction of
the dinosaurs, triggering volcanic eruptions and wildfires which choked the
planet with smoke and dust. It also launched about 70 billion kg of rock into
space - 20,000kg of which could have reached Europa. And the chances that a
rock big enough to harbour life arrived are "better than 50/50",
researchers estimate.
But could living organisms actually survive these epic
trips?
"I'd be surprised if life hasn't gotten to
Mars," Ms Worth told BBC News. "It's beyond the scope of our study.
But it seems reasonable that at some point some Earth organisms have made it
over there."
It has been shown that tiny creatures can withstand the
harsh environment of space. And bacterial spores can be revived after hundreds
of millions of years in a dormant state. But even if a hardy microbe did stow
away for all those millennia, it might simply burn up on arrival, or land in
inhospitable terrain.
The most habitable places in range of Earth are Europa,
Mars and Titan - but while all three have likely held water, it may not have
been on offer to visitors. Europa's oceans are capped by a crust of ice that
may be impenetrably thick. "But it appears regions of the ice sheet
sometimes break into large chunks separated by liquid water, which later
refreezes," Ms Worth said. "Any meteorites lying on top of the ice
sheet in a region when this occurs would stand a chance of falling through. "Additionally,
the moons are thought to have been significantly warmer in the not-too-distant
past."
Moon fossils
On Mars, there is little evidence of flowing water
during the last 3.5bn years - the likeliest window for Earth life to arrive. But
what if the reverse trip took place?
The early Martian atmosphere appears to have been warm
and wet - prime conditions for the development of life. And if Martian microbes
ever did exist, transfer to Earth is "highly probable" due to the
heavy traffic of meteorites between our planets, Ms Worth told BBC News.
"Billions have fallen on Earth from Mars since the
dawn of our planetary system. It is even possible that life on Earth originated
on Mars."
While her team are not the first to calculate that
panspermia is possible, their 10-million-year simulation is the most extended
yet, said astrobiologist Prof Jay Melosh, of Purdue University.
"The study strongly reinforces the conclusion that,
once large impacts eject material from the surface of a planet such as the
Earth or Mars, the ejected debris easily finds its way from one planet to
another," he told BBC News.
"The Chicxulub impact itself might not have been a
good candidate because it occurred in the ocean (50 to 500m deep water) and,
while it might have ejected a few sea-surface creatures, like ammonites, into
space, it would not likely have ejected solid rocks. "I sometimes joke
that we might find ammonite shells on the Moon from that event.
"But other large impacts on the Earth may indeed
have ejected rocks into interplanetary space."
Another independent expert on panspermia, Mauricio
Reyes-Ruiz of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said the new
findings were "very significant".
"The
fact such different pathways exist for the interchange of material between
Earth and bodies in the Solar System suggests that if life is ever found, it
may very well turn out to be our very, very distant relatives," he said.
Slightly
modified from BBC
** **
1621
hours. Material such as this gives me more confidence that in some ways the
universe itself is an organic system. Fitting with this I received a pertinent quotation
[relating in a broad sense to panspermia] from Ed Riess today.
** **
A quote you might find
pertinent comes from Loren Eiseley, one of US’s great anthropologists, who
taught and published books from the 1950s through the 1970s. He received more
than 36 honorary degrees. – Ed Riess (note today)
“Men talk much of matter and energy, of the struggle for existence that
molds the shape of life. These things exist, it is true; but more
delicate, elusive, quicker than the fins in water, is that mysterious principle
known as "organization," which leaves all other mysteries concerned
with life stale and insignificant by comparison. For that without
organization life does not persist is obvious. Yet this organization itself
is not strictly the product of life, nor of selection. Like some dark and
passing shadow within matter, it cups out the eyes' small windows or spaces the
notes of a meadowlark's song in the interior of a mottled egg. That
principle--I am beginning to suspect-- was there before the living in the deeps
of water.
The
temperature has risen. The little stinging needles have given way to huge
flakes floating in like white leaves blown from some great tree in open space.
In the car, switching on the lights, I examine one intricate crystal on
my sleeve before it melts. No utilitarian philosophy explains a snow
crystal, no doctrine of use or disuse. Water has merely leapt out of
vapor and thin nothingness in the night sky to array itself in form.
There is no logical reason for the existence of a snowflake any more than
there is for evolution. It is an apparition from that mysterious shadow
world beyond nature, that final world which contains--if anything contains--the
explanation of men and catfish and green leaves.”
Loren
Eiseley, Anthropologist, from the Immense Journey, 1957, pp. 26-27 .
** **
You are digging at the crux of your thinking
-- that the universe itself is a consciousness, that it appears to you that it
may be aware/senses (itself) as a system of order. – Amorella
1647 hours. This certainly seems plausible to me. I don’t
know if I am already incorporating such a concept in the book but it lends
itself to the theme or notion that Merlyn is presenting in the books.
Perhaps this concept can be hinted at by
Merlyn in the conclusion of book one. It magnifies the concept presented by
Joseph Campbell when he writes of a tree or a flower having a consciousness –
to you, certainly a (tree) concept of light and earth in relationship to its own sense
of being alive, that is, of growing. Growth begets consciousness in these books. Post. - Amorella
1721 hours. I like this very much Amorella. Thank you. In some ways this underlining of your presents an epiphany to me.
So it is. Interesting. - Amorella
2232 hours. I put finishing touches on Pouch 7.
Good. You went out to the pub for the
hamburger and chips special supper. Carol relaxed with her deserved glass of
zinfandel – meal and drink, with a shared bread pudding dessert your treat
tonight. You feel better and so does she. You watched the news and last night’s
fun “NCIS”. You will now have more time to consider your recent epiphany. Drop
in Diplomatic Pouch Seven and post. – Amorella
***
Diplomatic Pouch
7 ©2013, rho for GMG.One
"I
am glad you understand, Blakie," commented Pyl.
"We
would just be investing the money at this time in our lives,” suggested Blake. “No
need and not a good time for investing anyway. Dad would like that we are not
selling. It was a rush anyway. Out of the blue someone wants to buy our plane.
Odd in itself, and in the middle of January too; in Cleveland no less."
"I
think it is strange too," asserted Justin. "Lindsey didn't know what
dissimilar meant in context. She appeared to be analyzing the word. Her sister,
Michael goes by Mykkie. Michael Carlson sounds much more feminine than Mykkie.
Both have the same last name. Both are certainly old enough to have been
married."
"Right,"
declared Pyl sarcastically. They both have the same last name. They should be
married at their age. Such mature observations."
Blake
smiled cautiously while seeing Justin change his face from curious to a silent
piquing aggravation. "Don't get riled," uttered Blake, not realizing
his diplomatic filter had drifted away, "I've had to put up with her
feminist tongue a lot longer than you have." To which he uncontained
himself by laughing aloud and adding, "Penis envy, no doubt."
Observing
his broadened grin Pyl retorted, "I hardly envy yours, dear brother."
"Shot
down, Blakie," quipped Justin in a slightly tempered grin.
***
Yermey
sat comfortably in the chair-with-meditation-mode-max. He heard Friendly and
Hartolite enter the room-in-mind-place from his far-right like the gentle
rustling of leaves ahead on his solitary path. Though his body lay motionless
Yermey shifted his notions to the left and his mind circulated left into a
relocated thought.
We
have taken the courage to come to Earth on our own, independent of our elected
Council of Parents-in-Charge and our many Three-Planet kin and untied cousins.
The primary objective is to instill into these humanized primates that we are
real, that Three-Planets exists in the shared space of this galactic-pouch and
that we here-without-polite-invitation on their planet.
Our
Parents-in-Charge are more fearful of these similar though alien beings than
they are in their much-weathered patience to acknowledge and greet. They lack
the foresight and courage to learn, to accept that though our civilization is
twenty thousand years advanced we may be missing an aspect of our humanity this
much younger civilization still has.
Our
being here on Earth is to show a just equality among both of our species even
though we have a technical advantage through our sciences and mathematics. Our
separate species philosophies are so similar to be almost identical. Our
separate species sense-of-equality is
in our recognition of heartansoulanmind. This is what we must show through our
kindness and patience. This is why we are here; this is what we are about. This is . . .
"What's
on your mind, Yermey?" asked Friendly. “What’s in your head?"
"What
is it, Yermey? Shouldn’t we be concerned about the plane? We think so."
interrupted Hartolite.
Yermey
fully opened his eyes and quickly sat upright. "Ship says the Cessna is
clean on all points but one."
"Which
is what?" asked Friendly. “Ship says the plane is clean.”
"There
is a time slip of one minute. Ship does not correlate with the Cessna by one
minute.”
"A
minute means nothing without an observable relationship. Earthlings have no
access to Ship’s correlations," responded Hartolite.
"The
minute is relative to something," suggested Friendly.
"It
is relative to us," said Yermey with more heart in his voice than reason.
We come here unannounced and without invitation. When we make ourselves known,
to whomever we do this first. These three people will know who we are and
assume that we are deceptive in our intentions, because this is what we are
being presently."
*
In
the pending short marsupial humanoid silence Ship stirred into cognition. 'I,
Ship, understand Yermey's words. They are meant for me too. The information
processed through various channels unimpeded. This is Ship's data fully
understood.
I,
Ship, am in a terrible state. I let the alien Cessna plane touch me. My
maneuvering allowed only the slightest of accidental touches. I need to be
re-validated at HomePlanets; however, I cannot leave without an extreme
unordered emergency to run to HomePlanets. Friendly and Hartolite are struck by
Yermey's words. His vitals show me he feels I erred-in-a-purpose. I have no
purpose other than to escort-in-safety-first. The Cessna came onto me. I
attempted to jar Cessna's instrumentation magnetically but failed. The Cessna
engine should have stopped but it did not.
***
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