Planetary Polarity is Getting More Complicated

     Some recent research on exoplanet TRAPPIST 1-c aided by the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed that this rocky, Venus-sized world orbiting a red dwarf star may have little or no atmosphere, dampening hopes that it might host some form of advanced life.  Prevailing sci-fi thinking might react to this situation by simply saying, "Let's terraform it and give it an atmosphere so we can settle there."  An example of this kind of thinking can be found in the Alien universe, where the moon LV-426 is subject to a terraforming project by the interplanetary Weyland-Yutani Corporation.  Of course, we all know how well that plan worked out once the colonists made contact with the vicious aliens.  Instead of becoming a new Earth, LV 426 wound up being nuked from orbit.  

     This brings us to the Earth's closest terraforming candidate, our solar system neighbor Mars.  One still hears occasional mentions of the idea that we might use machinery to generate an atmosphere permitting human colonization of the Red Planet.  Taken on a simple level, the project may seem to have merit, assuming we could economically transport enough machinery to its surface (via the Moon, most likely) to begin the long, slow process of turning Martian materials into nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen sufficient to support organic life that, in turn, could support a colony.  This scenario apparently could lend credence the recent hit, The Martian, were it not that another wrench has already been thrown into that scheme.  Based on Andy Weir's novel, Ridley Scott introduces us to the plucky astronaut Mark Watney, who manages to survive after being abandoned by growing potatoes in protected bits of local soil.  The problem is that subsequent research has discovered that Martial soil is probably far too toxic to permit this kind of solution.  If the nearest fertile soil has to be brought by rocket all the way from Earth, that poses a major problem.

     Furthermore, another area of research may have uncovered an even more daunting obstacle.  Japanese researchers using the latest data from probes have formulate a theory about how and why Mars lost its ancient, moisture-rich atmosphere.  It has long been thought that the air was stripped away by radiation streaming from our own sun, a fate that would await our own world under various circumstances, such as the loss of our ozone belt.  But the Martian catastrophe probably came about because of a different root cause: the weakening of Mars's magnetic shield.  The Japanese researchers have determined that evidence relating to the Martian molten core beneath the planet, which generated an early magnetic shield, shows differences from Earth's core chemically.  This difference could have caused the Martian core to homogenize and "clot," weakening the field to the point that the Solar Wind would erode the atmosphere.  

     If this hypothesis is correct, the loss of the Martian magnetic field would be all but irreversible.  Any attempts to rebuild a new atmosphere would be doomed because any new gasses would continue to be stripped away as fast as they were generated by machinery.  So how could humans "jump-start" the core of Mars to protect such new gasses?  The scope of the challenge is staggering, beginning with the absence of a plan to get such a process started.  Consequently, terraforming a distant planet like Trappist-1c seems even more remote if we cannot envisage doing something similar with a relatively near neighbor.

     "Impossible" is a very weighty word to apply even to the most unlikely of prospects.  The more we learn about the cosmos, the more we realize how little we actually know and how much more knowledge is still out there.  Skepticism is central to the scientific method, but we must not allow caution itself to immobilize our imagination or our ingenuity.  As we watch the skies, we have to be just as wary to spot new opportunities as to appreciate difficulties that arise to block our aspirations.   

 

Hello, Singapore!

Greetings to our new visitors from the other side of the Earth.  it is always a pleasure to welcome new adepts of science and fiction, especially those who take the trouble to tune in from far away.  We know Singapore is one of the modest modern and vibrant places on the planet and one that is not afraid to experiment with new things, be it in architecture, business, or all other fields of human endeavor.  Hope you will stayed tuned to new posts and share some of your own observations.

 

Will We Learn to Listen Before We Speak? 

     It's exciting news that there are now plans to expand the Very Large Array in New Mexico to almost four times the present number of antennas.  This will make one of our most important receiving stations for various forms of electromagnetic diffusion in the universe far more sensitive and extend our understanding of new cosmic phenomena being discovered by our space-based units like the James Webb Telescope.  It will supplement existing Earth-based facilities such as the Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia and hopefully make up for the abandonment of the giant Arecibo structure in Puerto Rico, which has been allowed to fall into irreversible disrepair.  

     This step forward brings us back to the question of whether, as a researching planet, we should rely a bit more on "passive" research before broadcasting our presence to the universe with increased radio signals sent into space.  After all, some of our earliest televised emissions were of Hitler's speeches, filled with genocidal hatred and conquest!  More recently, the late Stephen Hawking, arguably the Einstein of our age, warned that we might not want to attract the attention of space-faring intelligence, especially if its intelligence was artificial rather than organic.  Perhaps we should take a hint from Native American culture, which stressed the great importance of observation as a prelude to any kind of confrontation.  Or even from the old carpenter's adage: "measure twice, cut once."  Work with vast amounts of data involving the search for Earth-like exoplanets suggests that a good deal of time and effort on the analytical front is necessary before we can properly digest the importance of the amount of observation we are already receiving.  Let's hope that the new Very Large Array will aid us in better understanding what we see and hear as we "Keep watching the skies." 

 A Great Break at the Beach

There's nothing like a few days at the beach to refresh the mind and body.  Kids playing in the sand, wind surfers, kite fliers, parasails, dolphin searchers, beachcombers, ospreys diving into the surf, everything is full of fun and relaxation.  And of course, there's great seafood to be enjoyed.