No whale or dolphin news of course or Baja sunsets etc. but
some good stuff happening elsewhere. The galaxy is becoming more familiar to us
and just as suspected we exist in a manifold universe/multiverse where
mysteries and delights abound....and discoveries to be made beyond imagination.
These new planetary discoveries are favorites of mine. You have to understand
that when I was a child we were told with absolute conviction (at least by
those who wrote and chose our test books) that there were only 9 planets in the
universe and weren’t we lucky that God gave us this one! Here’s a close one.
By the way when I was a child we didn’t have any digital
electronics to play with (only some of our families had televisons) so we spent
our time at each others homes playing sports and riding our bikes to the limits
of our endurance. You could always tell who was where by the parked bikes.
I transgress – back to space!
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/news/1792-ssc2015-02-NASA-s-Spitzer-Confirms-Closest-Rocky-Exoplanet-
Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have
confirmed the discovery of the nearest rocky planet outside our solar system,
larger than Earth and a potential gold mine of science data.
Dubbed HD 219134b, this exoplanet, which orbits too close to
its star to sustain life, is a mere 21 light-years away. While the planet
itself can't be seen directly, even by telescopes, the star it orbits is
visible to the naked eye in dark skies in the Cassiopeia constellation, near
the North Star.
HD 219134b is also the closest exoplanet to Earth to be
detected transiting, or crossing in front of, its star and, therefore, perfect
for extensive research.
"Transiting exoplanets are worth their weight in gold
because they can be extensively characterized," said Michael Werner, the
project scientist for the Spitzer mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, California. "This exoplanet will be one of the most studied
for decades to come."
The planet, initially discovered using the HARPS-North
instrument on the Italian 3.6-meter Galileo National Telescope in the Canary
Islands, is the subject of a study accepted for publication in the journal
Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Study lead author Ati Motalebi of the Geneva Observatory in
Switzerland said she believes the planet is the ideal target for NASA's James
Webb Space Telescope in 2018.
"Webb and future large, ground-based observatories are
sure to point at it and examine it in detail," Motalebi said.
Only a small fraction of exoplanets can be detected
transiting their stars due to their relative orientation to Earth. When the
orientation is just right, the planet's orbit places it between its star and
Earth, dimming the detectable light of its star. It's this dimming of the star
that is actually captured by observatories such as Spitzer and can reveal not
only the size of the planet but also clues about its composition.
"Most of the known planets are hundreds of light-years away.
This one is practically a next-door neighbor," said astronomer and study
co-author Lars A. Buchhave of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For reference, the closest known planet is GJ674b
at 14.8 light-years away; its composition is unknown.
HD 219134b was first sighted by the HARPS-North instrument
and a method called the radial velocity technique, in which a planet's mass and
orbit can be measured by the tug it exerts on its host star. The planet was
determined to have a mass 4.5 times that of Earth, and a speedy three-day orbit
around its star.
Spitzer followed up on the finding, discovering the planet
transits its star. Infrared measurements from Spitzer revealed the planet's
size, about 1.6 times that of Earth. Combining the size and mass gives it a
density of 3.5 ounces per cubic inch (six grams per cubic centimeter) --
confirming HD 219134b is a rocky planet.
Now that astronomers know HD 219134b transits its star,
scientists will be scrambling to observe it from the ground and space. The goal
is to tease chemical information out of the dimming starlight as the planet
passes before it. If the planet has an atmosphere, chemicals in it can imprint
patterns in the observed starlight.
Rocky planets such as this one, with bigger-than-Earth
proportions, belong to a growing class of planets termed super-Earths.
"Thanks to NASA's Kepler mission, we know super-Earths
are ubiquitous in our galaxy, but we still know very little about them,"
said co-author Michael Gillon of the University of Liege in Belgium, lead
scientist for the Spitzer detection of the transit. "Now we have a local
specimen to study in greater detail. It can be considered a kind of Rosetta
Stone for the study of super-Earths."
Further observations with HARPS-North also revealed three
more planets in the same star system, farther than HD 219134b. Two are
relatively small and not too far from the star. Small, tightly packed
multi-planet systems are completely different from our own solar system, but,
like super-Earths, are being found in increasing numbers.
JPL manages the Spitzer mission for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer
Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. in
Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive, housed
at Caltech's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center.
Also check out the anomalous bright spot on the asteroid
Ceres.
POINT TO THINK - science has evolved changing the language.
It has not evolved by changing the perception. Newton observed apple falling to
perceive Gravitational Theory. Einstein perceived a spider moving on a globe,
blew the globe, and perceived the curvature. Newton looked to matter and
visualized a minimum speed and motion in nature. Einstein looked to light and
visualized maximum speed and motion. Heisenberg looked at motion and saw
uncertainty. This struck down Euclidean geometry of Newton and Riemann's
geometry of Einstein. Scientist failed to comprehend and perceive why and how
motion occurs. They adopted a new language- statistical mechanics. The world
failed to visualize and understand why and how motion occurs. Instead, they
went about exploiting material nature. The present state of the world squarely
exist in this failure – Here is a figure that summarizes and gives new
perception and foundation to science that can unite ancient and modern
knowledge answering most of the key questions science left behind.
Believe it my friends – we are like children in our
understanding of reality. Nevertheless, that is our present state so why not
enjoy it, eh?
One day perhaps
A short and deeply respectful honoring of just one aspect of
the female energy within our species. I did not write this but concur whole
heartedly.
Once upon a time sexual women ruled the world. They were
independent, empowered and embodied love. Their energy flowed through every crevice of the earth with
the capacity to heal and restore. These women were Sacred Prostitutes, and it’s time they were
reawakened. The History of the Sacred Prostitute. In ancient Sumeria, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece, there
were no brothels. Instead there were Temples of the Sacred Prostitutes
inhabited by holy women who embodied love, owned their sexuality, and held the
highest spiritual authority.
These women were known as Priestesses, or Sacred Prostitutes.
Within those
Temples men were cleansed of battle scars and nourished with divine sexuality. A common practice that took place in the Temple was called
“Taking the War out of Man”. Upon returning from war, men were invited to pass through
the Temple doors. The Priestess would bathe, soothe and knead their physical,
emotional and spiritual wounds. She would expand her magnetic field to absorb all of his
wounded energy, literally drawing the effects of war from his system. Through
the power of her energy, and purity of her femininity, she would gently and
tenderly love him back to wholeness. These Women Were The Original Sexual Healers
The Priestess was luminous and, because of her power,
purity, and willingness to love with her entire body and soul, she enabled man
to reconnect with both himself and higher forces through pleasure and prayer. Within society, and to the families of the men she served,
she was not seen as a threat. On the contrary..
The Sexual
Priestess was regarded as holy and celebrated for her sexuality.
Men entered the Temple with the full permission and blessing
of their families, and emerged cleansed of the nightmare of war. This process
was a natural and essential part of life. The Sacred Prostitute was not shamed, viewed as a victim, or
“forced into prostitution.” She willingly took the office of Priestess, and
acted from an empowered place of service.
Not everyone saw it this way.
The Biblical Patriarchs saw the practices and beliefs of the
Priestesses as immoral. As a result, as the Patriarchs came to rule the world,
Priests systematically replaced Priestesses as intermediaries between men and
‘God’. Where the world of the Sacred Prostitute considered love,
kindness and sensuality as necessary elements to maintain healthy balance – the
world absent of her presence became secularized, impersonal, and detached.
Speaking of balance here is something said by one of the
many great Native orators of The First Nations – Chief Seattle circa 1854:
In 1854, the “Great White Chief” in Washington made an offer
for a large area of Indian land and promised a “reservation” for the Indian
people. Chief Seattle’s reply, published here in full, has been described as
the most beautiful and profound statement on the environment ever made:
Chief Seattle: Suquamish
"How can you buy or sell the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?
ALL SACRED
Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in
the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and
experience of my people.
The sap, which courses through the trees, carries the
memories of the red man.
The white man’s dead forget the country of their birth when
they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth,
for it is the mother of the red man.
We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters: the deer, the horse,
the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadows, the body heat
of the pony, and man – all belong to the same family.
NOT EASY
So, when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he
wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us. The Great Chief sends word he will
reserve us a place so that we can live comfortably to ourselves. He will be our father and we will be his children. So we
will consider your offer to buy our land. But it will not be easy. For this land is sacred to us. This shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is
just not water but the blood of our ancestors.
If we sell you land, you must remember that it is sacred,and
you must teach your children that it sacred and that each ghostly reflection in
the clear water of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my
people. The waters murmur is the voice of my father’s father.
KINDNESS
The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The
rivers carry our canoes, and feed our children. If we sell you our land, you
must remember, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers, and
yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the same kindness that you would
give any brother.
We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One
portion of land is same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in
the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has
conquered it, he moves on.
He leaves his father’s graves behind, and he does not care.
He kidnaps the earth from his children, and he does not care. His fathers’ grave, and his children’s birthright, is
forgotten. He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the sky, as things
to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright beads. His appetite will devour the earth and leave only behind a
desert.
I do not know. Our ways are different than your ways. The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the red man. But
perhaps it is because the red man is a savage and does not understand. There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place
to hear the unfurling of leaves in the spring, or the rustle of insect’s wings.
But perhaps it is because I am a savage and do not
understand.
The clatter only seems to insults the ears. And what is
there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of the whip-poor-will or the
arguments of the frogs around a pond, and the smell of the wind itself, cleaned
by a midday rain, or scented with the pinion pine.
PRECIOUS
The air is precious to the red man, for all things share the
same breath – the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath.The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes.
Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench.
But if we sell you our land, you must remember that the air
is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it
supports. The wind that gave our grand father his first breath also receives
his last sigh. And if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and
sacred, as a place where even the white man can go to taste the wind that is
sweetened by the meadows flowers.
ONE CONDITION
So we will consider your offer to buy our land. If we decide
to accept, I will make one condition: The white man must treat the beasts of
this land as his brothers.
I am a savage and do not understand any other way. I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie,left
by the white man who shot them from a passing train.
I am a savage and do not understand how the smoking iron
horse can be more important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay alive.
What is a man without the beasts? If all the beasts were
gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For what ever happens to the beast, soon happens to man. All
things are connected.
THE ASHES
You must teach your children the ground beneath their feet
is the ashes of your grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell
your children the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that
the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If
men spit upon the ground,they spit upon themselves. This we know: The earth does not belong to man, man belongs
to the earth. This we know.
All things are connected like the blood which unites one
family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.
Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he
does to the web, he does to himself.
Even the white man, whose God walks and talks with him as
friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We shall see.
One thing we know, which the white man may one day discover
– our God is the same God.
You may think that you own him, as you wish to own our land,
but you cannot. He is the God of man, and His compassion is equal for the red
man and the white.
This earth is precious to Him, and to harm the earth is to
reap contempt on its Creator. The whites to shall pass; perhaps sooner than all other
tribes. Contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own
waste. But in your perishing, you will shine brightly, fired by the
strength of the God who brought you to this land, and for some special purpose
gave you dominion over this land and the red man.
That destiny is a mystery to us, for we do not understand
when the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses tamed, the secret corners
of the forest heavy with the scent of many men, and the view of the ripe hills
are blotted by talking wires.
Where is the thicket? Gone.
Where is the eagle? Gone.
The end of living and the beginning of survival.
I am happy to say that this kind of wisdom is finding it’s
way into our judicial system ie:
WASHINGTON -- The Senate quietly made history on Wednesday
night when it confirmed Diane Humetewa as a federal judge -- the first Native
American woman to ever hold such a post.
Humetewa was confirmed 96-0 to serve on the U.S. District
Court for the District of Arizona. She is a former U.S. attorney in Arizona and
a member of the Hopi tribe. She is now the only Native American serving on the
federal bench and just the third Native American in history to do so.
In a different vein, the new Mrs. Universe chosen this year
is a Native Cree from The US.
A few extra pics:
My son Zack after his first swim with a whale
