Top 5: Animated Christmas Specials

Yes, it's that time of year. It's the same story every December, the TV starts drowning in Christmas everything. Christmas shows, Christmas movies, Christmas everything. And you know what? Most if it really isn't very good. But some of it is, and that's what we'll be focusing on here today. So, if you want some TV to watch on Christmas Day that people might actually enjoy, rather than tolerate, here's a list for you. As I said in the title, these are all going to be animated shows, not live-action. I know animation. So, there will be no "Christmas Story" or "It's a Wonderful Life" here. And even if I was including everything, Alright, well, let's get to the list!


5. A Charlie Brown Christmas

Yeah, yeah, this one is pretty played out. But that's why it's up at number 5. It was a tough choice between this, Rudolph, Frosty, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. SCICTT was easily eliminated, thanks to that ridiculously 60's song you can only find on DVDs. Yeah, it's pretty bad. As for Frosty, watching Professor Hinkle run is hilarious (Couldn't find a video, but trust me), but otherwise, it really doesn't do a whole lot. So really it was a choice between Rudolph and Charlie Brown. That was the really tough choice. Obviously, I'm going with Charlie Brown. Rudolph is funny because it's, uh, kind of dated, if you know what I mean, even if it is more iconic as a Christmas show. Charlie Brown is just a better show. The funny bits are actually funny, and not just "Gee, this is funny because it's old and outdated". Plus, it's got the greatest dance of all time. You know the one. This kid. The music is all jazz, which is a nice change of pace from the usual Christmas fare. Some people may not like the overtly Christian message, but it is a departure from the standard "Gee, Christmas is great and we should all get along" message your standard secular Christmas special delivers.

Best part: Boy, are you stupid, Charlie Brown!


4. Christmas Who?

That's right, it's Spongebob time! This is the original Spongebob Christmas special, not whatever the heck this abomination is supposed to be. No, we're not talking about that one. We will never talk about that one.

So, what makes this special so good? Well, for starters, it's an episode of Spongebob from before the first Spongebob movie (I can't believe I have to say first there. Why are there two Spongebob movies now?). And Spongebob pre-2005 was almost without flaw. "Christmas Who?" is no exception. It's funny, it's Christmas-y, but it manages to deliver its message in a very Spongebob fashion. The associated song (because of course there's a song) is good, but when you watch it, it becomes very good. Then you get to the end, and Mr. Krabs does his falsetto, and all of a sudden, the song hits another level. So, if you want to watch a Spongebob Christmas special, watch this one, not the other one. I just want to make that clear.

Good part (since the best part is probably Mr. Krabs' falsetto but I already mentioned that): I feel like a...



3. A Pinky and the Brain Christmas

As a show, Pinky and the Brain doesn't get nearly as much respect as it should. It's a cartoon from the 90's, but you never hear about it. But I'm not here to argue about the merits of the series as a whole, I'm here to talk about Christmas specials, and Pinky and the Brain has one of the best.

If you know absolutely nothing about the show, the basic premise is that you've got these two genetically engineered lab mice, and they want to take over the world. They attempt this with various wacky schemes, and never succeed. Because it's a kid's comedy show. This show follows the same general formula, only it's Christmas themed, and involves Santa delivering a hypnosis-capable doll to every household on the planet. This is funnier than it sounds. Actually, the Brain (who is the one with world-domination plans) succeeds in his plan, and does actually hypnotize the world. Suffice to say, this is a Christmas show, and he does not use his power to take over the world. You can probably guess what he does tell the world to do, even without me explaining the plot. It's a very funny and unappreciated Christmas special from a funny and unappreciated TV show.

Best part (no video so here's the quote):
PINKY: Look, Brain! The reindeers are inviting elves to join them for a party at Donner’s house! BRAIN: Hm… Somehow, the idea of joining the Donner party is unappealing.


2. A Claymation Christmas Special

This was really tough. I love this special, I really do. I wanted to put it at number 1, but I just couldn't. But we'll get to that.

This is another reasonably obscure Christmas special, back from the late 80's. There's not really a plot, per se, just two claymation dinosaurs introducing a series of Christmas Carols. Yes, it's that kind of show. And yes, it is a T-Rex and a Triceratops, and yes, the T-rex's name is Rex. But he's the smart one, and the Triceratops is a dumb one who likes food. But other than pondering what exactly a wassail is, they're there to introduce the songs. There are a couple of odd ones, the rendition of "Joy to the World" especially, but the songs are mostly slightly irreverent takes on your standard Christmas carols. We've got "We Three Kings" with singing camels, "Carol of the Bells" performed by the Paris Bell-harmonic (spoiler: it's a pun), "Angels We Have Heard On High" performed through interpretive dance from a couple of ice-skating walruses, and "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" performed by the California Raisins (of course). There's also "O Christmas Tree" but that one's played straight. I always watch this one, usually on Christmas Eve, though occasionally now on Christmas day itself. It's fun, and it's very underappreciated. Go watch it.

Best part: It was a tough decision, but I had to go with the singing camels.


1. How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Of course this is number 1. It had to be. The song alone gets it to the top five, and the rest of the show is just as good. I've only seen part of the live-action movie, but from what I've seen, it's nowhere close to being as good as the animated special. I don't have a lot more to say about this, it's not like I need to tell you about the Grinch. You know the show. You know the song. It might be old, but it's still the best Christmas anything ever made.

Best part: The greatest sound effect of all time.

Picture(s) of the Day #5

It's another interesting car sighting. This time I was out for a walk around Frederick, Maryland, when I stumbled upon an Alfa Romeo 4C sitting on Bentz Street. The front picture isn't very good, unfortunately. Should have checked the quality before I walked away.

Make Bunkers Hazardous Again

This looks way too nice.

Professional golf needs to be more interesting. People with cookie cutter swings win on cookie cutter golf courses, all set up to immaculate perfection. Maybe a few are more difficult than others, and weather can have dramatic effect, but on a typical sunny afternoon on the PGA Tour, you can expect to see lots of birdies, and the drama must rest almost entirely on which golfer is putting the best. And that's just not that exciting.

So, what can be done? Well, you could go the U.S. Open route and make the rough ridiculously thick and narrow the fairways, but that's even worse. Rounds take longer, and golfers will always choose to play it safe. Safe gets the lowest score, but is also boring. Dramatic U.S. Opens occur despite the course conditions, not because of them. No, I think there's a better way, and Golf Digest thinks so too. Or at least, someone does.

We get rid of bunker rakes. Bunkers are a joke to the average PGA Tour golfer. When they hit a bad shot, they want to end up in a bunker. When they're not sure if they can reach a short par 4 or par 5 in 2, they aim for bunkers. That's not what bunkers are supposed to be. Bunkers are supposed to be hazards, as in, you should be punished for going in them. An unmaintained bunker is something to be avoided, but unlike long rough, the opportunity for a great recovery still exists. It's just more difficult, and perhaps not every pro golfer could pull it off. So I say we take away the bunker rakes, trim back the rough to bring the bunkers back into play, and we see just how good the pros really are.

Does Pluto Have a Subsurface Ocean?

As it turns out, apparently you can't go five feet in the outer solar system without hitting a subsurface ocean. Europa's got one, Enceladus has one, and Titan, Ganymede, and Callisto probably have them. That's not even mentioning the list of objects that may have them, according to models of radioactive decay. Here's a list of those.

If you're observant (or read the title of this post), you'll notice Pluto on there. I've written about Pluto on several occasions now, as data from New Horizons slowly filtered through. The data return is done, but we still have a lot of things to learn from it. Like this, for example. Based on research of Sputnik Planitia, otherwise known as Pluto's "heart", it is very likely that Pluto possesses a subsurface ocean.

It is believed Sputnik Planitia was once a vast impact basin filled with a layer of nitrogen ice about 6 miles thick. That's fine, but what's interesting is that Sputnik Planitia is oriented almost directly opposite to Charon, the smaller partner in the Pluto-Charon double planet system. This position on Pluto's tidal axis is probably not a coincidence. After the impact, the basin filled up with nitrogen ice. This happened slowly, but as this gigantic mass of ice formed, it changed the shape of the planet, causing the basin to slowly wander towards its current, more natural position on the tidal axis. And as it moved, a series of faults and fractures would have appeared across the surface. And Pluto has these faults and fractures.

Where does the subsurface ocean come in? The sort of movement that Sputnik Planitia has undergone would be impossible without a subsurface, the model depends on it, and observations seem to back up the model. The model predicts faults and fractures, and there are faults and fractures.

Further proof comes from a second study. Those scientists calculated the odds of Sputnik Planitia forming in it's current spot at about 5%, and so also believe the feature has moved over time. They found that the impact which formed the basin would have weakened the crust, bringing the subsurface ocean close to the surface. This along with the accumulation of nitrogen ice would essentially roll the (dwarf) planet around. Without the liquid water, the ice of Sputnik Planitia would have to be several times thicker than currently believed, and that doesn't match up with our observations.

So there we have it. Pluto: likely possessor of a subsurface ocean. It's still not a planet though.

Golfing in Greenland

This is an interesting story about Nuuk Golf Club, in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. Greenland has golf courses, but they're courses built into the snow. This place is grass, like a traditional course. There are courses further north, but not much, and those places probably don't have as harsh a climate. What's really surprising is how late they can play. In Greenland, golf can be played into October. The average Greenland golfer is probably a lot more hardy than most of us, but still, that is some determination.

Picture(s) of the Day #4

So, I had to get a new car recently. The transmission on my last car, a 2004 Volkswagen Golf GTI, gave out. Now I've got a 2004 Acura RSX (well, it's new to me), and I wanted to really give it a proper drive. All I had done with it was run errands around town and commute to work and back. But on Saturday, October 22, I decided to change that. I wanted to go someplace that was out of the way, where the roads would be relatively empty and I could really have some fun driving. I don't know exactly why I chose to go to Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia, but that's where I went. I guess it makes some sense. It's not too far away, but far enough away that I would do a lot of driving, it's a significant local landmark, and it wasn't going to be too crowded. It was a cool and windy day at sea level, and Spruce Knob, being nearly 5,000 feet high, was only going to be cooler and windier. And boy, it was a lot cooler and a lot windier. I'm not sure what I was expecting to find up there, but I wasn't expecting snow. There wasn't a lot of it, but it was there. So, here's some pictures I took from the summit. I'm actually kind of glad I went when the weather wasn't brilliant, it's easy to take cool pictures on a bright summer day, it's a lot harder to take cool pictures on a mostly cloudy day with brutal winds.

I also took a little side trip to Seneca Rocks, which are very impressive looking. And warmer.

What If There's Life on Mars?

It's a question we've asked before, and we'll probably ask again. What does humanity do with Mars if we happen to discover native Martian life? I think it's worthwhile to mention it now, because Mars has been on the news as of late. President Obama recently stated that it should be a goal for the United States to reach Mars by 2030, and Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars, sooner rather than later. Of course, that colonization plan is wildly ambitious and almost certainly completely unrealistic, but the fact remains that very big people are very excited about Mars.

This is probably not Martian life. But what if there is Martian life?

That brings us to an article recently published in Astrobiology (available for free until November 15) which reevaluates data collected by the Viking space probes. There is a possibility that the results for the experiment meant to detect life were actually positive, not negative. This is not the consensus view in the scientific community, of course, but there is an apparent case for argument. Also, the study authors argue, even if the Viking results are actually negative, enough evidence has stacked up over the years that the possibility of native Martian life cannot be ignored.

And this is where that big question comes in again. What do we do with Mars if we find life there? Brazenly moving in regardless seems like the wrong answer. Earth microbes are not currently adapted to life on Mars, but there's no reason to assume they wouldn't, or couldn't, make life work there. And once they moved in, it would almost certainly mean the extermination of native Martian life. Sure, the Martian microbes might give a few good punches back, maybe cause an illness or two, but why would Martian life be any less susceptible to Earth germ warfare then the American Indians were when the Europeans moved in? Sure, they gave the Europeans syphilis, which killed a few million, but an STD could not possibly do as much damage as smallpox or measles did to the native American population. What the Europeans did in the Americas is generally not viewed as a good thing. We killed millions and drove cultures either to extinction, or broke them. I really don't think that we want to do the same thing on Mars.

I'm sure we'll hear the argument that Martian life is surely primitive compared to Earth life, and that colonizing Mars is more important for the survival of the human race. Maybe those people will say that Martian life will be maintained in specific areas set aside for it, places where people won't go. Ignoring the obvious historical parallels, that's dangerous thinking. Where does the line stop then? How advanced does the life have to be before we risk contaminating the environment with Earth life? Bacteria? Multicellular? Big enough to see? There's a risk setting that line anywhere other then "If there's life there, humans won't go there." What if we decide we don't like where we set the line, and decide to move it further down? It would probably be best not to give ourselves the chance to equivocate and make a blanket rule: if a planet or moon has native life, we won't colonize there.

If only it were that simple. I have a hard time believing the ethical concerns of a few people over some bacteria is going to stop the colonization of Mars, or any place, really. Let's go a couple hundred years down the road, to a hypothetical first interstellar mission. We've finally done it, we've finally found a planet that's just like Earth. Green plants, blue skies, pleasant temperatures, exotic animal life, the works. There is no way we don't plop ourselves down and make that planet a new home. If we can risk the ecosystem of this planet, why can't we do the same for any world? And who knows, maybe in the future we'll come up with some crazy technology that will prevent the cross-contamination of microbes. The facts are these: humanity can't stay on Earth forever, and I doubt our descendants are going to want to spend their lives on cold, dead rocks or floating through space in metal cans. Planet colonization is in our future, and we might as well get to it sooner rather than later.

We haven't really gotten anywhere, have we? I guess it wouldn't be an ethical dilemma if some guy on the internet could solve it in a few paragraphs. I guess it comes down to whether or not humanity is comfortable with playing god with lesser species. We always have been in the past, and I don't see that changing much. A lot of people are concerned about what global warming is going to do to the planet, but I wonder how much of that is actual concern for the planet, and not self-preservation. Let's face it, we're selfish. There's nothing wrong with that, all life works to preserve itself, even at the cost of other species. I guess it really boils down to how you think about humanity. If you think about the human race as just another species fighting for survival, it's a no-brainer. If you think about the human race as more than that, if you think we have greater responsibilities than our own survival, well, that's a no-brainer as well.

Geez, this got pretty heavy. I'll try to keep things a little less dense next time.

There Are A Lot More Galaxies Out There Than We Thought

About ten times more, to be more specific. And to be even more specific, somewhere around one or two trillion, compared to the 100-200 billion galaxies we previously thought was the total.

Now, to be fair, we haven't actually seen any of these new galaxies yet. Our telescopes aren't powerful enough to. But because of math, we know they should be out there. Otherwise, the numbers don't work out. I don't have a whole lot to say about this, other than "Cool, 10 times more galaxies." I mean, greater understanding of our universe is important, and obviously, this is something newsworthy, but basically, what this boils down to is "Gee, you know how the universe is just enormous? Well now it's even enormouser!" Yeah, spellcheck, I know that's not a word. Maybe I'll be a little more interested when we can actually see these new (very, very old) galaxies.

Picture(s) of the Day #3

More pictures from my car test driving trip to Virginia on September 24. This is a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen, and an AMG at that. It's a pretty uncommon vehicle, and pretty formidable looking.

The October 6th Edition of "Things Which Shouldn't Have Missiles, But Do Now"

On the one hand, the rising tensions between North and South Korea is less than funny, especially if you're, you know, living there. But on the other hand, there is now a missile defense system on the premises of the Lotte Skyhill Seongju Country Club. So yes, a golf course with missiles. Apparently the people in the nearby village didn't want the missiles in the town, making them a potential military target. Which is fair enough. But wasn't there anywhere else to put the missiles? It's a golf course. It just sounds ridiculous now.

Picture of the Day #2

I saw this in Virginia outside of Leesburg on Saturday, September 24 as I was heading back home after a day of test driving cars. How could I not take a picture of it? It's a street called Warp Drive. Someone was clearly a massive Trekkie.

Farewell to Rosetta

Today, the Rosetta space probe, which had been in orbit around Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for just over two years, was deliberately steered into Comet 67P for a crash landing, ending the mission.

Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM, CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

Now, when I say crash landing, that's a bit of an exaggeration. Comet 67P doesn't have a lot of gravity, so instead of some big, spectacular crash, with debris flying everywhere, the collision looked a little more like this. And much like the Philae lander, Rosetta probably did its fair share of bouncing before it finally came to rest.

So, what's the reasoning behind ending the Rosetta mission? It's simple, really, Rosetta is solar powered, and Comet 67P is moving away from the sun. The solar panels simply aren't big enough to sustain Rosetta out past the orbit of Jupiter. I'm not exactly sure why Rosetta has to be crashed into the comet, but what do I know?

So, Rosetta then! It was an ambitious idea, getting a space probe in orbit around a comet. After all, comets are very small and have big, highly elliptical orbits. We've visited comets in the past, starting in 1986 when Giotto and Vega 1 and 2 flew by Halley's Comet. But Rosetta was different. And it took its sweet time doing it, too. Rosetta was launched in 2004, but didn't establish orbit until 2014. Now, Rosetta has made plenty of useful observations, and the scientists still have a lot of data to go over, but that's not why people know about Rosetta. No, people know Rosetta because of Philae, the little lander that Rosetta dropped on the comet.

Now, to be honest, Philae wasn't very successful. The probe was supposed to attach itself to the surface via harpoon, but the harpoons failed, and the probe bounced from its designated landing spot to a much less hospitable spot underneath a cliff in basically permanent shadow. This was not the best spot for a solar powered probe, and after a couple of days, the onboard batteries were dead. Philae made intermittent contact whenever it came back into the light in June 2015, but nothing firm was established, and final contact occurred not long afterward. From a scientific standpoint, Philae was a disappointment. Most, but not all of the science got done, but considering the runaway success of some of the other space probes out there, three days of operation when weeks or months were expected is a letdown. But that's not what people will remember. No, people will remember the plucky little space probe that travelled millions of miles to go land on a comet. In our social media age, its Twitter might have helped.

So, here's to Rosetta and Philae. The space probes that voyaged across the inner solar system for 10 years to meet a tiny little comet, and tell us all about the history of our solar system.

How Recently Did Mars Have Liquid Water?

Science is very hard. You think you know something, you think you've got things all figured out, but then you get some more information, and that previous assumption just goes flying out the window. Case in point: last year, I wrote about how the MAVEN space probe had studied the Martian atmosphere and determined that the pleasant Mars with a substantial atmosphere and abundant liquid water was gone nearly 4 billion years ago, and for most of Mars' history, it's looked pretty much the same as it does now. It was simple, it was elegant, and while it wasn't really good news, it fit the data we had.

You can probably see where this is going. As it turns out, there are valleys and basins on the Martian surface that were formed by liquid water, but formed a billion years after the Martian atmosphere was lost to space, and the planet's surface became too cold to host liquid water. We're not talking about an insignificant amount of water either, there was enough water in one of these lakes to fill Lake Erie and Ontario with water to spare. The valleys running into these basins are not as complex as the older river valleys, indicating a slower flow. This probably indicates the lakes were filled not with rain, but with runoff from fallen snow.

This is obviously a bit of great news. If water could stay liquid on the Martian surface 2 billion years ago, that means that it was potentially habitable for the same amount of time. That is a much longer timeframe then we previously thought. 500 million years is not a huge amount of time for life to evolve, but 2 billion years is a lot more generous. Of course, it also raises into question the findings of MAVEN. Was the atmosphere gone by that point? Where did all the snow come from? Mars just got a lot more interesting.

Concert Review: Bruce Springsteen at Nationals Park

On September 1st, I went down to Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band play. I haven't been to a huge number of concerts in my life, but I can safely say that this was by far the best I've ever been to. I don't know much else to say about it, other than it was an absolutely incredible experience, and I would recommend his shows to anyone with even a passing interest in live music. The show ran for 3 hours and 45 minutes and there were no breaks at all, not even a lengthy anecdote or two. There just isn't an experience quite like a Bruce Springsteen concert.

Anyway, here's a couple of pictures from the show. I was literally in the last row of the stadium, so the quality isn't great, but there wasn't any problem with sound. It took the better part of a day for my hearing to recover completely.

Like I said, I was very far away from the stage.

I was hoping to hear "Atlantic City" and "Thunder Road", but realistically, if I were to grade the performance, that would only bring it down to a 9.9 out of 10. There was a lot from "Born in the U.S.A", though oddly, no "Born in the U.S.A.". Also, there wasn't much from "The River", which I thought was a little odd since this was the River Tour. They've been doing the whole album for a while now, I guess it was time for a bit of variation. Anyway, here's the setlist from the evening

New York City Serenade
Summertime Blues
Sherry Darling
No Surrender
Growin' Up
It's Hard to be a Saint in the City
Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?
Spirit in the Night
Lost in the Flood
Kitty's Back
Incident on 57th Street
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
Night
Trapped
Better Days
The Promised Land
American Skin (41 Shots)
Hungry Heart
Out in the Street
Darlington County
Working on the Highway
Downbound Train
I'm On Fire
Because the Night
The Rising
Badlands
Secret Garden
Jungleland
Born to Run
Seven Nights to Rock
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Shout
Bobby Jean

Picture of the Day #1

I present to you one of the greatest pictures I have ever seen, and trust me, I've seen a lot of really great stuff. I've been on the internet before.

That's right, it's Godzilla playing basketball.

This glorious (and official) image comes from a special 1992 issue by Dark Horse Comics entitled Godzilla vs. Barkley. Apparently it's based on a Nike commercial from that same year in which Godzilla played Charles Barkley in a little one on one.

I'm hoping to do this on a fairly regular basis, find some picture, either one I found or one I took myself, and post it up on here. You know, something to break up the long pauses between more substantial content, like my ongoing updates on Pluto, or my golf course reviews.

Big News for Exoplanet Enthusiasts

It's one thing whenever Kepler finds a potentially habitable exoplanet around a star several hundred light years away. That's cool, but there's nothing we can realistically do about it. The technology to move things fast enough to get that far in human amounts of time doesn't exist, won't exist anywhere in the near future, and is barely even theoretically possible outside of your crazier fringe physics. Those planets will most likely remain mere curiosities for the rest of our lives. It's another thing entirely when we find a potentially habitable exoplanet orbiting the star Proxima Centauri, which if you couldn't deduce it from the name, is the Sun's closest stellar neighbor.

Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Now, this is no slam dunk, "oh, it's definitely Earth 2.0" moment. The habitability of planets orbiting red dwarfs has always been in dispute, and the Proxima Centauri system features many of the red dwarf flaws. Proxima Centauri b orbits just 4.7 million miles from its star, which is okay since Proxima Centauri is a wet match compared to the Sun's 60 watt bulb, but it does mean that the planet will be tidally locked, either showing only 1 side to its sun or, if we're lucky, in a 3:2 resonance like Mercury (3 planetary rotations for every 2 orbits). If Proxima Centauri b is tidally locked in a 1:1 resonance like the Moon is, it means that one side of the planet will be constantly in the sun, and the other will never see sunlight. An atmosphere mitigates most of the vast temperature differential this situation causes, but we're not sure a planet formed in these conditions can maintain an atmosphere, which brings us to our second problem.

Many red dwarfs have issues with solar flares. They shoot off big, powerful flares at a much higher rate then the Sun does. Proxima Centauri has this issue, and as a result, Proxima Centauri b currently experiences high level radiation 100 times more intense then Earth currently does. A powerful magnetic field would protect the planet, but we don't know if it has one, or if the solar flares were even more intense earlier in the star's history. It's possible intense solar radiation stripped the planet of any atmosphere when the the planet was young, and there's nothing there now but barren rock.

So, what should you take away from this? First, anyone who says we found a new Earth right next door are wrong. We don't know what this is, and even if it does turn out to be habitable, it won't be anything like Earth. Habitable doesn't necessarily mean pleasant, and I can pretty much guarantee that life on Proxima Centauri b would be hard, for us or for native life. Plant life would be black instead of green, since most available light would be in the infrared rather then risible spectrum, and high winds would constantly blow from where the sun is directly overhead towards the night side. But you know what? If Proxima Centauri b does turn out to be this hard-scrabble, bleak world where life has to struggle to get by, it would still be the discovery of the century. I hope it works out, I really do, but let's wait until we get more information before we start planning a trip out there.

Maybe It's a Good Thing all the "Name Brand" Golfers Dropped Out of the Olympics

Credit: Miriam Jeske/Brasil2016.gov.br/CC 3.0

Let's be honest here, men's golf has been sort of a punching bag at the Rio Olympics. Only 4 of the current World Top 10 are in attendance, with the top 4 all skipping this week. It's not a good look for golf, and it doesn't bode particularly well for golf's future in the Olympics. That brings up a fair question, why should golf be in the Olympics if the best golfers can't be bothered to show up? They can bring up Zika all they want, but I doubt that's the only reason people skipped out. They just weren't that interested, and you know what? I get it. From the point of view of an elite golfer who has won one of golf's actual majors and makes millions from commercial endorsements, a gold medal really doesn't mean too much. Zika was just a convenient excuse.

So, how is all that a good thing for Olympic golf? How is it a good thing that the best golfers in the world right now are not in attendance? It's a good thing because it forces us to look at this from a different perspective. We've been looking at Olympic golf as a counterpart to the 4 majors, treating it as if it was another major. But I think that's the wrong way to look at it. Golf is a truly worldwide sport, played in many countries, but how often do you actually hear about golfers from most of them? Golf on the major level is dominated by the U.S, the U.K, South Africa, and Australia. Of the 68 majors played from 2000 on, only 12 were won by someone not from those four countries. If we throw in other former British possessions (New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, and Fiji, strangely enough. Did not know that), we're left with Angel Cabrera of Argentina, winner of 2 majors, Y.E Yang of South Korea, winner of the 2009 PGA, and Martin Kaymer of Germany, who also won 2 majors. If we go back to 1990, we can add Spain and Jose Maria Olazabal (Zimbabwe is a former British possession, for you Nick Price fans).

I may have gotten off track with that little history lesson. Let me get back to my main point here. Golf has traditionally been dominated by a few golfers from a few different countries. Those top 4 golfers who skipped out this week? We've got an Australian, two Americans, and a Brit (Northern Ireland is still part of the U.K, last time I checked). That, and the near complete abandonment of the the Olympics by Australia and South Africa means that the traditional golf powerhouses are going into this week with their second stringers. As I write this, an Australian is on top of the leaderboard, but we've got a Swede (Henrik Stenson, world number 5 and 2016 British Open winner), a Belgian, a Frenchman, a German, a second Swede, and a Taiwanese man in the top 10. These are people who are proud (presumably) to play for the country, and as people who for the most part haven't experience the glory of winning a major and probably never will, this represents a golden opportunity. Without the "best" players in the world, this tournament is wide open, and could be won by any number of people from any number of countries.

That is what I think Olympic golf should be, not a major, not a gathering of the best players in the world, but a gathering of nations, a tournament where anyone could win, and countries with a bit less golf saturation have a real chance to bring home a medal. I think that if one of the "big 3" (or 4) (or 5) (or whatever) won this thing, it would have made Olympic golf feel less prestigious, not more. The gold medal would just be another bauble to add to the trophy collection. I think there's a significant group of people who thought that the field this week should have been made up of amateurs instead of professionals, people for whom a gold medal would represent a pinnacle of achievement. I should know, I'm one of them. In a strange way, by not attending, golf's current elite have achieved a similar effect. And that is why I'm sort of glad the "good" players chickened out of the Olympics.

Note: None of this applies to the women's side of the Olympics, since not even the best women golfers get the respect they deserve for their achievements. People have trouble caring about women's majors, but a gold medal is universal. Win a dozen women's majors, get a footnote, win a gold medal, get glory. It's not fair, but that's how the world works.

Want to Go to the Moon? Now You Can!

Okay, well, you can't. Nobody has a rocket that could do the heavy lifting necessary to send a spacecraft to the moon, and no one has a spacecraft capable of making the journey. But, the U.S Federal Aviation Administration has given the company Moon Express permission to send commercial cargo to the moon.

In the short term, this really doesn't mean much. But in the long term, it means that future Moon-based commercial ventures will be governed by the same laws as companies conducting business in low Earth orbit. There will be no further bureaucracy or red tape, basically, as long as you can pass the FAA inspection, you can send payloads to the Moon and do business without further government interference.

Now, you might not be so thrilled to hear about how the U.S is opening up space to commercialism, depending on your views on such things. But let's be honest. The future of space is commercial. NASA can't do everything, and it shouldn't do everything. So long as NASA's budget remains small, it should be focused more on exploration, and not on colonization and commercialization. But still, increase NASA's budget. Space exploration is cool, and we should be doing more of it.

Martian Gullies Not Water-Based

It's pretty well known that Mars once had plenty of liquid water, and still does, though it doesn't sit around on the surface. But science is strange sometimes. Sometimes, the obvious answer isn't correct. Take the numerous Martian gullies. They look like dry creekbeds, and a lot of scientists sort of assumed that hey, these features that look remarkably like a feature we see on Earth probably formed the same way. They were taken as proof that liquid water existed on the surface of Mars in recent history, and that seemed like the end of the story.

But this is science, and in science, the story never ends. Someone dug deeper, did more research, and concluded that the gullies formed through the constant freezing and thawing of carbon dioxide frost, not liquid water. Using spectroscopy from the HiRISE space probe, scientists discovered no evidence that the gullies had deposited any sort of clay or other mineral associated with running water, and that any clay associated with the gullies were ancient and had been exposed during the formation of the gullies. I take this as a reminder that science is never easy, and that even if the answer seems obvious, you should always check to make sure.

And Now for Very Relevant and Practical Car News

Everyone stop the presses, Aston Martin has announced that they're making a hypercar to compete with the likes of the McLaren P1, the Porsche 918, and the LaFerrari (that's still a stupid name). Now, this isn't normally something I would be particularly concerned about, since I am not the sort of person who has the money to spend on a car that will probably have a seven figure price tag. But there is something noteworthy here. Aston Martin is a bit notorious for never changing the styling of their cars. It's a good look, but Aston Martins all basically look the same, and they have for many years. But this car, the Aston Martin AM-RB-001 (the RB stands for Red Bull, who is also participating in the project. They have an F1 team, it makes sense, trust me), looks different. Much different. We'll have to see how it looks when it actually gets built, but it is nice to see that Aston Martin does have a second style.

The News Is Weird Sometimes: Part 84

What do you do when an iron mine, necessary to the well being of your town, structurally undermines (ha) the ground below, threatening to swallow the town whole? Well, if you're Kiruna, Sweden, the solution is spent a billion dollars and move the entire town a few miles. Yes, the whole town. The process won't be quick, spread out over decades, but the logistics required for moving a town, however slowly, must be daunting. I'd like to tell you more about this endeavor, but unfortunately the mayor of Kiruna, a certain Patrick Star, could not be reached for comment on the decision to take Kiruna and push it somewhere else, and reports of Alaskan Bull Worm activity in the area could not be confirmed.

A New Entry in The "Things You Never Thought Would Be Transparent" Files

Credit: Liangbing Hu

If you're a fan of Star Trek, you probably remember the scene of The Voyage Home where Scotty goes looking for transparent aluminum. You know, this scene. When you watched that, you may have thought, "Transparent aluminum? How absurd, there's no way that could possibly exist!" Or maybe you thought "How interesting that Star Trek managed to predict such an interesting technology such as transparent aluminum," because it is a material that actually exists. It's used in the military, but is too expensive to have practical, day-to-day applications in the regular world. But I bet you didn't think, "How dull, transparent aluminum. I wish they'd made a really odd material transparent. Something like wood." Well, strange hypothetical person, your request has been answered!

Yes, scientists at the University of Maryland announced that they had made transparent wood. It's not a complicated process, all you have to do is soak the wood in a fancy chemical bath to remove the lignin, which turns the wood white, and then soak it in an epoxy, which makes the wood clear. What, you may ask, is the point of transparent wood? Or maybe you didn't ask, because the answer is pretty obvious. Window replacement, namely in houses. Transparent wood is stronger than glass, and more importantly, doesn't shatter like glass does. The process hasn't been perfected yet, so you won't be replacing your window glass with wood anytime soon, but this is still really cool. Those are just two words that I never thought I'd be using together. Transparent wood.

Kepler Finds Many New Exoplanets, But No Earth Analog

The Kepler Space Telescope has been through some hard times in its life. It's discovered hundreds of exoplanets, even as not one, but two of its stabilizers has failed, forcing the team behind Kepler to modify its mission. Then, in recent weeks, it went into emergency mode, raising concerns that even the extended mission would be brought to an end before its time. Luckily, Kepler made a full recovery, and now, it's in the news again. It's even good news this time. Astronomers announced that Kepler has discovered 1,284 new exoplanets. This is a huge number, for reference, before this announcement, we had discovered around 2,000 exoplanets. Thanks to these new planetary confirmations, that number has increased by about 60 percent. Even more remarkable is that of the roughly 3,200 confirmed exoplanets, Kepler has found 2,235 of them. It's done some good work.

Of course, we all know what the crown jewel of exoplanet hunting is, and the fact remains that we haven't found a true Earth analog yet. There are a couple of planets that stand out among this latest crop, but there's something about them all that plays spoiler. One orbits a star like ours, but is much bigger than Earth, another is the right size, but orbits a red dwarf and is almost certainly tidally locked. There is another Earth out there, there are probably millions, if not billions of them. We just haven't found it yet.

New Type of Comet Discovered

Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

We all know what comets are. There may be some variation between each one, some are bigger and more pristine than others, and some put on a spectacular show as they sail past the Earth. But they're all basically "dirty snowballs". Comets are mostly ice, with some rock mixed in. As the comet falls closer to the sun, the ice begins to vaporize, forming a tail that can stretch for millions of miles behind it. They're all the same because they come from the same basic place. Sure, there may be half a light year between the Kuiper Belt and the outer Oort Cloud, but there's not a whole lot of difference in the materials in an Oort Cloud comet and a Kuiper Belt comet. They're all big interplanetary icebergs left over from the formation of the solar system. At least, they were. Not anymore.

To be honest, it's almost cheating to call Comet C/2014 S3 an actual comet. It has a 860 year long orbit, which is very comet-like, it enters the inner solar system like a comet, but it has very little ice and has a very minimal tail. An analysis of the limited dust from the comet's tail revealed that the comet is mostly made of rock. That makes it more of an asteroid than a comet. Indeed, the astronomers who discovered S3 theorize that the comet is actually from the inner Solar System, but was flung outwards early on in the formation of the solar system by some larger body. Comet S3 might be one of the most well-preserved relics of the formation of the rocky inner planets in the entire solar system. It's spent most of its time floating in the cold of the Oort Cloud, away from the harshest portion of the solar wind. Finding more objects like this comet would give clues as to how exactly the solar system was created, specifically how much material was in the early inner solar system.

Something on Venus is Colder Than Expected

That's not a phrase often used when talking about the second planet from the Sun. "Colder Than Expected". This is Venus we're talking about, the planet where the rain is sulfuric acid, and the surface temperature sits at a rather toasty 900 degrees Fahrenheit. But that's the news we've gotten from the no-longer-with-us Venus Express, whose mission officially ended in December 2014. Hey, it takes a while to get through all the data.

In 2014, the probe ran out of fuel, and as it slowly fell towards Venus, its orbits actually took it through the upper portion of the upper Venusian atmosphere, specifically at the poles. While the probe was down there, the people in charge decided to do some science. The probe found that the upper atmosphere was sitting around -250 degrees Fahrenheit, significantly colder than what was expected. They also found that at heights of 130 and 140 kilometers, atmospheric pressure was 22% and 40% less than expected.

So why is this occurring? Scientists believe it has something to do with the presence of Venus' strong polar vortices, along with strong atmospheric gravity waves.

The scientists also note that the Venus Express trip through the Venusian atmosphere will be useful for the ExoMars probe, which will be undergoing aerobraking when it arrives at Mars.

All About Louis Oosthuizen's Insane Ace

The last round of the 2016 Masters was not the most pleasant thing to watch. Danny Willett was a deserving winner, but Jordan Spieth's quadruple bogey on the 12th hole is going to be remembered for a long time. But if you like hole-in-one's, then Sunday at Augusta this year was the place to be. There were 3 of them at 16, including Louis Oosthuizen's even-more-improbable-than-normal ace, which bounced off of J.B Holmes' ball and into the hole. Now, I've made two aces, and I can assure you that while some skill is obviously involved, actually getting that hole-in-one is mostly luck.

If you want to analyze this particular shot using math, here's a fun little article on the physics of this hole-in-one, and just how improbable it was. Spoiler: it's pretty unlikely.

Saturn's Moons May Be Younger Then They Look

Here's a story to file under "Unlikely but interesting to think about". Research has been published showing that many of the moons of Saturn are not actually 4 billion years old, but only about 100 million years old. The study suggests that the tidal forces governing the Saturnian moon system and gravitational interactions between moons should very quickly force out inner moons into longer orbits. Models were run to predict how far out the inner moons should have moved out, and were compared to where the moons actually are. Of course, they don't match up. According to the model, the inner moons such as Tethys, Dione, and Rhea are much closer than they should be to Saturn if they are in fact 4 billion years old, and actually haven't moved much at all.

To get a more exact date, the researchers looked at Enceladus. Assuming that the amount of tidal flexing and thus the level of geothermal activity was constant, the scientists were able to estimate just how strong the tidal forces around Saturn are. Using this information and computer models, they estimated that Enceladus had moved from its original orbit to its current one in only 100 million years, making the moon very, very young. The researchers guess that something drastic happened 100 million years ago, reshaping the moons that were present into what we see today while also creating Saturn's dramatic ring system. Now, if Enceladus really is that young, that's bad news for finding any life there. 100 million years, while long on a human scale, is really not enough time for life to develop. But I'm just a bit doubtful about this particular theory. It's interesting, yes, but I think there are too many holes for it to be correct.

Pluto: The Saga Continues

Yes, it's time for another installment of big Pluto news. New Horizons is still sending back data, and will be for several months. As that data comes in, we learn more and more about this surprisingly complex little world. A group of five studies was recently published in the journal Science about Pluto, so let's take a look at what scientists have learned.

The first piece of news is that Pluto's surface has a lot of variation in which type of ice is dominant. There are areas which are mostly methane ice, areas which are mostly nitrogen ice, and areas which are mostly water ice. Nitrogen ice is dominant in the flat, craterless plains, while water ice is dominant in the mountainous regions, reflecting their characteristics at the very cold temperature Pluto sits at. Water ice is very rigid and behaves almost like rock does on Earth, while nitrogen ice is much less tough and is able to flow, much like our glaciers on Earth. Indeed, this sort of distinct differentiation in material most closely resembles Earth, where the surface is separated by areas dominated by water and by rock.

Another study focuses on the geology of Pluto, especially Sputnik Planum, the vast, nitrogen ice dominated region in the southern hemisphere. The plain is located on an ancient impact crater, and its smooth, craterless surface contrasts sharply to areas with a heavy crater density scientists were likely expecting all over Pluto, and to areas with an intermediate crater density. Small bodies like Pluto should have frozen solid all the way through billions of years ago, but something is causing Sputnik Planum and much of the surface to refresh itself, though what that mechanism is remains unknown. The same study also demonstrates that Cthulhu Regio is covered in tholins, an organic molecule that has turned the area a deep red. The tholins likely drifted down from the atmosphere and the mountains Wright Mons and Piccard Mons. These are big mountains, Wright Mons is 2.5 miles high and Piccard Mons is 3.7 miles high, and likely formed through cryovolcanism.

Pluto's atmosphere was the focus of a third study. It's a bit less interesting, but it turns out that the Plutonian atmosphere is significantly colder than what was predicted before New Horizons' visit. Because of this, the particles of the upper atmosphere are much less energetic, which in turn means the atmosphere is losing gas at a much slower rate than what was anticipated. Initial estimates were off by about a factor of 5,000.

Don't worry, Pluto's five moons weren't forgotten in all this new research. Pluto's biggest moon Charon is actually quite a bit different from Pluto, and closer in line to what scientists were expecting. There is some very dramatic topography, but on the whole, Charon is a dead world, and has been for about 4 billion years. Its surface is mostly water ice, and is lacking significant amounts of methane and nitrogen ice like Pluto has. Why this is the case is unclear. An additional study examined the 4 smaller moons, which are much more reflective than more typical Kuiper Belt objects, and move very chaotically. This bolsters the theory that the moons are bits of debris that were thrown off in an enormous collision early on in Pluto's history, and the 4 moons are survivors that have managed to escape being sucked up by either Pluto or Charon.

Credit: NASA/John Hopkins University Applied Physics
 Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

In news unrelated to the Science studies, scientists recently announced that as recently as 800,000 years ago, Pluto likely had a much thicker atmosphere, more substantial than even Mars. Right now, the Plutonian atmosphere has a pressure about 1/100,000 that of Earth's, and this is likely what it usually is. However, Pluto has a axial tilt of about 120 degrees, and as the planet's tilt slowly undergoes procession, there are certain times when the amount of solar radiation in areas with lots of volatile ices goes up dramatically. The resulting outgassing would thicken the atmosphere so that the pressure would increase to about a tenth of Earth's. This is significantly thicker than the Martian atmosphere, and potentially thick enough to allow liquid nitrogen to flow freely on the surface. A thicker atmosphere with liquid nitrogen streams and ponds would explain a series of unusual surface features, such as empty channels similar to those seen on Mars, and a flat, icy area that resembles a frozen pond. The possibility of a thick atmosphere and the existence of a nitrogen cycle similar to Earth's water cycle, even if temporary and limited, on such a tiny, cold world seems pretty far-fetched, but ever since New Horizons flew by, Pluto has surprised us. This batch of new science has made Pluto that much more interesting.

It's still not a planet though.

The Grand Slam of Golf is No More

Yes, one of the stalwarts of the old Silly Season is going away forever. The Grand Slam of Golf, a 36 hole event that ostensibly featured the major winners of the previous year, had been around since 1979, outdating even the Skins Game. Like all of the other Silly Season events, it was a decidedly unserious affair, so I won't pretend this is a great loss. Ever since the PGA Tour started doing the Fed-Ex Cup and the emergence of late season, big money European Tour events in China and the Middle East, the Silly Season has become, well, silly. It just isn't necessary anymore, not when a bunch of rich international tycoons are willing to pay out millions for the big names.

In 2013, the PGA Tour decided that the seasons, rather than being contained within a calendar year, would be wrapped around in a similar fashion to the European Tour, which I'm not sure ever takes a break. This, the Tour hoped, would add some relevance to the often ignored Fall Series, a group of official events that often felt more like Nationwide Tour events (is that what it's called now? It's been through so many names). But it also made Silly Season events that much more unnecessary. Still, the Grand Slam continued through 2014. Then it was decided that in 2015, the Grand Slam would move to Trump National LA. Now, if you've been paying attention to the news, or have been a resident of planet Earth, you might realize why it might not be a great idea for the PGA Tour to hold an event on a Donald Trump course. So, the Tour announced after Trump made disparaging remarks about (insert minority here) that they would move the Grand Slam to a new location. Well, plans fell through, and the 2015 event was called off. The Grand Slam was missed by precisely no one, and so, it was cancelled permanently.

Credit: Sean Salamon/Wikimedia Commons/CC by 2.5

Despite all that, judging from the Grand Slams that I saw, it was a nice little event. I don't think I ever remember it having the 4 most recent major winners, but I think it usually did at least have major winners. People you might have heard of, unlike the Golf World Cup, where the U.S representatives seem to get more and more obscure every year. I first remember watching it at the amusingly named Poipu Bay, but I most distinctly remember the 2 years it was at Mid Ocean, in Bermuda. At that time, other than a few modified holes at Waialae Country Club, I don't think the PGA Tour visited a course designed by C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor, 2 of the Golden Age's finest architects. Of course, now there's the Greenbrier Classic at the Old White, but when the Grand Slam was at Mid Ocean, that tournament didn't exist. Also, the Old White, while an excellent course, hardly has the reputation that Mid Ocean has. The fifth hole at Mid Ocean, the premier example of the Cape, one of the Macdonald/Raynor staple template holes, is especially notable, but the entire course is beautiful. Also unlike the Old White, Mid Ocean is very private, and basically the only way an ordinary golfer like me would ever get to see it is to see it on TV.

So, here's to the Grand Slam of Golf. You weren't the flashiest tournament, or the best, but for a little while, you gave us all a tour of a golf course with interesting architecture, lots of great scenery, and for that, it's a tournament worth missing.

Good News for Alaska Golfers

Global warming is generally considered not to be a good thing. When it comes to golf, global warming threatens to disrupt rainfall patterns, making it more difficult to keep courses irrigated, and rising sea levels threaten to wash away coastal golf courses, especially the classic links courses of Great Britain. Not even St. Andrews, the home of golf, is immune to increased storms washing away its dunes.

That said, if you're an Alaskan golfer, you'll be very happy this year, because Alaska golf courses are opening earlier than they ever have. Normally, courses in the Anchorage area open in mid-April, but this year, they'll be opening this weekend, easily breaking the record (set last year) of March 21st. It's so unnaturally warm in Alaska this year that the golf courses are actually opening the day before the Iditarod starts. You know, the dogsledding race. The one that takes place in winter. With all the snow. It's been so warm they actually had to ship in snow this year to Anchorage so the race can begin. Come on guys, how absurd do things have to get before we do something really substantial about global warming? It's getting downright comical now.

To Find Life on Mars, Follow the...Salt?

When it comes to finding life on Mars, NASA has had a strategy: follow the water. It makes sense, life as we know it requires liquid water, so it would make sense that if liquid water could be found, that would be the logical place to look for any Martian life. We've even managed to find some liquid water in the form of the recurring slope lineae. However, some new research suggests that following the water may not be the best strategy. Their suggestion? Look for life in the driest, saltiest places.

This sounds very counter-intuitive, but it does make a certain amount of sense, considering how microbial life has adapted to the driest conditions here on Earth. In these hyperarid regions, life survives by going underground, living underneath salty crusts that absorb water directly from the air. There is a possibility that as Mars dried up and microbes huddled together in the last bits of liquid brine just below the surface, they evolved in a similar fashion to Earth microbes in a similar situation, subsisting on the small amount of water in the Martian atmosphere. The researchers also suggest that these environments probably dried up for the last time recently, and perhaps some still exist. It's not the most dignified way for life to get by, but to go for so long in such a hostile place would be impressive nonetheless.

Discovery of Gravitational Waves Announced

It really doesn't sound like very much, does it? The existence of gravitational waves, first theorized by Albert Einstein, is accepted by pretty much everyone. But for the past 100 years, we've never been able to detect them. We've tried, but gravity, as it turns out, is ridiculously weak.

Perfect, now just stuff that in a water bottle

Let's do a little comparison between gravity and the other 3 fundamental forces, just to demonstrate gravity's weakness. Imagine the force of gravity represented as a 1 kilogram object sitting on a table. A big bottle of water that holds 1 liter weighs a kilogram, if you need a visualization. It's not a problem to pick up, right? Everyone can pick up a bottle of water. That bottle represents gravity's comparative force. Now, let's replace gravity with a similarly sized bottle with the comparative weight of the weak nuclear force, the next weakest fundamental force. That bottle, previously 1 kilogram now weighs nearly as much as Earth and Venus combined. It would then turn into a black hole. As it turns out, the weak nuclear force is stronger than gravity by a factor of 1 * 10²⁵. Try picking that up.

The story only gets worse with the other 2 forces. Let's move on to electromagnetism, which along with gravity is the fundamental force we all know. It's stronger than gravity by a factor of 1 * 10³⁶. For reference, the Sun weighs about 2 * 10³⁰ kg. Our bottle would weigh about as much as 500,000 Suns. This is nearly as heavy as Segue 2, a dwarf galaxy and Milky Way satellite which is (according to Wikipedia) the least massive galaxy known; but far, far more than the most massive stars, which weigh in at around 200-250 solar masses. Again, it would then become a black hole. The strong nuclear force is only 100 times stronger than electromagnetism, so our bottle now weighs 50 million solar masses. For comparison, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way is only about 4.5 million solar masses. At that mass, our bottle actually would not become a black hole...yes it would.

Credit: LIGO

It would clearly be no easy task then to detect gravitational waves. But today, scientists with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory announced that they had finally managed to do it. The project used a pair of detectors 2,000 miles apart to detect the waves, which compress a laser in one arm of a detector and stretch the laser of the other arm. 2 detectors are necessary to confirm the result, and to triangulate the location of the gravitational wave. It's an incredibly sensitive experiment, but it has to be. Even the largest gravitational waves, emanating from sources such as supernovas and black hole collisions, cause a change in laser length measured at the subatomic level.

On one hand, this isn't exactly the most exciting news. Gravitational waves have been observed indirectly before, and like I said before, very few doubted that they existed. But on the other hand, direct observation is a lot better than indirect. While we can't rule out an error in the experiment (and verifying this observation will be very difficult, since LIGO is the only detector powerful enough to detect gravitational waves), it seems that this announcement will likely be the real deal. It represents a powerful confirmation of general relativity, and now that we know how to detect gravitational waves, we can take the process further, learning much more about the universe. It really is a bigger deal than it sounds.

Random Thoughts 2/7/16

Currently working on a very long and extensive piece for the blog here, and I don't want to go too long without posting. So, here's a collection of news and random thoughts.

Astronomers have come up with a new theory to address the Fermi Paradox. Unless life can form reasonably quickly after a planet forms to stabilize the environment, the planet will likely become uninhabitable after about a billion years. It does make some sense, Venus and Mars were likely habitable at some point in the early solar system, but became less hospitable very quickly.

I recently finished watching the 2008 Clone Wars animated TV show. I don't want to call it a cartoon, because it didn't really look like one, and there already was a Clone Wars cartoon back in 2003. I really liked the 2003 cartoon, and I was pleasantly surprised that the 2008 show was actually pretty good in its own right. If you get past the 2008 animated movie and the first season, the show does pick up, and there's some surprising compelling stuff in there.

Remember the gigantic snowstorm that barreled right through the Mid-Atlantic a couple weeks ago? It dumped more than 2 feet of snow? Yeah, of course you do. That snow's pretty much all gone. It didn't last very long. What a disappointment. I don't like snow.

Nobody may remember him because he got overshadowed by Alan Shepard and his golfing, but Edgar Mitchell, sixth man to walk on the moon, died on February 4th. One less person alive who's walked on another world, which means there are now seven left.

I feel like there was some sort of significant event tonight, but for the life of me, I can't think of what it could be. Maybe some sort of sporting event? No, that can't be right. I don't know, but if I can't remember, it must not be that important. Oh well.

A Ninth Planet for Our Solar System?

Yes, that's right, after 10 years, the International Astronomical Society have realized their mistake and are reinstating Pluto as the ninth planet. It's a controversial decision in the astronomical world, but the IAU has recognized the public popularity of Pluto, especially after the New Horizons visit, and astronomers now feel that an exemption should be made for Pluto.

Uhhh, no. Did I have you going? Probably not.

So, yes, scientists have announced that there is likely a large body very far out in the solar system, hundreds of AU away. It obviously isn't official yet, but this is some very interesting news. The hypothetical planet would likely be about 10 times more massive than the Earth and would orbit about 20 times further away then Neptune. The evidence for the existence of this object, since we haven't actually seen anything, is that the orbits of 6 Kuiper Belt objects seem to be heavily influenced by something. The orbits all point in the same general direction, even though the objects, including the dwarf planet Sedna, are moving at very different speeds.

If you recall your astronomical history, you'll remember that the search for Neptune commenced because of perceived inconsistencies in Uranus' orbit, and that the search for Pluto occurred because of inconsistencies in Uranus' and Neptune's orbits. So, as with most extraordinary discoveries, it's important not to jump to any conclusions. But I do find it interesting that a few months back, scientists hypothesized the existence of a fifth gas giant in the early solar system which was cast out due to interactions from an early Jupiter or Saturn. This hypothetical planet would have been an ice giant, like Uranus and Neptune. The new "Ninth Planet" is also almost certainly an ice giant which probably did not form that far out in the solar system. Interesting how this works out, isn't it? I'm expecting to hear more about this in the future.