Friday, October 30, 2015

Kerberos, Mars: Answers Raise New Questions

Images sent back from New Horizons gave scientists their first opportunity to see how big Kerberos is. It's much smaller than they expected, which raises new questions.

Meanwhile, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's instruments provided evidence that there's running water on Mars: every summer, on some crater slopes. It's not the Mars of Burroughs' Barsoom tales: but I think the planet is getting more interesting, the more we learn about it.
  1. Pluto's Moon Kerberos: Answers Raise New Questions
  2. "Liquid Water Flows on Today's Mars"

"Wonderful Things"



(From James Allen St. John, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(A green Martian on his thoat: on Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom.)

I enjoy fiction: speculative-, science-, and otherwise. But I also enjoy trying to keep up with what we're learning about this wonder-filled universe.

Howard Carter, asked if he could see anything through "tiny breach in the top left hand corner" of a buried doorway, said: "Yes, wonderful things!"1

That's how I feel, when running into another piece from this cosmic puzzle collection we live in. As I've said before, this is a world of wonders. The trick is learning to notice them. (January 2, 2015; October 5, 2014)

This is where I explain why faith and reason, science and religion, get along — or should. Feel free to skip down to Pluto's Moon Kerberos: Answers Raise New Questions, or do whatever seems reasonable.

Science and technology are tools. Using them is part of being human. Studying the universe and using that knowledge is what we're supposed to do. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2292-2296)

Putting science and tech, or anything else, at the top of our priority list, is a bad idea. That's where God belongs. (Catechism, 2112-2114)

Somewhere around the mid-19th century, some folks decided that since we were learning quite a bit about how stuff works: God doesn't exist. I've over-simplifying the situation, of course. Remarkably — or maybe not so much — some Christians agreed.

We've been dealing with that mess ever since. (July 15, 2014)

I can sympathize, slightly, with folks who feel flustered when the science they learned in school gets updated: or when a newly-found facet of reality doesn't match our preconceived notions of what's true.

However, when what we've 'always known' about the pillars beneath Earth or celestial spheres turns out to be wrong: that's our problem, not God's. (October 3, 2014; August 7, 2015)

If we don't insist that our preconceived notions are the only possible explanation, keep looking at the facts, and use our brains, sooner or later we'll understand:
"...God, the Creator and Ruler of all things, is also the Author of the Scriptures - and that therefore nothing can be proved either by physical science or archaeology which can really contradict the Scriptures. ... Even if the difficulty is after all not cleared up and the discrepancy seems to remain, the contest must not be abandoned; truth cannot contradict truth...."
("Providentissimus Deus,"1 Pope Leo XIII (November 18, 1893) [emphasis mine])
We're created by God, designed with a thirst for truth and for God. (Genesis 1:26, 2:7; Catechism, 27)

We're made from the stuff of this world, and "in the image of God:" creatures who are matter and spirit. Using our senses and reason, we can observe the world's order and beauty: learning something of God in the process. (Genesis 1:26; Catechism, 31-35, 282-289, 355-361)

Bottom line? Thinking is not a sin. (March 29, 2015)

1. Pluto's Moon Kerberos: Answers Raise New Questions



(From NASA/JPL-JHU/SwRI, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("Kerberos has a double lobe shape and may be the result of a coming together of two objects
(BBC News))
"Pluto's moon Kerberos finally shows itself" Jonathan Amos, BBC News (October 23, 2015)

"An image of Kerberos, one of the two tiny moons of Pluto, has finally been returned by the US space agency's New Horizons probe.

"It shows the object to have two lobes, which may be the consequence of icy bodies bumping into each other and joining up.

"Kerberos's larger lobe is judged to be about 8km across. The smaller lobe is roughly 5km in diameter.

"Styx, the other little moon in the system, is of a comparable size.

"Mission scientists say these satellites are brighter than they expected. Planetary bodies usually darken over time as a result of chemical changes triggered by sunlight and cosmic ray impacts.

"But these moons reflect about 50% of all incident light, which indicates their water-ice covering is very clean...."
Earth's moon is quite dark, only a little brighter than worn asphalt. Our moon's albedo, how much light it reflects, is 0.136 — it reflects 13.6% of our sun's light, on average. It's a lot brighter at the full moon, thanks to the opposition effect of rough surfaces.

Folks at NASA and JPL-JHU/SwRI squeezed as much information as the could from New Horizon's data — deconvloving and oversampling the image by a factor of eight. (NASA)

Those are words you don't run into every day. I don't, anyway.

NASA says that Kerberos is roughly 7.4 miles, 12 kilometers, across and 2.8 miles, 4.5 kilometers, wide. (NASA)

After color images from the Spirit Mars Rover, like that one, taken June 3, 2004; and results from soil analysis by the Curiosity rover in Gale Crater; a pixelated image of Kerberos may not seem impressive.

On the other hand, we didn't know Kerberos existed before June-July 2011, when the Pluto Companion Search Team found it in Hubble Space Telescope images.

They were mostly looking for rings around Pluto, so the New Horizons flyby wouldn't end with a high-speed collision.

Now that we know roughly what Kerberos looks like and how big it is, we've got at least one more new puzzle to solve: what's it made of? Its surface may be ice, like Charon's is (probably), which would explain why it's so bright.

But Kerboros probably isn't ice all the way through.

Kerberos: There's More to Learn



(From NASA/JPL-JHU/SwRI, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("Charon (at bottom) is by far the biggest satellite in the system with a diameter of 1,212km"
(BBC News))
"Last of Pluto’s Moons – Mysterious Kerberos – Revealed by New Horizons"
New Horizons News, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (October 22, 2015)

"...Before the New Horizons encounter with Pluto, researchers had used Hubble Space Telescope images to 'weigh' Kerberos by measuring its gravitational influence on its neighboring moons. That influence was surprisingly strong, considering how faint Kerberos was. They theorized that Kerberos was relatively large and massive, appearing faint only because its surface was covered in dark material. But the small, bright-surfaced, Kerberos now revealed by these new images show that that idea was incorrect, for reasons that are not yet understood...."
Maybe scientists will discover that Kerberos doesn't have as strong an influence on the other Plutonian moons as they thought: that's assuming that there's an error in the data or the math used in the original work.

Or maybe there's another, not-yet-discovered, satellite that's causing the observed effects on the other moons' orbits. That, I think, is less likely: although an "invisible moon" would be very cool.

Or maybe Kerberos isn't ice all the way through. It wouldn't take a very thick coating to make it look the way it does.

I haven't found an informed discussion of the 'Kerberos influence,' so I've no idea whether that moon would have to be mostly rock, lead, or something unreasonably dense, to have the effect it apparently does.

The New Horizons team had the spacecraft fire its hydrazine thrusters for 16 minutes on October, the first of several maneuvers to send it to a flyby of 2014 MU69. That'll happen January 1, 2019. (NASA)

The BBC News article points out that NASA hasn't formally announced that it will have money for ground controllers. Whether there'll be anybody in mission control depends partly on the American Congress.

More:

2. "Liquid Water Flows on Today's Mars"



(From NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona, used w/o permission.)
(Dark narrow streaks coming from the walls of Garni Crater on Mars. Scientists made this model from observations by the High ResMars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)'s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE).)
"NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today's Mars"
Guy Webster, DC Agle, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California; Dwayne Brown,Laurie Cantillo, NASA; NASA/JPL News (September 28, 2015)

"New findings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.

"Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet. These darkish streaks appear to ebb and flow over time. They darken and appear to flow down steep slopes during warm seasons, and then fade in cooler seasons. They appear in several locations on Mars when temperatures are above minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 Celsius), and disappear at colder times...."
Before a mercifully-brief discussion of lineae containing hydrated chlorate and perchlorate salts and similarly-nerdy stuff — I'll show this rousing image of a green Martian on his thoat, and why the Guzman Prize2 excluded Mars.

I remember the mix of excitement and disappointment when Mariner 4 sent back images of craters when it passed by Mars. (January 2, 2015)

Burroughs' Barsoom was entertainment. I'm pretty sure that nobody seriously expected to find such a literally-colorful array of folks living on Mars.

But the idea that we had neighbors living on Mars was taken seriously in the late 19th century — to the point that the Guzman Prize specifically excluded communication with Martians, since that didn't seem like much of a challenge.

Time ran out on the original Guzman Prize in 1910.

As we learned more about Mars, hopes of finding Martians dimmed. Most astronomers couldn't see Percival Lowell's canals and oases, and were skeptical about Lowell's story of a high-tech civilization struggling to survive on a dying world.

That version of Mars made a dandy setting for tales of high adventure and intrigue, though, and that's another topic.

By the mid-20th century, scientists had lowered their hopes and expectations from finding people to finding moss and lichens on Mars. (July 24, 2015; March 13, 2015; January 24, 2014; October 17, 2013)

Remembering Mariner


Mariner 4 made the first successful Martian flyby on July 14 and July 15, 1965.

Like other folks who had been paying attention, I didn't expect to see equivalents of Barsoomian Gathol or Helium.

But I'd hoped for something other than craters.

Martian air wasn't a vacuum: but 4.1 to 7.0 millibars, 410 to 700 pascals, is about four to seven thousandths of Earth's sea level pressure.

Scientists figured daytime temperatures were around −100 degrees Celsius. They found no magnetic field or Martian radiation belts.

The Mars Mariner 4 found seemed only marginally more hospitable than our moon.

Then Mariner 9, Mars 2, and Mars 3 went into orbit around Mars: arriving in time for a planet-wide dust storm.

Channels on Mars



(From NASA/JPL-Caltech, used w/o permission.)
(Nirgal Vallis, Mars; image from Mariner 9, 1971.)

When the dust settled, we started getting a more comprehensive look at the surface: including places like Nirgal Vallis, a channel 496 kilometers long.

Scientists are still debating exactly what's happening on Mars, and how Martian features that look like river channels and deltas formed.

It's possible that something other than flowing water cut the channels and deposited the deltas. My guess is that when something walks and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck — and that Mars hasn't always been as dry as we thought it was after that first Mariner flyby.

There's fairly good reason to believe that lakes formed in the Hellas and Argyre basins; Gale, Holden, Ritchey, Jezero, and Columbus craters; and elsewhere on Mars.

More:

Evidence


"Evidence for recent flows," that last bit from Wikipedia, talks about followup on Lujendra Ojha's research. He's the Nepalese undergraduate student who noticed those darkish streaks, recurrent slope lineae, that show up on some Martian slopes during the warm season. That was in 2011.

The streaks could have been made by salty water flowing downslope and evaporating. Then again, something else could be making them.

Having a plausible idea is one thing. Having data to back it up: that's where this year's announcement comes in.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's CRISM (Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars) made direct observations of hydrous salts appearing where and when the streaks show up.

Looks like the linae contain hydrated chlorate and perchlorate salts. Perchlorate salts come from perchloric_acid, stuff that's useful but not particularly safe when mishandled.

Salts, for a chemist, are ionic compounds that happen when an acid and base cancel each other out. They're made of related numbers of positively charged ions and negative ions, so they're electrically neutral. Sodium chloride is what most folks mean when they say "salt," and that's yet another topic.

One more thing: these dark streaks form during Martian summer, when the temperature is above -23° Celsius or -10° Fahrenheit. Assuming the stuff that's flowing is water, it's probably the hydrated chlorate and perchlorate salts that keep it liquid. We still don't know where the water comes from.

More posts about "wonderful things:"
1 Lord Carnarvon's account of discovering Tutankhamen's tomb on December 10, 1922. Quote from "Howard Carter before Tutankhamun," Nicholas Reeves, John H. Taylor (1992); via Wikipedia.

2 The the French Académie des Sciences announced the Prix Guzman, or Guzman Prize, in 1900. 100,000 francs would go to the first person or nation to discover how to communicate with a star — presumably folks living in the vicinity of a star — and receive a reply. The original prize had a 10-year deadline.

Wikipedia explains that communicating with Mars wouldn't count, "as many people believed that Mars was inhabited at the time and communication with that planet would not be a difficult enough challenge."

The prize was sponsored by Clara Gouget Guzman, in honor of her son Pierre. Pierre Guzman had been interested in Camille Flammarion's work including "La planète Mars et ses conditions d'habitabilité" ("The Planet Mars and Its Conditions of Habitability,) 1892).
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Thursday, October 29, 2015

The Halloween Asteroid: 2015 TB145


(From Alex Alishevskikh, cyberborean.org; via Flikr and Space.com, used w/o permission.)
("Trail of the object that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013."
(Space.com))

Asteroid 2015 TB145 won't hit Earth, but it will be only slightly farther from us than the Moon at 1:05 p.m. EDT, 5:05 p.m. UTC, October 31. I've talked about asteroids, Earth Time, and why thinking ahead makes sense, before:
I think we'd have a pretty good chance of surviving a replay of whatever killed off the non-avian dinosaurs. We've been surviving Earth's current ice age, an unstable climate that drove quite a few other critters to extinction, for the last few million years.

As I've said before, we've learned how to cope. (July 11, 2014)

On the other hand, we might not: and we'd almost certainly suffer a great deal in the process. On the whole, I think avoiding that sort of disaster would be better than enduring it.

Fifty years ago, we probably wouldn't have noticed an incoming asteroid until very shortly before it hit. Even if we did, there wouldn't have been much we could do, apart from praying — and that's another topic. (January 5, 2014; May 3, 2013)

If we noticed an 'extinction event' hunk of rock heading our way fifty years from now, I think prayer would still be a good idea: but by then we could have an effective 'asteroid response plan' in place.

The most sensible approach would, I think, be pushing the things into an orbit that doesn't threaten Earth: and spotting them early enough to do something about the knowledge. I've been over this before. (January 16, 2015; February 21, 2014)

Having tech ready to move asteroids or comets is only part of the picture. Spotting incoming hazards early enough to deal with them is important, too. We spotted TB145 three weeks before its closest approach, which probably wouldn't be enough.

More than you need, and probably want, to know about asteroid readiness:
Again, I think prayer would be a good idea. But I also think we should make common-sense preparations for unpleasant events.

Trusting God is a good idea: so is using our brains. One of our responsibilities is taking care of this world, for ourselves and for future generations. If we're going to do that, we need to study natural processes: so science is a good idea. So is technology. The trick is using them wisely. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 301, 304, 373, 2086, 2292-2296, 2415, 2456)

I've said this before, often: I'm a Catholic, so I must believe that God created and is creating a good and ordered universe. We're made in the image of God, rational creatures — and stewards of the physical world. (Genesis 1:27-28, Psalms 19:2; Wisdom 7:17; Catechism, 1, 341, 373, 1730, 2375)

Getting back to asteroid TB145, scientists will be keeping an eye on it at several optical observatories. The Deep Space Network at Goldstone, California's radar system will be tracking the quarter-mile-wide rock, too. More about this asteroid:
I'll be back tomorrow morning: with what I think about Kerberos, a moon of Pluto; and what may be running water on Mars.
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Sunday, October 25, 2015

New Evangelization: Fire and Light

"The New Evangelization calls each of us to deepen our faith, believe in the Gospel message and go forth to proclaim the Gospel. The focus of the New Evangelization calls all Catholics to be evangelized and then go forth to evangelize...."
("New Evangelization," USCCB1)
In a way, the "new" evangelization isn't new. Matthew 28:19 means the same thing now that it did two millennia ago.

But it isn't the first, or the 11th, century any more. We're in the 21st, and the world is changing.

This isn't a new situation:
"...the world is on fire. Men try to condemn Christ once again, as it were, for they bring a thousand false witnesses against him. They would raze his Church to the ground.... No, my sisters, this is no time to treat with God for things of little importance...."
(Camino de perfección, 1, 5; St. Teresa of Avila; quoted by Benedict XVI on July 16, 2012)1)
St. Teresa of Avila wrote Camino de perfección around the middle of the 16th century.

The 20th century and the first 15 years of the 21st haven't been 'just like' 16th century Europe's experience: but I think there are some parallels — Violence in the Middle East and Europe, social and political unrest, new military and information technology.

Machiavelli's The Prince reflected, at least, the 'principles be hanged: I'll get what I want' political attitude that's still with us.

The Protestant Reformation let northern princes set up their own state-operated churches, like Henry VIII's Church of England. The Münster Rebellion was, arguably, an unsuccessful private-sector effort to do the same thing on a local scale.

Remarkably, "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" wasn't banned until six decades after its publication. As Grace Hopper said, "humans are allergic to change." I've discussed Copernicus and newfangled ideas before. A lot. (February 20, 2015; January 9, 2015; July 18, 2014)

Getting back to 'today,' we've gone from zeppelins and neon lights to the Internet and industrial robots in a few generations. Europeans slaughtered each other in wholesale lots, twice, abandoned their empires, and are trying to cooperate for a change.

The United Nations has lasted seven decades, with 193 members and two observer states.

I don't think the UN is the "competent and sufficiently powerful authority at the international level" that Bl. Pope Paul VI mentioned in "Gaudium et spes," but it's a start. (September 27, 2015; May 1, 2015; August 24, 2014)

St. Teresa of Avila: Reform, Yes; "Going Back," No


Anxiety comes easily in times when society is in upheaval.

I'm cautiously optimistic, though, about the future. That's partly because I think today's society should change. The trick is pushing change in a good direction.

A little over three years ago, Benedict XVI talked about St. Teresa of Avila's era: and how she can be a role model for Catholics today.
"...In promoting a 'radical return' to a more austere form of Carmelite life, St. Teresa sought 'to create a form of life which favored a personal encounter with the Lord,' the Pope explained.

"Rather than harking back to the past, however, St. Teresa presented 'a new way of being Carmelite' to 'a world which was also new,' Pope Benedict observed. He quoted the Spanish saint's own writings to her religious sisters in which she summed up the 'difficult times' in which they lived.

" 'The world is on fire,' wrote St. Teresa of post-Reformation Europe. 'Men try to condemn Christ once again. They would raze His Church to the ground. No, my sisters, this is no time to treat with God for things of little importance.'

" 'Does this luminous and engaging call, written more than four centuries ago by the mystic saint, not sound familiar in our own times?' asked Pope Benedict in response...."
(David Kerr, CNA/EWTN News (July 16, 2012))
If I thought we had a perfect society in the 'good old days' before 1954, 1933, 1848, or some other imagined golden age, I'd be protesting rock music, promoting prohibition, or trying to keep my wife from voting.

Let's remember what "reform" means: "to improve by alteration, correction of error, or removal of defects; put into a better form or condition." (thefreedictionary.com)

We can't go back to the 'good old days,' which is just as well. We had problems then, too, and I'm drifting off-topic: which assumes I had a topic in mind to begin with.

Let's see: "the world is on fire," Münster Rebellion, zeppelins. Right. Got it.

Priorities and Love


I'm a Catholic layman, so I'm part of the Church's front line, permeating "social, political, and economic realities with the demands of Christian doctrine and life." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 899)

I'm Catholic, though, so that doesn't mean trying to ram my subculture's preferences and customs down everyone's throat. (August 30, 2015; September 7, 2014)

My top priority is knowing and loving God. (Catechism, 1)

I'm also expected to pass on the best news we've ever had: God loves us and wants to adopt us. All of us. (John 3:17; Romans 8:15; Ephesians 1:3-5; Catechism, 1-3, 52, 1825)

As an adopted child of God, I'm expected to reflect God's qualities: which is pretty much the opposite of easy. (Catechism, 339, 355, 369-370, 386-409)

If I take God, and my faith, seriously, I'll —

Love God, and love my neighbor. (Matthew 5:43-44; Mark 12:28-31; Luke 10:25-30; Catechism, 1825)

See everybody as my neighbor. (Matthew 5:43-44; Mark 12:28-31; Luke 10:25-30; Catechism, 1825)

Treat others as I want to be treated. (Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31; Catechism, 1789)

As I've said before, it's simple: not easy. (October 12, 2014)

"The Light Shines in the Darkness"


The Catholic Church is old: ancient. For two millennia, we've had the same basic message: Jesus stopped being dead. Heaven is open to us. (John 20; Catechism, 638-655, 1026)

This is a big deal.
"1 2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

"He was in the beginning with God.

"3 All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be

"through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race;

"4 the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
(John 1:1-5)
'Ancient' and 'consistent' isn't the same as 'decrepit' and 'outdated.' Our basic message hasn't changed. How we present it hasn't stopped changing. (May 31, 2015)

Benedict XVI said we're supposed to use "...methods free from inertia...." I think he's right.
"...In the 'exhilarating task' of the New Evangelization, he said, the example of St. Teresa should inspire all Christians because she 'evangelized unhesitatingly, showing tireless ardor, employing methods free from inertia and using expressions bathed in light.'

" 'This remains important in the current time,' said the Pope, 'when there is a pressing need for the baptized to renew their hearts through individual prayer in which, following the guidance of St. Teresa, they also focus on contemplation of Christ's blessed humanity as the only way to reach the glory of God.'"
(David Kerr, CNA/EWTN News)
I don't know how much "tireless ardor" I can manage, and I can't think of an expression "bathed in light" for wrapping up this post — so I'll repeat one of my favorite bits from the Bible.
"While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.

"They said, 'Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.' "
(Acts 1:10-11)
Two millennia later, we're still working, watching, and waiting. If we'd been following anyone else, we'd have given up long ago. But Jesus isn't anyone else. And that's another topic. Topics. (April 5, 2015; November 30, 2014; October 5, 2014)

Remembering what matters:
1 Background:
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Friday, October 23, 2015

Zircons and Earth's First Life

Bits of carbon encased in zircon crystals more than four billion years ago may have come from living creatures.

Then again, maybe not. Either way, we're learning more about Earth's long story.
  1. Zircons and Life's Dawn
  2. Jack Hills Zircons Revisited

Faith - - -



(From Efbrazil, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(This universe, so far: 13,800,000,000 years mapped onto a 12-month calendar.)

We've learned quite a bit in the centuries since in 1 Samuel 2:8 and Psalms 148:4 were written.

I'm confident that God could have made a universe that looked like Mesopotamian cosmology: but that's not what it's like.

This space-time continuum doesn't work like Anaximander's model, either. Anaximander's cosmology had Earth in the center: but he speculated that we might not be standing on the only world, and that worlds change.

Aristotle's cosmology had Earth in the center of the universe, too. He didn't think multiple worlds existed, though.

About 16 centuries later, educated Europeans like Dante Alighieri had a very high opinion of Aristotle. Some may even have had the attitude expressed by Dante, that Aristotle was "the Master ... of those who know."

Meanwhile, some academics said that other worlds might exist. Aristotle's fan base insisted there was only one: because Aristotle said so.

Arguments got heated, so in 1277 the Church stepped in. Some of the 219 points have been rescinded since then, but as far as I know, 27/219 still holds: God's God, Aristotle's not. If the Almighty decides that the visible creation has multiple worlds — that's the way it is.

I've discussed Job 9:6-7, international long-distance telephone service, and extraterrestrial life, before. (August 7, 2015; July 31, 2015; October 10, 2014; February 23, 2014)

- - - Reason, and Truth


If you've read my 'science' posts before, you probably know that I think the universe is billions, not thousands, of years old; Earth isn't flat; Adam and Eve aren't German; poetry isn't science; and thinking is not a sin.

You probably know why I think truth is important, too, so go ahead: skip down to Zircons and Life's Dawn, take a coffee break, go for a walk, or whatever strikes your fancy.

We're born with a thirst for truth.

The search for truth leads ultimately to God — but I don't see a point in ignoring the wonders and beauty of this creation. Besides, scientific discoveries are invitations "...to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator...." (Catechism, 27, 283)

I don't see a problem with studying this universe, because I think God makes it. If we discover something that doesn't fit our preconceived notions: that's out problem, not God's. (Genesis 1:1-31; Catechism, 159, 301)

It's like Pope Leo XIII wrote:
"...God, the Creator and Ruler of all things, is also the Author of the Scriptures - and that therefore nothing can be proved either by physical science or archaeology which can really contradict the Scriptures. ... Even if the difficulty is after all not cleared up and the discrepancy seems to remain, the contest must not be abandoned; truth cannot contradict truth...."
("Providentissimus Deus,"1 Pope Leo XIII (November 18, 1893) [emphasis mine])
From a Catholic viewpoint, faith is "a personal adherence of man to God." It's also "...a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed...." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 150)

Faith isn't blind, or stupid. It's not supposed to be, at least.
"1 Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

"This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh be longs to God,

"and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus 2 does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world."
(1 John 4:1-3)
"Man's faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God. But for man to be able to enter into real intimacy with him, God willed both to reveal himself to man and to give him the grace of being able to welcome this revelation in faith. The proofs of God's existence, however, can predispose one to faith and help one to see that faith is not opposed to reason."
(Catechism, 35)
I add another post to my faith and reason, science and religion link list almost every Friday. Cultural quirks and conflicts of the last couple centuries notwithstanding, it's science and religion, faith and reason. (Catechism, 36, 286, 355-373, 2293)

Goodbye, Hadean Eon?


A supereon is the largest unit of geologic time; a supereon is divided into eons; eons eras; eras into periods, epochs and ages. None of that will help you avoid traffic jams or avoid ring around the collar, but I think stuff like this is fascinating. Your experience may vary.

Nobody talked about the Hadean eon before 1972, because that's when geologist Preson Cloud first used the term. The Hadean is named after Hades, since scientists figured Earth was a hellish place back then — from the time Earth formed to 4,000,000,000 years ago.

It still looks like Earth was a profoundly inhospitable place for life right after it formed. On the other hand, bits of carbon sealed in zircon crystals probably came from living critters.

The crystals are well over four billion years old: which means we have more to learn about Earth's early eras.

1. Zircons and Life's Dawn



(From Elizabeth A. Bell, Patrick Boehnke, T. Mark Harrison, Wendy L. Mao, via PNAS, used w/o permission.)
("Transmission X-ray image of RSES 61-18.8...."
(Elizabeth A. Bell, Patrick Boehnke, T. Mark Harrison, Wendy L. Mao)
"Ancient crystal suggests life on Earth appeared 4.1 billion years ago"
Richard Valdmanis, Reuters (October 19, 2015)

"An ancient zircon crystal unearthed in Western Australia may hold evidence that life appeared on the planet 4.1 billion years ago, or about 300 million years earlier than previously thought, according to a team of U.S. researchers.

"Scientists from Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles said they recently collected some 10,000 multibillion year-old zircons in Jack Hills, Australia, including one believed to contain a carbon deposit that is 4.1 billion years old, give or take 10 million years....

"...Scientists have used the fossil record to assert that the history of life on Earth began about 3.8 billion years ago, in the form of single-celled creatures. Humans are believed to have first appeared on Earth only about 200,000 years ago...."
About that last paragraph. We've found microfossils in the Greenstone Belt, very old exposed rock in South Africa, that are about 3,500,000,000 years old. Graphite found in western Greenland that probably came from the carbon in living critters is about 3,700,000,000 years old.

Here's what scientists who worked with these zircons said:
"...Life on Earth is an ancient phenomenon, with the earliest identified microfossils at nearly 3.5 billion years before present (Ga) (1) and the earliest potential chemofossils at 3.83 Ga(2, 3)...."
("Potentially biogenic carbon preserved in a 4.1 billion-year-old zircon," Elizabeth A. Bell et al. | references to (1) "The oldest records of photosynthesis," Awramik SM, Photosynth Res 33:75-89 (1992) and (2) "Evidence for life on Earth before 3,800 million years ago," Mojzsis SJ, et al., Nature 384(6604):55–59 (1996)
The Reuter article's "...humans are believed..." is fairly accurate — provided you consider anatomically modern humans as "human" and everybody else as "not human." I don't, and I've been over that before. A lot. (September 18, 2015; September 11, 2015; July 11, 2014)

If the carbon in these zircons came from living critters, that means life started on Earth before the late heavy bombardment (LHB) — and survived that cataclysm, or started again, almost immediately after it stopped raining asteroids.

Or maybe the late heavy bombardment didn't happen. The last I checked, scientists were still undecided on whether the LHB is real, or a misinterpretation of data. (July 31, 2015)

Rethinking the Hadean


Zircon, ZrSiO4, is hard, durable, and chemically inert.

When this particular zircon crystal, RSES 61-18.8, formed, it encased tiny bits of carbon. For the next 4,100,000,000-odd years, RSES 61-18.8 remained intact: preserving the carbon.

What makes this carbon special is that it's "isotopically light:" δ13C, or Carbon-13. Isotopes are elements with an unusual number of neutrons. Carbon-13 can come from non-living processes, but it's almost always produced by critters.

Finding carbon that was almost certainly part of something living more than four billion years ago is a big deal, at least for some scientists:
"...Scientists had long believed the Earth was dry and desolate during that time period. Harrison's research — including a 2008 study in Nature he co-authored with Craig Manning, a professor of geology and geochemistry at UCLA, and former UCLA graduate student Michelle Hopkins — is proving otherwise.

" 'The early Earth certainly wasn't a hellish, dry, boiling planet; we see absolutely no evidence for that,' Harrison said. 'The planet was probably much more like it is today than previously thought.'..."
("Life on Earth likely started at least 4.1 billion years ago — much earlier than scientists had thought," UCLA Newsroom)
It's starting to look like life started even earlier than scientists thought. If that's true, we may have to re-name the Hadean eon — or, more likely, revise the geologic time scale again.

That's been going on since the late 18th century, when Abraham Gottlob Werner and others started talking about Urgebirge, Übergangsgebirge, Flötz, and Aufgeschwemmte series. I've mentioned Nicolas Steno and stratiography before. (May 1, 2015)

These scientists — not Werner and company: the PNAS paper's bunch; Bell, Boehnke, Harrison, and Mao — used confocal Raman spectroscopy with a green laser to study the carbon without disturbing the surrounding zircon crystal.

Raman spectroscopy uses inelastic scattering, is named after Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, and has nothing to do with noodle soup.

More that you probably need, or want, to know about these old zircons:

2. Jack Hills Zircons Revisited



(From Robert Simmon, NASA; NASA Earth Observatory; used w/o permission.)
"Diamonds hint at 'earliest life' "
Jonathan Fildes, BBC News (July 2, 2008)

"Tiny slivers of diamond forged on an infant Earth may contain the earliest traces of life, a study has shown.

"Analysis of the crystals showed they contain a form of carbon often associated with plants and bacteria.

"The rare gems were found inside zircon crystals, formed a few hundred million years after the Earth came into being.

"Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers caution that their results are not definitive proof of early life but do 'not exclude' the possibility.

" 'We're all a little sceptical,' said Dr Martin Whitehouse of the Swedish Museum of Natural History and one of the authors of the paper.

"If the carbon was derived from primitive organisms, it would push back the date for life appearing on Earth by around 500 million years, to beyond 4.25 billion years ago. The Earth itself is just 4.6 billion years old...."
More nitpicking — Scientists are quite sure that Earth is 4,540,000,000 years old, plus or minus 50,000,000. That's pretty close to "4.6 billion," though.

"Dr. Martin Whitehouse," "zircon," and "Jack Hills," gave me enough to find the paper discussing "tiny slivers of diamond:"
The zircon grains those scientists studied were up to 4,252,000,000 years old — and again, the scientists couldn't be absolutely sure that the carbon-13 came from critters. But, as the BBC article said, they couldn't be sure that it wasn't, either.

Recognizing the limits of data and analysis is the sort of healthy skepticism that keeps scientists from jumping off the edge of reality: with occasionally-spectacular exceptions.

I've talked about Boule's Neanderthal, Hawkin's "grim Monsters," H. P. Lovecraft, and SETI, before. Fairly often. (September 11, 2015; July 24, 2015; November 21, 2014; June 27, 2014)

We've learned a lot since I was in high school.

Neuroscientists are learning how our brains are rewired by experiences, astronomers determined how fast this universe is using energy, other scientists are developing mathematical models for continua other than the space-time we're in, and that's another topic. Topics. (August 14, 2015; March 27, 2015; September 26, 2014)

Like I keep saying, there's more to learn:
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Sunday, October 18, 2015

"Have No Anxiety At All"

My wife gave me a familiar 'did you really say that?' look a few days ago, after I said I didn't understand why so many folks are upset about current events.

She had, as usual, reason on her side. I've gotten upset, a lot. I'm pretty much the opposite of phlegmatic.

But I don't see much point in contemplating cracked mirrors, or taking my cue from Yeats:
"...The mirror crack'd from side to side;
'The curse is come upon me,' cried
The Lady of Shalott...."
("The Lady of Shalott," Tennyson (1842))
"...Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

"Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand...."
("The Second Coming," William Butler Yeats (1920))
I've quoted Yeats' "things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" quite a bit. (July 5, 2015; April 24, 2015; April 17, 2015)

Like quite a few other folks at the time, Yeats was getting over the Great War. Since then we've survived another global war, McCarthyism, the Beatles, and leisure suits. I won't enjoy my country's 2016 presidential election, but I'm pretty sure we'll survive that, too.

By some standards, this isn't a particularly 'religious' or 'relevant' blog. I don't rant about Armageddon, fur seals, or the crisis du jour.

Actually, I've come pretty close to ranting about the latter. (May 1, 2015; April 19, 2015)

Kvetching


The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference has taken a back seat to news about an unconscious celebrity found in a brothel and dire pronouncements about Synod 14.

The climate conference starts November 30, so kvetching about Laudato si' and climate change will probably pick up next month.

My take on the coming ice age, global warming, climate change, or whatever, is that Earth's climate has been changing for about 4,540,000,000 years, give or take 50,000,000, and will probably keep changing. (May 8, 2015; February 20, 2015)

The natural world got along without us. But now that we're here, and have climate-affecting tech, we're responsible for its maintenance. (July 3, 2015; June 18, 2015)

Emotions and Reason


Getting back to Tennyson, Yeats, and angst, I care about what's going on — and I trust my feelings: within reason.

I think that's partly because living with undiagnosed depression and something on the autism spectrum for decades taught me that my emotions are unreliable guides.

Emotions are good, in the sense that they're part of being human. They're "...the connection between the life of the senses and the life of the mind...." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1764)

In another sense, emotions aren't good or bad by themselves. What matters is what we decide to do about them. (Catechism, 1762-1770)
"...since the sensitive appetite can obey reason, as stated above (Question [17], Article [7]), it belongs to the perfection of moral or human good, that the passions themselves also should be controlled by reason...."
("The Summa Theologica," First Part of the Second Part | Question: 24 | Article: 3, St. Thomas Aquinas) (translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province (Benziger Bros. edition, 1947)
Having a good, or bad, feeling about something may mean that it's good or evil — or not. That's why I should think before responding. (Catechism, 1765-1770)

I trust my feelings to let me know that something may be important. After that, it's up to my reason to decide what's happening and what — if anything — I should do.

Reason is part of being human, too. But because we have free will, thinking is an option: not a requirement. Like I said Friday, my experience has been that I'm better off if I think before I act. (Catechism, 1730, 1778, 1804, 2339)

The antics of loudly-religious folks notwithstanding, faith and reason get along fine. (Catechism, 156-159)

Why Take Jesus Seriously?


Jesus said that we should love God, love our neighbors, see everybody as our neighbor, and treat others as we want to be treated. (Matthew 5:43-44, 7:12, 22:36-40, Mark 12:28-31; Luke 6:31 10:25-27, 29-37)

I think the reciprocity principle we call the Golden Rule makes sense.

Something like it shows up in "The Eloquent Peasant," a story set in Egypt's Ninth or Tenth Dynasty. More than a dozen centuries later, Confucius (孔子) said pretty much the same thing.

But Jesus the Nazorean also claimed to be God: "...before Abraham came to be, I AM." (John 8:58)

Some folks have delusions of grandeur, but megalomania isn't wisdom: so why should I take Jesus seriously?

The short answer is that a few days after our Lord was executed and buried, Jesus stopped being dead. After a series of meetings and working lunches, the 11 surviving disciples realized that they weren't seeing a ghost.
"And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them."

"With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight."
(Luke 24:30-31)
"While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, 'Have you anything here to eat?'

"They gave him a piece of baked fish;

"he took it and ate it in front of them."
(Luke 24:41-43)
"Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, 'Peace be with you.'

"Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.' "
(John 20:26-27)
I've talked about our Lord's final meeting with the 11, described in Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:10-11, before. (October 5, 2014)

Rejoice!


Not everybody wanted to hear that Jesus is alive, and will be coming back. Saint Stephen was the first Christian who got killed for saying something folks didn't want to hear. (Acts 7:57-60)

Keep an eye on the "young man named Saul," who looked after the cloaks of Stephen's killers. (Acts 9:3-6)

A couple chapters later, he's "still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord" when Jesus has a brief but meaningful dialog with him. (Acts 9:1-6)

Understandably, Ananias asked for clarification when the Lord told him to look up Saul. After that, Saul and Ananias finally convinced local Christians that Saul had changed his mind, and Saul's former associates tried to kill him. (Acts 9:13-25)

There are two other accounts of Saul's conversion, and that's another topic. Topics. (Acts 22:3-16, Acts 26:2-18)

Saul's Greco-Roman name is Paul. Yet more topics. (Acts 13:9, footnote 5)

Paul's letter to Christians in Rome includes a pretty good reminder:
"Who will condemn? It is Christ (Jesus) who died, rather, was raised, who also is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

"What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?...

"...For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, 9 nor future things, nor powers,

"nor height, nor depth, 10 nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
(Romans 8:34-35, 38-39)
I'm concerned about the environment, politics, and dental hygiene. But I try to keep my priorities straight. Nothing — nothing — in this world will keep me from our Lord. I could walk away, but that would be my choice: and a daft decision. (July 27, 2014)

Finally, pretty good advice from another letter, and the best news humanity's ever had:
"Rejoice 4 in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice!

"Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.

"Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 6 "
(Philippians 4:4, 6-8)
"For God so loved the world that he gave 7 his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn 8 the world, but that the world might be saved through him."
(John 3:16-17)
God loves us, and wants to adopt us. All of us. (John 3:17; Romans 8:15; Ephesians 1:3-5; Catechism, 1-3, 52, 1825)

More posts about life, death, and the big picture:
1 The Catechism uses technical terms, like "moral passions." Happily, there's a glossary:
"PASSIONS, MORAL: The emotions or dispositions which incline us to good or evil actions, such as love and hate, hope and fear, joy and sadness, and anger (1763)."
(Catechism, Glossary)
Emotions, feelings, "moral passions," are important. So is thinking:
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Marian Apparition: Champion, Wisconsin

Background:Posts in this blog: In the news:

What's That Doing in a Nice Catholic Blog?

From time to time, a service that I use will display links to - odd - services and retailers.

I block a few of the more obvious dubious advertisers.

For example: psychic anything, numerology, mediums, and related practices are on the no-no list for Catholics. It has to do with the Church's stand on divination. I try to block those ads.

Sometime regrettable advertisements get through, anyway.

Bottom line? What that service displays reflects the local culture's norms, - not Catholic teaching.