Swirls like ribbon ice cream
A piece of Mars: When the wind erodes layered rocks, it can create a dramatic swirly pattern like this. It looks like ribbon ice cream to me. Mmm, rocks. (HiRISE ESP_011582_1730)
One perfect barchan on Mars
A piece of Mars: In nature most dunes pile on one another or strongly influence each other. But occasionally, like a perfect flower or crystal, you find a perfectly shaped dune. Here is a crescentic dune, called a “barchan”, formed by winds moving from right to left. (HiRISE PSP_007676_1385)
A trip to Goldstone
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in southern California. Goldstone is one of three sites around the world (the others being in Madrid, Spain and Canberra, Australia) that receive and transmit data to spacecraft in deep space. Three sites are needed to provide 24-hour coverage as the Earth rotates. Goldstone’s history dates to 1958, when it was commissioned to receive data from Explorer 1, NASA’s first satellite. Today Goldstone communicates with 30 spacecraft, ranging from SOHO and Stereo A&B viewing the Sun to Voyager 1, nearly 18 billion kilometers (10 billion miles) from Earth.
Just arrived from London from a one-day meeting of the MIRI consortium, I cannot avoid looking back with pride at our achievements, in this longer than 10 years challenge.
So beautiful
A piece of Mars: The dunes can be so beautiful on Mars. What a lovely vacation spot this would be, provided you brought a large supply of oxygen, food, and a heat source to keep you warm. (HiRISE ESP_026416_1620)
Sand, wind, and dust
A piece of Mars: This is what dunes look like in the deepest part of Mars, where the air is full of bright dust that constantly settles out onto everything. The wind helps to clear off the sand dunes (blue in this image) in two ways: one is by dust devils that leave crooked tracks like drunk vacuum cleaners, and the other is by sand avalanches down steep dune slip faces (HiRISE ESP_025278_1345).
Introduction
The Cassini spacecraft arrives at Saturn (artist's rendering). Credit: NASA
Hello, everyone. Welcome to my blog as part of the Cosmic Diary. I’m an astronomer at the SETI Institute. Or a planetary scientist. Or a planetary astronomer. Or something. I’ve never figured out what to call myself. I spend my days doing what most scientists do: converting raw data into published papers, hopefully figuring out some fundamental truth about the universe and advancing the scope of human knowledge along the way. Or at least that’s the theory. Often my days are actually spent beating my head against misbehaving software or struggling to make sense of what I’m looking at. It’s a wonderful job and SETI is a great place to work.
A piece of Mars: Patterns within patterns (metapatterns?). These small martian dunes shown an unusual complexity in their crossing lines, indicating that they were formed by winds from several directions (and it is likely that those winds changed over time). What do you think, should it be the next thing in tweed fashion after houndstooth and herringbone?
can’t hug orphans
Today I have a social issue on my mind.
Did you know that in California it is illegal for workers at orphanages to hug the children? I was shocked to hear this. I’m no expert, but conventional wisdom is that children need love, hugs and caring touches (like being carried). Isn’t it obvious that children without any “parental” contact will encounter major obstacles to having healthy relationships when they grow up? Its as if you were to cut off their arm to save a finger.
Warning: Inappropriate touching according to California law.
Today I am feeling inspired and motivated. It could easily have not been the case since the day started with a massive crash of my email inbox, a difficult review of a recently submitted paper, and some issues with my simulation that I am planning to present at the ACM conference next week – not to mention a lack of sleep. Still, all of this became irrelevant when I watched NASA’s new promotional video attached below.