ASTEROID IMPACT!

Phoenix studies soil on Mars

The unmanned Phoenix rover has generated results that convince even skeptics like myself that Mars does have soil. Mildly alkaline (pH range from 8-9) and containing both water vapor and carbon dioxide gas, the material shown on the scoop in the above photograph should certainly be "capable of supporting plants out of doors."

There is even a snazzy video to please the masses. Now all we need to find out is whether the soil has in fact supported plants, microbes, or other critters at some point in the past.

NASA Chief Questions Global Warming

I heard Steve Inskeep interview Michael Griffin, the director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) today on Morning Edition. The overall context for the interview was confrontational in that Wednesday morning's program had featured a strident critique of current NASA programs by Gregg Easterbrook of Wired magazine. It was obvious that Griffin is very much in favor of all of the current NASA programs, particularly what Easterbrook refers to as "Motel 6 on the moon." Griffin also appears to be managing NASA from the top down, which may be conceived as a response to the serious problems a few years back such the shuttle Columbia incident.

Although I was somewhat surprised by Griffin's remarks about global warming, they came toward the end of an interview which had other troubling aspects that are not being discussed in the press or on blogs yet. Griffin clearly does not think much of any of the research that NASA and other space agencies do to study the Earth from space. Rather, he is focusing all the agency's funds and talent on exploration. That seems pretty arrogant to me and not in keeping with the stewardship of our planet which is trumpeted so often by Christian believers. His remarks when questioned about what NASA is doing about climate change were as follows:

I don't think it's within the power of human beings to assure that the climate does not change, as millions of years of history have shown. And second of all, I guess I would ask which human beings — where and when — are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take.

It is a bold and radical position to aspire to keep from changing the Earth's climate much more than what is already occurring. However, it was also a bold and radical choice that we made to go to the moon in the 1960's. Someone managing an agency the size of NASA with its position at the leading edge of science and technology should be bold, radical, and perhaps even arrogant. Showing my own biases here, I believe it to be less arrogant to direct that science and technology toward comprehensive knowledge and management of our own planet and its resources than it is to commit ourselves to putting people on Mars to look for water and other resources. Unfortunately, those resources may very well be needed by the point we can accomplish that if we follow the lead of Griffin and his ilk.

Meteorite Hazards in the Home

Last Monday morning, a space object of some sort crashed through the bedroom window of David and Dee Riddle’s home in Bloomington, Illinois. Geologists from Illinois State University (ISU)) who have examined the object are skeptical as to whether it is a true meteorite or perhaps a piece of "space junk" left behind by a satellite or spacecraft. While Robert Nelson notes that the object's density indicates a possible iron-nickel composition common to asteroids and the Earth's core, James Day finds the jagged ridge along one side of the object more typical of a manmade object. Fellow blogger Decrepit Old Fool voted with Dr. Day for the "space junk" hypothesis.

Regardless of its age and ultimate origin, the space object flew through Dee Riddle's window at a high velocity and lodged itself into a computer desk made of particle board. Now at ISU's geology department for analysis, the Bloomington "meteorite" weighs 402.41 grams and measures about 3 inches (7.6 cm) long by about 2.5 inches (6.35 cm) across and about half an inch (1.3 cm) thick. While the newspaper unfortunately converted the measurements to inches foran American readership, my back conversion suggests a volume of 62.7 cm³ and a density of 6.4 g/cm³. This is far denser than any rocks found at the Earth's surface, which average from 2-3 g/cm³.

The Riddles can be thankful that their space object was smaller in volume than the Peekskill meteorite, which traveled straight through Michelle Knapp's car as it sat in her driveway in the early morning hours of October 9th, 1992. The Peekskill meteorite weighed 12.4 kg, although its "chondritic" composition would indicate a lower density somewhat less than 4 g/cm³. A chondritic meteorite recently found near Statesboro, Georgia reportedly weighed 2.7 kg (6 lbs). That meteorite is undergoing detailed analysis by Dr. Michael Kelley of Georgia Southern University, with preliminary results suggesting an "L" type (low iron) composition. The rest of us can be thankful that the Riddles were sincerely interested in advancing scientific knowledge about their space object rather than angling for financial gain as was apparently done by Harold Cannon, who discovered the Statesboro meteorite.

Meanwhile, NASA is cutting out their search of the heavens for all but the largest of asteroids that may be on track to collide with the Earth in coming centuries. Approximately three-quarters of the objects over a kilometer (about sixth-tenths of a mile) in diameter that cross the Earth’s orbit have been discovered, their orbits calculated, and the potential for global catastrophe ruled out. That search is continuing while the agency has decided to abandon the search for smaller objects which might also represent significant hazards to desks, windows, cars, houses, cities, power plants, cities, counties, states, or even entire continents.