Posted on 02/22/2004 8:04:49 AM PST by Phil V.
Microscopic Imager Non-linearized Full frame EDR acquired on Sol 28 of Opportunity's mission to Meridiani Planum at approximately at approximately 12:26:38 Mars local solar time, Microscopic Imager dust cover commanded to be OPEN. NASA/JPL/Cornell/USGS
Just below center and just to the left of center notice what appears to be a fractured "spherule". Notice the dark center. This is STRONGLY suggestive of growth by accretion - an increase by natural growth or by gradual external addition . . . a process FREQUENTLY associated with a water environment. This is MY interpretation. But the picture is NASA/JPL . . . it is worth a thousand words. Feel free to contribute.
Actually, in the case of Miami vs. Syracuse, it isn't the difference in their distance from the Sun; it's the difference in the yearly average of the angle of the sun's rays at each location.
BZZZT!! Thanks for playing but we do have these lovely parting gifts.
The difference in the climate between Syracuse and Miami is caused by the ANGLE of the sun. It's warmer in Miami because the sun is more directly overhead. At the equator it is warm because the sun is directly overhead all year. We have seasons because the earth's axis cause a tilt in the orbital plane and so the angle of the sun becomes lower in respective hemishperes at different times of the year.
Miami isn't warm DUE to its proximity to the equator, it is warmer because the solar geometry is more similar to that of the equator. The farther you get from the equator (like Syracuse), the lower the angle of the sun, and the colder it is at any time of year.
Yes. Those same questions were asked a few million years ago in Africa then again a few hundred years ago in Spain, England and Portugal. And they were asked innumerable times within that intrval. The answer is that some stayed behind. Some did not.
Boy they sure have some 'splaining to do. I am sure there are non-biological explanations for these linear voids, but I can't imagine what they are.
Phil, you want to start a whole new thread for this one? I gotta head over to Lowe's before it starts raining down here.
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These are great questions. As a space nut let me try some answers. The final purpose is..... To explore, to find answers, to increase our knowledge, to get out of the madding crowd, a hundred reasons from ridiculous to sublime. And after exploring the universe what do we accomplish? We may adapt, evolve into different shapes, and increase our tolerance for strangeness. And we may begin to finally understand ourselves.
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Are we talking about sending people into the cosmos to live?
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More that just live. They will form communities, governments, societies. They will adapt, overcome challenges, love, have babies, fight and die. They will repeat all the triumphs and tragedies we have, but they will be elsewhere. In time it will be more than mere colonization, it will be diaspora begetting diaspora.
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Are we going to mine the surface of Mars for materials not available or in dwindling supply here on Earth?
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Short answer, yes..But. There needs to be something really short, or totally non-existant to justify the cost of Mars Earth transit at the present cost of space freight. The main reason to go to mars is to learn about planetary origins, some really strange land forms, and later possibly terraforming. But there is another reason. To make space travel cheap enough that the average citizen can afford to go to space. Then come the colonies, the societies, etc.
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Are we going ot find something that justifies the huge expense and the manhours put into it or is it going to be another series of moon missions (i.e. we managed to do some really neat stuff. Now we're bored with it).
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First let me debunk the huge expense myth. The Total NASA budget is .7% of the annual US budget. The space exploration piece of that starts small and increases over time to about .5% of the annual budget. This a very small investment over a long time to improve mans chances of surviving another impact the likes of which killed off the dinosaurs. Next the Apollo missions to the moon were more political than scientific because we were in a race with the Soviets. We won, we hung up the trophy, took a picture of an American flag, and stopped going to the moon. It is not that the scientists got bored, they were overcome by political reality. In all the missions only one scientist went to the moon. Harrison Schmitt on Apollo 17.
I just hope there's milk there.
I have seen fungus like this growing on trees back home in Ohio and Georgia where I now live.
You have ALIEN fungus out there???
There's a largely overlooked statement in the Bible which I think could explain this. The Genesis record of creation says, "And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so." (Genesis 1:7) Genesis then goes on to identify what the firmament is and where it is. "And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth..." (Genesis 1:16-17) Some have suggested that the firmament is merely the atmosphere of the earth or the sky, as it were. The atmosphere of earth does not contain any stars, the sun, or the moon however and therefore does not jive with the Biblical description of the firmament.
Jumping forward many years, we find that God flooded the entire world by using waters from above and below. "...the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." (Genesis 7:11) After the earth was sufficiently flooded, "the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained..." (Genesis 8:2) I find it interesting that in Gen. 7:11 only two sources of water were mentioned and in Gen. 8:2 three are named. Some have theorized that prior to the flood there was a protective cloud blanket of sorts that covered the atmosphere of the earth. If this is so then the reason for only two being named previously and three afterwards is clear. The waters from the great deep were obviously huge underground springs, wells, and other groundwater the remnants of which we still use today. The waters from the "windows of heaven" would be the waters placed above the firmament. When these waters crashed down into the cloud blanket they would obviously have caused a cloudburst from that cloud blanket which would become the "rain from heaven" mentioned in the second passage.
If I am correct, then those waters from the "windows of heaven" (being of course above our stars, sun, and moon) would have had to hit other celestial bodies in their path to earth. Given the proper alignment, this would account for the remnants of water both on planets and in frozen forms in comets.
It is no secret that the tilt of our earth is not the same as it was originally. Scientists have proven that our slant is a bit different and that the location of the poles has shifted. I would not be surprised if the rotations and tilts of other celestial bodies such as Mars are proven to be different from their originals as well. This sort of a shift, I would think, could only be produced by a cataclysm of incredible, Biblical proportions. It would take an impact coming from a much higher altitude and with much greater speed to knock the earth out of kilter than I would think could be explained by simple excess of rainwater from our own atmosphere.
My theory is that God was speaking to a "home town meeting" in the language that the "locals" could comprehend, and God is on an eternal speaking engagement.
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