This isn’t what I’ll be talking about this week, but today’s (August 27, 2024) planned commercial test flight is — my opinion — a big deal.
Something I haven’t noticed discussed — apart from a passing reference to getting the Hubble telescope into a higher orbit — as a reason for learning how to get folks into orbits higher than the ISS seems obvious.
Our communications, weather, and other satellites occasionally don’t work right.
Sending a repair crew up strikes me as an improvement on launching another satellite.
But again, that’s not what I’ll be talking about this week, so here’s an excerpt from the news, and a video:
“Polaris Dawn, an ambitious all-civilian spaceflight, is scheduled to liftoff Tuesday.
“When the mission commences with the launch of a SpaceX Dragon capsule, four private astronauts will rocket into the upper reaches of Earth’s orbit, where they will conduct the first-ever commercial spacewalk, among other things.
“The mission has the potential to be a historic one — and not just because of the many firsts that billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman’s crew hopes to accomplish. A successful mission would also be a crucial step in laying the groundwork for future deep space exploration as NASA and other space agencies set their sights on destinations like Mars….”
Installing the NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) X-ray concentrators.
A paper published this month doesn’t so much tell us what’s inside a neutron star, as show what’s not inside. Considering how little we know about these immensely-dense stellar objects, that’s a significant step toward understanding the things.
I’ll take a look at that, but mostly I’ll be talking about what we’ve been learning, and why I think paying attention to this wonder-packed universe is a good idea.
Even if — maybe because — this Haldane quote, written a few years before we knew about neutron stars, still reflects how God’s universe has been surprising us.
“Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose….” (“Possible Worlds and Other Essays” , p. 286, J. B. S. Haldane (1927) via Wikiquote)
“New data on the brightest pulsar observed with a telescope on the International Space Station suggests neutron star interiors are ‘squishy.’
“Astronomers have found a way to peer inside neutron stars and glimpse the exotic matter hiding in their cores. By pinning down the properties of the closest and brightest neutron star yet, Devarshi Choudhury (University of Amsterdam) and colleagues have ruled out both the plainest and the strangest ideas describing the dense matter inside these exotic objects….”
The “closest and brightest neutron star” these scientists have been studying is a pulsar: PSR J0437-4715.
Pulsars and neutron stars weren’t on the old star charts. They’re too dim for anything short of really good telescopes. The supernovae that form them, that’s another matter.
Around the time folks living west of the Black Sea were making high-quality ceramics and public baths, a massive star exploded.
This isn’t the one that became PSR J0437-4715, by the way. It’s the supernova that formed the Crab nebula. Anyway —
The explosion’s wavefront reached Earth the same year that the Church stopped trying to coordinate its eastern and western regions. These days, folks speaking my language call it the Great Schism, and — when it’s mentioned at all — say that the split happened because folks in Rome and Constantinople squabbled over theological stuff.
There’s some truth to the name and claim. But I strongly suspect that we’re looking at what happens when folks let issues accumulate for a few centuries.
Besides, we didn’t have either airlines or the Internet back then. Communication between places more than a day’s walk apart wasn’t easy. Plus, the Church was going through one of its rough patches. We have those every half-millennium or so, and that’s another topic.1
Where was I? An exploding star’s wavefront reaching Earth. Right.
Supernova!
Chinese astronomers noticed a “guest star” in July of 1054. Folks living in what’s now San Juan County, New Mexico, did, too: assuming that what we call the “Supernova Pictograph” is their record of the event.
John Bevis, an English doctor, electrical researcher and astronomer, spotted a fuzzy spot where the supernova had been in 1731. French astronomer Charles Messier did the same thing in 1758, and made it the first entry in his catalog of things that look like comets but aren’t.
William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, an English engineer and astronomer, observed and drew a picture of the fuzzy spot in the 1840s. He said it looked sort of like a crab. In 1848, using a bigger telescope, he observed it again, and changed his mind. But the moniker “Crab Nebula” caught on, anyway.
Fast-forward to the early 20th century. Astronomers had started using photography, and noticed that the Crab Nebula was getting bigger. I’ll skip a bunch of important names.
In 1928, Edwin Hubble said the Crab Nebula was related to the 1054 guest star. The idea didn’t line up with known physics, so it wasn’t until Nicholas Mayall used a spectrograph and considerable analysis to — okay. Bottom line, Mayall showed that Hubble was right.
In late 1933, astronomers Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky said that neutron stars — extremely dense supernova remnants — might exist. As it turns out, they were right.
That was in the 1930s. The supernova tie-in started a search for other supernova sightings in humanity’s archives.2
Neutron Stars: Gravity, Math, and Weirdness
Hugo Spinelli’s diagram: Bosons, Hadrons, and Fermions.
Finally, and this is what I had planned on focusing on, neutron stars are what’s left when a really big star, between around 10 to 25 times our Sun’s mass, explodes.
What’s left of the star collapses until it’s a dozen kilometers across, give or take.
It’s about as dense as an atom’s nucleus: something like 100,000,000,000,000 grams per cubic centimeter.
Neutron stars are made of degenerate matter, which is a state of matter and has nothing to do with moral character.
Degenerate matter is under so much pressure that elementary particles like electrons and neutrons get squeezed together.
“…Upon the star’s collapse, the core’s atoms broke down into neutrons; only a rule that helps govern the world of the very small (the Pauli exclusion principle) prevents the neutrons from getting too friendly with one another. That pressure prevents further caving-in to gravity….” (“Neutron Stars Might Be Squishy Inside” , Monica Young, Sky & Telescope (August 6, 2024 ))
Since making and keeping degenerate matter in laboratories isn’t practical, scientists study things like neutron stars to see how it works.
This is where things get weird, involving math that’s beyond me and phrases like “equation of state”.
An equation of state describes the state of matter in particular physical conditions.
“In physics and chemistry, an equation of state is a thermodynamic equation relating state variables, which describe the state of matter under a given set of physical conditions, such as pressure, volume, temperature, or internal energy. Most modern equations of state are formulated in the Helmholtz free energy. Equations of state are useful in describing the properties of pure substances and mixtures in liquids, gases, and solid states as well as the state of matter in the interior of stars….” (Equation of state, Wikipedia)
That’s a useful definition.
So is this example of an equation of state’s general form: f(p, V, T)=0, “…where p is the pressure, V is the volume, and T is the temperature of the system….” Or, rather, it would be useful: if I knew more about math and its formulaic conventions.
I’m guessing that f is a number that’s the equation of state value for some substance, but I don’t know.
I was going to talk neutrons, fermions, bosons, how angular momentum applies to subatomic particles, a couple research papers using data from the NICER telescope, and what we’ve been learning about PSR J0437-4715, the closest and brightest known pulsar.
But I’m not up to digging through all that this week.
Instead, I’ve put ‘for more information’ links in the footnotes.3
“Astronomers surveyed dozens of neutron stars, homing in on three that challenge most ideas about what these exotic objects are made of.
“Astronomers using the XMM-Newton and Chandra space telescopes have revisited a trio of young neutron stars that are particularly cool for their age. Explaining their existence requires ruling out 75% of all neutron star models — bringing astronomers closer to identifying the correct one.
“A neutron star is among the universe’s most exotic objects, forged in the fury of a massive star’s death. The star’s core buckles under its own weight, crashing down so hard that electrons and protons are forced to merge into neutrons. The resulting neutron star material is so dense that a single spoonful would weigh more than every human on Earth put together.
“Yet astronomers still don’t know the exact structure of a neutron star, which probably includes electrons and protons in its crust and maybe quarks in its core. The key to finding out what’s really inside neutron stars is identifying the correct equation of state that describes the relationship between temperature and pressure in all neutron star interiors. There are hundreds of possibilities….”
I don’t see nearly as many ‘science proves that’ declarations now as I did, back when folks were still getting used to the idea that Robert Goddard was right. Apart from the usual climate doomsayers, that is, and that’s yet another topic.
Maybe it’s because I have access to better sources these days. That’s another reason I’m not upset about the Internet and other threats to the status quo.
I suspect that the old ‘Scientific Certainty Frees Us From the Shackles of Superstition, Ignorance, and (religious) Oppression’ triumphalist tone was clashing with the 20th century’s discoveries of just how much we haven’t learned yet.
And I suspect scientists, those involved with physics and related fields at any rate, have been getting a great deal less stuffy.
Sure, folks have been naming telescopes after famous scientists, like the XMM-Newton and Chandra space telescopes.
But we’re also calling one the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer.
I’ll grant that the full name sounds a bit pretentious: even megalomaniacal. As my oldest daughter said Tuesday, “A neutron star explorer? How are they going to get that thing close [to] a neutron star?”
Fact is, they can’t. There’s serious talk about launching interstellar probes, but technology like that is still in the early R&D stages.
I’ll probably talk about Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer and the research it’s making possible — eventually. This week I’ll focus, very briefly, on its shorter name: NICER.
I mean to say: a telescope called NICER.
Writing about squishy stars.
Subatomic particles called quarks.
Quarks that are up, down, top, bottom, charm and strange.
And scientists who don’t even Latinize their names for research papers.4
Quite a lot has happened over the last hundred years. Take astronomy, for example.
New Views of This Universe: Radio, X-Ray, Gravitational Waves …
The Virgo gravitational Wave detector in Italy. (2015)
It’s been about four centuries since Galileo Galilei — and almost certainly others — turned a “Dutch perspective glass” into a “telescope”. Five decades later, someone made the first telescope with mirrors instead of lenses.
Textbooks say Isaac Newton invented reflecting telescopes, and that’s probably so.
By 1927, U.S. Navy short-wave communications researchers were launching detectors into the upper atmosphere on Goddard’s rockets.
In 1932, physicist and radio engineer Karl Jansky noticed radio noise, a “hiss”, coming from the constellation Sagittarius.
He announced what he’d learned in 1933, but the Great Depression was in progress, followed by World War II. Building another, more expensive, radio antenna/telescope wasn’t an option. Even so, I think 1932 is a reasonable choice for radio astronomy’s start.
Nicola Tesla’s signals “from another world” in 1899 had probably been transmissions from another researcher’s radio.
Either way, radio astronomy took off when amateur astronomer Grote Reber built the first parabolic radio telescope. That was in 1937, followed by more folks who had been working on wartime radar systems.
Suborbital flights picked up Solar ultraviolet radiation in 1946. The Orbiting Solar Observatory’s ultraviolet telescope gave astronomers a better look, starting in 1962.
Instruments launched from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in 1949 detected X-rays from the sun in 1949. That suborbital flight used a V-2 rocket. The first rocket-born X-ray telescope imaged the Sun in 1963.
Infrared astronomy arguably started in 1800, when William Herschel put a thermometer in sunlight that had passed through a prism. Skipping ahead, better technology and radio astronomy’s success put infrared astronomy on the map in the 1960s.
Then, in 2015, the LIGO and Virgo collaborations recorded the first observations of gravitational waves.5
It’s been an eventful century.
Beauty, Wonders, and Paying Attention
Psalms 98:4; and sunrise over the Pacific Ocean, seen from the ISS. (2003)
I could be a Catholic and not take a lively interest in God’s universe.
But paying attention to the beauty and wonders around me is, I think, a good idea. If I don’t, I’ll be missing a great deal of what God is ‘saying’ to us. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 293, 299, and more)
I figure that’s partly why folks like Saints Hildegard of Bingen and Albertus Magnus helped lay the foundation of what we call science.6
That was just under a millennium back now, but the idea of taking notice both of God’s creation and God is much older.
“God is known by natural knowledge through the images of His effects.” (“Summa Theologica” , First Part, Question 12 – How God is known by us, Article 12 – Whether God can be known in this life by natural reason?, Reply to Objection 2; St. Thomas Aquinas (13th century, unfinished at his death in 1274) via NewAdvent.org) [this is a very brief excerpt]
“Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air, amply spread around everywhere, question the beauty of the sky, question the serried ranks of the stars … question all these things. They all answer you, ‘Here we are, look; we’re beautiful.’… “…Prayer: “O God, You are never far from those who sincerely search for You. Accompany those who err and wander far from You. Turn their hearts towards what is right and let them see the signs of Your Presence in the beauty of created things. We ask this….” (The beauty of the unchangeable creator is to be inferred from the beauty of the changeable creation, St. Augustine, Sermons, 241, Easter (c.411 A.D.))
Developing a sense of scale is also prudent. And remembering who’s in charge.
“By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God, so that what is visible came into being through the invisible.” (Hebrews 11:3)
“He who lives forever created the whole universe; the LORD alone is just.” “Like a drop of water from the sea and a grain of sand, so are these few years among the days of eternity. That is why the Lord is patient with them and pours out his mercy on them.” (Sirach 18:1–2, 10–11)
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the works of his hands.” (Psalms 19:2)
If this sounds familiar, it should. I’ve talked about it before:
PSR J0437-4715 (closest and brightest known pulsar; 509.8 light-years out; in the general direction of Eta Pictoris)
Saeculum obscurum (Caesar Baronius’s “a dark age”: 896-964) (The term, and idea, caught on during Europe’s big turf wars, ca 1522-1712; remaining popular during and after The Enlightenment)
“A NICER View of the Nearest and Brightest Millisecond Pulsar: PSR J0437-4715“ Devarshi Choudhury, Tuomo Salmi, Serena Vinciguerra, Thomas E. Riley, Yves Kini, Anna L. Watts, Bas Dorsman, Slavko Bogdanov, Sebastien Guillot, Paul S. Ray, Daniel J. Reardon, Ronald A. Remillard, Anna V. Bilous, Daniela Huppenkothen, James M. Lattimer, Nathan Rutherford, Zaven Arzoumanian, Keith C. Gendreau, Sharon M. Morsink, Wynn C. G. Ho (submitted July 8, 2024) via arXiv
“Atmospheric Effects on Neutron Star Parameter Constraints with NICER“ Tuomo Salmi, Serena Vinciguerra, Devarshi Choudhury, Anna L. Watts, Wynn C. G. Ho, Sebastien Guillot, Yves Kini, Bas Dorsman, Sharon M. Morsink, Slavko Bogdanov (submitted August 18, 2023); last revised October 23, 2023) via arXiv
Neutron Stars Astr221 – Stars and Planets; Chris Mihos, Department of Astronomy, Case Western Reserve University; Cleveland, Ohio (Fall 2005)
4 Science, scientists, subatomic particles, X-ray space telescopes, and an old custom:
My Google News feed shows me an eclectic mix each day, probably because my reading habits are — eclectic. Sometimes I even see links to this sort of thing:
“London’s Metropolitan Police chief warned that officials will not only be cracking down on British citizens for commentary on the riots in the UK, but on American citizens as well.
“‘We will throw the full force of the law at people. And whether you’re in this country committing crimes on the streets or committing crimes from further afield online, we will come after you,‘ Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley told Sky News….
“…One key aspect that makes this apparent crackdown on social media particularly shocking to critics is that the British government is threatening to extradite American citizens from the U.S. to be jailed in the U.K. for violating their rules about political speech online.…” [emphasis mine]
That last sentence is what got my attention. Partly because I’m an American citizen — and, although I’m not an ardent advocate of some political party or candidate, I’ll occasionally express ideas which can be considered “political”.
So it’s possible that something I say would violate United Kingdom “rules about political speech online”. Unlikely, but possible.
Particularly since I’m not entirely on the same page as the United Kingdom’s government — or mine, for that matter.
Under the circumstances, finding out what inspired this stalwart resolve to protect the British public from unlawful political statements seemed like a good idea.
RIOTERS RUN RAMPANT AS CHAOS STALKS THE LAND!!!
Part of my answer was in that Fox News/New York Post article:
The “dance event” in Southport, Merseyside, England, sounds like it could have been fun.
It was billed as a workshop for kids age six through 11: “Calling all Swifties! You are invited to a yoga, dance and bracelet-making workshop with Leanne and Heidi. Open to children in Year 2-Year 6”.
I’m not sure why the bracelet making and yoga activities haven’t been mentioned in most news coverage that I’ve seen. Maybe editors figured “dance” was more relatable.
Anyway, some guy showed up at the workshop a little before noon on July 29 and attacked the kids.
A few minutes later, three children were dead or dying. Maybe he’d have killed more than just those three, maybe not. Either way, adults interfered, police arrived, the alleged suspect was arrested, and that’s when things got interesting.
Seems that the alleged attacker was a few days short of this 18th birthday at the time. Since he was a minor, authorities couldn’t legally release his name.
Someone in the legal system lifted that restriction on August 1.1 But by then the fewmets had hit the windmill.
“Complete Nonsense” and a Warning
The alleged attacker was born in Wales, lived on the north-eastern outskirts of Southport, and is a British subject, but his parents were born in Rwanda.
He doesn’t, apparently, ‘look British’.
With no reliable information available, England’s self-appointed protectors filled in the blanks.
It wasn’t long before at least one made-up name, Ali Al-Shakati, was making the rounds, along with earnest assertions that he was a Muslim and/or an asylum seeker.
This wouldn’t be the first time folks decided that foreigners must be dangerous because they were foreigners, and that citizens with the ‘wrong’ ancestry must be threats because of their ancestors.
These days, remembering that iterations of the Ku Klux Klan are “subversive” is easy. Remembering that Theodore (Dr. Seus) Geisel warned Americans against Yellow Peril on the west coast: not so much.2
By the same token, noticing when someone who isn’t the ‘right sort’ spouts nonsense is easy. Doing the same when it’s one of the ‘proper people’ — isn’t.
Which preferences and phobias today’s ‘proper sort’ hold dear has shifted since my youth. Variable sensitivity to what the London police chief called “complete nonsense” hasn’t.
At any rate, I still don’t know exactly what London’s Metropolitan Police chief had in mind when he warned those who spread illegal political speech, even those on foreign shores — “we will come after you”.
But I’m guessing that the warning’s mostly directed at folks who see the July 30 – August 5 English riots as a good thing, say so, and urge others to make their cause look like a threat to society.
What the folks with those “serious voices” are thinking, if anything, I don’t know:
“Sir Mark Rowley, the head of the Metropolitan Police, has been speaking to broadcasters this morning.
“Asked if people rioting could be charged with rioting, the Met chief says: ‘We’ll throw the full force of the law at offenders, whether that’s charging people with assaults, violent disorder, riot and — if terrorism offensive are appropriate — I know the director of public prosecutions has said he’s prepared to consider that.
“‘We will throw the full force of the law at people.
“‘And whether you’re in this country committing crimes on the streets or committing crimes from further afield online, we will come after you.’…”
Scary Situations, Fear, and ‘Those People’
Fallout from the Southport killings was still popping up in my news feed this week.
What wasn’t making headlines is almost as interesting as what was.
Particularly the yawning chasm where discussions of the alleged attacker’s mental health might have been.
Seems that he’d been diagnosed with ASD, autism spectrum disorder.
He’s got that in common with the person who killed more than a dozen folks, mostly at Sandy Hook Elementary School, back in 2012.
As I recall, it didn’t take more than a month or so for serious-minded folks to stop saying that all those autism persons should be locked up. Or at least put on a watch list or something.
I had and have a personal interest in opinions of that sort, since my medical chart includes ASD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, and an assortment of other psychiatric glitches.
Human nature being what it is, I figure that there will always be some folks who fear foreigners, lunatics, and those who don’t belong to their polo club.
But I also figure that many folks who aren’t just like me — aren’t all that different, either.
Something that has changed is the status of a once-honored and acclaimed procedure that made patients more “amenable”.
I’m grateful that, despite making lunatics more manageable, lobotomies seem to have gone out of fashion.
An ominous warning from London’s police chief, against making illegal remarks online: “we will come after you”.
Yoga, dance, bracelets, and death for children in England. Followed by riots and that remarkable statement by London’s police chief.
Fear, foreigners, phobias, and foibles.
An angle of the Southport stabbings that hasn’t been stressed, and why I have a personal interest in knee-jerk responses to scary situations.
Right.
Four Freedoms: a Catholic Viewpoint
I grew up in an America where red-white-and-blue-blooded-one-hundred-percent-regular Americans were defending freedom something dreadful.
They stood behind everyone’s right to express unyielding, unwavering, unthinking support for their opinions.
For what it’s worth, I suspect many didn’t see the disconnect between their notion of “free speech” and how they treated folks who didn’t agree with them.
Time passed.
The Establishment of my youth lost whatever credibility they’d had, and long-overdue reforms finally got traction. I don’t like some of what’s happened since then, but some changes were for the better.
On the other hand, today’s Establishment — folks who know what’s best for the rest of us (just ask them: they’ll confirm this) and have earned positions of power and influence — they uphold “free speech” with the same old enthusiasm.
I don’t see much difference between them and their counterparts back when McCarthyism finally expired.
Sure, the current ‘proper sort’ have different preferences and new slogans. But I see the same fear and loathing of unsanctioned viewpoints. Possibly because I haven’t spent a lifetime surrounded by like-minded folks, or ingratiating myself to — no. I’ll stop there.
Researching this week’s post, I ran across a flag design from 1942: one that’s been called the Four Freedoms Flag, or United Nations Honour Flag; and has been largely forgotten.4
I’ll probably talk about that, eventually. But for now I’ll look — briefly — at goals mentioned in the American president’s 1941 State of the Union address:
Freedom of worship
Freedom from want
Freedom from fear
Freedom of speech and expression
More than eight decades later, all four still look like good ideas.
So: what, if anything, does all that “freedom” stuff have to do with London’s police chief’s declaration that his government will go after lawbreakers in other countries?
Freedom of Worship, From Want, and From Fear
I’ll start with freedom of worship.
I think it’s a good idea, partly because of my family’s history. One of my ancestors had trouble getting a birth certificate, and that’s yet another topic.
More to the point, I must value freedom of worship because I’m a Catholic. I’m Catholic, by the way, because I think Jesus is who he said he is, and finally realized who currently holds the authority Jesus gave Peter.
As a Catholic, I must recognize that folks are searching for God: including those who haven’t had my opportunities. Supporting freedom of religion, for everyone, comes with being Catholic. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 839-845, 1907, 2104-2109, 2211, 2566, and more)
Freedom from want: I’ll take that as part of what we’re told about social justice. Basically, it’s a good idea. (Catechism, 1928-1942, for starters)
Freedom from fear, starting with the sort of fear the president mentioned in 1941.
“…freedom from fear … translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor — anywhere in the world….” (The Four Freedoms speech, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 6, 1941) via Wikisource)
Over-simplifying this a lot: peace is a good idea. (Catechism, 2302-2306)
War is something governments should avoid. Praying and working for an end to war is a good idea. (Catechism, 2307-2317)
But sometimes war is better than the alternative. (Catechism, 2309)
As for fear, it’s an emotion. Feeling emotions is part of being human. By themselves, emotions aren’t good or bad: they’re just there. When we decide what we’ll do with our emotions: that’s when good or bad — ethics — get involved. (Catechism, 1762-1775)
The main emotions are love, hatred, desire, fear, joy, sadness, and anger. (Catechism, 1772)
I’d like it if rabidly earnest folks would appeal to emotions other than fear, anger, and hatred: but at least I can try not letting their rants affect me, and suggest that thinking is a good idea.
Free Speech and Being Responsible
Since I’m an American, I think freedom of speech is important.
Since I’m also a Catholic, I think freedom of speech is much like any other freedom.
Having free will is part of being human. I can decide what I do, or do not do. And I am responsible for my actions, or lack of action. (Catechism, 1730-1738)
The Catechism says quite a bit about neighbors, love, and responsibility: but not much specifically about “freedom of speech” in isolation. So I’ll quote a few popes:
“…The General Assembly wished also to affirm that one of the highest human aspirations is to see the dignity of the human person recognized, and it looked forward to the coming of a world in which all could exercise freedom of speech and freedom of belief. In this sense, the Declaration expressed a common ideal to be attained by all peoples and all nations….” (Message for the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Pope Saint John Paul II (December 6, 1988)) [emphasis mine]
“…Moreover, man has a natural right to be respected. He has a right to his good name. He has a right to freedom in investigating the truth, and—within the limits of the moral order and the common good—to freedom of speech and publication, and to freedom to pursue whatever profession he may choose. He has the right, also, to be accurately informed about public events….” (Pacem in Terris [Peace on Earth], Pope Saint John XXIII (April 11, 1963)) [emphasis mine]
“…Freedom of the press, like any other freedom whether of action or of speech or thought is limited; it does not allow a man to print what is wrong, what is known to be false or what is calculated to undermine and destroy the moral and religious fibre of individuals and the peace and harmony of nations….” (To representatives of the press from the United States of America, Venerable Pope Pius XII (July 11, 1946)) [emphasis mine]
That view of “freedom” falls well short of ‘I can do whatever I want, whenever I want’, but it works for me.
As for the once-common habit of treating “man” or “a man” as synonyms for “humanity” or “a person”: this isn’t the America I grew up in. I don’t miss the days when “she’s smart as a man” was supposed to be a compliment. I’ve said that before. Often.
The Powers That Be and Malcontents, Viewpoints and Fear
Freedom of expression: a currently-proper view, and a banned comic strip.
My country’s history being what it is, the odds of someone running for office promising to stamp out freedom of speech are pretty much zero.
I’ve been told that we got our attitude toward freedom of expression from England, a legacy from our colonial days.
So how come the occasional malcontent gets in trouble for complaining, or simply drops off the radar?
I don’t know. I’m just some guy living in central Minnesota. I don’t have the resources for a comprehensive study of American politics and culture. Let alone a global view.
But I’ve been living in this country all my life, have been paying attention, and haven’t lost a wary view of The Establishment developed in the 1960s. So here’s how I see it.
Folks at one end of the political spectrum have little incentive to go bonkers over the news and official pronouncements: their views are well-represented.
Besides, the way they see events and ideas presented is clearly fair, balanced, and correct. From their viewpoint.
Everybody they work with, everybody they rub elbows with, all their favorite authors and celebrities: they’re all in agreement. “Our” view is the proper one.
Folks at the other end: well “everybody” knows that they’re wrong. And a threat to society. Therefore, those in authority must silence those threats. Thus says The Establishment.
Oversimplified? Yes, enormously. Not far from accurate? I think so, definitely.
“Outside Agitators”, “We Will Come After You”: Same Attitude, Different Eras
I don’t see a problem with some degree of self-confidence.
But when self-confidence boils over and becomes self-righteousness: that’s a problem, a big one.
It’s an even bigger one, I think, when the folks in charge start seeing disagreement over policy as a threat to society. And try using their power to silence that threat.
They might have good intentions.
But doing something bad to get good results is a bad idea. Always. (Catechism, 1789)
That applies to folks who riot, when there’s still some hope of discussing problems — and I think it applies to other folks who won’t listen to views they don’t like.
Some of what I’ve read about the recent riots in England sounded very familiar:
“…Far-right groups spread misinformation online, and the UK government under [name] has accused Russia of spreading disinformation to stoke the unrest….
“… [name], an expert on right-wing extremism, commented….
“…the [newspaper] reported ‘far right thugs, fuelled by lies, sought to exploit the tragedy’….” (2024 United Kingdom riots, Wikipedia (text from August 15, 2024))
Substitute “left” for “right”, “pamphlets” for “online” and “American government” for “UK government” — add phrases like “communist menace” and “un-American” — that could have been written about other people who’d gotten fed up, back when I was a teenager.
I’m not making excuses for folks who rioted in England.
But I am suggesting that maybe, just maybe, letting those who don’t agree with The Establishment have their say — even better, LISTENING to them — might result in fewer folks feeling that rioting was their only option for reform.
I’ll wrap this section up with a pared-down bit from that “serious voices” … “complete nonsense” article; and remarks by another frustrated official, who was also dealing with “outside agitators”.5
“Sir Mark Rowley, the head of the Metropolitan Police, has been speaking to broadcasters this morning….
“… ‘…whether you’re in this country committing crimes on the streets or committing crimes from further afield online, we will come after you.‘…” [emphasis mine] [this article no longer found online; August 15, 2024]
***
“If the Federal Government really wants to help in this unfortunate situation, they will encourage these outside agitators to go home. We have the means and the ability to keep the peace in Alabama without any outside help.” (Governor of Alabama, quoted in the Washington Post (May 21, 1961) via Historic Newspapers) [emphasis mine]
“With Great Power….”
It’s been nearly a week since I saw that “UK police commissioner threatens to extradite, jail US citizens…” headline in my news feed.
I still don’t know exactly what sort of online remarks would result in extradition to the United Kingdom.
I’m not worried, but now I have another reason for avoiding off-the-cuff responses to weighty issues.
I’m slightly concerned about mainstream news media’s non-coverage of the London police chief’s “we will come after you” remark. No criticism, no support for his stalwart defense of the British public: nothing. Not that I’ve seen, that is.
Maybe his remark doesn’t matter, and everyone in the proper circles understands that he was just blowing off steam. Or maybe I’ll start seeing headlines about dangerous extremists who made illegal statements. Or maybe I won’t see such headlines.
Whatever happens, I’ll keep on thinking that truth matters: which is another one of those things I’d better think, if I’m going to keep calling myself a Catholic:
“Truth as uprightness in human action and speech is called truthfulness, sincerity, or candor. Truth or truthfulness is the virtue which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truthful in words, and in guarding against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy.” (Catechism, 2468)
On a more practical level, I’ll maintain my habit of researching facts, and making an effort to not get facts, opinions, and feelings confused.
As for those whose position in society gives them a degree of control over what shows up in our news feeds, I think this quote applies:
“With great power must also come great responsibility!” (Spider-Man, via Wikiquote)
Wisdom in a comic book? These days, I’ll use what I find, where I find it.
Finally, the usual links to more stuff; this time mostly about freedom of expression and making sense:
Headlines about an “eyeball planet” got my attention last month.
Then I got distracted by what I thought were more time-sensitive topics — and remembered what two scientists learned when they simulated ocean currents and winds on a tidally-locked exoplanet.
That last item was from 2013. It’s still the best discussion I’ve seen of what an “eyeball planet” might actually look like. Turns out that a patch of open ocean on a tidally locked exoplanet’s ocean wouldn’t necessarily be circular.
But I’ll admit that “eyeball planet” is a cool description. And may be easier to remember than terms like “lobster-like spatial pattern”.
So this week I’ll be talking about LHS 1140 b, which may not be an “eyeball planet” after all, ocean planet simulations; and — briefly, for me — how I see extraterrestrial life.
LHS 1140 b: Water, With Nitrogen in the Atmosphere — Maybe
B. Gougeon’s illustration, comparing an ice-covered LHS 1140 b (with and without open water) and Earth.
“A Closer Look at a Potential ‘Eyeball Planet’“ Arielle Frommer, Sky & Telescope (July 24, 2024) “New James Webb Space Telescope observations of LHS 1140b hint at a temperate water world with a nitrogen-rich atmosphere.”
“Imagine a world hospitable to life, with a single temperate ocean surrounded on all sides by ice. This ‘eyeball planet’ might sound straight out of science fiction, but it is entirely possible — and astronomers think they might have found such a world in LHS 1140b.
“Located only 49 light-years away in the constellation Cetus, LHS 1140b is one of the closest discovered planets that lies within its star’s habitable zone — the region where a planet could retain liquid water….”
We’ve known about LHS 1140 b since 2017.
It’s a transiting exoplanet, passing between us and its sun every 24 and three-quarters days, which gives scientists a chance to study light passing through its atmosphere.
The Sky & Telescope article talks about what scientists found in data from the James Webb Space Telescope’s Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph.
Seems that the planet could have a nitrogen-rich atmosphere.
“…However, the team only has hints about the atmosphere’s composition so far — the researchers couldn’t rule out that the planet might have no atmosphere at all, making it a world of barren rock or ice.
“‘What I find to be the most significant about this result is that there’s an indication that LHS 1140b might have an atmosphere at all,’ says Jason Dittmann (University of Florida), a co-discoverer of LHS 1140b who was not involved in this study.
“LHS 1140b is the first rocky exoplanet to have shown hints of an atmosphere, and while the study’s atmospheric results are tentative, LHS 1140b is certainly a promising habitable candidate to keep an eye on….” (“A Closer Look at a Potential ‘Eyeball Planet’“, Arielle Frommer, Sky & Telescope (July 24, 2024))
I’m not sure about “first rocky exoplanet to have shown hints of an atmosphere” in that last paragraph.
The last I checked, nobody had confirmed that planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system had atmospheres. But 55 Cancri e is a “rocky” planet, in the sense of being mostly silicate, rock, or metal. And it’s got an atmosphere.
On the other hand, there’s a chance that 55 Cancri e is a carbon planet.
I suppose “first rocky exoplanet” depends on what “rocky” means in context.
I’ve talked about some of this stuff before. As usual you’ll find links in the footnotes.1
Next, a quick look at “eyeball planets” and — maybe — lobster-shaped oceans.
Tidally Locked Ocean Planets: Simple, and Not-So-Simple, Models
Hu & Yang’s Figure S1: hypothetical eyeball planet, with a slab ocean. (2013) (left) sea-ice fraction (right) surface air temp (upper) low CO2 (lower) high CO2
“…Simulation with a comprehensive Earth atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) coupled to a slab ocean, without dynamic ocean heat transport, revealed an ‘eyeball’ climate state, with a round area of open ocean centered at the substellar point and complete ice coverage on the nightside, even for very high CO2 concentrations….”
Yongyun Hu and Jun Yang’s “slab ocean, without dynamic ocean heat transport”, may be among the simplest climate models for an ocean planet.
With no ocean currents, a tidally locked planet’s ocean might be covered with ice, with a single round spot of clear blue water gazing at its sun.
I haven’t tracked the term “eyeball planet” or “eyeball Earth” any further back than 2013. Maybe I’ll go deeper down that rabbit hole someday, but not this week.
Anyway, an “eyeball planet” is, I gather, an ocean world that’s tidally locked with its star, like the Moon is with Earth.
The Moon has a day-night cycle, since it turns around relative to the sun once a month.
But a planet that’s tidally locked with its star would have one side where it’s always day, with nothing but night on the other.
For a planet with no air to speak of, like Mercury, being tidally locked would leave it baking on one side, freezing on the other.
Scientists thought those were the conditions on Mercury. Until the 1960s, when we learned that the planet rotates three times for every two orbits.
Mercury is tidally locked, by the way, but with a 3:2 ratio instead of 1:1. That’s almost another topic.
At any rate, LHS 1140 b — I’m back to that planet for a moment — is around 1 and three-quarters times Earth’s diameter, but less dense. It might be a sub-Neptune.
But since nobody’s detected hydrogen in its atmosphere, the odds are that it’s an ocean world, a rocky planet covered with an ocean hundreds of miles deep.2
Exoplanet Climate Simulations and a “Lobster-Like Spatial Pattern”
Hu & Yang’s Fig. 1: hypothetical ocean world. (2013) (left) sea-ice percent (right) surface air temperature °C (upper) atmosphere with 355 ppmv CO2 (bottom) 200,000 ppmv CO2
Sooner or later, “ocean world” may mean a planet with closely-defined characteristics.
That hasn’t happened yet, so sometimes Earth is called an “ocean world”.
Along, again sometimes, with Saturn’s moon Titan; exoplanets like CoRoT-7b, Kepler-10b, and Kepler-78b, that may be covered in lava; and LHS 1140 b — assuming that recent observations and analysis are right.
If LHS 1140 b is an ocean world, then it’s probably not an “eyeball planet”. At least not one with a round ice-free patch facing its sun.
For one thing, I’ve seen research that says the sort of tidal locking needed for eyeball planets won’t work.
I haven’t read it, though. It’s been one of those weeks, which seem to be coming more often these days, and that’s yet another topic.
Assuming that 1:1 tidal locking for worlds like LHS 1140 b is possible, and their surface conditions are right, looks like their ice-free patches won’t be round.
That’s because ocean currents happen: certainly on Earth, and near-certainly elsewhere.
It’s hard to imagine an ocean where the water doesn’t move around. Maybe in a post-plastic-apocalypse scenario, where the ocean’s water is entirely contained in discarded plastic bags. Oh, boy. Never mind. Moving along.
Folks developed the first weather and climate simulation programs around 1950. By the 1970s, forecasting where tropical cyclones would go — is yet again another topic.
The point is that we’ve got moderately-accurate simulations for how Earth’s ocean and atmosphere work. Plugging in different values lets scientists make informed guesses about the climate on other worlds: even still-hypothetical ones we haven’t spotted yet.
Like the ‘lobster-shaped’ ice-free area described in this 2013 paper:3
“…Fig. 1A shows AOGCM [Atmospheric-Oceanic General Circulation Model] simulation results of sea-ice fraction and wind velocity at the lowest model layer for 355 ppmv of CO2. This level of CO2 roughly equals the present-day CO2 concentration in the Earth atmosphere. In the presence of a dynamic ocean, the open-ocean area (blue) is not like the round iris of an ‘eye’ such as that in AGCM simulations coupled with a slab ocean (Fig. S1A; also figure 3 in ref. 4). Instead, the spatial pattern of the open-ocean region is more like a ‘lobster,’ showing two ‘claws’ symmetric to the equator and a long tail along the equator. The tail of open water extends eastward to the nightside. At the western side of the substellar point, sea ice is drifted eastward from the nightside toward the substellar point. The open-ocean region remains even for 3.6 ppmv of CO2 and shows the similar lobster-like spatial pattern. For very high-level CO2 (200,000 ppmv), sea ice is completely melted (Fig. 1B). By contrast, the nightside and a large part of the dayside remain frozen for the same level of CO2 in the AGCM simulation (Fig. S1B), and the open-ocean region is only slightly expanded compared with that in Fig. S1A….” (“Role of ocean heat transport in climates of tidally locked exoplanets around M dwarf stars“; Yongyun Hu, Jun Yang; PNAS (2013)) [emphasis mine]
That’s No Lobster, That’s a Spaceship!
I haven’t talked with my oldest daughter for some time, mainly because we spend a couple hours each day on a text/media messaging service.
It’s not the same being in the same room, but suits us pretty well, and that’s still another topic.
The point of that digital detour is that I showed her the ‘lobster-like spatial pattern’ those scientists described.
She saw the pattern just fine, but didn’t see the “lobster”:
“Image A looks like a sleek spaceship.” … “Yeah, really not getting ‘lobster’ out of any of these.” (excerpt from my oldest daughter’s remarks, earlier this week: ca. August 7, 2024)
I think she’s right.
My first take on that hypothetical patch of open water was that it looked like “a sleek spaceship”: the sort writers and artists imagined, before we learned that real spaceships look like piles of storage tanks in a hurry.
Somewhat Simple Simulations, Dynamic Oceans
Hu & Yang’s Fig. 2: “Depth–latitude cross-sections of zonal-mean ocean potential temperatures and zonal-mean zonal velocity. (Left) Ocean potential temperature (unit, °C); (Right) ocean zonal velocity (unit, m s−1); (Upper) 355 ppmv CO2; and (Lower) 200,000 ppmv CO2. “In C and D, yellow-red colors indicate westerly flows, blue colors indicate easterly flows, and contours are the mean meridional mass streamfunction. Solid contours indicate clockwise streamlines, and dashed contours are anticlockwise streamlines. Contour interval is 100 Sv.” Hu & Yang (2013)
My hat’s off to Hu and Yang’s 2013 study, mainly for showing how ocean currents might take heat from a tidally locked planet’s sunlit side to its dark half.
Their simulation is, I strongly suspect, much simpler than any real planet’s ocean.
For one thing, their hypothetical ocean is four kilometers, two and a half miles, deep: the same as most of Earth’s ocean, once you get past the continental shelves.
That’s four kilometers deep everywhere on the planet.
Maybe there are worlds with perfectly flat ocean beds. My guess is that at least some would have features like Earth’s continents, complicating what might otherwise be elegantly simple looping currents.4
But I figure Hu and Yang helped others see water and air on ocean worlds as “dynamic”.
That’s not, I think, wishful thinking on my part. I found catchy(??) titles like these in my notes, when I got started writing about ‘lobster oceans’ this week —
“The middle atmospheric circulation of a tidally locked Earth-like planet and the role of the sea surface temperature” Elisavet Proedrou, Klemens Hocke, Peter Wurz; Progress in Earth and Planetary Sciences (2016)
“Connecting the dots — II. Phase changes in the climate dynamics of tidally locked terrestrial exoplanets” L. Carone, R. Keppens, L. Decin; MNRAS (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society) (2015)
Extraterrestrial Life, the Universe, and Me
R. Hurt’s illustration: what potentially habitable planets might look like. (2022)
By now, I suspect that someone’s tried simulating an ocean that’s hundreds of miles deep, like the one that’s (maybe) covering LHS 1140 b. But I haven’t run across it.
As usual, it started with an Abstract, which told me that it’ll be fascinating reading — and not something I’d try digging into this week:
“…Most studies assessing the effect of flares on planetary habitability assume a 9000 K blackbody spectral energy distribution that produces more NUV flux than FUV flux (R=FFUV/FNUV ~ 1/6)…” (“Stellar flares are far-ultraviolet luminous“, MNRAS (August 5, 2024))
These scientists looked at stars in a Gaia catalog, including red dwarfs like LHS 1140, and learned that their stellar flares make more high-energy ultraviolet light than expected.
That probably affects the odds for an exoplanet supporting life. But whether it means we’re more, or less, like to find extraterrestrial life: it’s probably to early to tell.5
Still Looking For Life, Still Learning
We know that there’s life in the universe. Earth is swarming with it.
The question is whether we’ll find life that started on — or in — other worlds.
So far, we’ve found a profusion of chemicals used by our sort of life in this part of the Milky Way galaxy.
But we’ve found no solid evidence that life exists elsewhere. And there’s nothing even close to a scientific consensus on the odds that we are — or are not — alone.
I’ll admit to a bias. I’d prefer that we find life that didn’t come from Earth — even better, that we find people like us; free-willed creatures with souls and bodies, but not human.
If that happens, studying similarities and differences would give us marvelous opportunities to learn more about life — and ourselves.
But I don’t think that there must be life elsewhere in the cosmos, or that there must not be. It’s God’s universe and God’s decision. Our job, part of it, is studying God’s work; and learning what we can.
I’ve talked about this, and related ideas, before:
“Transmission Spectroscopy of the Habitable Zone Exoplanet LHS 1140 b with JWST/NIRISS” Charles Cadieux, René Doyon, Ryan J. MacDonald, Martin Turbet, Étienne Artigau, Olivia Lim, Michael Radica, Thomas J. Fauchez, Salma Salhi, Lisa Dang, Loïc Albert, Louis-Philippe Coulombe, Nicolas B. Cowan, David Lafrenière, Alexandrine L’Heureux, Caroline Piaulet-Ghorayeb, Björn Benneke, Ryan Cloutier, Benjamin Charnay, Neil J. Cook, Marylou Fournier-Tondreau, Mykhaylo Plotnykov, Diana Valencia; The Astrophysical Journal Letters; American Astronomical Society (July 10, 2024)
“Stellar flares are far-ultraviolet luminous” Vera L. Berger, Jason T. Hinkle, Michael A. Tucker, Benjamin J. Shappee, Jennifer L. van Saders, Daniel Huber, Jeffrey W. Reep, Xudong Sun, Kai E. Yang; MNRAS (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society) (August 5, 2024)
Something new each Saturday.
Life, the universe and my circumstances permitting. I'm focusing on 'family stories' at the moment. ("A Change of Pace: Family Stories" (11/23/2024))
Blog - David Torkington
Spiritual theologian, author and speaker, specializing in prayer, Christian spirituality and mystical theology [the kind that makes sense-BHG]
I was born in 1951. I'm a husband, father and grandfather. One of the kids graduated from college in December, 2008, and is helping her husband run businesses and raise my granddaughter; another is a cartoonist and artist; #3 daughter is a writer; my son is developing a digital game with #3 and #1 daughters. I'm also a writer and artist.
![Keith Gendreau/NASA/Goddard's photo: 'NICER Optics Lead Takashi Okajima installs one of NICER's 56 X-ray concentrators, each consisting of 24 concentric foils.... The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) is a NASA Explorer Mission of Opportunity dedicated to studying the extraordinary environments - strong gravity, ultra-dense matter, and the most powerful magnetic fields in the universe - [of] neutron stars. An attached payload aboard the International Space Station, NICER will deploy an instrument with unique capabilities for timing and spectroscopy of fast X-ray brightness fluctuations. The embedded Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology demonstration (SEXTANT) will use NICER data to validate, for the first time in space, technology that exploits pulsars as natural navigation beacons.' (July 9, 2015) via Wikipedia, used w/o permission.](https://i0.wp.com/brendans-island.com/blogsource/20240813ff/20240820-Neutron_star_Interior_Composition_Explorer_NICER_-_34718447596-658.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)
![NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab's illustration: 'Scientists think neutron stars are layered, [this diagram] suggesting one, simplified view of those layers' compositions. The state of matter in their inner cores remains unknown.' (2021) via Wikipedia, used w/o permission. see https://www.nasa.gov/universe/nasas-nicer-probes-the-squeezability-of-neutron-stars/](https://i0.wp.com/brendans-island.com/blogsource/20240813ff/20240819-neutron-star-sectioned-1000px-900x588-658.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)
