Thanks for joining me Over Coffee
A writer by passion and profession, I've been writing since I was old enough to know how, so establishing a weblog
seemed a natural progression. By adding a blog to my site, I can speak about my passions and life, share my writing, art
and photos, and comment on current events.
Sunday, March 09, 2003
Awestruck Sometimes...okay often...it am just awestruck by the wonders of the universe and the magnitude of what science and technology can accomplish. These new photos from Cassini of Jupiter and the scientific discovers (corrections of theories) that have resulted are not only fascinating, but beautiful.
I try to imagine what someone like me -- an average Jane G. Public would've thought of such photos, and I can't. I don't think my great-grandmother or even my grandmother, when they were my age, could've imagined that we could send a probe so far and have it return information and images so clear...that they are nearly akin in my mind to having someone step foot on this giant planet.
An article in The Rocky Mountain Times gives readers an idea of the vastness of the project...over 26,000 images were snapped off by the Cassini space probe.
The pictures are being studied by a team headed by Carolyn Porco of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder...
"We wanted to figure out what processes and procedures and software we needed, and it worked like a charm," Porco said Thursday.
"And I think the quality of the images from Jupiter alone - just their visual content - says that Saturn is going to be a feast for the eyes," she said.
"These pictures show what you can do when you have the most sophisticated camera system ever taken into the outer solar system."
..."The Jupiter results provide some hints of the spectacular new findings that await Cassini when it reaches Saturn," wrote University of Colorado planetary scientist Larry Esposito in a separate commentary in Science.
I like reading the excitement, enthusiasm and anticipation of discovery from these scientists. And it gets me excited to see the discoveries that await us too.
In October, after five years and nearly 2 billion miles of interplanetary travel, the probe sent back its first image of the giant ringed planet Saturn, hanging serene and regal in the inky void of space.
Cassini was 177 million miles from Saturn at the time.
Regular viewing of Saturn will begin about a year from now. In January 2005, the spacecraft will release a probe into the haze-shrouded atmosphere of the mysterious moon Titan.
And honestly, with the exposure to poor science and barrage of unethical experimentation that animal advocates so often witness from so-called researchers (many to most of which I personally believe are based more on self-serving greed and desire to keep research grants than on the bettering lives or pursuing truth), reading about these scientists, their research and their discoveries are reaffirming.
Awestruck
