Strange Skies - ET Phone Home

This morning., right before 6 a.m., Maddie and I left the house to take our morning walk. It was still about 3/4 of an hour before sunrise, but the eastern sky was starting to glow a bit. Venus and Jupiter were both showing off their brightness, and Mars and Saturn, farther to the south and higher in the sky, were dim but still visible. But what really amazed me was a weird cloud formation that looked like a heavenly portrait of one of those aliens the UFO-crazies claim abducted them. I've included the photo below:

It certainly doesn't look natural, does it? Makes one think a skywriter was out early this morning before he sobered up. I took the photo standing in our street looking due east. Venus and Jupiter are both visible to the right of the weird cloud. 

Anyway, lest you think aliens were sending us a coded message in the morning sky, when Maddie and I returned home I noticed a text from NASA (Yes, NASA sends me texts about all their launches and other doings) on my phone informing me of the launch of a spacecraft with the clever name, Falcon 9 Block 5. It had lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 5:42 this morning. We often observe these launches since our home here in The Villages is due west of Cape Canaveral. I'm pretty sure this early morning launch was the cause of our pre-dawn weird cloud formation. The upper winds in our lower atmosphere can do strange things to vapor trails and rocket exhaust. 

Sadly, I was hoping for something a bit more eerie, some unexplained phenomenon that the government would try to cover up; but alas it seems even ET in the morning sky can be explained.

Hope you like the photo though. Click on the photo for a full-sized view.

Aliens? Not!

Jeff Sweitzer, a science policy advisor in Bill Clinton's administration, has come happily unglued since NASA reported the discovery of an Earth-like planet in another star system. This planet, cleverly named Kepler 452b (which I'll just call "Kep" from now on), seems to bear some resemblance to our own dear Earth. It's about 50% larger than Earth, has a 385-day year, and according to NASA might even have a rocky surface and might have water...but that's about it. That's also a lot of "mights". In other words, NASA scientists really know very little about Kep. 

One thing we know for certain is that Kep is a mere 1,400 light years distant from us. For the astronomically challenged, this means that what we can see of Kep is light that left the planet sometime around 600 A.D. A lot has happened since then. Indeed, what we see of this newly discovered planet actually took place when Muhammad was just kicking off his military conquests of the Middle East and North Africa. It was also the time of St. Isadore of Seville, sometimes called the last scholar of the ancient world because he compiled a sort of encyclopedia containing excerpts of many ancient books that would otherwise have been lost. Farther north, the other St. Augustine, the first archbishop of Canterbury, was In the midst of converting the Anglo-Saxons of Britain to Christianity. I suspect that all sorts of exciting things were also taking place in China, India, Africa and Tierra del Fuego, but I have neither the time nor the energy to find out. Anyway, I'm kind of a Western Civilization guy.

Back to Dr. Schweitzer (presumably no relation to Albert), who is convinced the discovery of Kep will kill off God. The good scientist has decided this discovery means that extraterrestrial life, including other civilizations, must exist on planets like Kep. Since God did not reveal the existence of alien life on other planets in the Bible, Christian Scriptures must be phony and God is simply a figment of our fertile imaginations. Don't you just love it? One wonders whether Dr. Schweitzer might have confirmed his theory by visiting Kep via a nearby wormhole. Hey, could happen.

Here are two links that address the discovery. 

The first is a New York Times story of the discovery: Earth-like Kepler 452b Discovered

The second discusses Dr. Schweitzer and his beliefs: New Planet Bad News for God

Personally, I believe -- and have always believed -- that, despite the extraordinary size of the universe, we Earthlings are unique and completely alone. In other words, I've always considered science fiction to be fiction. So far no one has proved me wrong.

Neat NASA Photos - Volcano Erupting

As you might know, I was involved with NASA some years ago (OK, many, many years ago) during the Apollo program as a Navy helicopter pilot. As a result I became a bit of a NASA junkie and tend to follow the Space Program rather closely. I have particularly enjoyed NASA's photos of the earth and some of the unusual geologic and climatic events observed from space.

Among the most interesting recent NASA photos are some taken by the astronauts on the International Space Station. Earlier this month the station's orbit took it over Russia's Kuril Islands in the North Pacific just as a volcano began erupting. The photo below is one of several taken by the astronauts. It's especially interesting to note how the volcano seems to have blown a hole right through the clouds covering the island.

Click on the photo for a high resolution view. And click here to visit NASA's site describing the eruption. Neat, huh? God certainly gave us an interesting planet to live on.

I'm especially looking forward to checking out the latest photos taken by the Hubble telescope since its recent repair by a shuttle crew; just haven't had time. But if I find something interesting, I'll share it with you on the blog.

Blessings...