Laser Propulsion: Earth To Mars in 3 Days?

(Image Source: NASA 360)

By Jay Bennett, Popular Mechanics

There's no argument in the astronomical community—rocket-propelled spacecraft can take us only so far. The SLS will likely take us to Mars, and future rockets might be able to help us reach even more distant points in the solar system. But Voyager 1 only just left the solar system, and it was launched in 1977. The problem is clear: we cannot reach other stars with rocket fuel. We need something new.

"We will never reach even the nearest stars with our current propulsion technology in even 10 millennium," writes Physics Professor Philip Lubin of the University of California Santa Barbara in a research paper titled A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight. "We have to radically rethink our strategy or give up our dreams of reaching the stars, or wait for technology that does not exist."

Lubin received funding from NASA last year to study the possibility of using photonic laser thrust, a technology that does exist, as a new system to propel spacecraft to relativistic speeds, allowing them to travel farther than ever before.

More with Mini-Video on Lubin's Laser Propulsion Proposal -
Link >>> http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a19604/nasa-physicists-say-photonic-propulsion-could-send-a-spacecraft-to-mars-in-3-days/

Full Video on Lubin's Laser Propulsion Proposal:
Link >>> http://livestream.com/viewnow/niac2015seattle

"A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight" by Philip Lubin:
Link >>> http://www.deepspace.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/A-Roadmap-to-Interstellar-Flight-15-o.pdf

More on Laser Propulsion ---
Link 1 >>> http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a15545/photonic-laser-thrust-space-engine/
Link 2 >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_propulsion

Related Blog Post ---

"Supersonic Laser Propulsion." 2014 Nov. 13.
Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2014/11/supersonic-laser-propulsion.html

Source: Popular Mechanics Magazine.
              2016 February 25.

                                                              
        2016: 75th Year of Pittsburgh's Buhl Planetarium Observatory
                     Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com

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Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
SpaceWatchtower Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
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Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
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  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
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  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
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Comet of 1491: Self-Correction of Science

The Comet of 1491 is no longer considered the closest comet to approach the Earth
due to the unreliability of the data. (Image Source: http://s3.amazonaws.com/readers/2011/02/26/1855354571127df142e7z_1.jpg )

By Glenn A. Walsh

Reporting for SpaceWatchtower

Some people question whether Science can be relied upon to provide a good explanation of our Universe. Other people even consider Science to be just another religion, of which people are asked to have faith in the infallibility of Science.

Many of these people do not understand the Scientific Method, and that scientific hypotheses and theories are often changed with the presentation of new information and / or the better understanding of older information.

A case in-point is the Comet of 1491. For many years, today (February 20) would have been considered the 525^th anniversary of the day in 1491 when this comet came closer to the Earth than any other known comet. According to what was known until the twenty-first century, this comet approached within 873,784 miles / 1,406,219 kilometers of the Earth (almost four times the distance from the Earth to the Moon). This distance was determined in 1979 by plotting the orbital elements of the comet by Japanese researcher Ichiro Hasegawa, of the Faculty of Socio-Cultural Studies at Otemae University.

However in 2002, in an academic paper for the Astronomical Society of Japan titled, “Approximate Orbits of Ancient and Medieval Comets,” Dr. Hasegawa, himself, retracted the data, from 23 years earlier, that had concluded that the Comet of 1491 was the closest comet to ever approach the Earth. In the paper, he stated, "The orbital elements for Comet 1491 II = C / 1491 B1 (Hasegawa 1979) are to be retracted, because the records of this comet were misunderstood."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory concurs with this retraction. On their Internet web page titled, “Historic Comet Close Approaches Prior to 2006,” they wrote a special note near the top of the page:

“Note: The comet of 1491 (1491 B1) has been removed from this table since its orbit is no longer thought to be reliable. See I. Hasegawa, Publ. Astronomical Society of Japan, 2002, vol. 54, pp. 1091-1099.”

This case shows that Science is continually checking and double-checking facts, and no scientist takes any particular fact on faith. In fact, even a researcher is willing to correct himself or herself, when new facts are discovered, or older facts are better understood.

Academic Paper: “Approximate Orbits of Ancient and Medieval Comets” by Dr. Ichiro Hasegawa ---
Link >>> http://pasj.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/6/1091.full.pdf

NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory Internet Web Page: “Historic Comet Close Approaches Prior to 2006” --- Link >>> http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/historic_comets.html

Scientific Method: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method

Source: Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower, a project of Friends of the Zeiss.
              2016 February 20.

                                                              
        2016: 75th Year of Pittsburgh's Buhl Planetarium Observatory
                     Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com

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gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
SpaceWatchtower Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Also see: South Hills Backyard Astronomers Blog: < http://shbastronomers.blogspot.com/ >
Barnestormin: Writing, Essays, Pgh. News, & More: < http://www.barnestormin.blogspot.com/ >
About the SpaceWatchtower Editor / Author: < http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com/weblog/spacewatchtower/gaw/ >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
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Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
  < http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
  < http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
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Last Few Days to See 5 Planets in Early AM Sky

By Glenn A. Walsh

Reporting for SpaceWatchtower

There are only a few days left to see all five naked-eye planets, at the same time, in the early morning sky. Soon, Mercury will be too close to the Sun to see for Northern Hemisphere observers (although, Southern Hemisphere viewers may be able to find Mercury until the end of the month), but the other four planets will still be visible for awhile.

Of course, as with all celestial observing, seeing these planets will be only possible, weather permitting. And, sometimes the weather is not so permitting in the middle of Winter. To see all five planets, you need to be looking just before dawn.

As can be seen in the graphic above (Image Source: EarthSky.org ), these five celestial 'wanderers,' that have been viewed for centuries with the naked-eyes by our ancestors, have been in view for about a month in the early morning sky. This somewhat rare observation opportunity is quickly coming to a close, as fast-moving Mercury falls back toward the Sun.

The last time all five naked-eye visible planets were seen at the same time, before sunrise in the early morning sky, was from the middle of December in 2004 to the middle of January in 2005. There was also a gathering of these five planets in the early evening sky, during the last half of March of 2004.

Probably the best time to view these five planets together, after this month, will not come until the year 2036, when the five planets will be visible in the early evening sky. Although Mercury will be very close to the horizon and difficult to spot, some observers may be able to find all five planets, for a short time, in the early morning sky in June of 2022, or possibly in the early evening sky in February of 2025.

For a very brief time this-coming August (August 13 to 19), there may be a chance for some people to see all five planets in the early evening sky. However, Mercury and Venus may be hard to find, as they will be close to the horizon.

More information from EarthSky.org :
Link 1 >>> http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury
Link 2 >>>  http://earthsky.org/science-wire/when-will-all-five-visible-planets-appear-simultaneously

Weekly Planet Roundup (at end of web page) from Sky and Telescope Magazine:
Link >>> http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/sky-at-a-glance/this-weeks-sky-at-a-glance-february-12-20/

Source: Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower, a project of Friends of the Zeiss.
              2016 February 17.

                                                              
        2016: 75th Year of Pittsburgh's Buhl Planetarium Observatory
                     Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com

Want to receive SpaceWatchtower blog posts in your inbox ?
Send request to < spacewatchtower@planetarium.cc >..

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
SpaceWatchtower Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Also see: South Hills Backyard Astronomers Blog: < http://shbastronomers.blogspot.com/ >
Barnestormin: Writing, Essays, Pgh. News, & More: < http://www.barnestormin.blogspot.com/ >
About the SpaceWatchtower Editor / Author: < http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com/weblog/spacewatchtower/gaw/ >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
Facebook: < http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpaceWatchtower/238017839577841?sk=wall >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
  < http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
  < http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
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Laser System Directly Detects Gravity Waves for First Time

Albert Einstein (pictured on right) accurately predicted
the existence of gravitational waves, which have now
been directly detected for the first time. In this photograph,
Dr. Einstein meets with the Amateur Astronomers Association
of Pittsburgh (AAAP), including AAAP Co-Founder
Leo J. Scanlon (left) (who would later become one of the first Buhl
Planetarium lecturers), during the 1934 convention of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science in Pittsburgh.
(Sources: AAAP, Scanlon Family Collection;
Photo Reproduction: © Copyright David Smith)

 By William Harwood, Astronomy / Space Program Consultant for CBS News

A century after Albert Einstein predicted their existence, gravitational waves have finally been detected, tiny ripples in the fabric of space-time that were generated when two massive black holes, spinning around each other and radiating away gravitational energy, crashed together in a space-warping cataclysm, scientists announced Thursday.

At a packed news briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, researchers unveiled the results of recent observations using the U.S.-led Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, project made up of two observing stations, one near Hanford, Washington, and the other 1,800 miles away near Livingston, Louisiana.

On Sept. 14, 2015, during tests of upgraded detectors, the Livingston instruments recorded an unambiguous signal. Seven milliseconds later, a remarkably similar signal was recorded in Hanford.
Scientists studying the signals concluded that two black holes some 1.3 billion light years away, one with about 29 times the mass of the sun and the other with around 36 solar masses, had collided after spiraling closer and closer together at half the speed of light, producing a single black hole with 62 solar masses.

Three solar masses were converted into gravitational waves that radiated outward in all directions. Some of those waves swept through our solar system last September, stretching Earth an infinitesimal amount in one direction and compressing it in a perpendicular direction as they distorted local space.

And that is what the LIGO instruments detected, the first direct evidence of merging black holes and the first unambiguous detection of gravitational waves.

More - Link >>> http://www.cbsnews.com/news/einstein-was-right-scientists-detect-gravitational-waves-in-breakthrough/

Source: CBS News.
              2016 February 11.

PBS Interview on Gravitational Waves Breakthrough with California Institute of Technology Researcher David Reitze:
Link >>> http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/whats-the-sound-of-two-black-holes-colliding-proof-that-einstein-was-right/

Related Blog Posts ---

"Centennial: Einstein's General Theory of Relativity." 2015 Nov. 25.

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2015/11/centennial-einsteins-general-theory-of.html

 

"Laser Observatory May Directly Detect Gravity Waves." 2015 Oct. 7.

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2015/10/laser-observatory-may-directly-detect.html

                                                              
        2016: 75th Year of Pittsburgh's Buhl Planetarium Observatory
                     Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com

Want to receive SpaceWatchtower blog posts in your inbox ?
Send request to < spacewatchtower@planetarium.cc >..

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
SpaceWatchtower Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Also see: South Hills Backyard Astronomers Blog: < http://shbastronomers.blogspot.com/ >
Barnestormin: Writing, Essays, Pgh. News, & More: < http://www.barnestormin.blogspot.com/ >
About the SpaceWatchtower Editor / Author: < http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com/weblog/spacewatchtower/gaw/ >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
Facebook: < http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpaceWatchtower/238017839577841?sk=wall >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
  < http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
  < http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
  < http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >

Feb. Phase of New Moon: Chinese Lunar New Year

Extremely slight Waxing Crescent just after New Moon Phase, the time of the
month when the side of the Moon facing Earth is truly the 'Dark Side of the Moon.'
(Image Sources: U.S. Naval Observatory, Slate.com )

By Glenn A. Walsh

Reporting for SpaceWatchtower

The day of the February lunar phase of New Moon marks the first day of the Lunar New Year, celebrated in many East Asian cultures. This month, the New Moon occurs on Monday, 2016 February 8 at 9:39 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) / 14:39 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) (Lunation No. 1152).

The most prominent of Lunar New Year celebrations, of course, is the Chinese New Year. Today, the Chinese celebrate the beginning of the Year of the Monkey (sometimes known as the Year of the Red Monkey or the Year of the Fire Monkey), year 4714. The Year of the Monkey is the ninth of the 12-year cycle of animals of the Chinese Zodiac, related to the Chinese Calendar.

The Chinese do not normally number their years, as do western calendars. Hence, the year 4714 is derived beginning with the reign of the Yellow Emperor from the 3^rd Millennium BCE. However, scholars differ on the date of the actual 'year 1' of the Chinese calendar, so instead of 4714, some researchers consider this year to be 4713 or 4653.

The Lunar New Year occurs on the day of the New Moon, near the mid-point between the Winter Solstice (beginning of the season of Winter) and the Vernal Equinox (beginning of the season of Spring). The Lunar New Year can occur on any date between January 21 and February 20. These cultures do celebrate the holiday, beginning at 12:00 Midnight on the day of the New Moon, in their respective time zone.

Although known mostly as “Lunar New Year,” most of these cultures actually follow a Lunisolar Calendar, which indicates both the Moon Phase and beginning of a month, as well as a Solar Year and the appropriate season of the year. While the Lunisolar Calendar is primarily used for local holidays and celebrations, for civil and business purposes the Gregorian Calendar of Western Civilization is used in most of these societies.

In a Lunisolar Calendar, the months are coordinated to the cycles of the Moon. The length of the year is adjusted, periodically, to stay relatively synchronized with the Solar Year. The Solar Year, also known as the Tropical Year, is the period of time from one point in the calendar, until returning to the same point in the calendar the following year (example: Vernal Equinox to Vernal Equinox the next year).

In China, as well as in much of East Asia, the Lunar New Year is steeped in tradition. Also known as the Spring Festival, this centuries-old holiday was a time to honor deities and ancestors. It has been observed, and continues to be observed, in many East Asian cultures including China, Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mongolia, Macau, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mauritius, the Philippines, Brunei, and by traditionalists in Japan, as well as in ethnic Asian populations around the world. Lunar New Year celebrations can be found in the Chinatown and other Asian districts of several North American cities.

Lunar New Year, not reckoned by the Chinese Lunisolar Calendar, is also observed in Korea (Seollal) and Vietnam (Tet). Tet is actually the shortened name of the Vietnamese celebration of Tet Nguyen Dan, which is Sino-Vietnamese for "Feast of the First Morning of the First Day," which is celebrated as the first day of Spring. During the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong and the military of North Vietnam launched a major offensive against South Vietnam and the United States forces (Tet Offensive), at the beginning of the Tet Lunar New Year on 1968 January 30.

More on the Chinese New Year: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

More on the Lunar New Year: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_New_Year

More on the Lunisolar Calendar: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunisolar_calendar

More on the Year of the Monkey: Link >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_%28zodiac%29

More on the Tet Offensive: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tet_Offensive

Source: Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower, a project of Friends of the Zeiss.
              2016 February 8.

                                                              
        2016: 75th Year of Pittsburgh's Buhl Planetarium Observatory
                     Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com

Want to receive SpaceWatchtower blog posts in your inbox ?
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gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
SpaceWatchtower Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Also see: South Hills Backyard Astronomers Blog: < http://shbastronomers.blogspot.com/ >
Barnestormin: Writing, Essays, Pgh. News, & More: < http://www.barnestormin.blogspot.com/ >
About the SpaceWatchtower Editor / Author: < http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com/weblog/spacewatchtower/gaw/ >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
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Twitter: < https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
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Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
  < http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
  < http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
  < http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >

Silica 'Cauliflower' Hints of Martian Life ?

Photograph of "Home Plate" area of Mars, showing silica formations poking out of the Martian soil, which some scientists think may have been formed by microbial life.
(Image Sources: NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology; Smithsonsian Magazine)

By Sarah Scoles, Smithsonian.com

The hunt for signs of life on Mars has been on for decades, and so far scientists have found only barren dirt and rocks. Now a pair of astronomers thinks that strangely shaped minerals inside a Martian crater could be the clue everyone has been waiting for.

In 2008, scientists announced that NASA's Spirit Rover had discovered deposits of a mineral called opaline silica inside Mars's Gusev crater. That on its own is not as noteworthy as the silica’s shape: Its outer layers are covered in tiny nodules that look like heads of cauliflower sprouting from the red dirt.

No one knows for sure how those shapes—affectionately called “micro-digitate silica protrusions”—formed. But based on recent discoveries in a Chilean desert, Steven Ruff and Jack Farmer, both of Arizona State University in Tempe, think the silica might have been sculpted by microbes. At a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December, they made the case that these weird minerals might be our best targets for identifying evidence of past life on Mars.

If the logic holds, the silica cauliflower could go down in history as arguably the biggest discovery ever in astronomy. But biology is hard to prove, especially from millions of miles away, and Ruff and Farmer aren’t claiming victory yet. All they’re saying is that maybe these enigmatic growths are mineral greetings from ancient aliens, and someone should investigate.

Spirit found the silica protrusions near the “Home Plate” region of Gusev crater, where geologists think hot springs or geysers once scorched the red planet's surface. To understand what that long-dormant landscape used to be like, we have to look closer to home: hydrothermal regions of modern Earth that resemble Mars in its ancient past.

To that end, Ruff has twice in the past year trekked to Chile’s Atacama Desert, a high plateau west of the Andes cited as the driest non-polar place on Earth. Scientists often compare this desert to Mars, and not just poetically. It’s actually like Mars. The soil is similar, as is the extreme desert climate.
In this part of the Atacama, it rains less than 100 millimeters per year, and temperatures swing from -13°F to 113°F. With an average elevation of 13,000 feet above sea level, lots of ultraviolet radiation makes it through the thin atmosphere to the ground, akin to the punishing radiation that reaches the surface of Mars.

Just as we interpret others’ behavior and emotions by peering into our own psychology, scientists look around our planet to help them interpret Mars, find its most habitable spots and look for signs of life. While the Atacama does have breathable oxygen and evolutionarily clever foxes (which Mars does not), its environment mimics Mars’s pretty well and makes a good stand-in for what the red planet may have been like when it was warmer and wetter.

So when geologists see something in the Atacama or another Mars analog that matches a feature on the red planet, they reasonably conclude that the two could have formed the same way. It’s not a perfect method, but it’s the best we’ve got.

“I don't think there is any way around using modern Earth analogs to test where Martian microbes may be found,” says Kurt Konhauser of the University of Alberta, who is the editor-in-chief of the journal Geobiology.

To understand Home Plate, it makes sense that Ruff turned to El Tatio, a region in the Atacama that is home to more than 80 geysers. While most other earthly animals wouldn’t last long here, many microbes do just fine, and fossil evidence suggests they also thrived in the distant past. By inference, Mars’s Home Plate might have once made a nice microbial home.

But the comparison goes further: When Ruff peered closely at El Tatio’s silica formations, he saw shapes remarkably similar to those that Spirit had seen on Mars. Fraternal cauliflower twins also exist in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and the Taupo Volcanic Zone in New Zealand. In both of those places, the silica bears the fossilized fingerprints of microbial life.

Since microbes sculpted the silica features in Wyoming and New Zealand, it's possible they also helped make the formations at El Tatio. And if microbes were involved with the cauliflower at El Tatio, maybe they made it grow on Mars, too.

More - Link >>> http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/mysterious-martian-cauliflower-may-be-latest-hint-alien-life-180957981/?no-ist

More on NASA's Mars Rover Spirit: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_%28rover%29

Source: Smithsonian Magazine.
              2016 February 5.

                                                              
        2016: 75th Year of Pittsburgh's Buhl Planetarium Observatory
                     Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com

Want to receive SpaceWatchtower blog posts in your inbox ?
Send request to < spacewatchtower@planetarium.cc >..

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
SpaceWatchtower Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Also see: South Hills Backyard Astronomers Blog: < http://shbastronomers.blogspot.com/ >
Barnestormin: Writing, Essays, Pgh. News, & More: < http://www.barnestormin.blogspot.com/ >
About the SpaceWatchtower Editor / Author: < http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com/weblog/spacewatchtower/gaw/ >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
Facebook: < http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpaceWatchtower/238017839577841?sk=wall >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
  < http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
  < http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
  < http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >

Astronomical Calendar: 2016 February

Pittsburgh native James Irwin was one of 19 astronauts selected
by NASA in April of 1966. He became the 8th man to land on
the Moon on 1971 July 29. 2016 February 18 is the deadline to
apply to NASA for the employment position of Astronaut, in the
most recent recruitment campaign. More info:
Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2015/12/astronaut-job-applications-now-accepted.html
(Image Source: NASA).

Astronomical Calendar for 2016 February: 
Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium4.tripod.com/astrocalendar/2016.html#feb

Source: Friends of the Zeiss.
              2016 February 1.
                                              

                                                              

        2016: 75th Year of Pittsburgh's Buhl Planetarium Observatory
                     Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com 

Want to receive SpaceWatchtower blog posts in your inbox ?
Send request to < spacewatchtower@planetarium.cc >..

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
SpaceWatchtower Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Also see: South Hills Backyard Astronomers Blog: < http://shbastronomers.blogspot.com/ >
Barnestormin: Writing, Essays, Pgh. News, & More: < http://www.barnestormin.blogspot.com/ >
About the SpaceWatchtower Editor / Author: < http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com/weblog/spacewatchtower/gaw/ >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
Facebook: < http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpaceWatchtower/238017839577841?sk=wall >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
  < http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
  < http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
  < http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >