Image (Credit): The Soyuz rocket carrying the Progress 94 mission just prior to launch. (Roscosmos)
The Russians successfully launched a cargo shipment of food, fuel, and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) earlier today. The Roscosmos Progress 94 spacecraft left the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz rocket.
Not everything was perfect, but there is no need to worry. An antenna issue may compromise the unmanned attaching to the ISS on Tuesday morning, but manual controls are available. The Russians are more than able to perform this tasks.
While everyone is pretty excited about NASA’s ability to nudge a distant asteroid via its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, there is more than one way to look at this event. While many see this as a new tool to protect the Earth from approaching peril, Carl Sagan saw this it more as a double-edged sword.
Can we humans be trusted with civilization-threatening technologies? If the chance is almost one in a thousand that much of the human population will be killed by an impact in the next century, isn’t it more likely that asteroid deflection technology will get into the wrong hands in another century—some misanthropic sociopath like a Hitler or a Stalin eager to kill everybody, a megalomaniac lusting after “greatness” and “glory,” a victim of ethnic violence bent on revenge, someone in the grip of unusually severe testosterone poisoning, some religious fanatic hastening the Day of Judgment, or just technicians incompetent or insufficiently vigilant in handling the controls and safeguards? Such people exist. The risks seem far worse than the benefits, the cure worse than the disease.
You might also remember the stealth asteroids directed at Earth by terrorists in the fifth season of the television series The Expanse. Yes, it is science fiction, but so wasn’t the idea of landing humans on the Moon until it was a fact.
As we watch the Middle East burn again, it is not hard to imagine a battle involving sociopaths, ethnic violence victims, leaders with severe testosterone poisoning, religious fanatics, or even incompetent individuals without guardrails making more of a mess of the Earth and its surroundings.
Image (Credit): Side-by-side view of the Cranium nebula using two instruments on the JWST. You can see more stars and galaxies shining through with the NIRCam’s view, but you get a nice cosmic dust glows with the MIRI’s mid-infrared. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI))
This week’s images come from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Each image shows a different view of the Cranium nebula depending on the JWST instrument being used. It is also called the “Exposed Cranium” Nebula because it looks like a brain in a see-through skull.
The nebula appears to have distinct regions that capture different phases of its evolution — an outer shell of gas that was blown off first and consists mostly of hydrogen, and an inner cloud with more structure that contains a mix of different gases. Both Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) show a distinctive dark lane running vertically through the middle of the nebula that defines its brain-like look of left and right hemispheres. Webb’s resolution shows that this lane could be related to an outburst or outflow from the central star, which typically occurs as twin jets burst out in opposite directions. Evidence for this is particularly notable at the top of the nebula in Webb’s MIRI image, where it looks like the inner gas is being ejected outward.
Image (Credit): An artist’s rendering of The Line extending for more than 100 miles into Saudi Arabia from the Red Sea..(PetaPixel)
While the Middle East is going through a tough time at the moment, to put it mildly, it may be worth remembering the hubris of the region over the years. For example, Saudi Arabia was planning to build a new city in the desert called Neom that would have included a $500 billion 100-mile horizontal urban “skyscraper” named The Line (shown above). Yes, endless oil riches can lead to such silliness.
Consider it the equivalent of Egypt’s pyramids, another over-the-top public works project. And like the pyramids of old, The Line is now a monument to the dead, or in this case the death of the country’s Vision 2030 plans. After reports of climbing building costs, as well as the deaths of thousands of workers (similar to the pyramids), the whole gargantuan project may be down-scaled to boring data centers. So much for the modern-day pharaohs who are now watching the region go up in smoke.
The Line could have been one more man-made structure to be seen from space, but our alien friends still have plenty to view should they send a probe through the solar system (as some believe they have). While the pyramids can still be seen from space, the best way to be certain our planet is filled with life is to view it from its dark side. The evening light from our towns and cities cover the globe with recognizable patterns.
Image (Credit): North and South America as seen from space. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
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