A Day in Astronomy: The Birth of Philip K. Dick

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Gollancz

On this day in 1928, American science fiction writer Philip Kindred Dick was born in Chicago, IL. He would go on to write some of the best known books on science fiction, including:

  • The Man in the High Castle (1963), which won the Hugo Award;
  • Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), later made into the film Blade Runner; and
  • Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (1974), which won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and was nominated for both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award.

Mr. Dick had a troubled life with multiple wives, yet he created some of the most memorable characters and fiction. You may recall some of his other books and stories that became films in recent years, including Total Recall with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Minority Report with Tom Cruise, and A Scanner Darkly with Keanu Reeves.

In his last interview of his life, Mr. Dick discussed how he left behind his writing in the late 1950s:

Many writers had left the field. We could not make a living. I had gone to work making jewelry with my wife. I wasn’t happy. I didn’t enjoy making jewelry. I had no talent whatsoever. She had the talent. She is still a jeweler and a very fine one, making gorgeous stuff which she sells to places like Neiman-Marcus. It’s great art. But I couldn’t do anything except polish what she made.

Fortunately, he returned to writing, thereby provided all of us with amazing stories that live on today.

More Gift Ideas from The Mars Society

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Perseverance and Ingenuity Metal Model. (Mars Society)

If you are still fishing around for holiday gifts, you might want to check out The Mars Society’s gift store.

For example, you may want a model of the Mars Perseverance rover and its accompanying Ingenuity helicopter (shown above) or may a signed copy of Robert Zubrin’s book The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must (shown below).

As with The Planetary Society’s store, the purchases also support the mission of these organizations.

Maybe a gift membership to one or both organizations is what you want instead.

Or just ask Santa for what you want from these organizations.

As for the stars and you may just get them.

Credit: Mars Society

Additional Comments by the NASA Nominee

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Hanna-Barbera Productions

According to a story in Chron, a few years back the current nominee for NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, made the following statement:

I truly want us to live in a world 50 or 100 years from now where people are jumping in their rockets like the Jetsons and there are families bouncing around on the moon with their kid in a spacesuit.

Given the difficulty was are having getting back to the moon 50 years after we dropped such travel, his time frame and expectations may be a little ambitious. I would be happy to have a few astronauts on the surface and the beginning of some type of rudimentary lunar station within 10 years, but something like The Jetsons in the near future or even 50 years out does not seem to be likely.

We heard stories about The Jetsons and flying cars long ago. Though some of the ideas in the television series were workable, if we cannot get to everyday flying cars just yet, I think everyday rockets to the Moon with the whole family are even further away.

Somehow he watched The Jetsons in his youth but seemed to miss Space: 1999 and even the original Lost in Space.

I expect his discussions with NASA will be pretty eye-opening and may temper his expectations.

We need to nail down the basics again before we issue travel posters to the Moon.

UFOs in New Jersey?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Angelo Scarcella from Pixabay

What’s going on in New Jersey and other parts of the East Coast? We are hearing of mysterious drone flights over communities and military installations, which the government cannot confirm.

Earlier this week, New Jersey State Senator Jon Bramnick stated:

The State of New Jersey should issue a limited state of emergency banning all drones until the public receives an explanation regarding these multiple sightings.”

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy voiced his own concerns as well to President Biden, stating:

While I am sincerely grateful for your administration’s leadership in addressing this concerning issue, it has become apparent that more resources are needed to fully understand what is behind this activity.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation says it knows nothing at this point, stating:

The public can continue to call our 800 line, or submit a tip online, we are acting on every substantive lead that we get.

And, always helpful, Donald Trump has joined the chorus, stating:

Mystery Drone sightings all over the Country,…Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge. I (don’t) think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, (shoot) them down!

As noted, this mystery covers other parts of the East Coast, including Maryland and Virginia. So is this another Chinese balloon-like incident, teenage pranksters, or something more targeted against U.S. interests?

With drones doing heavy damage in Ukraine, Russia, and the Middle East, we are no longer talking about toys. It just represents another wave of space technology causing us to look up with fear, not unlike the Cold War, which gave us plenty of other UFO scares.

We should know soon enough what is happening, but it demonstrates again the risks related to the militarization of our airspace. It starts low to the ground and goes as high as our most sensitive satellites, representing a renewed threat to all the satellites and aircraft assisting with astronomy.

Keep looking up, but hold off on shooting them down until we know more.

Posted in UFO

Pic of the Week: Grand Design Spiral Galaxy NGC 5643

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Spiral galaxy NGC 5643, which is located roughly 40 million light-years away in the constellation Lupus. (ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess, D. Thilker, D. De Martin (ESA/Hubble), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble))

This week’s image comes from the NASA/European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hubble Space Telescope. It shows colorful spiral galaxy NGC 5643, which is located roughly 40 million light-years away in the constellation Lupus.

Here is more on the spiral galaxy from the ESA Hubble site:

NGC 5643 is what’s known as a grand design spiral, referring to how the galaxy’s two large, winding spiral arms are clear to see. The spiral arms are defined by bright blue stars, lacy reddish-brown dust clouds and pink star-forming regions. As fascinating as the galaxy appears at visible wavelengths, some of NGC 5643’s most interesting features are invisible to the human eye. Ultraviolet and X-ray images and spectra of NGC 5643 show that the galaxy hosts an active galactic nucleus: an especially bright galactic core powered by a feasting supermassive black hole. When a supermassive black hole ensnares gas from its surroundings, the gas collects in a disc that heats up to hundreds of thousands of degrees. The superheated gas shines brightly across the electromagnetic spectrum, but especially at X-ray wavelengths.

NGC 5643’s active galactic nucleus isn’t the brightest source of X-rays in the galaxy, though. Researchers using ESA’s XMM-Newton discovered an even brighter X-ray-emitting object, called NGC 5643 X-1, on the galaxy’s outskirts. What could be a more powerful source of X-rays than a supermassive black hole? Surprisingly, the answer appears to be a much smaller black hole!

While the exact identity of NGC 5643 X-1 is not yet known, evidence points to a black hole that is about 30 times more massive than the Sun. Locked in an orbital dance with a companion star, the black hole ensnares gas from its stellar companion, creating a superheated disc that outshines the galactic centre.