Highbrow Magazine - cosmos https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/cosmos en From the Moon to Mars: JFK May Have Created a Monster https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1463-moon-mars-jfk-may-have-created-monster <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 08/12/2012 - 13:20</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediummarsnasa%20%28wikipedia%29.jpg?itok=O6Sofu1d"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediummarsnasa%20%28wikipedia%29.jpg?itok=O6Sofu1d" width="480" height="358" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/08/curiosity-for-life-on-mars-our-place-is-in-space.php">New America Media</a>: </p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> <em>--The </em><em>United States</em><em> was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward, and so will space.</em> - <strong>John F. Kennedy, 1962</strong></p> <p> <em>--We choose to go to the </em><em>moon...</em><strong>John</strong><strong> F. Kennedy, 1962</strong></p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> Mars has become a very busy place, being orbited by satellites and crisscrossed by Land Rovers. As if that's not enough, Curiosity, a roving science laboratory, just successful landed at the planet's ancient crater to probe for signs that the planet was life-friendly in the past.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Indeed, we are mapping and processing our neighboring planet so extensively that it feels as if Mars has already been colonized. There is even a Google Mars website if you want to see the planet's surface in technicolor.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Man, despite our earthly crises, remains enthralled by the cosmos. NASA is planning manned missions to Mars in the 2030s -- with the cooperation of Japan and Europe -- and plans to establish a permanent station on the moon. China, too, hopes to have a manned station orbiting the moon, having sent a moon orbiter in 2010 to map it out and in 2013, it'll send a landing rover. All the while, our satellites, probes and telescopes are peering deep into the heavens looking for signs of extraterrestrial life.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Welcome to the post-global age. We are now entering an age where human interactions reach beyond the stratospheres of our world towards the cosmos.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Call it cosmozation, or better yet, empyrealization -- an age where man's reach for the heavens is realized. Neither words exist yet in the dictionary, but for that matter, neither did globalization three decades ago (so feel free to come up with a coinage that may be apropos to our post-global age.)</p> <p>  </p> <p> Roland Robertson, a social scientist, defines globalization as "the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole." The world shrinks, geographical constraints are overcome, while identities become multilayered, complex. As a species, we may not always get along with each other, but these days, thanks to an integrated economy and unprecedented mass movement across the various borders, and modern technology -- satellites, cell phones, jet planes, the Internet, and so on -- we are, like it or not, constantly aware of each other's existence.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Taking Robertson's definition a step further, it seems inevitable that the universe, too, shrinks and compresses as we explore and measure it, and as we infer profound implications from our discoveries. Cosmozation, or empyrealization, is then the process by which man's awareness and influence expand beyond our planet: We grow cognizant that we exist on intimate levels with the rest of the universe, that we are interacting with it, and, increasingly, having an effect upon it.</p> <p>  </p> <p> While thinkers and writers still haven't come to terms with the full impact of the forces of globalization, another age is already upon us -- one in which man's awareness expands beyond the globe as his relationship with the cosmos intensifies.</p> <p>  </p> <p> There's a radical shift taking place in regards to our relationship with the universe. Not so long ago, until Copernicus came along, we assumed our world was the universe's center -- and, for that matter, flat -- and that the sun orbited Earth. Most of last century we held on to the notion that our solar system was unique. And scientists just a generation ago assumed, too, that conditions on Earth -- a protective atmosphere, ample water and volcanic activity -- made it the only planet that could possibly support life.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Now we know that the conditions on our home planet may be unique, but solar systems are not at all anomalies. In fact, we are in the process of accepting that we are very much part of the larger universe. Furthermore, by sending space probes to the edge of the solar system, by collecting moon rocks and comet dust, by landing probes on Mars to dig for soils and search for signs of life, we are in constant exchange with the universe.</p> <p>  </p> <p> As astonishing discoveries are being made, that sense of self-importance has eroded, giving way to a more humble assessment of our place in the cosmos.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumkennedyspace%20%28TimeLifePictures%29.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 330px; " /></p> <p>  </p> <p> Consider some of these recent discoveries.</p> <p>  </p> <p> *Using the Hubble telescopes and the Kepler observatory, which orbit Earth, and the Hale Telescope in California, astronomers have discovered hundreds of other solar systems, and nearly 800 exoplanets -- planets that are outside our solar systems. One planet in particular, 150 million light years away, is believed to have an atmosphere.</p> <p>  </p> <p> *We know that Earth is constantly bombarded by meteors when we look up into the night sky and spot shooting stars. But more astounding is astronomer Lou Frank's recent discovery. Using the Hubble Telescope to study Earth's atmosphere, Frank proved that Earth is constantly being hit by snowballs from space. The implications are enormous: If ice from outer space hits Earth regularly, it could be "raining" onto other planets too, providing much-needed water to support life. The universe is suddenly very wet.</p> <p>  </p> <p> *A few years ago a meteorite from Mars found on Earth, known as the Allan Hills meteorite (or ALH 84001 to scientists), astonished everyone when some scientists claimed they found tantalizing traces of fossilized life within it. Their findings have been contested, but the discovery fired up the imagination.</p> <p>  </p> <p> *Moreover, the Galileo space probe that orbited Jupiter showed us that on Europa, one on Jupiter's many moons, huge oceans lie beneath an icy surface. Scientists found active volcanoes as well -- that is to say, ingredients that could spark and possibly support life.</p> <p>  </p> <p> *More tantalizing still is the organic materials found in comet dust collected from the comet Wild 2. Here's NASA's press release on the comet dust brought back to Earth by the space probe Stardust: "These chunks of ice and dust wandering our solar system appear to be filled with organic molecules that are the building blocks of life."</p> <p>  </p> <p> The finding surprised scientists because many predicted that the space probe would find mostly ice. Instead, the finding could lend support to the belief that comets could have "seeded" life on our planet as well as others.</p> <p>  </p> <p> *Then, of course, there's the discovery of water on the moon. Scientists found this by deliberately crashing a rocket stage into the moon in 2009, and, in the floor of a permanently shadowed crater, found up to a billion gallons of water and ice near the moon's south pole.</p> <p>  </p> <p> And if there's water aplenty in the universe, then why not DNA? "Panspermia" (originating from the Greek word for "all-seeding"), the hypothesis that seeds of life could have been delivered to Earth -- and possibly other planets -- is now revised; this theory of an interstellar exchange of DNA was championed by Francis Crick, who discovered the DNA molecule with two other scientists more than half a century ago, was ridiculed last century. But if scientists laughed behind the Nobel laureate's back when he first suggested it, no one is laughing now.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Besides, there is such a thing as self-fulfilling prophecy: If Earth didn't receive DNA for a primordial startup way back when, we are now actively sending out our earthly DNA to space via the forms of various microbes that are riding along with our space crafts and satellites and shuttles that are scattered out into the universe.</p> <p>  </p> <p> As a result, ours is no longer just a lonely blue planet amidst the heavens. As we send probes and manned missions to the comos and map the universe, as we enthusiastically search for signs of life elsewhere and collect comet dust -- earth seems to exist increasingly as part of an open and intricately complex system.</p> <p>  </p> <p> War and strife and revolutions and bloodshed seem endless on our home world, but when man gazes up at the night sky, it remains alluring and sublime. To paraphrase the great mythologist, Joseph Campbell, that sea on which humanity now sails is infinitely more vast than that imagined by Columbus. And with a rover named Curiosity actively searching for signs of past life on Mars, there's no doubt that our place is in space, and the cosmic age has indeed arrived.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Andrew Lam is an editor with New America Media and the author of</em> Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora <em>and</em> East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <em><strong>Photos: Wikipedia; Time-Life Pictures.</strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/space-exploration" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">space exploration</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cosmos" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cosmos</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mars" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">mars</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/curiosity" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">curiosity</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nasa" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nasa</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/moon" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the moon</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jfk" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jfk</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/president-kennedy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">president kennedy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hubble-telescoper" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hubble telescoper</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/planet-earth" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">planet Earth</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/lilfe-mars" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">lilfe on mars</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/planets" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">planets</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/allan-hills-meteorite" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">allan hills meteorite</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Andrew Lam</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Wikipedia</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 12 Aug 2012 17:20:17 +0000 tara 1388 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1463-moon-mars-jfk-may-have-created-monster#comments