It has been discovered at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab that exo-planets (meaning not in our solar system) with the romantic names HD 189733b and HD 209458b are warm and waterless, and just plain not what planets are expected to be. HD 179733b is 360 trillion miles from Earth while HD 209458b is about 900 trillion miles away.
“The Weather today on 209458 is hot, dry, probably cloudy with a chance of wind,” study team leader Mark Swain said in a Wednesday teleconference. 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit to be exact. As Johnny Carson would say, “The good news is, it’s a dry heat.” And with winds between 500 and 2,000 mph, the wind chill factor makes it feel downright chilly.
The truly amazing thing is simply that we are measuring these things at all on planets that far away. Or that we can even “see” planets that far away. People think nothing of this “reality” anymore, which deprives them of sensing something truly astounding. Most people just think you make the telescope bigger and see farther. It would take a lot of education to get people to the point where they’d know enough to begin to figure it must be impossible, and then a lot more education to get them to understand how we do it. Then they could be appropriately awestruck.
Sadly, it is taken for granted that scientists do what we need thanklessly, and most people assume on some level that once you are privy to some secret of scientists the rest must be easy. That is the only way to explain how with 99.99% of our modern lives being based on and dependent upon the fruits of science, sceintific advancement is never a big deal to most people –except for the newest gizmo provided by it down the line, if they even remember there is a connection. Research is at best tolerated, but the fruits of the results are taken for granted. Researching energy sources or cancer cures isn’t that big a deal, not like hitting a ball or making a bad sitcom or something else deserving numerous award shows every year. Scientists themselves really only come to the forefront when there is something the scientists can’t make perfect for us, so we need to acknowledge them in order to have them to blame. Fortunately, “The scientist finds his reward in what Henri Poincare’ calls the joy of comprehension, and not in the possibilities of application to which any discovery may lead.” May I add to The Professor’s words that it’s best if the true scientist looks only for this joy and not for recognition from the masses. Of course that was not prominent in Einstein’s thoughts, because he couldn’t imagine any real scientist looking for recognition, and his own peculiar position as a pop-star of his day meant he lost time with the joy of discovery because of the duties and responsibilities of world recognition.
The Professor finds the tehcniques used to investigate exo-planets to be fascinating and indeed artistically elegant. I put it to him that we have come so far that the entry level equipment necessary to make advancements is so far beyond the grasp of an individual scientist that his idealized independent man of science can no longer exist in practicality. He reiterated his philosohy, “Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn a living at it. One should earn one’s living by work of which one is sure one is capable. Only when we do not have to be accountable to anyone can we find joy in scientific endeavor.” He understands those who do the practical work in this way because it’s the only way to do it. In fact he honors the ability so many scientists display to uphold standards in the face of pressure to produce results that must come along with the funding. He, however, would prefer not to be practical and instead to stay simple, and continue to do all of his experiments with the same old equipment: Brains.
We kid ourselves that there is something awesome on the ballfield, or in special effects in movies (especially space scenes!), in video games or music videos. A little bit of comprehension of what is out there, what “out there” itself actually is, and how we figure these things out is the definition of awe inspiring.
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