Aries on line - Spring 2001 editorial

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=22 BGCOLOR="#330099" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="040000d2erkqrf.gif"> <div> Derby and District Astronomical Society - Aries Magazine</div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=145 BGCOLOR="#333399" TEXT="#080000" background="03fa2c00erkjzj.gif"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Aries Astronomy magazine on line From th"><U>HOME</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>Aries on line - Spring 2001 editorial</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Forgotten Astronauts"><U>Forgotten Astronauts</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="New cosmological theory"><U>New cosmological theory</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sky Scene March to May 2001"><U>Sky Scene March to May 2001</U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=458 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="06a92963.gif"> <div> <B>Aries Astronomy magazine on line- From the Derby and District Astronomical Society</B></div> <div> <IMG SRC="04107040.gif" border=0 width="263" height="4" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Editorial</div> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="askjeeves"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FF6666" FACE="Comic Sans MS" >If you intend to search the internet for other sites, please use the Ask Jeeves search box below. It costs you nothing but each click through to the Ask Jeeves site will eventually help  to pay for the maintenance of this site. Thanks.</FONT></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>  <IMG SRC="http://service.bfast.com/bfast/serve?bfmid=31103363&siteid=35044309&bfpage=football" BORDER="0" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1" NOSAVE > <FORM ACTION="http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click" > <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="siteid" VALUE="35044309" > <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="bfpage" VALUE="football"> <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="bfmid" VALUE="31103363" > <TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" BORDER="0"> <TR> <TD BGCOLOR="#009900"><IMG SRC="http://www.ask.co.uk/docs/about/questionboxes/questionbox16_a.gif" WIDTH="120" HEIGHT="73"></TD> </TR> <TR><FORM ACTION="http://www.ask.co.uk/main/askjeeves.asp" METHOD="GET"> <TD BGCOLOR="#009900" ALIGN="center" BACKGROUND="http://www.ask.co.uk/docs/about/questionboxes/questionbox16_b.gif" WIDTH="120" HEIGHT="21"><INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="ask" SIZE="13"> <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="scope" VALUE="web"> <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="origin" VALUE="nnnn"> <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="qSource" VALUE="n"></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD BGCOLOR="#009900"><INPUT TYPE="image" SRC="http://www.ask.co.uk/docs/about/questionboxes/questionbox16_c.jpg" BORDER="0" WIDTH="120" HEIGHT="40"></TD> </FORM></TR> </TABLE> </FORM>  </div> <bR> <div> Why not <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#BF00BF" FACE="Comic Sans MS" ><A HREF="booksales.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Book Shop"><U>buy an astronomy book</U></A></FONT> from Amazon whilst you are here. The commission will help me pay for the phone bill to keep this site updated.</div> <div>  <A HREF="http://tracker.tradedoubler.com/tracker.asp?code=598849&pid=11"><IMG SRC="HTMLobj-316/en_ilearnto_pid12_static_button120x60.gif" border=0></A>  </div> <bR> <div>  In this month's issue, we have the second part of Anthony's article about dead spacemen, apparently he has one about dead NASA administrators in the pipeline as well! </div> <bR> <div> Malcolm Neal has found an interesting article from NASA that asks important questions about global warming. Click <A HREF="http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast20oct_1.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/"><U>here</U></A> to view it (Leaves this site)</div> <bR> <div> In addition, we have our first article from outside the UK. The contributor is Fred Gangstad from Texas. He has submitted an article that offers a different view of the universe to the Big Bang. Check it out. </div> <bR> <div> The usual beginners article has been left out of this issue (sorry, I have been rather short of time recently) but fear not, it will be back. Maurice Batchelor has written one on telescopes and Solar observing for the next issue.</div> <bR> <div> Recently, I had cause to take a supply of Astronomy Now back numbers into school so that one of my teaching groups could research details of a planet of the Solar System. In my usual way,  I got home, they remained in a pile in the lounge for some considerable time. This was quite interesting because each time that I sat down for a cup of coffee, I picked one up and started reading. It seemed strange to be reading about the proposed mini spacecraft called “Clementine” that was scheduled for take off next year in order to survey the poles of the Moon since it is several years ago that the results were widely published. Also, the discovery of a major new comet held my interest – it had been named Hale-Bopp and may well be visible to the naked eye in about 18 months! I enjoyed reading about the shenanigans that accompanied the problems with the Galileo spacecraft as it headed towards Jupiter, I had forgotten a lot of the details. I now look forward to reading the current issue, in 10 years time to remind myself about the aspirations of the Cassini spacecraft team.</div> <bR> <div> Iin the past, people had optimistically thought that there was plenty of life around on other planets. I understand that the astronomer Richard Proctor, in his 1909 book “Other Worlds Than Ours” summed up the two main ideas of the time about the inhabitants of Jupiter. One school of thought believed them to be 14 feet tall giants “Even Goliath would have cut a sorry figure among the natives of Jupiter” he said. The reasoning for this was simple. Jupiter is a big planet so its natives will be big. Also, sunlight is only about one fifth of Earth levels so the Jovians would need large eyes in order to be able to see. A large body would thus be needed to accommodate these large eyes! Alternatively, it was suggested that they were really midgets, about a foot tall but agreed that they would have disproportionately large eyes. The reasoning behind the opposite view was that since the gravitational pull of Jupiter is so large, they could not be giants since their own body weight would crush them. Sir Humphrey Davy, of miner’s lamp fame, sensibly thought that they would not resemble humans at all, he saw Jovians as “numerous convolutions of tubes, more analogous to the trunk of an elephant”. I’m with Sir Humphrey on this, I believe that the natives of Jupiter are more like big jellyfish, based on silicon (an evolutionary adaptation to the high temperatures of the atmosphere), blowing around in the high winds. They will have no noses (an evolutionary adaptation to the high levels of ammonium hydrosulphide, a gas that smells of rotten eggs). Your ideas please!</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mailto:webmaster@DDAS.zzn.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:webmaster@DDAS.zzn.com"><U>Kevin Woodward - Editor</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="597" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 110 WIDTH="585"><div> As always, the articles represent the views of the individual authors rather than those of the Editor or Society as a whole. Copyright resides with the authors, onless stated otherwise. If you wish to use any of the material from Aries, please contact me (click above) and I will seek permission from the author concerned.</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div>                                         </div> <div> <A HREF="index_email.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Aries Astronomy magazine on line From th"><U>DDAS free email service</U></A> </div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>