[extropy-chat] Breathless in Saturn's Shadow

[The Avantguardian]

--- Amara Graps <amara at amara.com> wrote:

> 
> I think that this must be the most stunning picture
> of a planetary
> ring system _ever_:
> http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA08329.jpg
> 
> Details on that spectacular image here:
> http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08329
> 
> Two new rings were discovered from the above Cassini
> camera observations.
> A "Janus/Epimetheus Ring" and a "Pallene Ring":


Ironic but true. It's kind of funny but being a
biologist and trying to understand Fermi's Paradox has
led me to astronomy where I am a duck out of water.
And whereas I won't make make any pretense of having
any true knowledge of astronomy (the most powerful
telescope I ever had was a Tasco 12X refractor with
maybe 7 sq in. lens), I can say that Saturn is an
anomaly of a planet. The reason for this that I have
been trying to understand the relationship between the
role of environment in the generation of life
(STP=standard temperature and pressure, a prerequite
of the bizaarre carbon chemistry that makes life
possible on earth). It turns out that Saturn is barely
a planet having made the cut off for being a 

Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"More persons, on the whole, are humbugged by believing in nothing, than by believing too much."

- P. T. Barnum

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