There's this sort of anthropomorphizing that inherently happens in language that really gets me sometimes. I'm still not over the terminology of "gravity assist," the technique where we launch satellites into the orbit of other planets so that we can build momentum via the astounding and literally astronomical strength of their gravitational forces, to "slingshot" them into the direction we need with a speed that we could never, ever, ever create ourselves. I mean, some of these slingshots easily get probes hurtling through space at tens of thousands of miles per hour. Wikipedia has a handy diagram of the Voyager 1 satellite doing such a thing.
"Gravity assist." "Slingshot." Of course, on a very basic and objective level, yes, we are taking advantage of forces generated by outside objects to specifically help in our goals. We're getting help from objects in the same way a river can power a mill. And of course we call it a "slingshot," because the motion is very similar (mentally at least; I can't be sure about the exact physics).
Plus, especially compared to the other sciences, the terminology for astrophysics is like, really straightforward. "Black hole?" Damn yeah it sure is. "Big bang?" It sure was. "Galactic cluster?" Buddy you're never gonna guess what this is. I think it's an effect of the fact that language is generally developed for life on earth and all the strange variances that happen on its surface, that applying it to something as alien and vast as space, general terms tend to suffice very well in a lot more places than, like... idk, botany.
But, like. "Gravity assist." I still can't get the notion out of my head that such language implies us receiving active help from our celestial neighbors. They come to our aid. We are working together. We are assisted. Jupiter and the other planets saw our little messengers coming from its pale blue molecular cousin, and we set up the physics just right, so that they could help us send them out to far stranger places than this, to tell us all about what they find out there.
We are assisted.
And there is no better way to illustrate my feelings on the matter than to just show you guys one of my favorite paintings, this 1973 NASA art by Rick Guidice to show the Pioneer probe doing this exact thing:
"... You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me. ..."
Gravity assist.
For the painting especially there’s a beauty in depicting some of our most advanced technology as synonymous with the most ancient. Very few people throughout history have had the privilege of seeing the face of Jupiter but many would recognize the sling thrower immediately.
Kazuaki Iwasaki, from JCA Annual 5 (1984)
ALTWe report: in the very long night before nights start getting shorter, there are more stars than we have seen in some time. In the sharp chill of after midnight, we watch a stray child from the Geminids dash in between Castor and Pollux, and then it is gone for good.
Music of the Spheres
In 1989 Voyager 2 performs one last dance, a flyby of Neptune, and bids farewell to home forever.
Robert Beatty — "What a Major Solar Storm Could Do to Our Planet" (illustration, The New Yorker, February 26, 2024)
Did you guys see eyeball world
It's tidally locked (always faces its star, like how the moon faces the earth)
I just wanna highlight this bit:
An analysis of the new Webb observations strongly excluded the mini-Neptune scenario, with tantalizing evidence suggesting exoplanet LHS 1140b is a super-Earth that may even have a nitrogen-rich atmosphere.
If this result is confirmed, LHS 1140b would be the first temperate planet to show evidence of a secondary atmosphere, formed after the planet’s initial formation.
Because if it does have a secondary atmosphere that could potentially be a very big deal. First because it could indicate that the planet is geologically active and on Earth geologic activity is believed to have been a key part of the origin of life; second because it means that, one way or another, LHS 1140b is protected from its parent star's radiation well enough to hold on to that atmosphere, and third because in Earth's prebiotic atmosphere nitrogen played a key part in the synthesis of molecules that wound up being necessary for life
I'm not saying aliens but I'm saying potential for aliens
I swear the number of stars I can see at night has dwindled dramatically even over the past couple of years.
This is why when I am elected dictator of America, I will be initiating and enforcing a frankly draconian nation-wide dark sky program. You WILL be able to see the Milky Way, and you WILL NOT be able to see anything else. Hospitals get to keep their lights but as for the rest of you if you can't do it in the dark you simply do not need to be doing it.
