Welcome to the Sunday edition of the Street Prophets Coffee Hour, an open thread conveniently located at the intersection of Religion and Politics. I've been in love with space since I was a small child. I love science. I love scientists. Ask me to name a superstar and I'll name Neil deGrasse Tyson. When I first got started doing graphic art I naturally drifted towards space pictures.
Our little galaxy isn't exactly the first tier of creation. We are made of others that exploded. In the beginning as dust and gas coalesced, our current sun and planets started to form.
Eventually we had a nice normal run of the mill yellow G2 star as our sun. Not a superstar in the realm of stars but good enough for our purposes. The Sun is about 6 billion years old and is predicted to reach its end in another 10 billion years. Our sun will expand into a large red star engulfing everything up to Mars.
Next to the sun we have little Mercury. It is the smallest planet in our galaxy and a slowpoke. It takes 59 Earth days to make one rotation but it does speed up and orbits around the sun in 88 Earth days. Because the planet is so close to the sun, Mercury’s surface can reach 840°F and at night the temperature plummets to -275°F. Mercury does have water at its poles. Not a candidate for life.
Next to Mercury comes the beautiful and hellish Venus. It is about 900°F on the surface. Not a place you would want to visit. It spins retrograde which means the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. Recently scientists were able to take pictures of Venus crossing the Sun. Venus atmosphere consists mainly of carbon dioxide with clouds of sulfuric acid, and scientists have only detected trace amounts of water in the atmosphere.
Our little blue green world comes next. We might want to keep in mind the toxic atmosphere of Venus and try and make sure we don't screw up our atmosphere and end up like that.
We have one little moon to our name. There are several theories about the formation of the moon one of the most prevalent at the moment is something huge hitting Earth and knocking a piece of it off and forming the moon. The moon has no atmosphere and if we want to colonize it we would have to love spacesuits to wear outside. Not a candidate for life.
My favorite planet Mars is next. I follow the exploits of Curiosity on Mars. Scientists have just discovered a vast lake of water beneath the southern pole. This discovery catapults Mars into the forefront of possible life.
The asteroid belt comes next or as I like to think of it Han Solo's playground. The asteroid belt is made up of rocky debris. According to scientists there is not enough material for it to have become a planet. Not a candidate for life.
Jupiter is the most massive planet in our solar system. In fact if it had been 80 times more massive it would have been a star instead of a planet. Its make-up is similar to our sun hydrogen and helium. It has enough moons to have its own little solar system. Not a candidate for life.
One of the moons is little Io and it is the most active volcanic body in our solar system. Not a candidate for life.
The moon Europa however is the most fascinating. Scientists believe that underneath the ice Europa with its watery ocean can harbor life.
The jewel of our solar system is next with Saturn. This ringed beauty has fascinated man for centuries. Saturn could hold 760 Earths however it is so light that if you could find a big enough bathtub it would float. Not a candidate for life.
Saturn's moon Titan has rivers and lakes and an atmosphere. Of course the lakes are mainly methane and ethane instead of water. Titan, like our moon, always faces the same side to its planet. Possible life but not as we know it.
Enceladus has an ocean underneath the ice. The discovery of complex organic molecules in plumes that rise from Enceladus' subsurface ocean further suggests that the moon could support life as we know it.
Billions of years ago something bigger than Earth in size crashed into Uranus tilting it on its side. Its poles are East/West rather than the North/South of the other planets. Not a candidate for life.
Neptune is the eighth planet in our solar system. It is dark and cold and has supersonic winds. Not a candidate for life.
Triton is Neptune's largest moon. It is unusual because it is the only large moon in our solar system that orbits in the opposite direction of its planet's rotation -- a retrograde orbit.
Last but not least comes poor little Pluto who got demoted from planet status. Personally I think that is size discrimination and being vertically challenged I can sympathize. What Pluto lacks in size it makes up for in moons that currently stands at five to our one. Not a candidate for life.
Our sun will eventually go nova and expand to swallow up the inner planets including us. Hopefully we will have scattered out into the galaxy and Earthlings will survive. Our sun isn't big enough to go supernova with its spectacular explosions.
However even in death stars create the material for new worlds and solar systems and galaxies to form. This process of death and rebirth is what makes us made of star stuff.