Success! India’s First Mars Probe Is In Orbit And Working

Terraformation of Mars: A New Look

We look at Mars now as a forgotten Red Planet that almost seems barren and life-less judging from our available images and study of it. But study shows Mars was once as ecologically prosperous as our own Earth. But what happened to all of its waters? Better yet why is it so dry and lacking any plants? Once the abundance of oxygen left and the waters froze over or dried off the planet became what it is today. But what if we can in a way reactivate’ Mars? Welcome to Mars, Terraformed’.

About Terraforming

Transforming Mars will be a long and complicated process. But this is exactly the type of subject that interests space researchers like Christopher McKay of NASA Ames Research Center. First, greenhouse gases, like chlorofluorocarbons that contribute to the growing ozone layer on Earth, will be released into the atmosphere. This traps the heat from the Sun and raises the surface temperature by an average of 4 degrees Celsius. In order to achieve this, factories would manufacture chlorofluorocarbons derived from the air and soil. A single factory would require the power equivalent of a large nuclear power plant.

The increasing temperature would vaporize some of the carbon dioxide in the south polar cap. Introducing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere would produce additional warming, melting more of the polar cap until it has been vaporized completely. This would produce an average temperature rise of 70 degrees Celsius.

With the temperature this high, ice will start melting, providing the water needed to sustain life. This water would raise the atmospheric pressure to the equivalent of some mountaintops. While this would be a survivable level, it may still require the use of an oxygen mask. The next step, which may take up to several centuries, would be to plant trees that thrive on carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.

NASA: Terraforming Mars

Terraforming is the process of transforming a hostile environment into one suitable for human life. Being that Mars is the most Earth-like planet, it is the best candidate for terraforming. Once just the subject of science fiction novels, it is now becoming a viable research area. The famed astronomer and Pulitzer prize winner, Carl Sagan, says that there is enormous promise in the search for ancient life on Mars. If life was once sustainable on Mars, it is important to know what caused Mars to evolve into the cold and lifeless planet it is today. With this knowledge, we can terraform Mars by reversing the process.

NASA scientists believe that it is technologically possible at the present time to create considerable global climate changes, allowing humans to live on Mars. But this will not be by any means an easy task. Raising the atmospheric pressure and surface temperature alone could be achieved in a few decades.

This research has strong environmental implications for Earth. What researchers are trying to do involves global warming, a sort of greenhouse effect on the cold planet Mars. Scientists may be able to test their hypotheses about global warming in their attempts to elevate Mars’ surface temperature. Likewise, once theories, they may be applied to our own planet in an attempt to reverse environmental damage done by pollution and deforestation.

Astronomers have discovered the largest known structure in the universe, a clump of active galactic cores that stretch 4 billion light-years from end to end. The structure is a light quasar group (LQG), a collection of extremely luminous Galactic Nulcei powered by supermassive central black holes.

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Young Wizards meta: In "So You Want to Be a Wizard", where is the Lone Power's HQ?

At the Top of the Rock observation deck, and I’m debating with my sister over which building was probably the one that held the Dark Book in the overshadowed Manhattan…

With the new book being out and my never having read "A Wizard of Mars" I decided to pick up the New Millennium ebook editions. I'm getting close to the end of "So You Want to be a Wizard" and while I haven't gotten to the part where Nita reads from the bright book I know it's coming and I can already feel my heart breaking. It made me wonder: are Nita's and Kit's experiences with the Lone Power singularly unique? Do other wizards have opportunities like when Nita writes in the bright book?

Yes. And no. Except sometimes. In fact, always.(See also, “go not to the writer for advice, for she will say both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ and ‘wait two seconds while I come up with some proto-canonical material that I’ve never had reason or opportunity to mention to anybody before.’”)

Ordeals serve a number of purposes. Primarily they help the Powers that Be determine, in the simplest and most straightforward way, whether or not the wizard to whom they are potentially entrusting a lifetime of energy will actually commit to use that energy in moments of crisis. Equally primarily (if that phrase makes any sense at the human level, while remembering that from the Powers’ point of view, “all is done for each”) they routinely serve to solve or at least illuminate interior issues that the new wizard needs to get handled. This is besides actually solving a problem or concluding an intervention that some part of the local space-time continuum needs enacted / sorted out.

So you understand that no two Ordeals are ever alike, but every single time their effect is identical to that of saving the world — because when you save a part of it, even a very small part of it, “saving the world entire” is nonetheless exactly what you’re doing. Existence is, in this particular mode of analysis or expression, holographic: intimately interconnected at the quantum level, in such a way that — in what may be the best possible use of this phrase — “size doesn’t matter.” When (for example) instead of squashing a bug in the house, you get a glass and a piece of paper and catch it and put it outside, it may seem like nothing in particular… but on levels we are not even remotely sensorially equipped to perceive, when one chooses to spare life instead of taking it, existence quakes to its roots as living experience is kicked just a wee bit further into the Life direction. Choice always matters. And Ordeals are a particularly acute form of choice; both an expression of personality and a shaping of it – the iron in in the fire, submitting to the hammer, willingly. (And possibly, ideally, dragging the Lone Power into the fire with it, in just one more tiny little change.)

So the immediate answer is that all wizards have such opportunities. They may not look so earthshaking — but appearances deceive. One Ordeal or another may not seem dangerous, they may seem to involve very small changes in the local environment… But without fail, when passed, they are enough to convince the Powers that Be that the wizard in question is one who, for their definition of wizardry, is going to get the job done. And that’s what counts.

Hope that answer makes sense. :)

Orbital Mechanics by Tatiana Plakhova 

Young Wizards will always be the best YA series because you’ll fall in love with and cry about sentient tears in spacetime, sharks, amalgamations of spheres, computers, gods, macaws, and most importantly you’ll begin to believe fiercely in the beauty and heartbreak of the universe.

I want to talk about the things I love about Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series, and buckle up because I have a lot of feelings. Also, spoilers.

First off, the whole philosophy of wizardry as a force for good and protection is so great. The Oath lays it out for us: “In Life’s name and for Life’s sake, I assert that I will employ the Art which is Its gift in Life’s service alone. I will guard growth and ease pain. I will fight to preserve what grows and lives well in its own way…etc.” Capital L, Life, as though it’s something holy. And that Life is people, and animals, and aliens, and plants, and artificial intelligence, and white holes, and sometimes inanimate objects, because, in a sort of animism viewpoint, everything has some aspect of Life to it and is worth being protected. Nita initially seeks out wizardry as a way to protect herself, and then when  she uses it to scare and intimidate her bullies, she realizes it feels wrong…because that’s not what wizardry is for. 

In almost every book we usually see wizardry being used in combat to fight the Lone Power or defend somebody, and even then sometimes it’s less of causing physical violence and has more of an emotional or psychological aspect to it and is about making the right choice or convincing someone else to, like in the Song of Twelve - yes, they did some fighting, but the whole thing hinged on Nita’s sacrifice. This combat happens sometimes, because sometimes you have to fight in order to protect Life, but it only happens occasionally. Most of the day-to-day wizardry we see is like, mediating arguments between angry trees, or stopping earthquakes, or relocating endangered species to new planets. Because you don’t just encourage growth and ease pain by fighting bad guys, you do it in everyday things. One thing that really stood out to me was in Games Wizards Play when Nita was mad at Penn and she wanted to yell at him and punch him, but she reminded herself that that would increase entropy and thus went against her duty as a wizard. It was super interesting to see that philosophy of wizardry being involved in her mindset when interacting with other people, and is maybe something more people should adapt into our real lives - taking a moment to think about if our actions will increase negativity in the world when there are better actions to choose. 

And that’s what makes Kit and Penn’s duel so irresponsible. Not only is it reckless and immature to fight someone over a girl at a party with a bunch of intergalactic dignitaries present, but the fact that they allowed their anger and jealousy to cause them to deliberately attempt to use their wizardry to potentially cause harm and distress to each other, even with Ronan making sure everything went down safely? For such a frivolous reason? Irina was right to be furious, because that’s not what wizards do. 

And then I really like how The Powers That Be are simultaneously incarnations of every religious figure ever, and sometimes not religious, and every interpretation is real and valid. The Lone Power is the same as Betty Callahan’s Devil and Ireland’s Balor. The Winged Defender is Michael, and Thor, and Athene (and Peach!). Mernahz is a wizard who acts at the behest of The Powers That Be, and yet is also a devout Muslim who regularly prays to Allah. With all the diversity in general - gay wizards, autistic wizards, asexual wizards, deaf wizards, whale wizards, alien wizards, robot wizards - we get this incredible sense of simultaneously having diversity and unity. They all took the same Oath, even if they have different versions of the Manual, and they all call each other “cousin” because they’re united in their place in the Universe (or multiverse?) to protect Life. 

The science! The blending of magic with science and science fiction feels so natural. Of course if you’re going to use magic to act on the universe, you have to understand how the universe works and how your spell’s going to interact with it, because the universe on most days can’t break the laws of science, and you have to work with those laws. Science does not falter in the face of magic; they coexist. Heck, the entropy that the wizards work to slow is a scientific concept in itself. And of course if you’re a wizard you can go to other planets and meet aliens, and of course some of those aliens might be wizards. And the fact that the wizard’s duel requires them to physically take the form of elements and use their scientific knowledge rather than just hurling flashy spells at each other. And then the whole explanation of how the planets’ form of intimacy is to resonate through time and space, and it was a whole physics-based description but somehow still romantic and powerful? Love it.

Carmela! She’s such a great character, and not just because she’s entertaining. She taught herself the Speech because she thought her brother’s wizard shenanigans seemed interesting and wanted to get involved but doesn’t want to be a wizard herself (and you know, I’d love to know why). She acts not only as a teasing big sister to Kit, but also as sort of an honorary big sister and older female mentor to Nita in her mother’s absence. She loves fashion and shopping, and is also a genius at linguistics and started her own possibly-slightly-illegal intergalactic chocolate trading empire.

There’s a lot more I could talk about, like the Speech and the method for writing spells, and the more fun-and-games side of wizardry, and the repeated concept of Choice (I would willingly write a whole paper on that), and that whole bit about making politicians look at the Earth from the Moon until they understand what they’ve signed up for. But I’m going to end by talking about the transformation of Harry Callahan. Shortly after I read Games Wizards Play, I lent my friend the first book. She texted me going, “wow her dad’s such a jerk, he has such a temper and he gets mad at her for not fighting the bullies instead of being sympathetic” and I got whiplash. I had completely forgotten that he was like that in the first few books - getting angry, yelling, Nita calling him “sir” - because the Harry Callahan of the more recent books - comforting a distressed tree alien, sitting in a lawn chair on the Moon to cheer on his daughter’s mentee, just overall being softer and more supportive and understanding - is practically a different person. It’s been a long time since I read A Wizard’s Dilemma and A Wizard Alone, but I would guess that the change happens somewhere in there, as he suddenly finds himself a single parent of two teenage wizards. It might be that the loss and the shouldering of more responsibility changed him; on a meta level, it might be that we got to see him develop more because we get to see more of him in Betty’s absence. It could be both, and even be partially due to his exposure to the philosophy of wizardry and the growth and responsibility of his children. Either way it’s a drastic transition for the better that happens so naturally and seamlessly that I didn’t even notice. 

These are such wonderful books, such a beautiful celebration of life and science and choice and kindness and existence, and I’m so glad that they exist.

Never understood why I love black holes so much, there’s something about them that just pulls you in.

Inside a Neutron Star

Credit: Karl Tate, via SPACE.com