Each week, I devote part of my Sunday to reading.  I tend to accumulate a lot of saved links on Facebook during the week, and I like to try to keep up with what fellow writers are posting here on WordPress.  At the end of my reading day, I like to put up a post to draw my readers’ attention to a few articles I found to be of particular interest.

Here’s what I enjoyed this week:

New evidence for existence of Planet Nine

by Bob Yirka, Phys.org

In this article, Bob Yirka writes of an upcoming paper by a large international research team detailing the latest evidence of the existence of Planet Nine.

A bit of background for those unfamiliar with this phenomenon: two years ago, astronomers at Caltech shook the astronomy community.  They announced that analysis of the orbits of icy fragments in the outer solar system strongly suggested the existence of a massive body circling the sun.  This object would be roughly four times the size of Earth and ten times as massive, making it the ninth planet of our star system (Pluto, as you’re no doubt aware, is no longer classified as a planet).

The existence of such an object seems like something straight out of science fiction, but based on observed behavior of Kuiper Belt objects and our current understanding of the formation of our solar system, it makes a lot of sense.  Such a massive planet would no doubt have been far more severely affected by the intense gravitational tidal forces of the early solar system; the same gravitational forces that drew the smaller rocky planets in toward the sun while pushing the gas giants further out.  Still, it’s incredible: Planet Nine (assuming it exists) would be a rocky planet so far out it would take 10,000-20,000 years to orbit the sun.

Of course, one problem remains: to date, no one has actually seen Planet Nine.  It has been suggested that NASA’s New Horizons probe, which famously captured our first clear images of Pluto, could be used to verify the planet’s existence.

NASA’s ‘Impossible’ Space Engine Tested—Here Are the Results

by Nadia Drake, National Geographic

This was big news in the science community this past week, and generated numerous articles.  I chose this one mainly because it was the one I saved on Facebook.

In 2016, researchers at NASA’s Eagleworks Laboratories made headlines after tests on a new form of engine, called the EmDrive, appeared to produce thrust by bouncing microwaves off the walls of a cone-shaped chamber.  This set off a firestorm of controversy in the scientific community, as what they’d done was, based on our current understanding of physics, impossible.

Since then, the scientific community has been sharply divided on the subject of the EmDrive.  Some viewed the device as the ultimate answer to space travel: an engine (if that’s even the appropriate term) capable of propelling spacecraft without fuel, and all the added mass it requires.  To most, however, it represented a vexing dilemma: producing thrust without fuel of any sort is impossible, so why does it appear to work?

Well, recently a group of German researchers constructed their own EmDrive, with the intent of testing the device.  Their results are preliminary, but so far it doesn’t look good.  Based on their findings, it appears likely that the “thrust” observed by Eagleworks researchers was not produced by the microwave interaction, but rather by interaction between Earth’s ambient magnetic field and the power cables used in the device.

The next step for the researchers will be to test the EmDrive again, this time inside a chamber shielded from Earth’s magnetic field.  Hopefully, these upcoming tests will finally put this great scientific enigma to rest, one way or another.

First Artists

by Chip Walter, National Geographic

In this article, which first appeared in Nat Geo’s January 2015 issue, Chip Walter writes about one of the fundamental features of humanity, and its origins.

Abstract thinking is, best as we can tell, among the few traits unique to humans.  The ability to represent an object, a place, even an idea, symbolically is one of a dwindling number of abilities that separate us from all other forms of life on our planets.  Art is more than just representation: it tells a story.  It’s a means of self-expression, of identifying ourselves, and whether it takes the form of cave paintings depicting mammoths and wild horses or the Mona Lisa, the intent is the same.

As we continue to research the early history of our species, we’ve increasingly found that artistic expression, as with most every great idea of man, wasn’t something that happened abruptly, or even just once.  Since the discovery of the breathtaking cave tableaus of Chauvet, Lascaux, and other sites across Europe, it has been assumed that such artistic expression rose first, and suddenly, in Europe, perhaps reinforcing a sense of European exceptionalism.  But recent discoveries have pushed back the clock, and led to questions of what, exactly, constitutes artistic expression.

In the past decade, a flurry of discoveries across the world, most notably in caves in South Africa, have yielded items generally accepted to show the early stirrings of aesthetic awareness.  These items, mostly engraved ocher, shell beads, and etched ostrich egg shells, are far less impressive than the cave paintings of Europe…but they’ve been dated to tens of thousands of years earlier.

In the end, these recent discoveries have shown that art is, in fact, a universal human pursuit.  It’s our ability to think in abstract terms, and interpret our world symbolically, that not only sets us apart from other species, but also binds us together.  Abstract thinking is a powerful force: it led us to explore this planet, occupy virtually ever part of it.  It produced countless works of exquisite art, from the Qin Emperor’s warriors to the frescoes of Pompeii to Monet’s water lilies to the Sistine Chapel.  It moved men to build wings and take flight, and it drove us to the stars.

Indeed, studying the history and development of art may be key to understanding ourselves, and what truly makes us human.

 

Knowledge is power. Take time out to read a bit every day. It’s your window into the world around you. – MK