Titan Moon's Bright Hot Spot 201
An anonymous reader writes "Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has been the target of great interest because of its unusual pre-biotic chemistry and thick atmosphere. The Colorado-Boulder Space Science Institute announced a new mystery today involving a persistently bright spot, perhaps one of four possibilities. The spot could be a surface coloration, a mountain range, a cloud, or a hot spot."
Hot Spot? (Score:5, Funny)
Tim
When you're hot, you're hot (Score:5, Funny)
It's good to know we've got our brightest people on this.
--Greg
Re:When you're hot, you're hot (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:When you're hot, you're hot (Score:5, Funny)
There's an obelisk in the way.
Re:When you're hot, you're hot (Score:2)
A.K.A. Alien DRM
Re:When you're hot, you're hot (Score:3, Insightful)
And at that time, the spot will be on the planet's nightside, so the infrared data we'll get back will be even clearer.
Re:When you're hot, you're hot (Score:2, Funny)
I bet you're just beaming over your funny mod.
Re:When you're hot, you're hot (Score:2)
Re:Hot Spot? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hot Spot? (Score:2)
Re:Hot Spot? (Score:2)
Fifth possibility: pre-biotic party! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Fifth possibility: pre-biotic party! (Score:2)
Its no a moon,.. (Score:2)
We are so primitive (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:We are so primitive (Score:2)
We can't really be sure how much farther beyond our galaxy the Universe actually reaches, or how big the galaxy actually is. The amount of extrapolation necessary to reach the probability of other life is staggering.
Either our theories about how likely life is, and how big the galaxy is are wrong, or there aren't any neighbors nearby.
Re:We are so primitive (Score:2)
Only if the universe is finite.
Have we proven that yet?
Re:We are so primitive (Score:2)
However, we have no good way of knowing that the Universe is finite, but current best guess says that it is.
The big three theories of creation - superstring, big bang, and God all specify a finite age and finite size (that there is a finite amount of space that contains matte
Re:Oh not again... (Score:2)
Best way to make a strong point ... (Score:2)
Re:We are so primitive (Score:2)
Re:We are so primitive (Score:2)
Entertainment (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Entertainment (Score:2)
obviously (Score:2)
Re:obviously (Score:2)
Titan's Hot Spot? (Score:3, Funny)
Okay, I lied, I'm not a meteorologist.
o_O
I think it's obvious. (Score:2)
Or maybe I just need some sleep. Well, I know I can count on Shaun to help me!
Maybe (Score:2, Funny)
Slime world? (Score:3, Informative)
It's not "hot" (Score:4, Interesting)
I work peripherally with some of the Cassini people, and the "hot spot" theory has been more or less abandoned. Radar observations have already confirmed that the spot isn't glowing or emitting energy on it's own. But they still don't know what it is.
approximately the size and shape of West Virginia (Score:5, Funny)
best and brightest (Score:2)
Duh.
Mal-2
A Alien Outpost... (Score:2)
It's Pleixis-3 you numb-nuts (Score:2)
An unlikely scenario... (Score:2)
Astrophysicist: "Do you see that bright spot?"
Paris Hilton: "Uh-huh..."
Astrophysicist: "What do you think of that mysterious surface feature?"
Paris Hilton: "That's hot."
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:5, Funny)
Really cool pets.
KFG
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:3, Insightful)
Anyway, back to the main topic, there's no mention of what could be creating the hotspot. If it gets confirmed, what could it be? Massive geological activities? A mothership warming up for takeoff perhaps?
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
And he said to them, "Go unto the hot spot of the largest moon of the body in the sky with the large ring"
I really don't see how that was supposed to help people to start taking the scriptures literally. Are you sure you're just not doing a "The Bible said God created everything. Everything exists. Therefore God did it. And the Bible is once again proven correct."?
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:5, Insightful)
What? You mean that religion is still alive? I thought we killed that with priests sexual behaviors & coverups, gay marriages, and general rememberances of holy wars?
The trouble with religion is that it mandates that you must justify everything to fit your previously held views and faith rather than explore and make up your own mind when presented with another possible take on the universe.
Its a shame, or perhaps just sham, that religion has anything to do with it. It is space exploration, no more startling than when Columbus went looking for tea bags by heading for Florida.
For some reason people think that life on other planets means something religious? It means that there is life on other planets. If your faith has no room for an omniscent god to have created life on some planet that you aren't part of, I pity you.
Perhaps it would be better if we ALL simply sat down and decided that these old religious things we carry around are not right, and a new view is in order?
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:3, Interesting)
.
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:3, Informative)
"Everyone you say who says that they have no religious beliefs is just so certain about their belief that they accept it as truth. If you just start asking probing questions, and they start getting mad, then you've found their religion." --Orson Scott Card.
We now know yours. Hugs. :)
BTW, Mormons beleive there is life on other planets as a matter of religion. I'm sure they're not the only ones.
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, can you expect another view from someone who has a religion?
Talk about a biased viewpoint!
As an atheist, when someone tells me but how is-it possible than 'physic laws' has produced such complex universe where some litt
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
OT: Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
I hate to get prescriptive on you, but bald cannot be a hairstyle:
By definition there must be hair there -- hair to style. That's like saying that not having a beard is a beard-style or being dead is a lifestyle.
If you are trying to make the point that atheism:religion::color:hairstyle, you probably could have said it in a better way.
Can y
Re:OT: Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
I never meant to imply that atheism was a religion. In fact, I explicitly stated otherwise in some other post in this thread. I think in general we pretty much agree, and that there was just a small misunderstanding between us.
Personally, I define atheism as the lack of
Re:OT: Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Don Hirschberg:
Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color.
http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_agnosticismatheis
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Bald IS a hairstyle, Mr. Tannen.
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
How utterly idiotic.
Religion requires faith. To try to claim atheism has faith in the nonexistence of a god is the same as saying adults have faith in the nonexistence of Santa Claus and the Easter bunny. It is not a matter of faith, it is a matter of not believing in ficticious entities who have absolutely no evidence to support their existence.
You will also find most true atheists don't attempt to prove the nonexis
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Faith is living a lifestyle that demonstrates what you believe to be true about this Universe, how it was formed, and what its governing principles have in regards to how it affects your life.
If you choose to believe that there is no God or gods that govern this Universe, then that is also an expression of faith. This is a faith that there is no god to return to when you die, that it re
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
I give what I get. You may find it codified in a slightly different form in your book of fairy tales in Luke 6:31. If you want to continue redefinining words, I'll be happy to continue describing your redefinitions as idiotic.
If I jump up from the surface of the earth, I will come back to the ground in a mathematically defined manner. This is not faith in gravity, but rather knowledge that of the countless number of times people have jumped off the ground, there ha
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:3, Interesting)
Nope, because my point of view 'there is no god' is falsifiable: if I'm witness to real miracles, I'd become religious (religious as in beleiving in supreme beings not as being part of a particular religion of course), wouldn't you?
Which make this *very different* from the faith of religious people.
As for your meetings that you say are equivalent as "going to church": usually when people go to church, they do it t
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Unfortunately, there is a history of people who are witnesses to spiritual events, even miracles, who openly dismiss them for one reason or another.
In short, even if you see a miracle, odds are likely that you would not become any more religious than you already are.
A classic example is how many soldiers "became religious" when they were at the Hanoi Hilton. Yeah, for the moments they were in struggle fighting the North Vietnamese as a prisioner th
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Unfortunately, there is a history of people who are witnesses to spiritual events, even miracles, who openly dismiss them for one reason or another.
Uh?
1) spiritual events mean nothing, that people in a desesperate situation try to cling to religion as a way to keep their hopes is normal, but it doesn't mean that religions are true, just that it do work as an 'opium for the people'.
Anyway are you suggesting that their liberation was a miracle? What about those who died before being able to return h
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Okay, so those soldiers would be able to thank their (your?) god for any of these situations:
1) they didn't get sent to Vietman
2) they didn't die or get injured
3) they got injured but at least didn't die
4) they got captured and mistreated but didn't die
5) they got killed but at least didn't get tortured
The flaw in your thinking is that practically no single situation can escape being "explained" by the existence
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:4, Informative)
Atheism is no more a religion than asantaclausism. The only defining characteristic of atheism is the lack of a belief in some sort of god. That's it, nothing else. And yes, agnostics are a subset of atheists.
Religions, on the other hand, are a collection of beliefs regarding supernatural entities, (or what are percieved as supernatural entities) and worship of those entities, with a collection of rituals attached to it. All this is done in the hopes of acquiring some sort of favor from the entity, eg. forgiveness, salvation, success, etc.
See, atheism, while it has one belief concerning supernatural entities, lacks the worship, magic rituals, and prayer that religions have. There is no moral code attached to atheism, whis is not to say that atheists have no morals.
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
What I would call atheism could be also called "Secular-Humanism", or the belief in scientific principles and moral secular government. Even this is hard to pin down, but is a common philosophy found in Western Europe and the Americas, and is a common meme of 21st Century society and culture.
The problem I have is that those who have this viewpoint won't even tr
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:4, Insightful)
1) Secular humanism is not atheism, even if you call it that. If you don't believe in god, and you take a "other people can rot in a ditch for all I care" attitude, you're not a secular humanist.
2) Most atheists have had plenty of time to understand religious people, as 90% of the people around them are theists, and almost half the country is evangelical.
3) When, on Earth, did the parent "oppress" others? Talk about a persecution complex, geez. I'll never get how people who are part of a religion that composes 3/4ths of the US population think they're being oppressed. Who is this little non-Christian cabal that is keeping you down?
4) Since when was it "atheists" who desecrated the Quran? The religious beliefs of those involved weren't stated, but given the strong Xian majority... your evidenceless assumptions are, quite frankly, insulting. Besides, haven't you seen the sign [alarabiya.net] or read the tracts [chick.com]? Let me tell you, it's not this country's tiny atheist minority that is anti-Islam...
5) Millenia of repression of religious thought
Excuse me????? Did you forget about the fact that the catholic church essentially *ruled europe* during the middle ages? Before that, there was the powerful influence of the Teutonic and druidic religions in the north, and the Greek-descended religions in the south. What "atheistic regimes" are you picturing here? Heck, many early governments claimed to either be descended from gods, or gods themselves.
Seriously... get out of your persecution fantasy world here - religion used to rule almost every society.
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
You make several errors in thought process in arriving at your implied conclusion there. First, the US is not a solid whole, it is a collection of areas. As such what happens in one area may not, and generally does not, reflect what happens in all areas, even by aggregate. This alone should demonstrate to you how the
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
120 million actually bothered to vote in the last election, and 61 million voted for Bush. Now from that I can see where you say "a quarter of the population gets to choose".
However, You make it sound like its only one group that gets out to vote, while it is really varing percentages of every group over 18 that votes. The people who don't vote are usually the people in the middle who don't really c
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Answer: Zero
Summary: Get out of your oppression fantasy.
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
I'm French and if memory serves, there is about 30% of French who are "non-believers", and among the believers only a little are going to church even once a year..
That said, even in my country, religious people would be hard pressed to find themselves "oppressed", it is just that people are loosing interest in religions (especially organised religions)..
OT: Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Sorry for the trouble. Well anyway, since we agree that atheism is not a religion, consider my previous reply to be merely about "baldness as the null set of hairstyles" compared to "atheism as the null set of religion". I think you you might agree with me there as well (with that clarification), that 'color' is not the null set of hairstyles, and thus not apt to describe atheism'
Re:OT: Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Isn't that why we come here?
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
In my own (limited) experience, a christian person was surprised why I didn't fear his god. Then I told him that to understand why I didn't fear his god, he should understand why he didn't fear Allah. That was easy, he said, because it was nonsense and Allah doesn't exist.
Thus... you are an atheist. I'm an athe
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
But I don't consider myself as an agnostic: I don't think that the two possibilites 'there is no god' and 'there are god(s)' have the same weight!
I don't know what happened at the beginning of the universe or why it happened, but I consider that god(s) as described by religions (which have human look, that you can pray, which shield us from death through one way or another etc..) are about as interesting as 'father christmas' as a concept, so I consider myself ath
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
So if there was some kind of god without those attributes, it would be totally different from what is currently described as god, so why name it 'god'?
I don't rule out that "something unkwnow" exist, but as I know nothing about it, I apply Occam razor: nothing exist until you can proove me otherwise --> atheist.
Then YOU are the agnostic (Score:2)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Since my parents choose to christen me and I haven't had the energy or motivation to officially leave the christian churth I'm, on paper, a christian
In reality I don't belive in that religion, so I'm not a christian.
I also do not belive in any other selfdescribed religion, so I count myself as one of those who have no religion.
Some people, almost without exception folks who are religious, say that since I do think that some of the scientific theories about
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
I have to disagree. You might argue that atheists have a religion (faith that there is no god), but that doesn't hold for agnostics or more broadly even Buddhists. Agnosticism is a belief in provability - reality and nature are provable, if a god/supernatural can be proven, an agnostic would believe. Essentially, faith is not enough.
Buddhists don't believe in gods, neccessarily, despite the apparent worshipping of idols. it is a belief system based on personal behavior and rig
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:3, Insightful)
(Disclaimer: I'm not religious, I just don't follow your logic)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2, Insightful)
Or buddhism? Buddhism and Christan belief are actually very similar - the
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
This is typical of the latest bible thumpers. 100 years ago, I'm sure everyone argued that everything in the bible was correct. Now, they're saying most of it is, and some parts are only metaphors.
I can't wait to hear how people will justify it in 50 years.
The Evolution of Religion (Score:2)
I have often said "There are no political answers, only political questions." When someone tries to convince you not to answer a certain way to a question they allege is not political, they're being naive or disingenuous. Consider a question like: "What services will this hospital provide?" and a response that includes "Abortion." Telling someone that the answer must not include political answers like that is a tric
Re:The Evolution of Religion (Score:2)
You seem to be using the argument "but not being religious is also a form of being religious!"
Re:The Evolution of Religion (Score:2)
This is why I said, for purposes of this discussion anyway, that science could be usefully viewed as a subset or religion, and not vice versa. Prediction is not a goal of all religions, only explaining is. Prediction is a goal of some religions. Moreover, each religion has the burden of at least explaining the effects of science, even as science evolves. But most religions don't stop there--most seek to explain other things, too.
In the context of th
Re:The Evolution of Religion (Score:2)
I agree with you that absence of proof is not in itself proof, but can one really prove a false negative? I consider an explanation posed in rational and naturalistic terms more usable than one based on the
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:3, Insightful)
To take a rational, scientific view would involve independent thought, reasoning and research; skills that many people are incapable of, or don't want to burden themselves with.
Bread and the circus.
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
The universe is at minimum, billions of years old.
DNA exists, and it changes, therefore evolution exists.
Religious leaders are not authorities on or of anything. They are spiritual guides, however they often misguide.
That's all it takes people.
Re:Life, evolution, everything... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:As an aside (Score:2)
Bwahahahaha!
Re:As an aside (Score:2)
Re:As an aside (Score:2)