Mom, I thought you (and Orville and Grandpa, and everyone else who I
share this with) might be interested in knowing that our dinner-fireside
tonight was with a Brother Wilson (can't remember his first name), who
is the project manager for the Spitzer Telescope (one of the "four"
which include Hubble, Chandra, and another one) at JPL (Jet Propulsion
Laboratory - division of NASA's unmanned space program in Pasadena,
Calif.). He was part of the team which sent the 1976 Viking out that
eventually landed on Mars. His wife explained how they and the families
of the scientists were invited to an auditorium to view the first
downloaded images of Viking, and the first pictures of another planet's
surface, and how mind-boggling and spiritual that was and felt. They
were the FiRST in the world to see those pictures of Mars, and now they
are the first seeing what I explain below. Someone in our ward knows him
and/or his wife and he was invited to come. There were a LOT of people
there. It was NEAT, to say the least....
Find MUCH INFO AT:
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/mediaimages/index.shtml
Also See attachment for a neat picture of "The Hunter"
1. He explained to us how Spitzer works with infrared light, not like
Hubble which shows us pictures which we can see visually
2. He and his team have had to "sell" the telescope to NASA and he
showed us how he convinced them by using Orion and the tip of its sword.
Apparently, Hubble could only 'see" darkness there, but with infrared
they were able to see many (tens, hundreds, or thousands, I can't
remember now) of stars never before known to exist. Spitzer (launched in
2003) has shown NASA millions of stars which Hubble showed as being
"dark" or "black' spots when they download its images - those very spots
have thousands (probably more) of stars (maybe that was galaxies, I
can't remember!) which have only been detected through infrared rays.
3. He showed us pictures (with his laptop and a projector) that most
people have never seen and said they were exclusives! They were just
plain amazing. He caused them to have animation, and it was a visual
feast. He would constantly compare visuals from Hubble with those of
Spitzer and show how much more they were able to see that they had
thought wasn't even there. He mentioned there is NO wasted or unused
space in the universe. It is in a constant creative state....
4. Highlight: besides the pictures, he discussed how with Spitzer
they've discovered dust rings around more than half of the new stars
they're discovering. Those "rings" are composed of hydrocarbons,
arsenic, carbon dioxide, etc., key elements in the composition of
PLANETS.
5. They (or another branch of NASA) will be sending in 2008 and 2012
telescopes much bigger than Spritzer with a much greater capacity!!
These will be able to "peek" into the star matter and "debris" to find
the planets or objects that are there.
6. He said much more.... He mentioned that in the Andromeda Nebula
Spritzer showed that there appeared to be a disturbance in one or two of
its "rings" (like those of the Milky Way). Apparently, another MUCH
SMALLER GALAXY HAD COLLIDED WITH IT AND AS THE TWO GALAXIES COLLIDED
CLUSTERS OF STARS WERE BEING CREATED. The scientists could not explain
whether that is a usual phenomenon or not, but they are currently
studying this.
A little info about Spritzer(americanscientist.org): The Spritzer Space
Telescope, NASA's newest orbiting eye, used its unique ability to see
through gas and dust to spy evidence of the youngest planet ever
observed, a doozy of a first discovery. Astronomers believe the gaseous
planet Spritzer saw may be less than one million years old, meaning
"star and planet formation is a very active process in our galaxy," said
lead researcher Edward Churchwell of the University of Wisconsin.
Launched in August, Spritzer follows Earth in orbit around the Sun,
lagging some 5.4 million miles behind. Supercold tools allow it to
reveal the faint infrared heat put out by objects otherwise obscured by
bands of dust and gas.
Spritzer peered into two separate regions rich with young stars and
found in both conditions ripe for the formation of young planets. Within
the constellation Taurus, Spritzer studied the one-million-year-old star
CoKu Tau 4 and found a void in the space dust surrounding it. Because of
the sharpness of the hole in the dust, astronomers believe it to have
been swept clear by a young planet. Elsewhere in Taurus, Spritzer found
evidence of icy water, methanol and carbon dioxide coating the particles
of dust in the planet-forming bands surrounding young stars.
I hope this sounds as interesting to you as it WAS to us. We really
enjoyed the fireside and that this couple took the time to fly out here
and share their thoughts and work with us.
He mentioned the book of Abraham and the "worlds without number" and as innumerable as the sands of the sea....
He discussed Elder Maxwell's Nov. 2003 Ensign article:
Elder Maxwell:
The volume of resulting revelations and translations is enormous, underscoring the words “choice seer.” But it isn’t just the sheer volume of what Joseph received which is now being shared with mankind; it is also the existence of “stunners” in the midst of such abundance.
Through multiple revelations and translations, for example, came a description of a universe far, far exceeding the astrophysics of the 1830s, a cosmos containing “worlds without number” and advising us further that the “inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters [of] God” (Moses 1:33; D&C 76:24).
Anciently, the vastness of Abraham’s eventual posterity was compared to the sand of the sea, a staggering promise (see Gen. 22:17). The Restoration’s revelations and translations accommodate a vast universe; thus it is no surprise to us that scientists’ latest estimate of the number of stars in the universe is approximately 70 sextillion—“more stars in the sky,” scientists say, “than there are grains of sand in every beach and desert on Earth” (Allison M. Heinrichs, “The Stellar Census: 70 Sextillion,” Los Angeles Times, 26 July 2003; see also Carl Sagan, Cosmos [1980], 196).
**Brother Wilson concluded that even though the Lord understands and knows all of these things, he knows each of us (teeny tiny us!) by name and is intimately interested in us! What a testimony....
So interesting!!
Love, Wayne
