saganappreciationsociety.org

Like the Public Service Announcements used to say: "Space research, this is what's in it for you."

It turns out that Mars and Venus, as different as they might seem to be, often have a lot in common. Both have brutally harsh environments, and both are similarly affected by solar storms in ways that would make life on Earth very difficult, if not impossible. As this article suggests, Earth is a haven for life because unlike Mars and Venus, Earth has a strong global magnetic field protecting it from solar storms. Coincidentally, the article was written by Clara Moskowitz.

As it happens, getting a sunburn sucks for planets too. Especially when it means the siphoning off of your atmopshere at a rate 10X what you otherwise would.

Now that they have some idea of the rate of loss of their atmospheres, scientists can try to figure out what went wrong there in the past. Why did Mars turn so nasty when it seemingly once had liquid water? Science Daily has the article and the graphic.

Larry Klaes was kind enough to let us know about a Space.com article (by Clara Moskowitz) with an interview of Ann Druyan on the death of Arthur C. Clarke. The excerpt from Ann:

"Arthur was not only a major figure in the first baby steps in humans' exploration of space, but a major figure in the building up of our planet as an interconnected organism," said writer Ann Druyan, widow of science popularizer Carl Sagan. "He was someone really significant."

Druyan said she met Clarke many times over the decades that he and Sagan were friends, as well as after Sagan's death.

"He was not only a great technical mind, but of course he had a powerful imagination, which influenced every one of us," Druyan said. "If we use anything based on a communications satellite then we definitely owe Arthur a huge debt. In my mind, '2001' remains the greatest sci-fi movie ever made. In many ways today it seems more futuristic than movies made 30 years later."

Many people have wondered how Clarke was able to predict so many elements of the future before they unfolded in reality.

"I think it was partially because his mother was a radio telephone operator," Druyan said. "So here he is as a young person growing up in the early part of the 20th century, at a moment where electronic communication was in its fledgling earliest stages, and he is a guy who has an exceptional imagination. So it was the perfect recipe for a child with Arthur's talents to go in that direction. The modesty of his background is yet another reason why it's so important to educate everybody, because you never know where the next Arthur C. Clarke or Carl Sagan could be."

Druyan said her friend will be remembered long after his death.

"Arthur had a great life," she said. "I don't really feel sadness because I think he had a full measure of life and he used it to the utmost. We are better for [his life]."

Photo and Wired article by Jeff Greenwald.

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