This wonderful image is not new — it was returned from Cassini-Huygens back in 2005 when that brilliant over-achiever of a mission was in orbit around Saturn. It shows the honeycomb-like structure of Hyperion, one of Saturn's 62 moons and Titan's nearest neighbor. Since Bob Zimmerman referenced it in his blog today, I was reminded of the lesson to be learned.
One of the many remarkable facts about Hyperion is its extremely low density—a mere 0.57 gram cm-3 (water has a density of 1, ice is 0.92. Most rock is in the 2.2-2.9 range.) Scientists have interpreted that as meaning that Hyperion's porosity exceeds 40% even assuming it's mostly ice.[1] For comparison, the density of our own Moon is 3.35 gram cm-3.
Now, remember back in April 2010, when Richard Hoagland was dancing from foot to foot yelling that Phobos is an artificial spaceship? The density of Phobos is 1.876 gram cm-3 and porosity about 30%. One of Hoagland's primary arguments was YOU CAN'T MAKE A NATURAL OBJECT THAT'S 30% HOLLOW.
If I was any kind of artist I'd make a little animation of a Hoagland figure doing a Homer Simpson style D'oh!!
[1] Hyperion's sponge-like appearance (Thomas et al., Nature 2007)
11 comments:
Expat, come on now. You know very well that Hyperion is also a space craft. NASA has been taking pictures of these things for years, letting us know, little by little (or drip, drip, drip if you will) about what is really out there. Nice try with the disinformation campaign. :)
Perhaps we need an animation of me going "D'oh!!"
A bit off topic, ut have you got your ticket for the cruise yet? Robin just started hawking it on the private FB page. She claims that Hoagie is busy working on his presentation for that, which is why he isn't on much. Loosely translated; "Richard has no time for nonpaying customers". :)
If Robin's pushing it at this late stage I'd guess that means sales are below expectations. Wonder if the "world’s greatest spiritual teachers, authors, visionaries, and experts" are on fixed fee or a cut of the take?
Good question. Robin mentioned it again (in the guise of a post talking about really cool night vision goggles they are using to star gaze on the trip), so the pressure to get passengers on this ship of fools seems to be mounting. I suspect we'll be getting a lot of those "hints" as the departure time draws near.
You may be right about the cruise not going well. They (Robin and Richard) were particularly active in removing discouraging posts in the latest cruise thread. They were down right pathological about it. Anything that suggested this might be a commercial endeavor, and not just a bunch of really cool friends getting together, was sent down the memory hole. So yeah, this trip might not be the success that the promoters hoped.
Chris: If there's anything on the FB page in the way of Hoagland defending the crooz, please re-post here.
No problem Expat. There isn't anything defending per say, at least not yet. Robin (the only person really talking even on the private page (though Richard did stop by to tell someone named Patricia Howard to "go away" yesterday) just seems to be saying "it will be fun". Any negative questions about the cruise are just ignored until they get deleted.
Expat, FYI, I've apparently been kicked out of the walled garden known as Hoagland's private FB page, so it is unlikely I'll see a defense of the cruise.
Well Chris, it's pretty amazing you were allowed in at all.
Yeah it was. On the other hand, it must kind of suck to have to cut yourself off from most of your fan base just because you're afraid to answer questions. That really does limit who you are talking to and leaves no room for new converts. Since this is the second time around for Hoagland, it is becoming a pattern.
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