Wonders of the Solar System

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by sjastro

And high density goggles for the reflections off those glistening white teeth.

Steven

Welder's goggles

[CraigS]

But seriously boyz … whattdya reckon ?

Replace him with Bear Grylls ?? (of 'Man vs Wild' fame ?)

.. or perhaps, he should comit to undergoing public re-imaging … you know .. perhaps he could enlist .. yeah, I know … maybe Warnie .. or maybe Russell Crowe …. Charlie Sheen ?

.. Now there are a few who could set him straight, and help him to lose the pretty boy image !!??



Cheers

[renormalised (Carl)]

Bear Grylls......no, wouldn't work.

[CraigS]

Maybe he could end up looking like this …

Steven … this guy was one of your world-reknown professor types, wasn't he??

I'm not sure of this guy's credentials, but visually, he's a definite improvement !



Cheers

[renormalised (Carl)]

ROFPMSL!!!!

[sjastro]

Originally Posted by CraigS

Maybe he could end up looking like this …

Steven … this guy was one of your world-reknown professor types, wasn't he??

I'm not sure of this guy's credentials, but visually, he's a definitie improvement !



Cheers

What a man. Perhaps the greatest flint knapper in history (he learnt it from Uncle Fred). I imagine he has an army of female admirers/stalkers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Harding_(archaeologist)

Regards

Steven

[CraigS]

He's got the looks - check;
got the hair - check;
got the teeth - check;
got credibility/qualifications - check;
got a lumberjack shirt (none of this orange t-shirt nonsense !) - check;
doesn't say "k"s instead of "g"s;
writes his own material - check;
does his own field experiments - check;
is a man's man - check …

Looks like he's just the perfect man for the job !

Now, we'll be needing a letter of dismissal for Cox .. any volunteers ?
… I think it needs to be brief and to the point … something like …

Dear Brian;

'You're Fired !!'



Cheers

[Suzy]

hmmmmmm
sigh
and lastly

I hope Brian isn't reading this thread. I think we'd scare him off so not a good idea to invite him- you'll would gang up on him and squish him and toss him. And hurt his feelings and make him feel less than credible. Though... I can come to his rescue so it could be my moment to shine and impress him .
Sheez, you guys are meaner than the meanest mean girls.

You guys are funny!
But I seriously don't think we should invite him, he'll take one look at the thread and run a mile.

[Octane (Humayun)]

How many bears can Bear Grylls grill if Bear Grylls grills bears?

"Just found clean water, better drink my own piss."

Craig, I think you should register Professor Brian Cox, and, Brian Cox, and Becox, and, any other variation, and, start prolifically posting wearing your dirty orange shirt and jeans.

H

[shelltree (Shelley)]

LOL. This thread has got completely out of hand...

[CraigS]

Hey Shelley;
I'm wondering whether I should publish my usual review of tonight's episode … or run for cover ..

Cheers

[shelltree (Shelley)]

Originally Posted by CraigS

Hey Shelley;
I'm wondering whether I should publish my usual review of tonight's episode … or run for cover ..

Cheers

Watch out for those swatting women arms coming your way

But in all honesty I enjoy reading your reviews of each episode, they are very in depth and truthful. They make me even more excited about watching more of this program (I still don't have a copy and I don't have a tv or want to use one so I just have to wait to get the whole series )

Look forward to seeing what you think of tonight's episode!

[Suzy]

Publish your usual review!
I can take it

[Liz]

Another great episode - lots of info some planets and Moons, esp Mars and Titan, and similarities to Earth. Very interesting.

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

And there was not a red shirt to be seen maybe he is reading our thread

[CraigS]

Ok . This episode is all about atmospheres.

Overall, I’m noticing that the producers seem to be torn between selling Cox’s style, and conveying basic information. It may be my imagination, but there seems to be a whole lot more “soppy” background music to support Cox’s presentation style. His commentary almost lapses into poetry at times, which I personally find hard to listen to.

I also think that they’ve actually disputed their opening points in their latter commentary. Eg: the opening scenes emphasise the fragility of our ‘Thin Blue Line’ of atmosphere ... then about half way through, Cox is emphasising the ‘sculpting power of weather’, as a ‘huge mass of air moves across the surface’. Almost a contradiction of concepts. Its clear to me they are trying to convey the concept of diversity of environments, but this is not reinforced as a main theme of this episode.

They raise as supporting evidence that Mars once had a thick atmosphere, by citing a photograph of a Nickel-Iron meteorite found on Mars in Aug 2009. The point being that the meteorite, (if that what it is), could only have remained intact if there was a thick atmosphere to slow it down for landing. I must admit, this is the first time I’ve heard about this. This point raises an interesting question (for me) ... is this the only conclusion possible after reviewing all the evidence ? Can a meteorite fall into a body having the gravity and thin atmosphere of Mars and remain intact ? “Why not ?” is the question I’m left with …

They move onto Titan. Cox talks about ‘lakes of liquid methane’. He refers to Kraken Mare as being composed of liquid. To the best of my research, Kraken Mare is a northern polar sea, identified thus far, as being composed of “hydrocarbons” (imaged by radar).

In June 2008, the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer on Cassini, confirmed the presence of liquid ethane beyond doubt, in Ontario Lacus, a southern polar lake. The latest paper I could find here says:

The chemical composition of the lakes of Titan is still not well determined. Good quality spectral data of the Ontario Lacus have been obtained by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) aboard Cassini but the only species that seems firmly identified is C2H6 [Ethane] (Brown et al. 2008); the atmosphere contains so much CH4 [methane] that it is very difficult to detect the surface liquid phase of this molecule even if it is dominant in the lakes.

The same paper develops a model which results in a predominance of liquid Ethane by an order of magnitude over liquid Methane.

My point here is that Cox et al, go to great lengths to emphasise that Titan’s lakes are composed of liquid methane and this seems to not be definitive at all, and the evidence thus far, points to it being composed of predominately, liquid ethane.

This may seem to be a minor point, but I would have expected better research and more accuracy in major statements made in this episode. My point is that they seem to be more interested in selling Cox’s presentation style, than presenting accurate information and consistent themes.

My 2 cents worth … and all comments welcome.

Cheers

[Outbackmanyep]

Originally Posted by CraigS

They raise as supporting evidence that Mars once had a thick atmosphere, by citing a photograph of a Nickel-Iron meteorite found on Mars in Aug 2009. The point being that the meteorite, (if that what it is), could only have remained intact if there was a thick atmosphere to slow it down for landing. I must admit, this is the first time I’ve heard about this. This point raises an interesting question (for me) ... is this the only conclusion possible after reviewing all the evidence ? Can a meteorite fall into a body having the gravity and thin atmosphere of Mars and remain intact ? “Why not ?” is the question I’m left with …

I nearly backflipped when he said that, my first thought was "what about shallow angle impacts??" IE: HOBA?
It was a little misleading i thought!

PS.......Kraken Mare (is it pronounced Crack-en mayor or the poofy sounding mah-ray?)

[avandonk]

It is only a TV show folks. He is trying to put up the idea that physics and chemistry are the same everywhere and to explain the complexity what we see in simple terms.

The atmosphere is huge compared to us puny life forms. As a shield against the vacuum of infinite space and the Suns relentless particle onslaught it is fragile indeed.

As an amateur anthropologist I see evolution at work here. The girls all go for his boyish looks and obvious intelligence and the boys who are in direct competition with him will put him down to elevate their chances at procreation. We humans do this unconsciously! I am not jealous of him at all!

I have to think about the existence of the meteorite and an early thick atmosphere. I am sure it is more complex than what we think. With such a thin atmosphere and a shallow angle could lead to the asteroid having enough velocity for gravitational escape.

Bert

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by CraigS

They raise as supporting evidence that Mars once had a thick atmosphere, by citing a photograph of a Nickel-Iron meteorite found on Mars in Aug 2009. The point being that the meteorite, (if that what it is), could only have remained intact if there was a thick atmosphere to slow it down for landing. I must admit, this is the first time I’ve heard about this. This point raises an interesting question (for me) ... is this the only conclusion possible after reviewing all the evidence ? Can a meteorite fall into a body having the gravity and thin atmosphere of Mars and remain intact ? “Why not ?” is the question I’m left with …


Cheers

Why not....for exactly same reason as was stated. Objects entering the Earth's atmosphere, so long as they're not too large, are slowed down to terminal velocity by our planet's atmosphere and so medium sized pieces, like Hoba, can remain pretty much intact when they hit the ground (of course, depending on their composition and internal structure). If Mars' atmosphere had always been as thin as it is, most objects would shatter on impact because they wouldn't slow down far enough to appreciably depreciate their entry velocity. So, if they were moving at a few kms relative to the planet, they would hit with most of that velocity. Only something rather small would slow down enough to remain intact...small rock/pebble sized or smaller.

[CraigS]

Originally Posted by Outbackmanyep

I nearly backflipped when he said that, my first thought was "what about shallow angle impacts??" IE: HOBA?
It was a little misleading i thought!

Yeah Chris;

In isolation, its entirely possible that Mars once did have a thick atmosphere. Its also entirely possible it didn't, either. My point in raising the segment on the intact meteorite fragment, is only to point out that it is not immediately obvious from this alone, that the planet once had more of an atmosphere. I'd have to work out what the minimum impact velocity, energy etc, it would have to have, in order to accept it as evidence. I'm not saying its not evidence, either. If its not intuitive, then I'd expect more information to support the inference. There are heaps of variables in this (eg: Mars' gravity is one third of Earth's, etc, etc .. which raises an immediate questions, for me).

So why make a point of it if you're not going to explain further ?

Venus has a very weak planetary magnetic field (and is not due to the iron core dynamo effect), but has heaps of atmosphere. Its closer to the Sun, so why hasn't it been stripped of its atmosphere ? (If the magnetic field is the only reason ?)

Venus has no plate tectonics, and they think this is a possible reason for it not losing its internal heat, and is the basis of a current a hypothesis for its lack of a dynamo type magnetic field. The atmosphere is extremely dense, and thus has more mass per unit volume. Gravity plays a role in keeping it there.

None of these points were raised in the doco.

Frankly, I think content-wise, this episode could have been presented better.

Cheers