John Connell
Semi-retired physician (child psychiatry). BS Biochem '77 (SUNY@Buffalo). Masters Biochem w/o thesis '79 and MD '82 (UNC@Chapel Hill).
Location Georgia, USA
Activity
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John Connell made a comment
Psychiatrist specializing in adult and adolescent psychiatry with an ever aging population.
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John Connell made a comment
Excellent course. Enjoyed it immensely. Learn more each year. See y'all on Facebook.
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John Connell replied to John Connell
@InekeFioole Enjoy the rest of the course. My time is done. Be back next year.
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John Connell made a comment
A little off topic but saw this about UAE's Mard orbiter and high resolution images of Deimos. Also observation that it does not appear to these scientists that this is a captured asteroid.
https://phys.org/news/2023-04-uae-spacecraft-close-up-photos-mars.html -
John Connell replied to Nira Ramachandran
@GeoffBurt 30, nice site. But I may have been a little high on the intelligent species (included this planet).
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John Connell replied to John Lateano
@JohnLateano Great questions,
Ignoring the math (or not if you are so inclined) this article discusses your second question well and to some extentthe first.
https://geoinfo.nmt.edu/labs/argon/methods/home.html
Argon is the third most common gas in the atmosphere (0.94%).
K40 decays to Ar40. Argon also has an isotope Ar36 which is stable. There is a... -
John Connell replied to Nira Ramachandran
@NiraRamachandran @GeoffBurt @AllanHaines The Drake Equation and the Fermi Paradox are interesting frameworks to think of extraterrestrial life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox -
John Connell made a comment
The continued international cooperation in space is ideally one that I hope will continue. Pardon my pessimism looking at our international cooperation on this planet. Corporate factions included. There are a lot of Sci Fi stories and novels that play out this point.
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@NiraRamachandran @AllanHaines See my post on the previous section for some discussion as to the origin of the findings.
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@JohnLateano
You can see NASA discuss this briefly here:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/where-s-the-water-two-resource-hunting-tools-for-the-moon-s-surface
For some controversy:
Ian A. Crawford, ... Mahesh Anand, in Encyclopedia of the Solar System (Third Edition), 2014
The neutron spectrometer provided independent evidence for ice at the lunar poles.... -
@SwatNandanwar There appears to be substantial water in regolith glass beads. The question is how to extract it in a useful manner.
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John Connell made a comment
The discovery of water on the Moon is exciting and the even more recent findings of water in glass beads in the Lunar regolith leads to the inevitable quandary of how to make this resource accessible. We will also need to improve the efficiency of propulsion systems. Electric and nuclear-powered flight (as well as solar) still requires a propellant to be...
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@InekeFioole What I mean by stable is that the element does not alter its number of neutrons and protons (and hence electrons) over time. K39 and k41 are stable. Simply put, the nuclear forces holding the nucleus together are such that the energy required to overcome the nuclear forces holding the nucleus in place is too high to overcome the forces required...
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@InekeFioole And one more thing, Argon-40 is the most abundant and stable form of Argon. This makes concern about decay of the product of K-40 decay not another issue in determining rock age. Argon, being a noble gas, should be pretty much absent in new rock.
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@InekeFioole Now first there are multiple types of radioactive decay. This particular example is called electron capture. The electron that is captured is one of the atom's own electrons, and not a new, incoming electron. Recall that there are an equal number of protons and electrons in an atom to allow the atom to be neutrally charged and therefore...
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John Connell made a comment
The Deccan Traps are the terrestrial source that is compared to Moon basalt. Answers a question I asked a few sessions ago, are the LIP's (large igneous provinces) of Earth similar to and used comparatively to assess Lunar samples.
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John Connell replied to Allan Haines
@AllanHaines Moi aussi. I have been a NASA addict for many years and am so excited that the ESA has made such phenomenal progress with tremendous vision. I concur with all you have said regarding the course as well.
I have been shuffling between the Virtual microscope and a pop up window of the launch. The launch was satisfying but as you pointed out the... -
John Connell replied to Allan Haines
@AllanHaines JUICE is on its way.
(Scroll down for video).
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Juice -
John Connell made a comment
JUICE in flight! (Scroll down for video).
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Juice -
@SwatNandanwar Tom Lehrer (a bit old) on the elements-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcS3NOQnsQM&t=15s
And Daniel Radcliffe spontaneously singing this on The Graham Norton Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSAaiYKF0cs -
@SwatNandanwar Here is the link to the GC basalt
http://www.virtualmicroscope.org/content/basalt-giants-causeway -
John Connell replied to Allan Haines
@AllanHaines It's actually a cracked, split boulder. This would seem to point to an ejected rock I would think. Good question.
See the NASA caption-
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/images.html -
John Connell replied to Morag Lanzendorf
@NiraRamachandran @InekeFioole
Nice article on how "natural glasses" are created.
Then there is this regarding lunar glass and hypothetical volcanic and impact glasses.
https://phys.org/news/2022-02-chinese-rover-translucent-glass-globules.html -
It was easier (relative term) when I looked at it longer and internalized the fact that the mare and highland were both represented. It gave a better awareness of what I was looking at.
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John Connell made a comment
Wrinkle ridges remind me of the surface architecture of Europa and Enceladus.
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John Connell replied to John Lateano
@SwatNandanwar Visited the Giants Causeway on one tripp to Ireland. It is amazing and surreal. In the US e have the Devils Tower in Wyoming. They have discovered a similar structure on Mars, Marte Vallis, which I hope one day will be better...
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John Connell made a comment
When reading about mare formation I am drawn to a potential Earth equivalent, the Siberian Traps associated with one of the major extinction events. I wonder if studying these areas (Large Igneous Provinces) has comparative insights into the lunar maria.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_Traps -
@GilbertDavis Micrometeorites are real dangers to space flight and missions. Take the James Webb telescope as an example.
https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-micrometeoroid-damage
In Earth orbit it seems that the plethora of space junk and debris is also a major... -
@InekeFioole I wonder how long that song is going to reverberate in my head now? At least I like Bowie. That song, by the way, was released in July 1969 prior to Apollo 13's flight. It was taken off the air by all my local radio stations during the Apollo 13 fiasco (which lifted off 53 years ago this week (April 11-17, 1970)).
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@PennyBateman Photo is by Jordi Coy (Spain). It was a finalist in the 2023 Sony World Photography Awards in the landscape photography category. It is breathtaking. Thank you.
Here is a link to the competition that photograph where that photograph was entered.... -
John Connell made a comment
Interesting overview of the above on a NASA page. The last paragraph on seismic activity on the Moon was thought provoking. Discussed tidal influences of the Earth as a possible mechanism for some seismic activity.
https://moon.nasa.gov/inside-and-out/what-is-inside-the-moon/ -
@JulianLivsey And the answer is? (Personally, I don't see that there should be much of a difference other than possibly a slight effect of the Earth shielding the Moon during a small portion of its orbit).
I came across this proposal for the differing lunar landscapes on the near and far sides. I think it's a fascinating hypothesis. The second article is... -
@AllanHaines posted some information from the Chang'e 5 mission above. As you say, hopefully the nations of the world will share samples and data.
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John Connell made a comment
A little information on Chang'e 5 which returned samples from a volcanic and possibly young (1.2 billion years old) area of the Moon (2020). There is a nice image of the Moon's surface with the area sampled by Chang'e 5 and the Apollo missions highlighted.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-55323176
and much more detailed, including the discovery... -
@InekeFioole That link is blocked in my country. This worked for me. Nice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COg0HHjb5p4&t=55s -
@InekeFioole One of my favourite James Bond flicks is Casino Royale (1967) with David Niven as James Bond and featuring Peter Sellers. Was a comedy knock off. Great cast.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061452/ -
John Connell replied to Brenda Hull
@BrendaHull Because technology improves over time.
"NASA also made the decision to keep some samples completely untouched as an investment in the future, allowing them to be analyzed with more advanced technologies as they are developed. These include samples that remained sealed in their original containers, as well as some stored under special conditions,... -
John Connell made a comment
It still amazes me that there are still those who feel the Moon landing was a hoax. Guardian article on deniers that I found interesting:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/10/one-giant-lie-why-so-many-people-still-think-the-moon-landings-were-faked -
John Connell replied to Ineke Fioole
@InekeFioole I wouldn't call it cooperation. It was competition. Some information was shared to prevent a possible collision, but the Soviet attempt was to get rocks back to Earth before the US. I had just moved from Canada a few years before Apollo and personally felt a great deal of empathy for the Soviet failure. I am fairly sure that I was in the...
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John Connell replied to Ineke Fioole
@InekeFioole Living in the US it was impossible to not follow all 7 missions from 11-17 (that included the ill-fated 13th). It was even more essential as we learned in 1970 or 1971 that Apollo 18, 19, and 20 were canceled. You were not alone in your lack of awareness. When I started college in '73 one of my best friends was from Pakistan and she had no I...
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John Connell replied to Allan Haines
@InekeFioole I'm on the slow path. Won't lose access until May. But I can only access on week per week. Just about finished Week 4 now.
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@ChristineThompson calculating the cost of the Apollo programme in 1972 dollars moon rock is approximately $68,500 dollars per gram. In today's dollars that is $540,300 per gram (£433,482.69/gram). Gold is currently £52.09 per gram.
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John Connell made a comment
Trading moon rocks for cameras. Decisions on weight management in the Apollo missions. Great little article on the problems of lunar photography in the time of Apollo. Will be a much different process as we are now in the digital age.
https://www.npr.org/2019/07/13/735314929/the-camera-that-went-to-the-moon-and-changed-how-we-see-it -
John Connell made a comment
Listening to David Scott speak and pondering the role of robotics and AI with regards to exploration of space, one wonders what role AI will play in future planetary exploration. There are intriguing and also frightening aspects of AI involvement. Politics aside, AI may be the future of missions to the planets, other moons and space itself.
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@TanjaEllenSleeuwenhoek They just announced the crew for Artemis II
https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis-ii/ -
John Connell made a comment
At 4:18 PM EDT on July 20,1969 I heard, and recall like it was yesterday, the words, "The Eagle has landed". And the sigh of relief and the amazement of that achievement. Funny that I recall the Moon was a waxing crescent that, at 13 years of age, stood outside staring at and trying to picture it as now an inhabited space.
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John Connell replied to John Lateano
@NiraRamachandran Of course. I still wonder what future explorers will think of the golf balls Alan Shepard left on the moon.
https://astronomy.com/news/2021/02/alan-shepard-smacked-golf-balls-on-the-moon--and-now-we-know-where-they-landed -
John Connell replied to Geoff Burt
@InekeFioole There was the ISS leak that might have been a micrometeoroid. Then there was the James Webb Telescope strike.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61744257 -
John Connell replied to John Lateano
I actually like the footprints. In several million years some alien archeologist is going to have a heyday trying to figure oat this whole scenario.
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John Connell made a comment
This is a Nature article published today overviewing the problems and the NASA manual for space exploration by humans. Long but readable with good illustrations.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41526-023-00275-2 -
John Connell replied to John Lateano
@JohnLateano I would equate fresh with unweathered.
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John Connell replied to Sue S
@JulianLivsey NASA's new Phase and Libration page.
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5048 -
John Connell made a comment
Updated Phase and Libration pages 2023 from NASA.
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5048
or
https://moon.nasa.gov/resources/519/moon-phase-and-libration-2023/ -
John Connell made a comment
NASA just announced the members of the first crewed mission to the Moon in 2024.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-names-astronauts-to-next-moon-mission-first-crew-under-artemis -
In retrospect, it is sad that Apollo 18. 19 and 20 were cancelled due to NASA budget cuts.
Landing sites of 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17-
https://moon.nasa.gov/resources/52/apollo-landing-sites/ -
John Connell replied to Ineke Fioole
@InekeFioole I pasted most of it in the links above
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John Connell replied to Allan Haines
@InekeFioole
Law of attraction
Right now, we don’t know why Mercury has a magnetic field while Mars and Venus don’t, Kramer says. Since the moon’s magnetic field may have been caused by its interaction with Earth, this sort of attraction between neighboring bodies may be important for maintaining a global magnetic field.“Mars doesn’t have a nearby body...
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John Connell replied to Allan Haines
@InekeFioole
That original stronger magnetic field would have died off by 3 billion years ago as the moon drifted farther from Earth. At that point, a different mechanism must have created the moon’s new, weaker field, which stuck around for another billion years or more.The researchers say that this field may have been sustained by the churning of the...
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John Connell replied to Allan Haines
@InekeFioole Article copy and pasted (relevant parts)
Two periods of magnetism
Previous studies of moon rocks that formed 4 billion years ago showed that at that time the moon had a magnetic field with a strength of about 100 microtesla – even stronger than Earth’s current magnetic field. Around 3 billion years ago, that magnetic field died off.Some...
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John Connell made a comment
One of the true ethical concerns is availability and the prioritization of services for those most in need. When I was in graduate school I was part of the team that was developing methodologies to screen neonatal inborn errors of metabolism (PKU for example). Now that we have genomic methods to test for multiple metabolic errors the process has become more...
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John Connell replied to Allan Haines
@AllanHaines Quoting from a Space.com article:
https://www.space.com/minimoon-2020-cd3-discovery-around-earth-explained.html"2020 CD3 has a "chaotic" orbit ... because it is pulled between the gravity of the moon and the gravity of Earth. Its distance to Earth varies between the equivalent of 0.2 and 4.5 Earth-moon distances."
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John Connell replied to Geoff Burt
@GeoffBurt Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson's description is fascinating. I would suggest that prior to John Herschel's discovery there was the camera obscura that was used by Arabic scientists in the 12th century and European scientists in the 14th onward to look at the Moon and Sun. Their images were inverted drawings, but there was some accuracy to their work,
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@InekeFioole Week 4 just opened up for me at 18:15 EDT in the US. I I'll be up for a bit longer than usual I would imagine. My nocturnal days of youth have passed me by. :}
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John Connell made a comment
I think I posted this earlier but one of the earliest (if not the earliest) sci-fi films was by Georges Méliès (who was a brilliant film maker) called A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune) made in 1902.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNAHcMMOHE8
Was supposed to be posted on the next lesson thread. -
John Connell made a comment
Losing Pluto made the now somewhat ages and archaic pneumonic I was taught in school very different-
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas is now My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine (planet as yet to be found). -
John Connell replied to Mark Jackson
@InekeFioole Very happy to have helped the computer get the order correct!
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John Connell made a comment
I imagine that this is not unique, but I found it interesting that Herschel has craters named for him on the Moon, Mars and Mimas. Also, there is an asteroid and one of the gaps in Saturn's rings bearing his name.
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John Connell made a comment
Always thought of hydrothermal vents as very deep sea phenomena, apparently that is not always the case. If you could find a small thermal hotspot on Europa that might be the place to drill to find evidence of life.
https://phys.org/news/2014-06-hydrothermal-vents-chemical-precursors-life.html -
John Connell made a comment
The process of selecting the experiments that are included on any mission to another planetary body must be fascinating. It would seem that the detection of life starts with identifying compounds that are associated with life processes.
After going down many rabbit holes a question for the mentors (or anyone)- are we at the point where we are able to... -
John Connell made a comment
Lake Vostok is thought to be 15 million years old. I needed to clarify for myself that this is a model for the potential of life to exist in a hyperbaric environment without photosynthesis as a source of energy. Certainly, that would add to the potential for prospective life on icy moons.
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John Connell replied to Allan Haines
@AllanHaines One question arises, was Lake Vostok previously seeded with life before its formation?
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John Connell made a comment
NASA is set (Oct 2024) to launch the Europa Clipper which will enter the Jovian system in 2030. Specific target is Europa.
https://europa.nasa.gov/
https://europa.nasa.gov/spacecraft/meet-europa-clipper/ -
John Connell replied to Robert Mawson
@MarkJackson @TanjaEllenSleeuwenhoek @InekeFioole And let us not forget the Europa Clipper that is set to launch in 2024 and get to the Jovian system in 2030 to explore Europa.
https://europa.nasa.gov/ -
John Connell made a comment
This brings to mind the Snowball Earth hypothesis and the arguments surrounding life's ability to continue through a global glaciation. Is Europa (or possibly Enceladus) a model for a Snowball Earth? And has Europa always been in the ice ball form it is now? What was the surface like 2-3 billion years ago?
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John Connell made a comment
When I lived in a very rural area of Georgia, USA several years ago you could see the moons of Jupiter with binoculars and of course with a telescope. Light pollution here in the Atlanta area makes it very difficult.
Light pollution has certainly become a major issue with "home" astronomy. You really have to travel a good distance to get a decent view of... -
John Connell made a comment
"Europa may be the only Solar System body other than Earth to exhibit a system of plate tectonics".
https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo2245
Nicely summarized in this... -
@NiraRamachandran He's been in the Marvel universe. He is the bookies favourite for the role.
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@SwatNandanwar Aaron Taylor-Johnson is expected to be announced as the next James Bond next month.
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@SwatNandanwar Allons-y!
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@InekeFioole Think of Pandora as orbiting near the F ring and gathering the flock of material to create a clear path.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepherd_moon
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/14073/the-shepherd-and-saturn/ -
@SwatNandanwar The nest Doctor will be David Tennant (who was the Tenth Doctor). He will return for the 60th anniversary specials. The 15th Doctor to follow Tennant will be Ncuti Gatwa. All this is to occur in November to December 2023.
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John Connell made a comment
There must be something to Europa. ESA's JUICE is soon to launch and NASA has a separate mission, Europa Clipper, set to launch in 2024 and arrive in Jupiter's orbit in 2030..
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/are-water-plumes-spraying-from-europa-nasas-europa-clipper-is-on-the-case -
John Connell replied to Ineke Fioole
@InekeFioole And they are out there now-
https://www.livescience.com/moon-tardigrades-future.html -
John Connell replied to Allan Haines
@AllanHaines You might look at these sights to assess how to purchase a telescope and the various kinds.
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-equipment/choosing-astronomy-equipment/telescopes/
https://americaneclipseusa.com/guides/types-of-telescopes/
I have a reflector and one day will get a refractor (astrophotography is in my future.... hopefully). -
John Connell replied to Allan Haines
@AllanHaines I believe it was 20x. His first telescopes were beteen 3 and 8x.
https://oakhillfirst.com/what-was-the-magnifying-power-of-galileo-first-telescope/ -
John Connell made a comment
Water on the moon... Regolith to fuel and habitation-
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/mar/27/glass-beads-on-moon-surface-hold-billions-of-tonnes-of-water-scientists-say -
John Connell made a comment
Juno is closing in on Io. Dec. 2023 and Jan 2024 images should be breathtaking.
https://www.planetary.org/articles/juno-io-flybys -
John Connell replied to Morag Lanzendorf
@MoragLanzendorf Very nice.
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John Connell replied to Nira Ramachandran
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@AllanHaines Dirk Schulze-Makuch and Louis N. Irwin textbook-
"Life in the Universe" is worth a peak.
If you look at section 11.2.6 Titan is discussed.
http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/72075/1/183.pdf -
@InekeFioole A great deal of the momentum to go to the Moon and establish a base there is to facilitate many of the problems of space travel. I like the lunar base lab idea myself.
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John Connell replied to Ineke Fioole
@InekeFioole Energy is never really lost, it is distributed. The object impacting the surface of a moon (for example) imparts its kinetic energy onto the surface and the forces of impact cause deformation of the surface and heat. Photons (light) are emitted. These photons are part of the total energy of the system and head out into space where they continue...
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@InekeFioole Couple of references. There are multiple ice phases associated with the molecular structure of the arraignment of water molecules under variable temperature and pressure environments.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice
https://ergodic.ugr.es/termo/lecciones/water1.html -
@InekeFioole Surface gravity is simply the gravitational force that you experience standing on the surface of a planet. It follows Newton's Law of Gravity. I suppose you could say that it is the attraction between two objects, you and the planet you're on. Surface gravity will be different on planets with different mass.
Regarding Earth, the farther you... -
John Connell replied to Brenda Hull
@InekeFioole No atmosphere on the Moon, hence the object impacting heats, breaks up and partially melts. There are larger impact areas on the planet. The Chicxulub crater that is associated with the dinosaur's demise is a good example of large impact craters.
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John Connell made a comment
I lived near, and visited several times, the Valles Caldera in New Mexico. It is a 22 km wide caldera that formed between 1.7 and 1.2 million years ago. Basically, a 22 km wide sink hole. A few lava domes are within the caldera from further volcanic activity. Of course, with weathering and plant growth it appears like a large ring of mountains surrounding...
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John Connell replied to Geoff Burt
@GeoffBurt Excellent piece. A humble and wise for the times polymath. Good to see recognition 400 years later.
You should cite your work with a link like below. Love the drawings.
https://hantsastro.org.uk/resources/moonecatalogue/index.php -
John Connell made a comment
If your interested in a PDF of Galileo's manuscript it is attached.
http://ekladata.com/5onuozyw3HrLazSyCaF_aohQNlA/Siderius-Nuncius-Eng.pdf
or if you have access to the Internet archives (easy to set up a free account) you can borrow a copy of the translated test online.
https://archive.org/details/sidereusnunciuso0000gali/page/n11/mode/2up -
John Connell replied to Sue S
@InekeFioole
"True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us."
Socrates -
John Connell made a comment
Good information. I had thought, pictured internally anyway, that spherical shape was associated with accretion as a moon's shape origin. Good information.
