Comments on The Iapetus Beat: Links on Extinctions and Enceladus

I've familiar with the electric arc internet t...

2011-02-23T22:06:43.814-06:00

I've familiar with the electric arc internet talk. I appreciate your interest and welcome your comments, but I your alternate proposal is unconvincing. We have lots of reasons to think it should vent, we see the vents, we can successfully model why they happen, and we've analyzed the particulates that spew out. Why invoke another whole paradigm? Especially one at odds with so much of what we know?

Sometimes ideas totally outside the current paradigm turn out to be true, but I don't see much traction with yours.

cheers,
CM

The image is spectacular, but is clear that these ...

2011-02-21T15:58:10.409-06:00

The image is spectacular, but is clear that these are not volcanic vents or plumes as previously discussed. These are in fact electrical arcs in nature and more closely related to the Earth's Aurora than volcanic activity. You can see the current sheet clearly as is separates and intertwines into the classical twisted tornadic Birkeland current filaments that are so prevalent in space as measured directly by the NOAA THEMIS probe and others.

Cassini has been and should continue to be a very ...

2009-11-25T11:30:52.163-06:00

Cassini has been and should continue to be a very successful mission.

I don't know of any planned robotic craft heading out to Uranus or Neptune. New Horizons will miss them on its trip to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. I think we'll have to rely on Voyager 2 data and ground- and Earth orbit-based instruments for a while.

The photos from Cassini have been breathtaking. C...

2009-11-24T16:10:03.942-06:00

The photos from Cassini have been breathtaking. Combined with the Galileo mission we've got enough data to keep folks like you busy for a long time.

Any hope for a similar mission to Uranus or Neptune in our lifetime?