The Discovery Channel is fantastic. Don't get me wrong about that. It's an island of good and righteous programming listing in a sea of filth and VH1. I don't have a television, so I don't tune in much, but from what I gather lying around at my parent's house and other tour stops where flatscreens are living room centerpieces, Discovery is becoming more a reality show network. Good reality shows, I guess. Science-based maybe. But where have the specials gone? Nova? UFO's? Cosmology? I lament their passing, but even those resources were fundamentally flawed in their approach to science.
Recently, I looked up a dated video on super-massive black holes. Two of my astronomy professors were featured, so naturally I was interested. It's like a little piece of me was on screen with them. These men and women are the great minds forging ahead here on Earth, thirsty for knowledge, the best in their field. I had conversations with these people!
Anyway, to give a back story on our friend the supper-massive black hole. Up to 20 years ago, Black holes only existed in the mathematics of leading theoretical physicists like Steven Hawking and others. Recently, through spectral analysis of neighboring galaxies and the discovery of quasars and neutron stars, the existence of the Black Hole has been verified through direct observation. But supper-massive black holes and their relation to galaxy formation was still a contested theory.
In this Discovery program, they document the labors of a group of physicists, the Nuker team. Kerl Gebhardt and John Kormendy, two of my professors at the University of Texas, were a part of this effort. They were basically trying to validate the theory of supper-massive black holes- objects of ridiculously high density, up to tens of billions solar masses. Big fucking "monsters".
That's where I got pissed. For some reason, the media is still playing on this ludicrous stigma that black holes are some kind of demonic force hell bent on swallowing the universe, and most of all, our own precious asses here on Earth. The music throughout, ominous. At one point, the narrator describes the possibility of black hole at the center of our own galaxy as "disturbing".
WHAT THE FUCK! Please, will you media numb nuts stop attempting anthropomorphize this. The black hole, the singularity, are objects so astounding, beautiful, and baffling; to try and dress up this phenomena of the physical world in a Darth Vader costume only makes everyone watching a little bit more out of touch with the real world.
Can the folks behind the tube not find physics interesting enough (after all, they are tuned into the DISCOVERY channel) to continue watching, without an apocalyptic back story?
Now, when I write on this I try not to fall into the rant thing. I'm certainly not Maddox. That's not my style. But this needs to stop. Even at my favorite site, space.com, the shit persists. Every press release about black holes pushes the same bullshit.
I also wanted to address some particular circumstances regarding our landing on this planet. I was recently ridiculed. This interviewer asks, well why did you crash? How hard is it to land when you can make a trip of roughly 427 million light years in six years, while still aging? Well, what most don't realize is that the space around Earth, where satellites orbit and where the international space station heaves its final gasps, is a fucking dirty crowded shit hole. Just like we have filled our planet up with trash, we have littered space with fragments of space shuttles, dead satellites, lost tools and general debris. Space agencies like Nasa have specific groups to chart these objects. They make sure satellites and astronauts don't get pelted with stuff. We were not so lucky. When we began our descent we were hit by two objects. The first, I swear on my grave, was a damned lug nut. Probably 5-6 centimeters wide. It ripped through the engine compartments and damaged a crucial component, our directional thrusters. Unlike our main engine (similar to an ion thruster, look it up) these high powered thrusters running on a fossil fuel were designed to stabilize the craft once we entered the atmosphere.
So maybe we did smack into the hill country of Texas and tear down a few native trees. Maybe we did run over a feral hog. It's regrettable. It simply wasn't our fault. And it's a testament to Travis's ability to handle adversity with a clear head.
If anyone has any more questions, technical or otherwise, please leave a comment. I'll answer to the best of my ability. Thank you.
