Strange and Possible

First, the Strange. Following, is a short press release caption for the above picture from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA: 

This nighttime view of Saturn's north pole shows a bizarre six-sided hexagon feature encircling the entire north pole. The red color indicates the amount of 5-micron wavelength radiation, or heat, generated in the warm interior of Saturn that escapes the planet. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

More Info for all of you space geeks out there, like me:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2007-034

 

 

And Now, The Possible. From Space.com:

 

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected water in the atmospheres of five planets beyond our solar system. The five exoplanets with hints of water are all scorching-hot, Jupiter-size worlds that are unlikely to host life as we know it. But finding water in their atmospheres still marks a step forward in the search for distant planets that may be capable of supporting live, researchers said.

 

The Hubble Space Telescope

 

As an author of science fiction,  I love to consider the strangeness and the possibilities of both of these just released pieces of information. First, what is a hexagon shape object doing at the north pole of the planet Saturn? What would cause a seemingly designed structure to be formed naturally on that planet? The researchers and scientists believed it is a naturally caused phenomenon generated by the fierce wind patterns that circle the planet. What I want to know, as a science fiction author, what causes winds to form such a perfectly symmetrical structure on such a grand scale?

 

Secondly, let's extrapolate from what researchers have discovered on five planets beyond our own solar system, on alien planets. It would not be to great of a leap for me, as a science fiction author, to assume that if large massive scalding hot worlds contain water vapor in their planetary atmosphere then it is possible that the smaller cooler rocky planets in those alien solar systems might contain water as well. The smaller rocky planets, not unlike Earth, may contain even higher concentrations of water on those Earth-like planets. Those planets might contain microbial life. Those planets might contain intelligent sentient life, like us, like human beings.

 

All of this new data is the wonderful part about being a science fiction author. I can dream, I can imagine, I can speculate, I can propose "What If" scenarios and I can write about that speculation. It is, admittedly, an escape from the daily grind of bad news, from past history of bad events. It is the possibility of hope and possibility while we consider the beauty of life itself and the vastness and mystery of the universe we live in.

 

And yet here again, in this blog, I will shameless promote my work. Please take time to visit my website at www.frederickfichman.com or go directly to Amazon Kindle or BarnesandNoble Nook or KOBO Books or the Apple iBookstore and look over my work and consider buying a book or two. Just type in my author name is those bookseller home page search boxes; Frederick Fichman. I have two exciting manuscripts I am working on right now, "SETI, Conception", book III in the SETI Trilogy and "The Feather" a fantasy about the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804.

 

Tomorrow, who knows what exciting and fascinating news may surprise us. It is always something to anticipate.