Philae Went to Heaven...and then DIED?

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During the summer of 1969 I was a student at a University in Chicago. On July 20th. I packed up some required reading material, and my trusty Sony Model portable radio, and went to relax on the nearby beach. Because it was mid-summer the beach was well populated with young people and students taking a break from class. Around 2:00 pm the beach grew very quiet. I put down my book  and turned up my portable radio. Apollo II, with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldin and Michael Collins on board, was about to land on the Moon! The crowded beach grew very quiet and still. The swimmers and bathers came out of the water. Everyone was waiting for that critical moment to arrive.... Touchdown! The beach crowd jumped up and burst into applause and cheering. The next day Neil took the first Moon walk.

Although the moon was not visible that afternoon, I sat on the soft sand, staring at the blue sky, visualizing Apollo II coming in for a landing on the barren Moon. Today, I have trouble imagining Philae on the mother ship Rosetta, travelling 4 billion miles at a speed of 483 million km an hour, landing on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (or Comet 67P or Comet C-G to keep it short)! Even more difficult for me to understand is the scientific knowledge and skill necessary to make it happen. What I do comprehend was its purpose - to discover the origins of the solar system, the earth and indeed, the origin of life itself. Their research method is new and brilliant; their quest is as old as humankind.

The theory at the moment is that the earth was bombarded with comets made of cosmic ice, carbon and rich dust which seeded our young planet with all the ingredient to make life. Meanwhile, back on planet Earth they hypothesize that life is 3.5 billion years old. This is based on evidence of microfossils found in South Africa and research done on deep sea hydrothermal vents! Quite a big difference from what we learned as kids in catechism class!

We have come a long way from the man who was thinking 'outside of the box' in the 1600's. Galileo
Galilei changed the way of talking about matter and its motion. His ideas have had a huge influence on modern science. But then one day he heard about the telescope the Dutch invented and he went and made his own...improving the design of course!  But as we all know it got him in trouble when he agreed with the idea that the earth goes around the sun, and not the other way around. Putting the Sun at the centre of the universe was not a new idea, it just did not conform with Aristotle and the Church explanation!

I was happy to learn that the human race is still willing to spend millions of dollars to find out our origins. Knowledge is a wonderful thing. As it increases, so we change ourselves and see our life and surroundings differently. So more information about our beginnings is extremely important. In the meantime, what is even more important, is how we make use of the little time we have here on Planet Earth and how we use that time to become better human beings.

I read this quote in another blog recently. Antoine de Saint-Exupery a pilot and writer wrote, "Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction."

I can't wait till next April when Philae might just wake up and reveal some exciting and new ideas as to our origins. In the meantime "Be Happy".

And that's Dick's View of the World this Week