April 2018

example, the greenhouse
effect, the warming of
Earth’s climate due to the
influx of carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere. That
happened on Venus already.
Venus had oceans in its history.
Because of the unconstrained accumulation
of carbons, a runaway
greenhouse effect evaporated all the
oceans. They all disappeared. It became
a very hot world. So that is kind
of an extreme case of what is happening
on Earth right now.
Mars is also similar to Earth. It started
out wetter. There were oceans in its early
history. We think the origin of life on Mars
may have been similar to origins of life on
Earth. So the search for life on Mars is part of
the search for life as it would have been on early Earth.
Bonnie Buratti
–continued from page 37
Are we any closer to discovering the origins of human life?
We really aren’t. We’re putting a lot of effort into that because it’s one of the
greatest questions to be answered.
You’ve worked on so many different projects. Do you have a favorite
planet?
Good question. It’s a really close call between Titan and Pluto.
Is Titan a planet? I thought it was a moon of Saturn.
Well no, it’s not a planet. Neither is Pluto, technically, for that matter. The
International Astronomical Union downgraded it to a dwarf planet in 2006. But we
scientists don’t think in terms of what we should call [a celestial body]. We’re not
concerned with that.
Your book has some nail-biting moments of tension and excitement,
as various missions make fantastic discoveries. It’s a kind of Indiana
Jones tale that takes place in space. You also write about the poetry
of science. How would you explain all this to an ace science student
who’s trying to decide on a career?
The book isn’t for scientists. It’s for the public to help explain space science, which is a
heritage of the American people and belongs to all of them. I also really wanted to show
younger people — those who are high school level and above — how much fun science is,
and motivate them to do the kinds of things I do. It doesn’t have to be space science, but
any of the other types, like engineering or helping to solve the climate problem.
Science is poetic in the sense that it’s about having a new idea, a great idea. When
we get that flash of insight, it’s very similar to the insight flash you get in any artistic or
creative endeavor. I’d say to be a great scientist, you really have to study everything, not
just science. I think it was the Greek philosopher Terence who said, “Let nothing that is
human be alien to you.” You have to just expand your mind to take ideas from every area
you can take them. Of course, it’s 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration. But at
the moment you finally make that sublime discovery, you know it has all been worth it.
time you put anything into space, you have to do rigorous planetary protection analysis.
Musk and SpaceX are not working for NASA. Theirs are not NASA activities.
I think NASA was concerned about it and I think the possibility that it might affect
Mars was small and unlikely. But they did not do the analysis that NASA would have
done. I really can’t comment on all that. There’s another concern that many scientists
ts
have, and that is that putting a Tesla in space is an advertising event, whereas we
would have liked to see a scientific payload instead, something that had instruments
ts
and could study the space environment.
So why are Titan and Pluto your favorites?
Titan is the most Earthlike of celestial bodies. It has lakes. It has evidence there
were glaciers in the past. It has running rivers, a thick atmosphere and a lot of landforms
that look like Earth’s. It has clouds and seasons and very interesting objects.
And Pluto is so much more than we expected. It is the first object in the solar system stem
on which we found active geysers. We see evidence of something melted, and what
looks like something flowing over it that we don’t understand yet. It looks like snow
has occurred.
Similarities between Earth and other planets is one theme of your book.
Can you talk about that?
A lot of phenomena we see on Earth are replicated on the planets. Take, for
Any comment on President Trump’s idea for a space force, a branch of
the military trained to fight wars in space?
The U.S. is a signatory to the Outer Space Treaty, which states (Article IV):
“The Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used by all States Parties to the Treaty
exclusively for peaceful purposes. The establishment of military bases, installations
and fortifications, the testing of any type of weapons and the conduct of military
maneuvers on celestial bodies shall be forbidden.”
With all scientists now know, do you believe there’s a possibility of intelligent
life somewhere out there in space?
I just don’t know. We shouldn’t be the only ones, but we haven’t found any evidence
of any life elsewhere, let alone intelligent life. ||||
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