Medium Low

This post is about a year out of date, but hey, I’ve been a busy graduate student! I can only claim to understand the underlying mathematics at the shallowest level but I am fascinated by modern physics. I recall reading articles about the observations of the Bullet Cluster in the popular media a year or so ago but at the time the implications and importance of the discovery were not obvious (at least to me). I’ve taken advantage of my summer vacation by spending a lot of time reading and today I discovered this blog entry that describes the observations of the Bullet Cluster and the cosmological implications. This particular entry is one of the most accessible descriptions of the connection between astronomical observations and theoretical cosmology that I’ve encountered (be sure to check out the cool animation!). Observations of this sort are largely possible because of orbiting platforms, of which the Hubble Space Telescope is the most well known. These satellites can be developed and launched for a fraction of the cost of manned space missions. They indisputably provide insight into some of the most profound questions of science. And yet, many of these missions will be sacrificed in order to repeat a visit to the moon. Under the unlikely assumption that a new moon mission is not simply election-year rhetoric, what’s the point? Read here about some of the basic science that won’t happen as a result.