Watchful eyes, thoughtful mind: astronomy

Showing posts with label astronomy. Show all posts

22 Sept 2009

TED Tuesday: Future of SETI

The SETI Institute's Jill Tarter makes her TED Prize wish: to accelerate our search for cosmic company. Using a growing array of radio telescopes, she and her team listen for patterns that may be a sign of intelligence elsewhere in the universe.

17 Sept 2009

Weirdest cosmological theories

Stephen Battersby of New Scientist gives a primer on the 10 most weird cosmological theories put forward by various individuals over the centuries.

Clashing branes
Evolving universes
Superfluid space-time
Goldilocks universe
Gravity reaches out
Cosmic ghost
It's a small universe
Fast light
Sterile neutrinos
In the Matrix

Reading through these titles would have probably stoked your curiosity enough to click on the link above and read the whole article.

25 Aug 2009

TED Tuesday: Fly me to Saturn

Planetary scientist Carolyn Porco shows images from the Cassini voyage to Saturn, focusing on its largest moon, Titan, and on frozen Enceladus, which seems to shoot jets of ice.

Carolyn Porco shares exciting new findings from the Cassini spacecraft's recent sweep of one of Saturn's moons, Enceladus. Samples gathered from the moon's icy geysers hint that an ocean under its surface could harbor life.

4 Aug 2009

TED Tuesday: Our "queer" Universe

Biologist Richard Dawkins makes a case for "thinking the improbable" by looking at how the human frame of reference limits our understanding of the universe.

30 Jul 2009

Hubble sees "bubble"

[Image source: New Scientist, Caption reads:

The "Cygnus Bubble" nebula may actually be a cylinder that is being seen from one of its ends. This image was taken with the Kitt Peak Mayall 4-metre telescope in Arizona (Image: Travis A. Rector/U of Alaska Anchorage/Heidi Schweiker/NOAO)]

Giant 'soap bubble' found floating in space - space - 23 July 2009 - New Scientist

IT LOOKS like a soap bubble or perhaps even a camera fault, but the image at right is a newly discovered planetary nebula. [...] The bubble, which was officially named PN G75.5+1.7 last week, has been there a while. [...] "It's a beautiful example," says Adam Frank of the University of Rochester, New York. "Spherical ones are very rare." One explanation is that the image is looking down the throat of a typical cylindrical nebula. However, it is still remarkably symmetrical, Frank says.

28 Jul 2009

TED Tuesday: Shedding light on Dark matter

Physicist Patricia Burchat sheds light on two basic ingredients of our universe: dark matter and dark energy. Comprising 96% of the universe between them, they can't be directly measured, but their influence is immense.

26 Jul 2009

Sunday Spotlight: The Virtual Telescope

A few days back I got an invite to join a group on LinkedIn. It was called The Virtual Telescope Project, a name that interested me enough to go ahead and check out what was this all about. And once I was on the website, I knew I had to write a Sunday Spotlight on this particular service provided by the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory.

The homepage beckons you to enter the website with the message, "Enjoy the real Universe from your desktop, live!". It is available in English and Italian. This project/telescope is a participant in the IYA2009 activities. The website is created and directed by Gianluca Masi. Here you will find out what makes Virtual Telescope a unique case in the world. The Virtual Telescope offers live shows and astronomical Labs, in real-time or with archived material (the latter being free).

I am very much looking forward to participate in their next live show on Monday 3rd August, which is in Italian. But ... the fascinating beauty of the deep space is beyond spoken word.

12 Jul 2009

Sunday Spotlight: Jason Martell and Xfacts

Jason Martell is a researcher and lecturer specialising and interested in connections between ancient knowledge and contemporary science. He has extensively studied the work of Zecharia Sitchin on Sumerian culture and the advanced technology mentioned therein. Jason has also given numerous lectures and presentations on the topic of Planet X (which has been reportedly spotted or at least its presence acknowledged by NASA), the 10th planet in our Solar system and the belief that this is the "Nibiru" of ancient Sumerians. The sites created by him, and collectively represented as Xfacts network, include AncientX.com, Xlectures.com, UfologyExpert.com, UfoStream.com, Mars-Earth.com and Alienscalpel.com.

AncientX.com is a collection of the video of and slides shown during the presentation given by Jason at MUFON, LA. Here he talks about various evidences provided by the Sumerian literature and artifacts that Sumerians knew about people of higher intelligence, originating from outside the Earth, whom they called Anunnaki. He goes on to show how planet Nibiru of Sumerians and its influence on the inner Solar system described by them could make it a very plausible candidate for Planet X that our astronomers are looking for today.
Xlectures.com is one-stop-resource to all the lectures and interviews given by Jason Martell to the date on various topics of his research, Nibiru/Planet X, ancient astronauts, Sumerian culture and artifacts, the Mars-Earth connection to name a few.
UfologyExpert.com tells you on its homepage that, "By watching the videos contained on this site, you will learn about some of the most substantial cases in Ufology. Evidence that can prove UFO's are real, and intelligent extraterrestrials have made formal treaties with various governments around the world."
UfoStream.com, as the name suggests, is a channel to watch innumerable videos concerning the UFOs and aliens. It also gives links to other similarly inclined channels, websites.
Mars-Earth.com took me to a page very similar to the "site map" page of Xfacts.com so I'm not sure if there's some problem with the link. However, the tab "mars research" on the top navigation bar takes you to a page which contains some really interesting articles and links about structures on Mars (the face on Mars, the pentagonal pyramid complex of Cydonia etc.) and how its been shown that NASA has been altering the images obtained from Mars to make the planet look hostile.
Alienscalpel.com greets you with the message "This website is the only website dedicated to the victims of the Alien Abduction Phenomenon."

So all I have tried to do in this blog entry is to give an overview of this vastly spread and informative network of sites and research generated by Jason Martell. In few of my blog entries earlier, I have picked some topics connected to Sumerian cosmology, which interest me and written my thoughts on them in some detail. I might write something about the structures on Mars some day. However, I'm not as keen on his other research interests such as UFOs and aliens. I do believe that there are a lot of thigs out there that need to be researched. But as for UFOs and aliens, I think its not the right time yet and hence we're taking it in the wrong direction of sensetionalism.

31 May 2009

Sunday spotlight: The Land of No Horizon

A few months back I read the book 'The land of no horizon' (ISBN: 978-0-646-41057-9, 2001) written by Kevin J. Taylor and Matthew J. Taylor, a father and son team, who researched on this project for 12 years before authoring this very logical and greatly explanatory (with numerous simple illustrations) book. This book marries two controversial and now almost-discredited theories, 'expanding Earth' (vs. universally accepted theory of plate tectonics) and 'hollow Earth' (vs. the universally accepted inner core-outer core-mantle-crust model). These two theories have been shown to have severe flaws in them when considered by themselves. However, this book does a fantastic job of entwining these two theories to produce a logically sound hypothesis of "expanding hollow Earth" with its inner Sun. I am not a geologist to give an expert opinion on whether this hypothesis can be considered as a valid theory. However, as a scientist who thinks logically, most of the arguments, explanations and examples that are put forth in this book seem very plausible.

The authors don't just stop at proposing this new model for Earth's geology. What impressed me most about this book is the fact that using this theory, the authors have successfully (in my humble opinion) explained historical/mythical and scientific phenomena. They show us (through simple text and illustrations) how the imbalance between inner and out atmosphere and oceans would cause (and thus explain) the ancient, cataclysmic deluge mentioned in various religious texts that wiped out the mankind from the face of Earth. In fact, going back a step, they explain how the life on inside of the Earth would progress more rapidly than the outside and therefore, how WE could be the hybrid between primitive apes on the outside and intelligent beings on the inside. The name of the book is what the inside Earth would be, the land of no horizon! The authors also go on to explain (and are reasonably successful at) some astronomical observations such as the "red spot on Jupiter" with help of the same "expanding hollow planet" hypothesis applied to gas planets (like Jupiter, Saturn etc.).

The upside of the book is its simple, layman language and absence of unnecessary scientific and technological jargon. In addition, large number of simple and neat illustrations would make this book very readable and understandable to anyone who is able to think logically and ready to face unconventional, new ideas without prejudice. One downside of the book, I thought, was that it starts out in a fashion which leads you to believe its going to explain much more (e.g.: UFO observations) than it actually ends up doing. However, what it does explain is definitely significant.

The authors (following the new age trend) have started their own website to further promote and continue research on this topic. The website is very informative as well, with the blog having articles about earlier (and failed) hollow Earth theories, information about the authors, overview of the book, Expanding Earth animation etc. This is what the website has to say about the theory/book, "The Expanding Earth idea has been around for a long time, but science has not considered it worthy of genuine investigation because a driving force was missing. This is where the Hollow Earth theory comes in. A new understanding of Gravity gives rise to an expanding, hollow Earth and once and for all neatly solves the drifting continent phenomenon." All in all, whether it survives the serious scientific scrutiny in the end or not, the Expanding Hollow Earth theory is definitely something worth reading (and considering).

3 Apr 2009

... how I wonder what you are!

I was first going to title this blog “twinkle twinkle little star”. But as I repeated the old nursery rhyme to myself I realised the second line more appropriately captured the essence of astronomy; how I wonder what you are! For eons, we humans have looked up in the night sky I wondered about what the little twinkling wonders were. Depending on our level of scientific and technological advancement it could be simply gazing upward with naked eye and trying to join the dots making imaginary creatures or it could be focusing a humongous telescope array on colliding galaxies to learn about how the universe came about. But the heavenly bodies never stop intriguing us. The branch of science that studies the celestial objects is called ‘astronomy’, from the Greek words astron meaning "star" and nomos meaning "law". 2009 has been declared the International year of astronomy (IYA 2009).

I have wanted to write about IYA 2009 for a while but today was a good day to do so. The RTR09 campaign for which I’ve been volunteer blogging lately has nothing scheduled for the next three days so it is a good time for me to get back to my science writing. Also, one of the cornerstone projects for IYA 2009, 100 hours of astronomy, began yesterday. This is a worldwide marathon event that goes on for 100 hours straight and astronomers and lovers of astronomy organise and participate in various events around the globe dedicated to astronomy for these 100 hours. A special 24 hour-long webcast is going to be broadcasted that will take you on the tour around the world in 80 telescopes starting 9am UT today. It will include interviews of scientist at these facilities, their overview and some views of what one can see from these on-land and in-orbit telescopes. It starts in about 30 minutes so tune in fast!

There is a treasure-trove of information on the website (link above) for those interested so I recommend you have a look for yourself. You will find events in your area or information about how to organise one, projects you can participate in from anywhere in the world and also grants being awarded to promote the interest of general public in astronomy. So go out in the open and start observing those “twinkle twinkle little stars” that “up above the world so high” shine and glitter “like a diamond in the sky” and make you exclaim “how I wonder what you are!”

23 Mar 2009

Earth Hour 2009: My way!

This is the video I made for the 12secondTV Earth Hour challenge. I also have it up on my YT channel.

5 Mar 2009

Son of God or Sun of God?

Part 2
Part 3

I few days back I came across a very interesting series of three videos on YT. I do not believe in “practising” any religion, I believe in “believing” and acknowledging the presence of a higher power whose nature and influence we haven’t yet been able to comprehend. Therefore, I watched these videos merely out of curiosity. It is a novel approach to explaining the similarities between Gods and messengers of various religions. I’m not sure whether the person uploading these videos actually agrees or disagrees with these videos. The title and description is confusing. Also, not all information presented is correct. I know that Krishna, the Hindu god, was not born of a virgin as the video claims. So you might find some other such mistakes in it.

I do not mean to offend anyone or their religious beliefs. If you think this is rubbish, that’s fine by me. If you believe this to be absolutely true, that’s fine too. I’m not going to try and convince you either ways because I do not know myself whether it is right or wrong. I know, however, that it is something different. And that’s why I found it interesting enough to share.

20 Feb 2009

Sumerian cosmology

[Image source: Zecharia Sitchin's wesbite]

This blog entry was originally going to be a summary of Zecharia Sitchin’s research on Sumerian ancient knowledge and cosmogony. However, while researching the internet for his work I came across a few websites which were established with the aim of disproving Sitchin’s work. This wasn’t really surprising as unconventional research is never welcomed with wide arms in the mainstream science. However, as I read the material on the websites (especially one of them), it seemed to me that the author was knowledgeable and was making a sincere effort of setting the record straight rather than simply trying to gain publicity. So now, like a true, rational scientist, I’m going to present a summary of both sides of the story in my blog. And leave it to my readers to decide which one they think is “correct”. Since I have neither read any of Sitchin’s books (my knowhow is based on his website) nor studied Hebrew or Cuneiform script, I’m unable to decide for myself which side to lean towards. But I’m happy that I at least got to know that there are two sides to this story.

Zecharia Sitchin is a well-known name for researchers and followers of ancient knowledge. He first gained fame in 1976 after publishing the book 'The 12th planet' based on a radical new idea that the ancient Sumerian texts, which are considered by scholars as allegorical myths about wars between Gods of the Sumerians, were in fact realistic records of cosmological events. He went on to publish 11 more books, the latest one in 2007, which extend the idea further and delve deeper into the texts and records left behind by the ancient culture of Sumer. He claims to have studied various clay tablets on which the texts in question were scribed in Cuneiform script as well as ancient artefacts found in excavations.

The main idea that sparked Sitchin’s research and publications was the record of a large-scale celestial event in the Mesopotamian Epic of Creation (Enuma Elish). When our solar system was still in formative stage, a rogue planet (Nibiru/Marduk) ejected from another solar system got pulled into ours by gravitational force. It then collided with a planet Tiamat (old Earth) causing it to split apart. Larger part became our Earth as we know today; the other part got spread into the belt of asteroids we see between Mars and Jupiter. Tiamat’s original orbit was between Mars and Jupiter (hence the big gap and asteroid belt between them) which got deflected to the orbit of Earth today. Our Moon was the satellite of Tiamat (Kingu) which remained with the newly formed Earth. The external planet, Nibiru, got captured into a very eccentric orbit into our solar system and hence visits the “inner planets” only once every 3600 years. The advanced life-forms from Nibiru, called the Annunaki, are the reason for technological knowhow and progress of the Homo sapiens on Earth. They visited Earth in ancient times and changed us from cave-dwellers to pyramid-builders. Sitchin’s theories and books received the typical response any esoteric, unconventional research receives; tremendous interest from the general public and no serious attention from the main stream scientists and scholars.

Even today, the criticism continues unabated and some of it seems bolstered by modern research. Linguistic scholar Michael Heiser’s website is one of the best resource of the objections to Sitchin’s translations of the Sumerian cuneiform script as well as his understanding of the texts. The material on his website is well-researched and well-written. As one reads through pages of his various papers one definitely begins to take these “objections” seriously, if not become completely convinced. The “solar system-like” depiction on Sumerian cylinder seal VA 243 is the backbone of Sitchin’s ideas. He claims the depiction shows central Sun and 12 planets around it thus proving Sumerians knew of 12 planets (hence the title of his first book). Heiser shows from his research that this interpretation is wrong and central body is not Sun but a star and so are the other 12 dots. Also, the word “Nibiru” is not used to name a specific planet but more like an adjective according to Heiser. There are further examples of words which are said to be misinterpreted by Sitchin and thus not support his theory. I will leave it to those interested to check out Heiser’s website themselves.

However, what makes Sitchin’s ideas interesting to me is the fact that some of the ideas he put forth decades ago (which in turn Sumerians recorded thousands of years ago) seem to be corroborated by new astronomical findings. The presence of an additional planet/oid in our solar system in the regions far beyond Pluto has been hinted at by modern astronomers. Sitchin’s website claims connection of his ideas to many more modern astronomical discoveries. This is the reason why the whole Planet X/Nibiru research has been taken up by young inquisitors like Jason Martell. Another point that came to my mind (and I’m sure others would have thought of this) was about the size of our Moon. According to Sitchin’s interpretation of Sumerian texts, our Moon was the satellite of Tiamat (Kingu) which remained with the newly formed Earth. Could this explain why the Moon is too big for Earth to be a satellite? May be it was the correct size as satellite for the larger Tiamat? Well, those are just the two cents of my inquisitive mind.

6 Feb 2009

The solar system and beyond

Two very interesting articles came to my attention last week, one about our solar system and the other about the deep space beyond.

The article published on the New Scientist website is titled “Our unknown solar system”. It is kind of a compilation of six other articles that appear on the same website. Each of these six articles focuses on one aspect of the solar system that is still a mystery to the humanity.

The first article, How was the solar system built?, gives an insight into the birth of our solar system and of course about the things we do not know certainly about the solar system. The second, Why are the sun and moon the same size in the sky?, talks about eclipses. In the beginning it seemed a little weird to me that this should be a subject of an article. The explanation is too straight forward; the Sun is 400 times larger than the Moon but also 400 times farther. But as I went on to read the article, it became clear that the article focused on the possibility that this might not be a mere coincidence and how the size of the Moon might be responsible for origin of life on Earth. Is there a Planet X? is the third article in the series which, as the title suggests, explores the possibility of an as yet unknown planet on the outskirts of our solar system. The next article, Where do comets come from?, was a bit of a surprise for me as I had thought the astronomers knew the answer to this question. Along with listing what we do not know about the comets, it also gives nice overview of different types of comets and the reasons why it is difficult to spot and study them. The fifth in series is, Is the solar system unique?, which tackles the question in the title and the possibility of the answer being “no” is increasing along with our knowledge of the Universe around us. And lastly, How will the solar system end?, delves into the still-far-into-the-future event of the end of our solar system.

The other article is a contribution by John Roach to the MSNBC website. It talks about the project “From Earth to the Universe” which is one of the several projects organized to mark the International Year of Astronomy (IYA 09). More than 40 countries have agreed to participate in this project and have made 125 images from their respective space agencies for display around the world, in public places like the airports, parks etc. The article shares 10 of these images along with little information snippets about them. It makes a great read for anyone interested in mesmerising images from the outer space, which I think is most of us.

25 Jan 2009

Did Harriot beat Galileo to it?

Thomas Harriot (c. 1560 – 2 July 1621) was an eminent English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer, and translator. During his lifetime Harriot was known to the world merely as an eminent algebraist but there are evidences now to prove his greatness as an astronomer as well as cartographer. Relevant papers at the West Sussex Record Office show that Harriot drew images of the Moon several months earlier (July 1609) than Galileo Galilee, who is credited for the first telescopic observations and maps of the Moon (December 1609). According to Dr Allan Chapman, a science historian at Oxford University, “Thomas Harriot was not only the first person ever to draw an astronomical body with a telescope on 26 July 1609, he rapidly developed to become an absolutely superb lunar cartographer. Harriot's composite drawing of the Moon - produced in 1612 or 1613 - marked the birth of modern cartography".

An article on BBC News’ website reports that Harriot’s Moon maps, along with his images of Jupiter's satellites, sunspots and Halley's Comet are to go on display to mark the launch of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA 09). The article also quotes astronomer Sir Patrick Moore saying “Looking at Harriot's map, it really is a work of art. He saw the mountains, craters and the so-called seas.” The few images I came across of Harriot's map in the web are truely impressive, especially for his time.

1 Jan 2009

Antikythera mechanism replicated

A few sponge divers from the Aegean island of Symi discovered an ancient shipwreck more than a century ago by accident by a barren islet called Antikythera. A 10-month expedition sponsored by the Greek government brought back incredible treasures like bronze and marble statues, jewellery, glassware and furniture, including an ornate bronze throne. In all the excitement, nobody noticed a corroded lump of rock found along with these treasures. However, a few months later, it cracked open, revealing traces of gearwheels, precisely marked circular scales and inscriptions in ancient Greek. The battered artifact became known as the "Antikythera mechanism", and it caused excitement and skepticism. Until then, not one gearwheel, pointer or scale had been found to show presence of technology in ancient times and some scholars did not rule out the possibility of a hoax.

The mechanism serves as a good example of how we humans chose to ignore or dismiss anything that we cannot understand or explain based on our current knowledge. The scholars at the time could not explain how such a complex, mechanised gadget could have been engineered about 2000 years ago and what purpose could it have served. Therefore, the Antikythera mechanism got slowly forgotten until recently, when a collaborative study (including X-raying) of the device was undertaken by a group of universities and companies. It turns out that it was a hand-wound clockwork device used to calculate the motions of the sun, moon and planets as seen from Earth, as well as to predict solar and lunar eclipses.

The New Scientist has published few informative articles about the mechanism and how it worked. There is also a video (featured above) made by them, and broadcast on YouTube, about the reconstruction of this device. Michael Wright, a former senior curator of the Science Museum in London, has studied the mechanism for decades and has recreated a working model of the ancient computer recently. He explains in the video how the device works with a simple rotation of a handle but also illustrates how complex the inner mechanism is! A must read and see for anyone who thinks that contemporary human beings are the smartest and technologically most advanced that the planet has ever seen.

9 Nov 2008

Interesting stories from LiveScience.com

Daylight Saving Time: Why Did We Do It?

The Most Popular Myths in Science

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory: Blastoff in 2009…or Slip City?

Why Does Mona Lisa's Smile Change?

Leonardo Da Vinci's 10 Best Ideas

Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth

24 Oct 2008

Hubble - Secrets from space

This is part 1 of 7 part series on YouTube which talks about and shows us how the Hubble space telescope came about and what the humankind has achieved by accomplishing this hugely creditable feat. A must watch for any astronomy/space/science-lover!

Hubble Space Telescope 2010 Wall Calendar

22 Oct 2008

2012, Planet X, Nibiru and all that

Those of you who follow developments in scientific world are sure to have heard about the 2012 prophecies and the resurgence in the research about planet X it has caused. The Maya of mesoamerica are known to have had very sophisticated calendars to keep track of time. They had, in fact, more than one calendars for keeping track of time based on various heavenly bodies. Of these, the Long count calendar was the principal one and goes on for 5125 solar years. Therefore, based on its (uncertain) start date of August 11, 3114 BC, its first cycle is set to end on December 21, 2012 AD. Since the calendar "ends" on this date, there have been predictions that the world will come to an end on this day. However, most of us will agree with what Dr Karl Kruszelnicki has to say, ".....when a calendar comes to the end of a cycle, it just rolls over into the next cycle. In our Western society, every year 31 December is followed, not by the End of the World, but by 1 January. So 13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan calendar will be followed by 0.0.0.0.1 - or good-ol' 22 December 2012, with only a few shopping days left to Christmas." At least I like to think this way! According to the Wikipedia entry on 2012, "2012 is claimed by some with New age beliefs to be a great year of spiritual transformation (or alternatively an apocalypse). There is disagreement among believers as to whether 2012 will see an end of civilization, or humanity will be elevated to a higher level."

It seems like the humankind is slightly masochistic in nature as we enjoy entertaining the thought of large-scale destruction on this planet that will wipe out all or most of us. This is apparent from the successful runs at the box office that movies like Day after tomorrow, Deep impact etc. enjoy. So with the predictions of apocalypse in Dec 2012 came various theories about how the world will end. The most "accepted" one is passing of a massive astronomical object from very near the Earth and its gravitational effects causing mass destruction on Earth, wiping out most or all life on the planet. Even though there are no known massive "stray" objects in our solar system that can play the role of this "terminator" of sorts, there are some indications of an existence of such an objects on the far outskirts of the solar system. NASA and modern astronomers are detecting patterns in the orbits and spins of outer planets which suggest the presence of a massive body (planet or otherwise) in the vicinity. Couple of the planetoids found (Sedna and Xena) do not have sufficient mass to explain the effects observed. Therefore, our astronomers still seem to be looking for the right candidate for Planet X, where X signifies both 'unknown' and the Roman numeral 10, the number the planet would have if found.

The search (or re-search) is made more tantalising by the claims of some researchers of ancient culture and knowledge, that the ancient Sumerians did know of such a planet, 7-8 times larger than Earth and that had an extremely elliptical orbit around the Sun completed in 3600 Earth years, called Nibiru. The ancient clay tablets describe the solar system as having 12 planets, Nibiru (the planet of crossing) being the 12th one. They tell us about the earlier "crossing" of this planet with the orbits of the others and the consequences of it, one of which was the creation of Earth itself! There are myriad of websites, books and videos about research about Planet X and its possible connection with Sumerian planet Nibiru. The two most extensive and informative websites I found on this topic are Jason Martell's xFacts.com (the Planet X research and Ancient artifacts sections) and Robert Sepehr's Planet X video. Jason has done some extensive research into the Planet X - Nibiru connection based on Dr. Zecharia Sitchin's research. His website also boasts of the largest online informative collection of Sumerian artifacts. Robert Sepehr's video channel features interviews with various researchers of this topic. It also has information on past research on the subject and noted researchers (including Einstein's support to the Crustal displacement theory).

Whether the supposed Planet X / Nibiru will cause the apocalypse on Earth, in 2012 or earlier or later, I find this research topic interesting as it brings a fact to the forefront which we all, if we are true scientists, should acknowledge. We ARE NOT the most advanced (technologically, spiritually or culturally) humans that have existed on this planet and there is A LOT we can learn from the past.....about our future. Because progress is cyclic, not linear.