Greatest Myths,Hoaxes,Mysteries in Astronomy & Space Science

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The Greatest Myths, Hoaxes & Mysteries in Astronomy and Space Science
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer, space.com
25 March 2003

"Few scientific disciplines seem to generate as many mysteries and falsehoods as astronomy and, by extension, the supporting space science effort to explore the unknown. From alleged hoaxes and conspiracies to unintentionally inaccurate accounts, there is plenty to debunk and correct.

Some of the bad information out there is demeaning to real science, an affront to astronomers, astronauts and the general public. Allegations that the Moon landings were fake tops that list.

Some of the misinformation is just what it is, non-facts that manage to pop up again and again, either in our brains or in print, many of them perhaps because they seem logical enough. A classic example is the erroneous suggestion that meteors burn up due to friction with air molecules.

There are countless mysteries, too, things for which we simply don't have answers despite years or decades of investigation. Dark energy, life, and the origin of sex are but three puzzles astronomers contemplate. The universe is a complex place.

Because our weekly Science Tuesday presentations are intended to serve as reservoirs of interesting and factual news and information about the universe, I thought it would be useful to devote one installment to reviewing some of the many myths, outlandish claims, incorrect accounts and plain old enigmas related to nearby and distant cosmic objects and phenomena.

Below are just a few."

Space Mysteries
An amazing number of things that befuddle big-brained scientists

Life
Life remains the greatest mystery of science. How did it start? Nobody knows. Does it exist elsewhere? Nobody knows. Now that astronomers have discovered planets orbiting other stars, the second question has taken on some added urgency, helping to spawn an entire new field called astrobiology. For now, astrobiologists are the only scientists I can think of who are more clueless than biologists, because they ask both of the biggest unanswered questions (the two above), whereas biologists mostly realize they have their hands full with the first one.

Sex
Bet you didn't expect to see this entry on a list devoted to space topics. It is here for a compelling reason and with substantial justification: We don't know why sex began . . .

Other universes
Here's how space author Andrew Chaikin prefaced an article on this topic: "The irresistible, mind-boggling fantasy comes to just about everyone, sooner or later: What if everything we knew, our whole universe, was just a speck of dust on someone's shoulder?" . . .

Dark matter
Dark energy
Planet X
Hypernovae
The scary sounds of meteors
So why is there no South Star?

Space Myths
Stuff that's just not true or that is rooted in cloudy circumstances

"At the edge of the universe "
The Sun has a companion, Nemesis
The Sun gets fatter as it sets
The Moon is bigger when on the horizon
Meteors burn up due to friction
A comet toppled ancient civilizations
There is no gravity on the Space Station
The Hubble Space Telescope pictures are totally real

Space Hoaxes
Things that generate too much e-mail

The Moon landing never happened
Planet alignments bring gravitational doom
The "Face" on Mars
Planet X or a comet will destroy Earth

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Ah, the origin of sex. See The Cooperative Gene by Mark Ridley for a possible genetic explanation.

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In spite of the carrying-on connected with the space exploration of the later half of the 20th Century, nothing, and I repeat NOTHING, can top the Great Moon Hoax of 1835.

In August of that year, the New York Sun published a number of the new 'discoveries' by the eminent astronomer Herschel with a new telescope of the Moon. So strong was this device that objects such as vegetation, beaches, animals and finally hairy 'batpeople' could be made out. They even had a temple there for these batpeople. As the Sun was the only publisher of these 'discoveries' circulation increased to about 20,000 issues a day. By mid-Sept. the owner of the paper had to admit it was a hoax (and pocket the profits).

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cool, thanks LarryBS.

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"We don't know why sex began . . ."
Why two not three..? DNA has four types.

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Meteors don't burnup due to friction with air molecules? If so why do they get white hot, vaporize and then condence as very fine dust? Burn infers a chemical reation that produces heat. That occurs also to some extent.
Planet X and Niberu are likely myths with no basis in reality.
Meteorites do make sounds when they enter Earth's atmosphere, but the sound is mostly focused into a narrow beam and is thus below the noise level for most observers. Much the same thing happens with very high flying supersonic aircraft.
A comet may have toppled some ancient civilization, but we think we have a more probable explaination in each case.
The space shuttle has micro gravity = the difference between the centrafugal force and the .85 g Earth's gravity that exists at that altitude.
There are several south stars, but they can only be seen with a telescope. The North star is presently in error by about one degree. We could pick a bright south star if we didn't mind that it was several degrees from true South. Neil

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Thanks Larry!

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And where did the giant rectangular slab buried on the moon come from?

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You can see the Great Wall of China from Space

Rolling Eyes

I believe that was even in a book in school or perhaps a teacher passed that along, I was horrified to find that wasnt true

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Its not?? I thought I saw a pict. somewhere. I'll look!

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Yep:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/radar/sircxsar/gwall.html

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The complete information is:
the only manmade structure that could be seen by the naked eye from space--which it is not

http://www.urbanlegends.com/science/great.wall.from.space/great_wall_from_space.html

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http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/great_wall_031017.html

also depends on what you consider space

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Aha!

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They have an extremely good idea how life probably began, and, to the extent that meteorites burn on entering the atmosphere, they burn because of friction.

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Sex varieties

satt_focusable wrote:

"We don't know why sex began . . ."
Why two not three..? DNA has four types.

Sex is the name for process that transmits the DNA from one generation to the next. There are several strategies

1. fission the cell splits in two to produce two identical individual
2. simple fusion two similar indivduals merge into one single cell and a mixing of the DNA and then there is redivision to produce two or more relatively identical individuals.
3. hermaphoradism. two individuals join or mate one giving an'X' and recieving a 'y' and the converse to produce the two new but not identical individuals without joining into one cell as in fusion
4 Mitotic sex is the exchange of comlimentary DNA producing one individual which may or may not undergo fission to produce dupilcates of the new union.
5 Mitotic reduction and meoisis which produces male and female decendants which may or not be fertile i.e. sterile offsping depending in outside factors to add the ability to become fertile in either or both sexes.
6 Missionary position male donates DNA with either extra x or y to determine sex of offsprings the female can only add y chromosome

The purpose of sex is to conserve and provide for variation to help adaption to new envioroments

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There could be 3 sexes in one species as one of possibilities.

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satt_focusable wrote:

There could be 3 sexes in one species as one of possibilities.

This raises an interesting question. Is the number of genders we have random, or is there some reason why two is a more likely outcome?

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Type A + Type B = Type C,
Type B + Type C = Type A,
Type A + Type C = Type B.

Multiple alternatives for sex.

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