Category Archives: Geology

On the World Zarmina

Posted on 7 April 2013 by Joseph

…Preliminary report on image data from the LongShot-2 mission… The planet Gliese 581g – also known as Zarmina – is a circular world. It is not circular in the literal sense shown on pre-Columbian maps of the Earth, before we … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Concepts, Geology, Maps, Original fiction, Science Fiction, Space | 2 Comments

Shifts in the Bedrock

Posted on 23 August 2011 by Joseph

I was standing in my office, trying to deconstruct some spacecraft sensor processing algorithms on my whiteboard. I had pages of code printouts in one hand and a marker in the other. As I turned back to my computer to … Continue reading →

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The Map

Posted on 7 August 2011 by Joseph

I have come into the possession of a most extraordinary object, which I procured rather fortuitously before the auction of goods from an insolvent boutique on the East Boulevard. I do not know how long it lay, disused and uncared-for, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Fantasy, Geology, Maps, Oghura, Original fiction | 2 Comments

The Dark Planets

Posted on 19 May 2011 by Joseph

An article appeared today on NASA.gov about the detection of “free-floating planets.” These planets may have formed around a central star, like the planets in our Solar System did, but due to some gravitational interaction during their star system’s formation … Continue reading →

Posted in Concepts, Geology, Science, Science Fiction | Leave a comment

World-Building and the Real Universe

Posted on 20 October 2010 by Joseph

(Pardon me for the hiatus. Had to fly to Houston to do some flight testing at NASA.) I spent a pretty good weekend doing some world-building. Since discovering the maps in the first pages of The Lord of the Rings, … Continue reading →

Posted in Concepts, Geology, Maps, Science, Science Fiction, Space, The Cathedral Galaxy | 10 Comments

NASA went where I’ve gone!

Posted on 9 September 2010 by Joseph

This year’s NASA Desert RATS exercise is taking place near Flagstaff, AZ. Here’s the view from inside one of the rovers after a traverse: RATS is a program in which NASA engineers, scientists, and astronauts take prototype equipment into remote … Continue reading →

Posted in Geology, Graduate school, NASA, Photography, Science, Space, Travel | Leave a comment

The Ice Fracture Explorer

Posted on 15 August 2010 by Joseph

Europa, the second Galilean moon of Jupiter, has been my favorite planetary body for a long time. The reason I like Europa so much is that it’s a world whose orbital dynamics with Jupiter, its orbital resonances with the other … Continue reading →

Posted in Concepts, Geology, Science, Science Fiction, Space | 14 Comments

Planetary Geology: A Detective Game

Posted on 30 July 2010 by Joseph

…full of unsolved yet soluble mysteries! I’m shamelessly bouncing all you readers over to the Bad Astronomy blog for this post, which is a great outline of the detective process that is planetary geology. It’s also a great illustration of … Continue reading →

Posted in Geology, Science, Space | Leave a comment

Smoky Mountains Report

Posted on 17 July 2010 by Joseph

I spent the week of the Fourth of July with my girlfriend’s family in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, right next to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I have driven through the southeastern United States twice, but never had a chance to … Continue reading →

Posted in Geology, Photography, Travel | 3 Comments

Planetary scientists have all the fun

Posted on 24 February 2010 by Joseph

I know I am not at my blogging best when I just write, “hey, look at these spectacular images!” But…look at these spectacular images! An image-of-the-day gadget on my iGoogle home page showed me this picture, which I subsequently spent … Continue reading →

Posted in Geology, Science, Space | 2 Comments