Promo Video Put Together By My Wonderful Spouse. Thank You, Kimmy! Join Our Cast Of Heroes As They Prepare

Have an awesome New Year! -Matthew Opdyke #scifiauthor #2019 #politicalsciencefiction #neuroscience #physics #theoreticalphysics #biotechnology #nanotechnology #longevity #CRISPR #physiology @matthewopdyke https://www.instagram.com/p/Br-QY-agvi-/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1kquqo93uhplj

Merry Christmas! I spent time with my dear and sweet Kim. Let's go #furtherthanbefore with our #pathwaytothestars where get to explore solutions to worldwide issues, directing malcontent toward a refocus of their energies to #longevity and other sciences of #physics #biotechnology and #neuroscience through entertainment that takes us on a #scifi #fantasy journey with #strongfemaleleads #strongmalerolemodels and a beautiful #spaceopera with plenty of #politicalsciencefiction in the mix. (at Gene Leahy Mall) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrUvn5UgaEk/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=9frcxxv6n3t1

Pathway to the Stars: Part 1, Vesha Celeste

Pathway to the Stars: Part 1, Vesha Celeste

Soon to be released, is the first in a latched-on (or related) series, Pathway to the Stars: Part 1, Vesha Celeste. This will be a slightly more descriptive portion that goes into more detail of the first character introduced, Vesha Celeste. Please pre-order, read, review, comment, and enjoy! Thank you!

Vesha Celeste journeys with Yesha Alevtina and her dream-angel, Sky, following a long life of…

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A Cosmic Legacy: From Earth to the Stars (Extended Video)

"Our beautiful mother world ached for a reprieve from the injustices of many, courtesy of cultures and governance systems, that forgot how to love, how to be kind, how to include others, and how to think beyond the scope of greed and power, but within the visions of shared joy and well-being."

“For far too long people have lived for merely one shared goal, due to the daunting nature that life seems to bring. That goal may be a noble one, but it comes short of progression in and of itself and does not recognize the complexity of life and all of its nuances.

“This goal is survival through natural evolution. To merely survive, no matter the means, as noble as it may seem at first, will actually lead to the end of life and the end of humanity, whether through natural events or mankind’s apparent affinity toward death.

“It’s as if far too many people worship the almighty ‘mixed result’ rather than raise the quality of and joy in life through logic, study, innovation, and common sense, by enjoying what it can bring to the table, which will ultimately result in desired results.

“Finding cures for disease, both physiological and neurological, and possessing the ingenuity to innovate technologies as well as a pathway for humanity to quicken their pace for developing them will lead to preserving our Earth, our solar system, perhaps our Universe, and with it, each individual and humanity itself, as we travel to and push the limits of the Universe and its sustainability, trusting ourselves as we do so.”

Enjoy this First-Year-Anniversary compilation of all of my works in one title: A Cosmic Legacy: From Earth to the Stars

This title includes the entire Pathway to the Stars series: Part 1, Vesha Celeste Part 2, Eliza Williams Part 3, James Cooper Part 4, Universal Party Part 5, Amber Blythe Part 6, Erin Carter Part 7, Span of Influence Part 8, Dreamy & Deep Part 9-Allure & Spacecraft Part 10-Sky Taylor Part 11-A New Day Part 12-Alpha Andromedae

Eliza Williams and a host of friendly heroes tackle some of the most significant dilemmas of the day to bring humanity out and into the stars bearing a legacy we would be proud to share with other civilizations--a legacy of kindness, of mind-to-mind communication, of love, and of healing instead of harming. If we are to overcome the great expansion and the death of all life, we must overcome the smaller challenges to progress and focus on even greater ones. Working with her team diligently, Eliza will speed the pace of society in her world with the belief that beauty and untold potential are within every being. If we find ways to bring that out in ourselves and others, a future where we can breed longevity, a collective and high quality of life, augment the clarity of our minds, and innovate to span the Cosmos may be in our grasp.

Together with the organization Eliza Williams founded, called Pathway, she and her growing team will take us on a fantastical and Utopian journey to get us out and into the farthest reaches of space. There are dilemmas such as the physiological effects of space on each of us, as well as the need for longevity and a desire to still be able to visit loved ones following long journeys. Eliza and her team develop capabilities, so we can overcome the challenges ahead and are determined to stabilize a rocky economy, wipe away suffering, violence, disease, cartels, terrorism, and trafficking in persons. They work together to tame seismic activity, weather, and fires. She and her friends tackle ways to prevent extinction and provide solutions to quality of life concerns. They even consider the longevity of our Sun and our Earth's capacity to preserve life. Eliza tackles each of these issues to get us out, and into the stars, so we can begin our biggest quest--to help our Universe breathe ever so lightly.

No matter the challenge, there will always be greater pursuits! The saga will continue...

"A Cosmic Legacy" is a science fiction & fantasy novel, with a Space Opera flair to it. It is designed to edify, educate, and entertain young adults and scholars alike. Some of the specific topics covered include physiology, neurology, physics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, astronomy, politics, philosophy, and ethics. Preservation of the life-giving and sustaining capacities of our Earth and creation of environments conducive to life throughout the Solar System once thought to be impossible are primary goals. The ideas of kindness, with innovation rooted in well-being, longevity, where cellular health expresses youth and rejuvenation, optimizing the body to be able to live comfortably in austere space environments without adverse effects, and mind-to-mind communication bearing with it a legacy we'd be proud to share with distant civilizations with mutual goals of preserving our Universe can bring a beautiful future for all living beings.

Hardcover (Regular price $45) LCCN: 2019911854 | ISBN: 978-1-7333131-2-4 https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1733313125

Paperback (Regular price $35) LCCN: 2019909638 | ISBN: 978-1-7333131-1-7 https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1733313117

eBook (Regular price $10) LCCN: 2019909630 | ISBN: 978-1-7333131-0-0 | ASIN: B07V4W3MW9 https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07V4W3MW9

#scifi #fantasy #spaceopera #newideology #wellbeing #longevity #neuroscience #neurotech #physiology #biology #biotech #physics #theoreticalphysics #nanotech #CRISPR #stemcellresearch #innovation #positivity #clarityofmind #author #matthewjopdyke #books #novels #ebooks #space #stars #astronomy #stem #science #ethicalrolemodels #universalethics

Happy Valentine's Day, Kimmy!

Happy Valentine’s Day 💗💜💗

Here’s round 2 of funny space themed Valentine’s Day cards to send to the people you love (or for yourself because you should love yourself too) 💞

Merry Christmas! I spent time with my dear and sweet Kim. Let's go #furtherthanbefore with our #pathwaytothestars where get to explore solutions to worldwide issues, directing malcontent toward a refocus of their energies to #longevity and other sciences of #physics #biotechnology and #neuroscience through entertainment that takes us on a #scifi #fantasy journey with #strongfemaleleads #strongmalerolemodels and a beautiful #spaceopera with plenty of #politicalsciencefiction in the mix. (at Gene Leahy Mall) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrUuZFvgda1/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=s26phhseo3jb

Earth’s Ocean and Beyond

Image Credit: NOAA

Earth’s ocean has been the backdrop for ancient epics, tales of fictional fish and numerous scientific discoveries. It was, and will always be, a significant piece of the Earth’s story. Most of the ocean is unexplored– about 95% of this underwater realm is unseen by human eyes (NOAA). There is only one global Ocean. In fact, the ocean represents over 70% of the Earth’s surface and contains 96.5% of the Earth’s water.

We and the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research work together alongside organizations like the Schmidt Ocean Institute and Ocean Exploration Trust to better understand our oceans and its processes. While space may be the final frontier, understanding our own planet helps scientists as they explore space and study how our universe came to be.

On #WorldOceansDay let’s explore how Earth’s ocean informs our research throughout the solar system.

Earth and Exoplanets

“In interpreting what we see elsewhere in the solar system and universe, we always compare with phenomena that we already know of on Earth…We work from the familiar toward the unknown.” - Norman Kuring, NASA Goddard

We know of only one living planet: our own. As we move to the next stage in the search for alien life, the effort will require the expertise of scientists of all disciplines. However, the knowledge and tools NASA has developed to study life on Earth will also be one of the greatest assets to the quest.

The photo above shows what Earth would look like at a resolution of 3 pixels, the same that exoplanet-discovering missions would see. What should we look for, in the search of other planets like our own? What are the unmistakable signs of life, even if it comes in a form we don’t fully understand? Liquid water; every cell we know of – even bacteria around deep-sea vents that exist without sunlight – requires water.

Phytoplankton (Algae) Bloom vs. Atmosphere of Jupiter

Jupiter’s storms are mesmerizing in their beauty, captured in many gorgeous photos throughout the decades from missions like Voyager 1 and Juno. The ethereal swirls of Jupiter are the result of fluids in motion on a rotating body, which might come as a surprise, since its atmosphere is made of gas!

The eddies in Jupiter’s clouds appear very similar to those found in Earth’s ocean, like in the phytoplankton (or algae) bloom in the Baltic Sea, pictured above. The bloom was swept up in a vortex, just a part of how the ocean moves heat, carbon, and nutrients around the planet. Blooms like this, however, are not all beauty - they create “dead zones” in the areas where they grow, blooming and decaying at such a high rate that they consume all the oxygen in the water around them.

Arctic Sea Ice and Europa Ice Crust

While the Arctic (North Pole) and the Antarctic (South Pole) are “polar opposites,” there is one huge difference between the North and South Poles– land mass. The Arctic is ocean surrounded by land, while the Antarctic is land surrounded by ocean. The North Pole  is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean amid waters that are almost permanently covered with constantly shifting sea ice.

By studying this sea ice, scientists can research its impact on Earth system and even formation processes on other bodies like Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter. For example, it is possible that the reddish surface features on Europa’s ice may have communicated with a global subsurface ocean layer during or after their formation. 

Aquanauts and Astronauts

As new missions are being developed, scientists are using Earth as a testbed. Just as prototypes for our Mars rovers made their trial runs on Earth’s deserts, researchers are testing both hypotheses and technology on our oceans and extreme environments.

NEEMO, our Extreme Environment Mission Operations project, is an analog mission that sends groups of astronauts, engineers and scientists to live in Aquarius, the world’s only undersea research station located off the Florida Keys, 62 feet (19 meters) below the surface. Much like space, the undersea world is a hostile, alien place for humans to live. NEEMO crew members, known as aquanauts, experience some of the same challenges there that they would on a distant asteroid, planet or moon.

Deep-sea Robotic Exploration and Space Robotic Exploration

Video credit: Deep Sea Robotics/Schmidt Ocean Institute and Mars Curiosity rover/NASA

From mapping the seafloor through bathymetry to collecting samples on the surface of Mars, researchers are utilizing new technologies more than ever to explore. Satellite and robotic technology allow us to explore where humans may not be able to– yet. They teach us valuable lessons about the extreme and changing environments, science, as well as provide a platform to test new technologies.

Jezero Crater and Dvina River Delta, Arkhangelsk, Russia/Mars Delta

River deltas, the point where a river meets the ocean, are sites of rich sediment and incredible biodiversity. The nutrients that rivers carry to the coastlines make a fertile place for fish and shellfish to lay their eggs.

The Jezero crater on Mars (pictured in false-color on the right) has been selected as the Mars2020 landing site, and has a structure that looks much like a river delta here on Earth! Pictures from our Mars Global Surveyor orbiter show eroded ancient deposits of transported sediment long since hardened into interweaving, curved ridges of layered rock. This is one of many hints that Mars was once covered in an ancient ocean that had more water than the Arctic Ocean. Studying these deltas on Earth helps us spot them on other planets, and learning about the ocean that was once on Mars informs how our own formed.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

Largest Batch of Earth-size, Habitable Zone Planets

Our Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star. Three of these planets are firmly located in an area called the habitable zone, where liquid water is most likely to exist on a rocky planet.

This exoplanet system is called TRAPPIST-1, named for The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile. In May 2016, researchers using TRAPPIST announced they had discovered three planets in the system.

Assisted by several ground-based telescopes, Spitzer confirmed the existence of two of these planets and discovered five additional ones, increasing the number of known planets in the system to seven.

This is the FIRST time three terrestrial planets have been found in the habitable zone of a star, and this is the FIRST time we have been able to measure both the masses and the radius for habitable zone Earth-sized planets.

All of these seven planets could have liquid water, key to life as we know it, under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with the three in the habitable zone.

At about 40 light-years (235 trillion miles) from Earth, the system of planets is relatively close to us, in the constellation Aquarius. Because they are located outside of our solar system, these planets are scientifically known as exoplanets. To clarify, exoplanets are planets outside our solar system that orbit a sun-like star.

In this animation, you can see the planets orbiting the star, with the green area representing the famous habitable zone, defined as the range of distance to the star for which an Earth-like planet is the most likely to harbor abundant liquid water on its surface. Planets e, f and g fall in the habitable zone of the star.

Using Spitzer data, the team precisely measured the sizes of the seven planets and developed first estimates of the masses of six of them. The mass of the seventh and farthest exoplanet has not yet been estimated.

For comparison…if our sun was the size of a basketball, the TRAPPIST-1 star would be the size of a golf ball.

Based on their densities, all of the TRAPPIST-1 planets are likely to be rocky. Further observations will not only help determine whether they are rich in water, but also possibly reveal whether any could have liquid water on their surfaces.

The sun at the center of this system is classified as an ultra-cool dwarf and is so cool that liquid water could survive on planets orbiting very close to it, closer than is possible on planets in our solar system. All seven of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary orbits are closer to their host star than Mercury is to our sun.

 The planets also are very close to each other. How close? Well, if a person was standing on one of the planet’s surface, they could gaze up and potentially see geological features or clouds of neighboring worlds, which would sometimes appear larger than the moon in Earth’s sky.

The planets may also be tidally-locked to their star, which means the same side of the planet is always facing the star, therefore each side is either perpetual day or night. This could mean they have weather patterns totally unlike those on Earth, such as strong wind blowing from the day side to the night side, and extreme temperature changes.

Because most TRAPPIST-1 planets are likely to be rocky, and they are very close to one another, scientists view the Galilean moons of Jupiter – lo, Europa, Callisto, Ganymede – as good comparisons in our solar system. All of these moons are also tidally locked to Jupiter. The TRAPPIST-1 star is only slightly wider than Jupiter, yet much warmer. 

How Did the Spitzer Space Telescope Detect this System?

Spitzer, an infrared telescope that trails Earth as it orbits the sun, was well-suited for studying TRAPPIST-1 because the star glows brightest in infrared light, whose wavelengths are longer than the eye can see. Spitzer is uniquely positioned in its orbit to observe enough crossing (aka transits) of the planets in front of the host star to reveal the complex architecture of the system. 

Every time a planet passes by, or transits, a star, it blocks out some light. Spitzer measured the dips in light and based on how big the dip, you can determine the size of the planet. The timing of the transits tells you how long it takes for the planet to orbit the star.

The TRAPPIST-1 system provides one of the best opportunities in the next decade to study the atmospheres around Earth-size planets. Spitzer, Hubble and Kepler will help astronomers plan for follow-up studies using our upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, launching in 2018. With much greater sensitivity, Webb will be able to detect the chemical fingerprints of water, methane, oxygen, ozone and other components of a planet’s atmosphere.

At 40 light-years away, humans won’t be visiting this system in person anytime soon…that said…this poster can help us imagine what it would be like: 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

What a nice vantage point :)

The Milky Way seen from a sea cave in Malibu, California

source

I love this kind of news!

“Voyager Spacecraft Fires Up Thrusters for First Time Since 1980”

 NASA scientists have recently fired up the thrusters on the Voyager 1 Spacecraft - the farthest spacecraft from Earth - in an effort to reorient its antenna towards Earth.  Originally, scientists would have used the attitude control thrusters aboard the spacecraft to make the adjustments, however these have been wearing out during the voyage. Instead, NASA scientists tried using Voyager’s ‘trajectory correction maneuver’ thrusters, located on the back side of the spacecraft.  Since these hadn’t been fired in 27 years, engineers were thrilled when they received an answer 19 hours and 35 minutes later that the four thrusters had worked perfectly.  "The Voyager team got more excited each time with each milestone in the thruster test. The mood was one of relief, joy and incredulity after witnessing these well-rested thrusters pick up the baton as if no time had passed at all,“ said Todd Barber, a propulsion engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Read more about this fascinating story at: http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/01/us/voyager-1-thrusters-fired-first-time-since-1980/index.html

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScl)