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FALSE COLOR IMAGE
ot Saturn's
southern hemisphere, in photo directly
above, was laken by NASA 's Voyager 1
November 6, 1980. lf reveals unique red
oval cloud feature. Saturn's ice-covered
moons have personalilies of their own.
Satellite Dione has a peculiar split person–
ality. In bottom left photo, its trailing hemi–
sphere appears crisscrossed with wispy
lighl streaks. while its leading hemisphere,
bottom right photo, has relatively uniform
surtace with many impact craters. Moon
Mimas, center left, looks like a nave/
orange, with huge, deep (9 kilometer)
crater. Camera filters enhance image of
jewel-like Rhea, top.
Dr. Toby Owen of the State
University of New York summar–
ized Titan as being an "extremely
alíen world."
Saturn's other moons have
January
1981
even less to offer. Mostly tbey are
frozen· concoctions of what Dr.
Eugene Shoemaker called "ice
rubble." They appear to be com–
posed of a rock center witb a deep
icy outer layer. Their surfaces,
for the most part, are covered to
the saturation point with craters.
AH in all , the Saturnian system
seems to be a nice place to
"visit"- at armchair's length by
way of interspace television. You
certainly wouldn't want to live
there.
Uranus, Neptune and Beyond
Voyager 1's mission, for all prac–
tica! purposes, has ended. After
exiting the solar system it will
wander aimlessly through inter–
stellar space. lts sister, Voyager
2, has yet to arrive at Saturn, and
if its nuclear-powered electrical
generator is still functioning af–
terward, should relay information
about the next two little-known
planets, Uranus (in 1986) and
Neptune (in 1989). These two
orbs lie so much farther out in the
solar system, where there is so
little sunlight, that the on-board
cameras must take very long
exposures. To eliminate "picture
smear" the satellite is pro–
grammed to rotate in conjunction
with the rotation of each planet.
Clearly the limits of even un–
manned satellite probes are being
approached.
The future of space exploration
hinges on the hoped-for launch
into earth orbit-perhaps four
years from now--of a "space tele–
scope." Sueh a device is designed
to el iminate the obstacle of
earth's obscuring atmosphere. ·
Beyond pure advancement of
knowledge of the heavens, a
major objective of such a mission
would be to try to pick out faint
traces of planets orbiting other
stars. It is part of what sorne
space experts call "the ultimate
adventure." This,
Time
magazine
explains as "the search for planets
and attempts to communicate
with extraterrestrial
Ji
fe."
Even missions up until this
point have had a major- though
not always specifically stated-
purpose: the attempt to find else–
where in our solar system clues to
the origin of life on earth. And
always, the philosophical frame–
work of that search is the theory
of evolution.
Overlooking Truth
Men have looked to the created
for answers to the riddles, as they
perceive them, of the origin of
intelligent life, as well as of mat–
ter itself. They have not sought
out the
Creator
of all things, for
"there is none that understand–
eth, there is none that seeketh
after God" (Romans 3:
JI).
Harsh words? Not really.
One of the most famous astron–
omers of all t ime, Fred Hoyle, in
his book
Frontiers of Astronomy,
admitted:
"There is an impulse to ask
where originated material comes
from. But such a question is
entirely meaningless within the
terms of reference of science.
Why
is there gravitation?
Why
do
electric fields exist?
Why
is the
Universe? These queries ... are
just as meaningless and unprofit–
able."
But there is another "why?"
Why are men seemingly afraid to
tackle sucb ultimate questions,
dismissing them as "meaning–
less"? Might it be that in an–
swering them, they would be
forced to come face-to-face with
their Creator? Could it be be–
cause the "carnal mind"- mean-
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