Hello to everyone here at UMSF! I am very happy to announce my book "A Journey; Science Essays from the Leading Edge of Discovery" is out, now with a few reviews posted so far. There are a couple of unique things you may enjoy about this book.

"A Journey" is a compilation of the blogs I wrote on Facebook about Astronomy and Space Science news from February of 2010 to just about when the Higgs Boson find was announced by Cern scientists last month. Each post I made back then on Linda Morabito's Space Place on Facebook was paired with a space image of the type I enjoy. That amounts to about 600 such images. So, naturally this is an electronic book, and best displayed on the largest screen you own, like a computer.

We have learned so much through recent observations made by the great observatories and those on Earth using adaptive optics. I began to consider the nature of the finds and ended up writing the Morabito Meyer Sequential Universe Hypothesis, which came out of a thought experiment about what the nature of our observations might tell us about the origins of our universe and its fate. At some point I went looking for any cosmological model which fit my personal observations developed during the timeframe the posts were written. I found one I really like. Perhaps you will agree.

Look forward to your response and feedback on this Journey.

My best always to the great people here on UMSF!

Linda

Sunspot, it's great to see that picture here! It was a very difficult picture to get the rights for, in order to include it in my memoir. National Geographic did not have the rights for it, although it appeared in their January of 1980 issue. Eventually, National Geographic was given the rights on a one time basis to offer them to me. I am very glad about that!

Dave posted the url for my presentation at OCA above. I did use a Star Trek theme. Star Trek was a medium for writers to take a look at challenging issues of the time when the series was made. In a way I did the same thing for the OCA presentation. The memoir deals with some very difficult issues, as well as the remarkable world of space exploration that I call home. That, is not a difficult issue. It has taken an enormous amount of courage to come forward with the story of my life, but I have already seen the amount of good that it has done for those whose lives it has already touched.

Your forum here is probably the best there is. I contribute to the public's knowledge about space on Linda Morabito's Space Place on Facebook! I always feel that your members are doing exceptional work and with the new "photojournal" that Emily is creating, I will be working to get the word out about what goes on here!

Sunspot, Dave, Craig, Thanks so much! Someone from the UK messaged me on FB and was telling me they saw me on TV. Thanks for letting me know what they saw! Yes, those were the days and a very special time. I think what has taken place since then feels like an exponential growth of new insight from the amount of spacecraft data coming in; viewing so many parts of our particular perspective on the universe from Earth in such high resolution. Those who love this exploration are really connecting via WWW's incredible places like UMSF! Those were the days, but these days so many mysteries are giving way. Unprecedented time then, but now too.

Steve,

When were you there? And in what area? I worked on Viking as well.

Stopping by here always makes me feel so welcome! You guys are fantastic! Lightening did strike twice in a way, a group of my students at The Planetary Society commanded the MGS MOC to a specific area - mid-latitude on Mars. There the students discovered dark boulders on white sandy terrain. No planetary scientist could explain how they got there, in the location and configuration that they are in. I remember one of the young student's excitement at coming to the U.S. and doing this work and indicating he felt a discovery might result. I tried to temper his enthusiasm just slightly by explaining the rarity of finds, and yet he was the one who adjusted the pointing based on context pictures he was shown at Malin Space Science Systems, and hence the find was made.

Kepler is a revolution. What a time in Space Exploration!

Thank you all for your kind comments here!

Phil, thank you! These two individuals will be extremely happy to receive the links! They are anxious to get to work! Eoincampbell, thank you as well. That is the perspective that I always share with my college students; the significance of what was seen that has transformed our ideas of worlds that are very much alive and may provide future discoveries of life on other worlds. Very best to you both and everyone on UMSF!

It is nearly a year since my last post! It is very good to be back, and I have linked here from my website ever since.

At the last meeting of the Orange County Astronomers, two members there asked to begin working with and viewing data from any missions allowing public access to their imaging data. I felt that this was the place to come for an overview of what might be available to these astronomy enthusiasts!

I was speaking at the OCA about the release of my book. "Parallel Universes, A Memoir from the Edges of Space and Time" by Linda Morabito Meyer is now available on Kindle. You can read about the book on Amazon.com by searching on Linda Morabito. Amazon offers any future updates to the book at no cost for those who do acquire it. You can check out Linda Morabito's Space Place on Facebook for more details.

I am enjoying the telling of two remarkable stories in the life of one astronomer! My very best wishes to all, as I recall how warmly I was welcomed here! Hope to read some suggestions as to where imaging data is available for the public to view and to seek new finds.

Happy New Year to everyone here! Linda

Imipak, hello! Thinking way, way back, I do not believe what was televised in England as Horizon was Cosmos, but rather an episode of Nova; the first one that I was in. I remember I had friends in England at the time who were seeing it coincident with what was presented in the U.S.

And thank you, you have all made me feel very welcome. Indeed, Stanton Peale made an exceptional prediction!

It is truly wonderful to be welcomed like this by UMSF! I teach at college now the very things that were first observed in that ONIPS room some time ago, and for the very first time. Voyager redefined our perception of the solar system, and now our perception of worlds beyond that. Thanks so much for the gift of that spectacular image of Io, dilo! I am appreciating each and every response.

Linda

This is my first posting on UMSF! Although I have most recently been working in the microwave region of the spectrum, involving students with the use of a Goldstone radio telescope, I am best known for my discovery of the volcanic activity on Io.

My discovery of volcanic activity on Jupiter’s moon Io took place on March 9, 1979 at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. At the time I was serving as Cognizant Engineer over the Optical Navigation Image Processing System on the Voyager Navigation Team. What I found in a picture of Io taken by Voyager 1 has been described as the largest discovery of the planetary exploration program. It is now part of a larger picture defining a new category of worlds which may have geologic activity and potentially life, powered by gravitational tidal forces.

I have always intended to tell the story of how I made my discovery and how my life led me to this historic find, but it was not my destiny to have just one story to tell. Twenty-five years after my discovery, I learned that my past held a secret which took some of the most profound capabilities of the human mind to endure. I began a “journey” through time, as profound and compelling as my lifelong “journey” through space. As a scientist who once dreamed of traveling into space and reporting back on my findings, I am now reporting back. Please join me on my website www.lindamorabito.com if you are interested in reading an unforgettable memoir “Parallel Universes, A Memoir from the Edges of Space and Time.”

Will keep you posted on the progress of Parallel Universes.

Linda Morabito