NASA Europa Mission Creature


We all will have time this month with this conjunction to discover deeper layers in our relationships of all kinds. Man or woman, we will not feel so agreeable and compromising with our loved ones right now and we will feel more in touch with what is truly important and needed for us. There is more inner strength and daring to stand up for our needs and express our desires and make changes in our relationships. The moon, for the most part, influences our emotions. In certain phases of the moon, the predictions made through the study of astrological phenomena that would otherwise occur fail to happen, because our emotions do not produce the reactions to the astrological phenomena that would normally be expected. In other phases of the moon, astrological phenomena of planetary alignments and their effect on the Zodiac sun signs are not altered from their original reading. Makemake, like Pluto, shows a red hue in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The near-infrared spectrum is marked by the existence of the broad methane absorption bands--and methane has also been observed on Pluto. Spectral analysis of Makemake's surface shows that its methane must be present in the form of large grains that are at least one centimeter in size. In addition to methane, there appears to be large quantities of ethane and tholins as well as smaller quantities of ethylene, acetylene, and high-mass alkanes (like propane)--most likely formed as a result of the photolysis of methane by solar radiation. The tholins are thought to be the source of the red color of the visible spectrum. Even though there is some evidence for the existence of nitrogen ice on Makemake's frozen surface, at least combined with other ices, it is probably not close to the same abundance of nitrogen seen on Pluto and on Triton. Triton is a large moon of the planet Neptune that sports a retrograde orbit indicating that it is a captured object. Many astronomers think that Triton is a wandering refugee from the Kuiper Belt that was captured by the gravity of its large, gaseous planet. It is possible that eventually the doomed Triton will plunge into the immense, deep blue world that it has circled for so long as an adopted member of its family. Nitrogen accounts for more than 98 percent of the crust of both Pluto and Triton. The relative lack of nitrogen ice on Makemake hints that its supply of nitrogen has somehow been depleted over the age of our Solar System.