Contrabang! #21 Enceladus Again

This will be an easy week, since Starts With A Bang! only generate three articles. We'll look at two of them.

This Is Why Time Has To Be A Dimension (link)

I'd hoped to critique this article but could't find any major technical or logical mistakes. My one bone is a statement from the concluding paragraph.

If time weren’t a dimension with the exact properties it possesses, special relativity would be invalid, and we could not construct spacetime to describe our Universe. We need time to be a dimension inextricable from space for physics to work the way it does.

Well, perhaps spacetime does not describe our universe. While some evidence is tough to shake off, such as gravitational bending measured by astronomers, other aspects of spacetime go beyond absurd, such as dark energy theory. There is still much we don't understand. There is still plenty of opportunity for spacetime to be thrown out of physics like the universal ether of yore. So when Ethan argues that time must be equivalent to a spacial dimensions in order for special relativity to hold, it is if anything an argument that challenges special relativity.

Happy 230th Birthday, Enceladus, Our Solar System’s Greatest Hope For Life Beyond Earth (link)

By sheer serendipity, we happened to discuss Enceladus in last week's edition.

From the electric universe perspective, all the strange features of Saturn are explained by the strong electrical activity of the planet: the rings, the heating, and the hexagonal atmospheric vortex (see here). Even the jets of Saturn's moon Enceladus are said to be the work of electric currents, similar to those that power the Earth's aurora, but stronger. Mainstream scientists believe the jets must be conventional geysers, thus they hint at a large subterranean ocean on the planet that could even support life. The life angle is beneficial. While the well-funded researchers won't spend money to confirm unconventional theories, they will be compelled to further explore any areas where life is postulated to be possible. We expect that any future exploration of Enceladus and other moons with jets (like Jupiter's Io) will indicate a cold, icy surface being etched away by electrical discharges.

Ethan is promoting the same "life angle" that I said would be indirectly beneficial. That is, a mission to find evidence of life on Enceladus is likely to reveal deep misunderstandings about the moon.

The standard model today is that Enceladus, the most reflective object in the solar system and thus one of the coldest, harbors a saltwater ocean under a crust of ice which is warmed by tidal action from Saturn. After it was discovered that the jets were emitting large amounts of molecular hydrogen, undersea volcanic vents were added to the model, as seen in this depiction from NASA.

While scientists would not expect the small, icy moon to to hold liquid oceans or display volcanic activity, those inclinations have been put aside to support the geyser theory of the Enceladus's south pole jets. I would predict that, if a mission is ever sent to explore them, it will find that the ejected material is being source from the surface itself, not from underneath.