Planetary geologist Prof. Erik Asphaug has worked on Galileo and has been on the science teams of several past and planned missions to the Moon and other bodies. In the first half, he shared ideas about the formation of life starting 14 billion years ago, as well as took us on an astronomical tour of various objects in our solar system and beyond. According to Asphaug, a kind of celestial survival of the fittest has played out across galaxies as planetary bodies smashed into each other and eventually formed stabilized solar systems. In our home turf, around 4.6 billion years ago, the sun had just been born-- and initially, there were some 30 to 100 planets orbiting it, he estimated. This situation might have held for some time, he said, but over the next 100 million years, the planets would have collided with one another, and gobbled each other up, until we arrived at our current line-up.
Along those lines, Asphaug theorized that our Moon is composed of two moons that collided, with one that splatted against the other, like two snowballs. The physics could be thought of like a "pie in the face," he mused, with the second moon flattening like a pancake as it became what we call the Far Side, squashed into its position by the impact. He spoke about Titan, Saturn's moon, which is so large, in many ways it could be considered a planet. It has bodies of water the size of the Great Lakes and rain (made of methane and propane), and possibly contains radioactive elements which could give it a heat source. The gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn could be thought of like their own mini-solar systems in the way they attract many satellites around them, he added.
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Founder and CEO of Venture Management Consultants, Inc., a firm specializing in creating lean, high-performance work environments, John Murphy has worked with some of the world's leading organizations. In the latter half, he addressed how changing one's mindset can create opportunities and circumstances that some may say are nothing short of miraculous. Applying the teachings from A Course in Miracles to a business context, he presented a number of these approaches and principles. When many businesses troubleshoot, they often don't get to the root cause of a problem, and just deal with side effects, he noted.
By seeking to understand a situation rather than passing judgment, one can gain more clarity, he suggested. Citing Dr. David Hawkins' map of consciousness, he talked about calibrating the energetic frequencies of feelings, and how it takes courage to move into a love-based system that welcomes tolerance and acceptance. When people live in fear, especially collectively, "they fuel the very thing that they're afraid of," and this is like asking for more of it, he observed. Murphy shared four steps for inner peace: let be (be present), let go (removal of emotional baggage and distractions), let see (what the world appears like after letting go), and let flow (open to miraculous experiences). For more tips, check out his YouTube channel.
News segment guests: Lauren Weinstein, John M. Curtis