From: Mark Zellmer, South Coast Geological
Society - 9/10/03
Re: Request for References
Dear Dr. Peterson, / I attended your presentation to the South Coast
Geological Society on 9/8/03. "
Atmospheres
and Oceans of the Terrestrial Planets" sparked my curiosity and I
have decided to write a term paper on the subject. I would really
appreciate a list of references you used in putting your talk together.
Also, if you have any paper published on this subject, they would be
useful as well. Thank you. / Mark Zellmar (@csulb)
Comment: I get a lot of requests such as this. The literature on
this subject is widely scattered throughout 3
or 4 sciences plus a lot is on the internet. The composition of the
talk and the thought processes involved is an original construction
and I have not published it as yet.
From: Vicki A. Pedone, Geological
Sciences Department, CSU Northridge - 9/23/03
Re: Spring talk at CSUN?
dear gary: / dick squires passed along your email to
me. i met with the chair of physics and he is interested in sponsoring
a joint talk, perhaps opening it to a college of S&M/sigma xi
event. we are particularly interested in the atmospheres and oceans
talk.
april would be the best month for our departments. might you be able
to come to northridge during this month? let me know and, if so, we can
start arranging the details. thanks, vicki
Comment: I love talking to large mixed groups
such as presented in this proposal. Let's hope it will work out.
From: Roland Kawakami, University of
California, Riverside (Physics) - 10/06/03
Re: Thank you note for "
Atmospheres
and Oceans of the Terrestrial Planets" colloquium.
Gary, / Thank you very much for coming to UC Riverside. My colleagues
really enjoyed your talk. It was a big hit. /
... / Best, Roland
Comment: The UCR Physics Colloquium was a highlight of the
year, without question. It was the first talk of the new quarter, the
room was full, the audience was receptive and the question/discussion
period went on for 45 minutes with very few people leaving. Everything
came together for a wonderful experience. For the first time, I
applauded the audience as they applauded me.
From: Ashley McDermott, Astronomical
Society of the Desert - 12/17/03
Re: Note regarding "
Mercury:
The Forgotten Planet" talk at ASOD Meeting.
Dear Gary,
... Your presentation on Mercury was one of the
best, and was extremely well received. We hope to have you return some
time in the Fall of the coming year, with yet another show from "The
Independent Planetologist." / I remain, very sincerely yours / Ashley
From: Jin-Li Yu, University of
California, Irvine (Earth System Science) - 1/15/04
Re: Reply to note regarding UCI visit and "
Atmospheres
and Oceans of the Terrestrial Planets" Seminar.
Gary, / I am glad to know you have talked to Prof. Rowland. I will
certainly pass your message to him when I talk to him. Thanks for
coming to our department to give a talk. Please come back to visit UCI
sometime. / Best, Jin-Yi
Comment: When I give talks I have no idea who 99%
of the people in the audiences are. In this particular instance, an
older gentleman sat two rows back and to my left and listened
attentatively. After the talk, we had a pleasant conversation lasting
several minutes and I thanked him for his comments. I later found out
he was Professor F. Sherwood Rowland, 1995 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.
The next day I sent Jin-Yi Yu (in charge of seminar) a note saying I
felt very honored to have Professor Rowland attend my seminar and I
hoped he enjoyed the ideas presented. The above note was returned by
Professor Yu. Actually, I feel very honored to have all members of an
audience attend my talks, but having a Nobel Laureate sitting in the
audience is probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I feel rather
humble, but it's a nice feeling.
From: Dave Heraper, Ventura County
Astronomical Society - 1/16/04
Re: Note regarding "
Mercury:
The Forgotten Planet" talk.
Thank you for the awesome presentation and discussion you gave at the
Ventura County Astronomical Society meeting. The images were excellent
and I loved the way you compared and contrasted the situations on
Mercury with those occurring on the Earth and Moon. /
... /
Thanks again for such an intriguing and thought provoking presentation.
/ Respectfully, Dave Heraper
Comment: The break in the above message had to do
with several lengthly questions and answers which I handled with email.
It was too long to be included here. The VCAS, by the way, is one of my
favorites for visiting. This group always provides a hearty response.
From: Jack MacEachern, Ventura County
Astronomical Society - 2/04/04
Re: Nuclear reactor at Earth's core.
Hello Dr. Peterson, / I spoke to you at the Ventura County
Astronomical Society meeting last month and mentioned that there was
a scientist proposing that there might be a large natural fission
reactor
at the earth's core that may explain certain geophysical phenomena. /
These are links to two articles on him, Dr. J. Marvin Herndon, who
coincidentally also lives in San Diego. One of the articles is the one
I mentioned from the August 2002 issue of Discover magazine. The other
is a UPI science story
from March of 2003. / I hope to see you at the February Orange County
Astronomers
meeting and hear your reaction to these articles. / Regards / Jack
MacEachern
http://www.discover.com/issues/aug-02/cover/
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030327-042137-9414r
Comment: Interesting ideas here. I'd like to discuss this topic
with Dr. Herndon in a comparative planetology context.
From: Mark Hanning-Lee, Orange County
Astromoners - 2/14/04
Re: Note regarding "
Atmospheres
and Oceans of the Terrestrial Planets" talk.
I attended last night & enjoyed your talk to OCA. / Suggestions: /
1: Publicize your work on the active site
http://www.astrobio.net/ ; they
would be interested. / 2: In future presentations, you can express the
rate of loss of ocean as 1 millimeter per millennium or other terms?
That is more catchy than 0.0007 mm / year, and people do not get
confused trying to count the zeros after the decimal point! / Best
Wishes, Mark
From: Barbara Toy, President - Orange
County Astronomers - 2/15/04
Re: Note of thanks for "
Atmospheres
and Oceans of the Terrestrial Planets" talk.
Hi, Gary - / Thanks again for a really wonderful talk. I had several
people ask me where you were during the break, as they definitely
wanted to talk to you further - I sent them up to the snack area,
thinking you might have gone up there to get something to drink and
gotten nabbed by folks up there, which seemed to be the case. At any
rate, I noticed that you were on the upper level and still had quite a
group around you at the end of the break - thanks for staying on to
talk to people! / Both after the meeting and at the star party tonight
people were talking about your theory, and we had quite a discussion
going about it tonight. A
number of people told me that it was one of the best and most
thought-provoking talks we've had. Thanks so much for sharing it all
with us - and I heard several people express hope that you'll return
next year with your thoughts and observations based on the data
currently being collected on Mars. That's something we'd also be very
interested in hearing! / Thanks again! / Barbara Toy / OCA President
Comment: Astronomical societies are my favorite places to
speak, and with an audience of about 250 the OCA meeting it was just
overwhelming! I tried to make it to the refreshment area but failed.
Once I stopped to answer one person's question I was surrounded and
pinned back into a corner in the balcony and the questions and
discussion went on and on. Altogether, my talk started at a few minutes
after 8:00 and I
didn't exit the building until close to 10:30. Fun experience!
From: Dave Radosevich, Vice President
- Orange
County Astronomers - 2/16/04
Re: Note regarding "
Atmospheres
and Oceans of the Terrestrial Planets" talk.
Hello Gary, / Wow! What a fantastic topic. / All folks I talked to
after the meeting were impressed and enjoyed your talk. / On behalf of
the OCA, we thank you for bringing such an interesting topic to us and
allowing us to share in yet another interesting facet of astronomy. We
look forward to having you again, as your topics fit very well with
our audience. / Again, thanks.. / Dave Radosevich, OCA Vice President
From: Phil Sanders, unknown location
- 2/22/04
Re: Note regarding John E. Sanders in "
Visiting
Speaker Hall of Fame" section.
Gary: / I just read your tribute to my dad, John E Sanders, on
your internet page "The Independent Planetologist." On behalf of his
family, thanks. He passed away in the fall of 1999. / Phil Sanders
From: Steve Short, Orange County
Astronomers - 2/24/04
Re: Note regarding "
Atmospheres
and Oceans of the Terrestrial Planets" talk.
Hello Dr. Peterson, / I enjoyed your recent presentation at the Orange
County Astronomers meeting and speaking with you afterwards. Just
thought you would like to know that the latest issue of National
Geographics has a page labeled "Dust in Space" supporting your theory
that the planet
Earth gets bigger every year by collecting about 40,000 tons of space
dust.
/ The article also mentions that the most common elements found in
space
are hydrogen & helium which supports your theory that ocean water
hydrogen
is escaping from planets. I like your theories and believe they are
well
supported by scientific evidence. / Keep up the good work. / Steve
Short
From: Jack Holden, Omak, Washington -
3/06/04
Re: Note from old friend.
Hello Gary, / Was over at friend's last night and their computer was
activated. Recognized your likeness immediately on "The Independent
Planetologist" and read all about Nate and me of years past. / Just
about ready to finish "Geology of the Solar System" at the local
community college. Used "
The New Solar System" by J. Kelly
Beatty (ed.) 1999. Really a good update on current knowledge of
planetology. (But a lot of work making it make sense to the
students...)
... / Jack
Comment: Jack appears in the
Paying
Homage section of this site.
From: Ron & Anna Winship, Newport
Beach, CA - 3/10/04
Re: Our Evaporating Planetary Water
Dr. Gary Peterson, / After watching our local City Council meeting we
were treated to a program by you for Orange County Astronomers....on
our local cable channel - where you discussed the evaporation of water
from our
planet. It was captivating! Rarely does science theory meet the
criteria of logical consequences. / We were taken by your estimation
that 6/10th of
a micron of water was the annual lost without comets adding water
(note: Actually,
in excess of comets adding water). We must say as Engineers for the
Appollo
program in the 60's - that the evaporation should be geometrically
accelerating....due to the rate of mass reduction. / As you have
observed when water evaporates from a flat plate....as the mass of
water is diminished the evaporation
rate apparently increases. So, we suppose your estimation that 1
billion
years of water is left on the planet may be grossly over bid - unless
you
considered that in your equation. Heat x mass of planet minus mass of
water
equals evaporation rate. / At any rate - we have no idea about what we
are
talking about here....only that you certainly accomplished your mission
- of making people think about this fascinating issue! You may be
interested
to view our program about DNA which we filmed at San Diego State last
year.
/ Thank you so much, / Ron & Anna Winship / producers /
www.cuttingedge-atalkshow.com
Comment: Hmmmmm. The Orange County Astronomers taped the "
Atmospheres
and Oceans..." talk and said they might submit it to a consort of
Public Access Channels. Evidently they were successful. I haven't seen
the program as yet. This talk certainly gets good results wherever it
goes.
From: Chris Butler, Orange County
Astronomers - 3/14/04
Re: Comments regarding a 'Thank You' note I sent to the OCA for
supplying me with a DVD of my "Atmospheres and Oceans..." talk.
Dear Dr. Peterson, / Thanks for the kind words regarding the Whats Up;
I always enjoy your talks, and you hold the record for the number of
interesting ideas introduced in a single presentation - no small feat,
given the times John Dobson has started out to prove Einstein dead
wrong! I find your ideas very intriguiging, and would like to discuss
them more in the future. /
...
/ Regards, / Chris Butler
Comment: Chris Butler presents the "What's Up" part of the OCA
meeting program. All Southern California astronomical societies have
this
component at their meetings, but Chris is a master at it and gives the
audience
a rollicking good presentation. Chris is one of many factors making the
OCA meetings an enjoyable place to speak. Check out his
website.
From: Chan Marshall, New York City -
3/22/04
Re: E-mail note from an internet friend.
sweet site...just had a quick look...a cosmic person I see...love the
lil pic of you on the homepage ((*-*)) << she did too. / C
Comment: Chan is a musician recording as
Cat
Power. Wonderful
music.
