I know some of you have been wondering about what ever happened to the Earth Mark I and Orpheus textures for Franks Celestia Educational Projects.
Being that I just can't seem t find the earlier version I posted pictures of, I decided to work on an alternative version I had. I never posted pictures of this version. But in the end I think it is a better choice for the project. Here are a few pictures of the texture loaded in Celestia.
For those of you that don't what this is about or what Orpheus was here is a quick explanation.
Some 4 billion years ago it is now believed that the moon was created from the collision of a rogue planetary body that was about the size of Mars. This rogue planet has been given the name of Orpheus. Now this rogue planet didn?€™t hit the first version of Earth which is considered Earth Mark I head on but instead side glanced it. This first collision sent a large mass of material into Earth Mark I?€™s orbit. But Orpheus now being captured by Earth?€™s gravity was pulled back for yet another glancing blow. This blow merged most of what was left of Orpheus with the Earth and more material was sent into orbit. Most of this material fell back to the New Earth fairly quickly. But some of it stayed in orbit and gradually started to gravitate together and form the embryonic moon. Once all the material was swept up we were left with a single moon one quarter the size of the Earth. It is also believed that if this collision would not have happened that the planet we know as Earth would have been a very different place. We and most forms of life might not even be here. With out the Moons stabilizing effects on the Earth orbit life would have had a much more difficult time getting started. It would have also had to deal with the Earth tumbling over itself as it orbits the sun. So this early tragedy and the destruction of the first version of Earth and the loss of Orpheus was really a good thing. There is also evidence that not only the Earth was hit by very large rogue bodies early on in the solar system. Venus also shows signs of a catastrophic collision that flipped it over on its north pole. There is evidence that Mercury is missing most of its crust and outer mantle. And finally there is Uranus, which seems to have had an encounter with an Earth size body early on in its life. The result was it being flipped onto its side. Of course some of this is pure speculation but there is strong evidence if you want to look for it.
Don. Edwards
I am sorry about the delay. I had been holding out for Fridger's code but that was not to be.