Pluto Data Structure Output

This is one possible output from running this program.

FORMATION////////////

waves of energy flowing through the universe press together clouds of dust and gas

gravity forms
(gravity=1)

because of gravity the materials start to spin and flatten out
(protoplanetary_disk=1)

the center collapes in on itself forming a proto star
(proto_star=1)

gravity in outer protoplanetary_disk pulls solar wind blown gas and dust together forming pluto

(boo yah!)

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ATTEMPTING TO CLEAR NEIGHBORHOOD AND BECOME A PLANET///////////////

oops, not enough gravity, NOT A PLANET
(pluto’s gravitational acceleration is 0.660571 meters per second squared!)

********************

ORBIT////////////////

1 pluto year is equal to 248 earth years

during that time it travels in a range from:
4.44 billon kilometers from the sun at its closest
to
7.38 billion kilometers from the sun at its farthest

currently it is
7.38 billion kilometers from the sun (distance psuedo random generated)

pluto’s orbital plane is at a 17 degree angle compared with the rest of the solar system

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TEMPERATURE//////////

it’s really cold on pluto. depending on how far it is from the sun, pluto’s temperature ranges from a low of:
-400 Fahrenheit
to a high of:
-360 Fahrenheit

based on pluto’s current distance the temperature now is around:
-400 Fahrenheit

********************

ATMOSPHERE///////////

pluto’s atomosphere is made up of nitrogen, methane, and carbon_monoxide, and changes depending on the temperature.

currently the temperature is so low that pluto’s atmosphere froze and fell to the surface as snow.

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MATERIALS////////////

pluto is made of about 65% rock and 35% ice.

the surface is frozen and continues to change as the temperature changes. it is comprised of mostly nitrogen ice, along with methane and carbon monoxide frost, with water ice underneath. there is potassium below the surface as well.

pluto’s mass is 1.309e+22 kilograms

pluto’s radius is 1150 kilometers (about 718 miles)

pluto’s diameter is 7222 kilometers (about 4513 miles)

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OCEAN////////////////

potassium is radioactive, it could melt the water below the surface if there is enough of it. but there’s no ocean right now, just ICE!

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Pluto – Music of the Spheres – Dream, Vision, Goal, Plan

Dream – Create an expression of the harmony and tension present within and without. The vibrations that push, pull, intermingle. Destruction, regeneration. Cycles of change. Washes of experience, being. Ebbs, flows. Waxing, waning. Resonances, gravity, buoyancy. Stability, chaos. Harmonic consonance and dissonance. Pluto as a vehicle, its interaction with its surroundings the map, in the form of the music of the spheres.

Vision – Pluto’s qualities of destruction and regeneration, along with the proportional harmonies and dissonances alluded to in the Music of the Spheres will be represented in the form of a large scale acoustic musical installation. The installation is a large sphere built out of musical instruments strings. The sphere is large enough that people can walk inside of it, and through the spaces in the strings. Each string has an electromagnet on it that vibrates the string and moves a little to touch the string at times, creating different resonances. People inside can just listen and be surrounded by the vibrating strings, or they can reach out and pluck the strings, actively participating with the installation.

Goal – My goal for this semester at ITP is to build, at the very least, a smaller version of this, if not the full one. The plan is to string different lengths of piano wire and possibly guitar string from floor to ceiling, with shorter strings on the outside, and getting longer as the strings get closer to the center. Each string will have a homemade eBow up near the top. An eBow is a device that has a telephone pickup that picks up the frequency the string is vibrating at, and then an output transformer that vibrates the string at the same frequency the telephone coil is picking up, creating a feedback loop. These will be on a servo so at times they can touch the strings and create further interesting resonances. The strings will not vibrate all at the same time, but different harmonies will emerge from time to time, and move around and through the structure. At times consonant, at times dissonant, these harmonies will reflect the continually changing states of stability and chaos present throughout the universe, the world, and us.

Plan – Research how to build eBow, order parts, build, iterate. Design full installation, keep iterating. Build one string, figure out structure then apply to all strings. Build all.
Mile Stones:

  • October 15th – have built eBow circuit, have tested on single string
  • October 29th – have built and finished design for one string
  • November 5th – have finished iterating on overall design, time to just iterate on building it all out!
  • December 3rd – finished most of the installation, tweak problems, document
  • December 10th – done!

Pluto – gravity waves

In my research I started reading about gravity waves, and saw a picture of a capillary wave (which is a type of gravity wave). Capillary waves are the little ripples we see in water, say when we throw a pebble into a calm lake. I like the idea of how Pluto’s surface and atmosphere are continuously undergoing changes, undulating with waves, sort of the embodiment of its destruction/regeneration astrological quality. I decided to make a rough interactive Pluto sketch where it’s surface/atmosphere could move like water. As the planet rotates you can use your mouse to make waves on the surface. You can download the app here to try out. The app was made with Cinder. Here are some pics:

plutowaves5

plutowave4

plutowaves3

plutowaves2

plutowaves1

pluto6

Interviews – Pluto

I’ve interviewed three people so far in my quest for Plutonian knowledge.

The first was Aaron Taylor Kuffner, creator of the Gamelatron, an amazing robotic set of Gamelan percussion instruments (bells, gongs, etc.). I recently attended Burning Man where, in the Burning Man Temple, a Gamelatron was set up. There were instruments all over, up in the rafters, on the walls, all around the people inside. For most of the time, a gong wold sound every now and again, or a bell would chime, but every so often a rhythm would start, and a song would unfold. It had peaks and troughs and dynamics, and was truly inspiring to hear. It definitely influenced me in my direction with this proposal: I want to create an immersive sound composition such as that. So I decided to contact him. He was in Hong Kong but happily replied to my questions via email. We talked mainly about how he composes for such a format. For the Burning Man installation he had an 8-hour composition, that just continued looping. He composed it all himself, it was non-generative. His style of composition seems to be to improvise with the Gamelatron via a midi controller, and record those MIDI values to trigger the instruments later. He also explained how, using varying sizes of capacitors, he could get solenoids to move hammers at various velocities, creating strikes of varying volumes, pretty neat!

The second was astrologer Jonathan Robarts. He went into detail about the duality of destruction and regeneration which is at the heart of Pluto astrologically. The destruction is something that has to happen in order for regeneration to occur. He added “Psychologically, it is about the transformation of what is hidden, disassociated and pertaining to one’s shadow into awareness and new life.” I asked him about how Pluto is interpreted in other traditions of astrology. There are two main branches of astrology, Western and Vedic, according to Robarts. Both now accept Pluto, but traditional Vedic astrologers still do not, because the ancients had no idea that Pluto existed (it was discovered in 1930). Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet in 2006 and now is seen as one of tens of thousands of objects in the Kuiper belt. However, it still is considered a strong influential astrological body. I asked Jonathan why this was, and why don’t other, even larger bodies, become accepted in astrology and he said “good question!”

The third interview was with a post-doc astro-physicist turned climate science researcher at Cal-Tech named Peter Kalmus. I interviewed him by email as well, and he was not very elaborate with answers, at one point saying he was too busy to really answer my questions and that I could learn just as much by reading Wikipedia. I asked him about gravity waves, gravitational waves, what are they?? He had studied both, one as an astro-physicist and the other as a climate scientist. Gravitational waves are little ripples in space-time that no one has been able to detect yet. Basically space gets longer in one direction and then pulls back in the other direction, creating waves. Gravity waves, on the other hand, are important in climate science. They are intermediate scale phenomena that transport energy in the atmosphere. I asked him why it is important that we can see gravity waves on Pluto? He said that people tend to think that each little piece of knowledge that we gather will accumulate into greater and greater combined pieces of knowledge, and that great achievements can be made, but that it was seemingly doing little good, since we cannot take care of our planet and are making the environment we depend on toxic.