Google Earth has a most excellent plug-in for exoplanet fans - a plugin for the sky view that displays the over 200 explanets discovered so far:
<http://services.google.com/earth/kmz/exo_planets_n.kmz>
You'll need to first download Google Earth to use it (version 5.0 at the time of writing this post). If you do not already have Google Earth, you can download it at:
<http://earth.google.com/>
Enjoy!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Alien solstice
In a Christmas post last year (Christmas on Omicron Persei 8), I wondered about how aliens would celebrate a solstice on their planet.
Another question is if there is one God, surely He would be interested in all of His spiritual children ("other children have I"....?), and if so, would He then visit other planets? How would He visit them? Would we recognize that He did in their religious texts and stories?
I leave you to ponder such questions during this holiday season - though for us, what is important is our own here and now: have a happy and safe holiday season.
For life on other planets, I wonder how they would treat a solstice on their planet? To be high level sentient does one have to be a pattern seeker, to look for the meaning and/or reasons for the patterns? If so, then such sentient beings would see the pattern of solstice and equinox as even our distant ancestors did (from even before Stonehenge) and work to apply a meaning or reason to the pattern (for to find meaning or reason is to find purpose and to be able to make predictions, and maybe even gain some control over - or at least the illusion/delusion of some control).However, I am making an assumption - that while for humans have shown a great interest in marking solstices and equinoxes from prehistoric times, an alien mind, on the other-hand, may not place any special or theological meaning to such cyclical patterns as a solstice or an equinox. Solstice may not mean squat to them, and they would be confused by our making such a big deal out of it. For them, if they have religion, their religious mind set may have them find other patterns to be special and worthy of note. Maybe they place the birth of their god in the middle of Spring, between a solstice or an equinox. Maybe their sun isn't important to them (a blind species, or a species that lives under the ice - getting their energy from thermal vents and not the sun, or a subterranean species...). Maybe they have two or three suns and the special days are more complicated and arrive less often.
This, of course, depends on many factors which would affect the severity, or the placidity, of annual weather patterns. Is the planet in a very circular orbit, or a somewhat elliptical one? Is the planet close to its star, and thus with a very short year? Is the planet actually a large habitable moon circling a gas giant? Is there a virtually non-existent tilt to its axis or it is a large tilt? And what of these combined?
Another question is if there is one God, surely He would be interested in all of His spiritual children ("other children have I"....?), and if so, would He then visit other planets? How would He visit them? Would we recognize that He did in their religious texts and stories?
I leave you to ponder such questions during this holiday season - though for us, what is important is our own here and now: have a happy and safe holiday season.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Updates polls, links
Finally back from my vacation and ready to jump back into this blog. I've updated the exoplanet links and replaced the old poll with a new one. You can go to Polls to see the archived results of past polls.
The results of the last poll was interesting - at least to me. As much as I am deeply interested in the search for exoplanets and the discovery of alien life, I am conservative when it comes to the matter of contacting any alien civilization. Should we purposefully beam messages to the stars? For me there is a hesitation as there are possible risks involved that need to be kept in mind. But 85% of those responding to the poll said they thought we should purposefully beam messages to the stars. I would love to hear why you all believe we should.
The results of the last poll was interesting - at least to me. As much as I am deeply interested in the search for exoplanets and the discovery of alien life, I am conservative when it comes to the matter of contacting any alien civilization. Should we purposefully beam messages to the stars? For me there is a hesitation as there are possible risks involved that need to be kept in mind. But 85% of those responding to the poll said they thought we should purposefully beam messages to the stars. I would love to hear why you all believe we should.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Another Image of an Exoplanet
Click photo to enlarge. Credit: NASA, ESA, P. Kalas, J. Graham, E. Chiang, E. Kite (University of California, Berkeley), M. Clampin (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), M. Fitzgerald (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), and K. Stapelfeldt and J. Krist (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
Reference:
"Hubble Directly Observes A Planet Orbiting Another Star." Science News. ScienceDaily. 13 Nov. 2008. Web. 21 Nov. 2008. <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081113151456.htm>.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
First confirmed images of exoplanets
Gemini and Keck observatory astronomers, using adaptive optics, have taken the first photos of confirmed exoplanets. Readers may recall the First Picture of an Extrasolar Planet! post Oct 3, also from Gemini Observatory - but that one is yet to be confirmed to be a planet. Three planets were confirmed. The planets in the photo to the right, taken by the Gemini Observatory, are two super Jupiters circling the star HR 8799 located 130 light-years away in the Pegasus constellation. The planets are circling 40 and 70 AUs from the central star. Astronomers at the Keck II Observatory discovered the third planet, circling 25 AUs away. HR 8799 is a very young star about 1.5x the mass of the Sun, and 5x brighter. The planets were probably formed 60 million years ago, far too young for life. But in the future...
Which raises an interesting thought. Far into the Earth's future, whatever sentient life form is the dominant species at the time, may have to abandon the Earth as the Sun expands and boils away the Earth's atmosphere and oceans. The planet may have to be abandoned - by then if there are any Earth-sized planets or Earth-sized moons circling the gas giants of HR 8799, they will be old enough to be hospitable for life. Future Earthlings may have to abandon this solar system for another. It would be probably easiest to colonize/terraform a planet that is ready for life, but on which life has yet to establish itself or has yet to firmly establish itself. That way the Earthlings can form the planet to their needs. This would, thus, have to begin some time before the Earth needs to be abandoned. 130 light-years is quite a distance away, but for a technologically advanced civilization that is desperate, very desperate, it could be done. Even if it was by robots including robotic ships that carried suspended genetic material to seed not only Earth life, but whoever the sentient life form is (we hope it will still be humans).
References:
"Gemini Releases Historic Discovery Image of Planetary 'First Family.'" Gemni Observatory. 13 Nov. 2008. Web. 20 Nov. 2008. <http://www.gemini.edu/threeplanetspr>.
"First Picture of Likely Planet around Sun-like Star." Gemini Observatory. 15 Sept. 2008. Web. 5 Oct. 2008. <http://www.gemini.edu/node/11126>.
"Planetary First Family Images." Gemini Observatory. 13 Nov. 2008. Web. 20 Nov. 2008. <http://www.gemini.edu/node/11150>.
Which raises an interesting thought. Far into the Earth's future, whatever sentient life form is the dominant species at the time, may have to abandon the Earth as the Sun expands and boils away the Earth's atmosphere and oceans. The planet may have to be abandoned - by then if there are any Earth-sized planets or Earth-sized moons circling the gas giants of HR 8799, they will be old enough to be hospitable for life. Future Earthlings may have to abandon this solar system for another. It would be probably easiest to colonize/terraform a planet that is ready for life, but on which life has yet to establish itself or has yet to firmly establish itself. That way the Earthlings can form the planet to their needs. This would, thus, have to begin some time before the Earth needs to be abandoned. 130 light-years is quite a distance away, but for a technologically advanced civilization that is desperate, very desperate, it could be done. Even if it was by robots including robotic ships that carried suspended genetic material to seed not only Earth life, but whoever the sentient life form is (we hope it will still be humans).
References:
"Gemini Releases Historic Discovery Image of Planetary 'First Family.'" Gemni Observatory. 13 Nov. 2008. Web. 20 Nov. 2008. <http://www.gemini.edu/threeplanetspr>.
"First Picture of Likely Planet around Sun-like Star." Gemini Observatory. 15 Sept. 2008. Web. 5 Oct. 2008. <http://www.gemini.edu/node/11126>.
"Planetary First Family Images." Gemini Observatory. 13 Nov. 2008. Web. 20 Nov. 2008. <http://www.gemini.edu/node/11150>.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Life Outside the "Zone."
As I've stated in earlier posts, I support the idea that extrasolar life may be readily found outside the traditional "Habitable Zone" or the "Goldilocks" zone around a star - the band of space around a star that is neither too cold nor too warm for liquid water to exist. This is too simplistic. Liquid water can be found outside this zone - mainly on moons circling large planets. The tidal forces of the planet on the moon can cause the moon to heat up through internal friction. This is especially true if the moon is in an elongated orbit.
How does this work? This is due to the fact that gravity decreases with distance and the gravitational pull on the near side of the moon is greater than the gravitational pull on the far side. For a moon in a circular orbit, the moon will adjust its shape to adapt to this gravitational differential, and no tidal heating will occur. But for a moon in an eccentric orbit, the gravitational differential will change rhythmically, and the moon will be kneaded like a lump of bread dough (OK, a bit of an exaggeration). This will heat a moon even if it is outside of the solar system's main habitable zone. This increases the areas in a solar system where life can form.
Recent research by Brian Jackson, Rory Barnes, and Richard Greenberg of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory extends this idea to planets (this research will be published in an upcoming issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society). Most extrasolar planets found to date circle their stars in elongated orbits. Like a moon circling a large planet, these planets circling a large star in elongated orbits will experience tidal stress, which will cause internal heating and possibly tectonic activity. This internal heating may be enough to warm the planet to where liquid water can exist even when the planet's orbit takes it outside of its star's traditionally defined Habitable Zone.
However, because the tidal heating scales with the size of the planet, for "super-Earths," terrestrial planets 2 to 10 times the size of the Earth, the tidal heating would be too great to make the planet habitable - the planet may become too hot, with many large active volcanoes.
But for Earth-sized or smaller terrestrial planets that would otherwise be too small or too cold to support life, this type of tidal heating may help them become habitable by not only warming them up so that liquid water can exist but also by causing tectonic activity which may help life to arise. Some scientists feel that the Moon was essential to the origin of life on the Earth due to the tidal mixing which helped to mix, mainly from erosion caused by the tides, chemicals from the soil with the oceans, creating the chemical soup from which life arose. The tidal forces of a star on planet in an elongated orbit may have the same result. In addition, tectonic activity helps regulate carbon dioxide.
Therefore, I believe that the famous Drake Equation may be a bit too conservative. The number of planets (or moons!) that potentially can support life may be higher than first thought.
Reference:
"Tides have major impact on planet habitability." Astronomy. Kalmbach Publishing Co. 14 Oct. 2008. Web. 31 Oct. 2008. Provided by the Div. for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. <http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=7505>.
How does this work? This is due to the fact that gravity decreases with distance and the gravitational pull on the near side of the moon is greater than the gravitational pull on the far side. For a moon in a circular orbit, the moon will adjust its shape to adapt to this gravitational differential, and no tidal heating will occur. But for a moon in an eccentric orbit, the gravitational differential will change rhythmically, and the moon will be kneaded like a lump of bread dough (OK, a bit of an exaggeration). This will heat a moon even if it is outside of the solar system's main habitable zone. This increases the areas in a solar system where life can form.
Recent research by Brian Jackson, Rory Barnes, and Richard Greenberg of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory extends this idea to planets (this research will be published in an upcoming issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society). Most extrasolar planets found to date circle their stars in elongated orbits. Like a moon circling a large planet, these planets circling a large star in elongated orbits will experience tidal stress, which will cause internal heating and possibly tectonic activity. This internal heating may be enough to warm the planet to where liquid water can exist even when the planet's orbit takes it outside of its star's traditionally defined Habitable Zone.
However, because the tidal heating scales with the size of the planet, for "super-Earths," terrestrial planets 2 to 10 times the size of the Earth, the tidal heating would be too great to make the planet habitable - the planet may become too hot, with many large active volcanoes.
But for Earth-sized or smaller terrestrial planets that would otherwise be too small or too cold to support life, this type of tidal heating may help them become habitable by not only warming them up so that liquid water can exist but also by causing tectonic activity which may help life to arise. Some scientists feel that the Moon was essential to the origin of life on the Earth due to the tidal mixing which helped to mix, mainly from erosion caused by the tides, chemicals from the soil with the oceans, creating the chemical soup from which life arose. The tidal forces of a star on planet in an elongated orbit may have the same result. In addition, tectonic activity helps regulate carbon dioxide.
Therefore, I believe that the famous Drake Equation may be a bit too conservative. The number of planets (or moons!) that potentially can support life may be higher than first thought.
Reference:
"Tides have major impact on planet habitability." Astronomy. Kalmbach Publishing Co. 14 Oct. 2008. Web. 31 Oct. 2008. Provided by the Div. for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. <http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=7505>.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Possible First Picture of an Extrasolar Planet!
What you are looking at in the upper left hand corner of the image is quite possibly the first photo of an extrasolar planet. The young hot planet is about eight times the mass of Jupiter, orbiting about 330 A.U.s from the very young (approximately 5 million years old) Sun-like central star 1RXS J160929.1-210524 (located 500 light-years from the Earth). 330 A.U.s is 11 times the distance of Neptune's orbit around our Sun (1 A.U. is the distance of the Earth from the Sun).
Because the young planet is orbiting so far away, it's presence is a challenge to planetary formation theories. This may indicate that there may be more than one means of planetary formation, and that, thus, there will be an even greater variety of solar systems than first thought (which may also mean a greater variety of worlds for life to evolve on).
Next on the agenda is to see if the possible planet is actually gravitationally tied to the star. This will take two years to determine.
The University of Toronto astronomers (David Lafrenière, Ray Jayawardhana, Marten H. van Kerkwijk) who discovered this planetary object using the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawai‘i, viewed the extrasolar system in the near-infrared range using adaptive optics technology to reduce distortions from air turbulence.
The star is a very young K7 type star, 85% the mass of our Sun. Being young and very hot, it is also very large. The planet is also very hot, about 11.25 times hotter (Jupiter is about -110ºC, while this planet is at around 1500 ºC).
Reference:
"First Picture of Likely Planet around Sun-like Star." Gemni Observatory. 15 Sept. 2008. Web. 5 Oct. 2008. <http://www.gemini.edu/node/11126>.
Because the young planet is orbiting so far away, it's presence is a challenge to planetary formation theories. This may indicate that there may be more than one means of planetary formation, and that, thus, there will be an even greater variety of solar systems than first thought (which may also mean a greater variety of worlds for life to evolve on).
Next on the agenda is to see if the possible planet is actually gravitationally tied to the star. This will take two years to determine.
The University of Toronto astronomers (David Lafrenière, Ray Jayawardhana, Marten H. van Kerkwijk) who discovered this planetary object using the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawai‘i, viewed the extrasolar system in the near-infrared range using adaptive optics technology to reduce distortions from air turbulence.
The star is a very young K7 type star, 85% the mass of our Sun. Being young and very hot, it is also very large. The planet is also very hot, about 11.25 times hotter (Jupiter is about -110ºC, while this planet is at around 1500 ºC).
Reference:
"First Picture of Likely Planet around Sun-like Star." Gemni Observatory. 15 Sept. 2008. Web. 5 Oct. 2008. <http://www.gemini.edu/node/11126>.
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