STS-125 Launch Webcast - 11 May 2009

The Coalition for Space Exploration invites you to participate in a live six-hour video Web cast of the STS-125 launch, the final shuttle mission to the Hubble Telescope, this Monday, May 11, from Spaceflight Now's Mission Status Center at the Kennedy Space Center. The Web cast will begin at 8:30 a.m. and liftoff is scheduled for 2:01 p.m. EDT.

During this last Hubble mission, the seven astronauts will renew, revive and restore the Hubble telescope. They will conduct five spacewalks to install and repair instruments and perform component replacements - all designed to keep this high-performance telescope functioning through 2014. Click here to view NASA's video on how they will accomplish this technical feat.

The live Web cast brings up-to-the-minute coverage to your computer or hand-held device, featuring veteran space broadcasters Miles O'Brien and David Waters. Special guest appearances include:

- Robert "Bob" Crippen, Coalition board member and former astronaut who served as pilot of first space shuttle mission and commanded three other flights

- Dean Acosta, 2009 Chairman, Coalition for Space Exploration

Tune in at www.spaceflightnow.org between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Follow the broadcasters and ask questions live via Twitter during the Web cast!

Reference:

"STS 125 Launch Webcast." Nasa News. Coalition for Space Exploration. 8 May 2009. Web. 10 May 2009. <http://www.spacecoalition.com/sts125_mail.cfm>

Trace Space Back to You

NASA has a nice site where you can find the answer to the question "have you ever wondered how space exploration impacts your daily life?" Visit <http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/nasacity/landing.htm> to find the answers.

Google Earth and Exoplanets

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!

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.

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).

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?

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.

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.

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.

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)

Yet another photo of an exoplanet - this one by the Hubble Space Telescope of a planet circling Fomalhaut 25 light years from Earth in the Piscis Australis constellation.. This is the first visible light photo (the previous photos of planets circling HR 8799 used infrared). The planet, Fomalhaut b, is estimated to less than three times Jupiter's mass and orbiting 10.7 billion miles (roughly 115 AUs) out from Fomalhaut; by comparison Pluto is 39.5 AUs from our Sun. A large dust ring surrounds Fomalhaut, and astronomers theorized that since the ring was offset from the star, with a sharp inner edge - evidence that pointed to a planet circling the star gravitationally affecting the ring. Fomalhaut b is a billion times dimmer than the star is orbits, so the work of finding the planet was demanding, but after several years of determined work, the team of astronomers met with success - the first visible light photo of an exoplanet. The hunt for exoplanets is moving in exciting directions.

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>.

First confirmed images of exoplanets

© Credit: Gemini Observatory

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...

© Credit: "Gemini Observatory Artwork by Lynette Cook"

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>.