Become a Planet Hunter and Help Find the Next Exoplanet!

Want to help find exoplanets, but don't have access to major observatory or space telescope? Despair not, for anyone can join the Planet Hunters for free and begin helping professional astronomers wade through all the data pouring in from the Kepler spacecraft. Two exoplanet candidates have already been discovered by Planet Hunter members.

Visit Planet Hunters at: http://www.planethunters.org/

For more information visit the Astrobiology Magazine 24 September 2011 Press Release, "How You Can Find an ExoPlanet,"  and, of course, the Planet Hunters' Web site. 

References:

"How You Can Find an ExoPlanet." News. Astrobiology Magazine. Ed. Helen Matsos. NASA. 24 Sept. 2011. Web. 24 Sept. 2011. < http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/4234/how-you-can-find-an-exoplanet >

Planet Hunters. n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2011. < http://www.planethunters.org/ >

Why explore space?

We will go back to the moon. We will send humans to Mars. We will explore asteroids. We will continue the search for exoplanets, especially for those capable of harboring life. Human beings, generally speaking, are explorers. Holed up, static, we deteriorate. Pushing boundaries, dynamic, we innovate. How many great spin-offs from space exploration do we enjoy in our daily lives? How many important spin-offs from space exploration has extended or saved lives? Going back to the Moon, going to Mars, and out beyond, as well as searching for exoplanets, will make breakthrough discoveries that better serve mankind.

Exploring space is an endeavor that brings peoples together. It is an endeavor that benefits our economies. It is an endeavor that lifts our spirits, excites our imaginations, stirs our souls. It is worshiping the works of God. Humans will return to the Moon, go to Mars, explore the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and discover new worlds outside our solar system (even if we can only explore them passively from afar). We will do it with robots, small and large; we will do it with astronauts; and to some extent we will do it even, later on, with citizen explorers. We need to look outward from ourselves, and look back to see ourselves in perspective. We will As T.S. Eliot wrote in his poem “Little Gidding”:

And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

We need to explore, to learn. Moon –> Mars –> and Beyond.

SETI's telescopes to go back online, resuming hunt for alien life

SETI's telescopes to go back online, resuming hunt for alien life

This week the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute announced that it had raised more than $200,000 from a crowd-sourced fundraising effort that launched earlier this spring. The money, which came from just over 2,000 people who want to keep the search for alien life alive, will help the institute put its Allen Telescope Array back online.

US Airmen give testimony at UFO press conferece.

UFO Press Conference

27 September 2010, seven former Air Force officers spoke of UFO incidents at nuclear defense bases where the UFOs disabled the nuclear weapons. Interesting testimony, if true (not saying the testimony is not true, just that I'm keeping an open mind about the matter). UFOs always seemed a bit odd in their behavior in that they seem on one hand to not want contact, but on the other hand tease us. That is, instead of just landing outright and saying hi (I'm sure they've studied our TV, radio, and now Internet enough that they can figure out how to say "hi") or broadcasting a message, or appearing near a city and stay there for a few days so that everyone can be sure of what they saw, they "flirt" with us. Brief, momentary encounters that leave little, to no, evidence. Just enough to tantalize. Why? To test our reactions to determine if they should move to the next step? Or is it that there are galactic restrictions from contacting primitive planets but some just can't help themselves and poke at the humans while the galactic security folk aren't looking? It's intriguing.

UFOs and our Nukes

The UFOs disabling nuclear weapons sounds like a few classic science fiction movie scenarios - the UFOs coming to make sure we do not kill ourselves, saving us from ourselves. Wishful thinking? Would an alien race care that much? Would it interfere with their field observations (like scientists watching a young walrus struggle to find its mother - interfering with the observation by saving the young walrus would reduce the effectiveness of the data being collected)? Is there a Prime Directive? Is life so common that who cares if one planet's sentient beings destroy themselves? Or is life so rare that it warrants saving at the last minute?  Though I would think aliens that advanced could just snag enough humans, place them in suspended animation, to redeposit them after its all over and the planet has recovered enough for human habitation again.

Many questions, few, if any, answers.

Reference:

Gekas, Alexandra. "Daily Buzz: US Airmen Give Eerie Testimony at UFO Press Conference." The Daily WD. Woman'sDay. 28 September 2010. Web. 25 October 2010.  <http://dailywd.womansday.com/blog/2010/09/daily-buzz-us-airmen-give-eerie-testimony-at-ufo-press-conference.html>

Why the Silence from E.T.?

Humorous, but as in all good humor, a kernel of truth? I was thinking on this very thought for awhile - would advanced, especially postbiologic, beings either destroy themselves or get so wrapped up in virtual reality technology that they turn inwards and not actively care about technologically primitive aliens (not care enough to contact them)?



Reference:
Weiner, Zac. Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. 18 Sept. 2010. Web. 19 Sept. 2010.

Binary Stars: A Rough Neighborhood

NASA/JPL-Caltech

In an earlier post, Planets thrive around binary star systems, we learned that planetary systems around binary stars, specifically tight binary stars, may be more common than planetary systems around single stars (by a ratio of 3:1). However, the title "Planets thrive" may be misleading. While there may be more planets around tight binary star systems, they may exist in a rough neighborhood.

Gravity Slam Dancing

The problem arises from the gravitational dance of the binary stars. As they dance tightly around a common center of gravity, they find themselves moving closer to each other, always facing each other. This is not a sweet, romantic dance. The stars spin rapidly, creating massive magnetic fields and intense solar winds. But worse yet is that the intense solar winds slow the stars down, pulling them closer to each other. As stars dance closer, their gravitational effects on the planets orbiting them change - creating chaos and a great likelihood for collisions between planets, asteroids, and comets.

There Goes the Neighborhood

This chaos does not bode well for life. While it may be argued that some chaos is good as it may add to evolutionary pressure, too much chaos is not good - especially if that chaos means your planet colliding with another, or being pummeled by one too many extinction event asteroids. And even if your planet does not collide with another, it may change orbit, moving out of the habitable zone. Either way, there goes the life-giving neighborhood.

This is not to say life in a tight binary star system is impossible, or that high order sentient life cannot evolve and survive; but it does mean that such a system is not the top candidate to target in a search for life.

Reference:

Clavin, Whitney. "Pulverized Planet Dust May Lie Around Double Stars." Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA. 23 August 2010. Web. 25 August 2010.

Life in the Infrared

In1996 scientists were surprised to find a version of chlorophyll, chlorophyll d, in a cyanobacterium (blue-green algae or blue-green bacteria) that can photosynthesize light at 710nm, just in the infrared region. How it can get enough energy to photosynthesize is a mystery right now. It is possible that it acts more like chlorophyll a, passing on the captured energy to other chlorophyll molecules which then do the actual photosynthesis.

Recently, Dr Min Chen, from the University of Sydney, discovered in cyanobacterium living inside stromatolites another chlorophyll molecule which can absorb infrared light - this time deeper into the infrared range at 720 nm. This molecule, chlorophyll f, raises the same question as with chlorophyll d: how does it get enough energy from infrared light to photosynthesize oxygen? Or does it act as a helper, passing on the energy to other chlorophyll?

While this discovery has implications for biotechnology and bioenergy, it also has implications for life on other planets. As Dr. Chen remarks:

the fact that we have discovered a cyanobacterium that exploits a tiny modification in its chlorophyll molecule to photosynthesise in light that we cannot see, opens our mind to the seemingly limitless ways that organisms adapt to survive in their environment.

This helps expands the environmental range where we can look for life. For instance, it helps increase the possibility of life arising around class M stars (see Color of Life for more information). Yet more evidence that Dr. Ian Malcolm's (Jurassic Park) adage is correct: life will find a way.

Reference:

Chen, Min, et. al. "A Red-Shifted Chlorophyll." Science Magazine. 19 August 2010. Web. 21 August 2010. <http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/science.1191127>