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>.

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>.

Possible First Picture of an Extrasolar Planet!

© Gemini Observatory

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>.

Alien Music

© Animation Factory

Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.
-- William Congreve

Music has been with man since the beginning. Babies react to music in the womb, and are born with musical preferences. Music affects the mind and the body. Music can affect our moods, concentration, and memory. Think of how indispensable music is in setting up tension and suspense in movies. It seems that music is an inherent, integral part of us.

Why?

It seems that there is no one music center in the brain - our ability to react and appreciate music involves interaction with both spheres of our brains. It is another way of seeing the world. Think how with our eyes we detect patterns in what we see. We see patterns in the stars and faces in mountain cliffs (or in Martian hills). There is a mathematical side to nature, and it shows up visually, and audibly. Maybe our inherent love of music is connected to our inherent love of art - from doodling (progressive jazz), to pop art (pop music), to classical art (classical music). We use art to communicate with - sometimes literally, other times much more abstractly. Many alphabets or syllabaries started off as pictures. We use music to communicate with as well.

So, does this mean that aliens would have musical abilities as well? Is this a probable result of developing advanced sentience?

Or is it possible that aliens could have no musical abilities? Sure, I suppose there could be alien races that are rather deaf, but what about aliens that have good hearing? If musicality is inherently connected to emotions, it could be argued that aliens that are fairly emotionless (Vulcans?) would have little to do with music. Though Vulcans played lutes. Incongruent? Maybe not. Recognizing patterns is the activity of sentience. Playing around with patterns is one way we investigate our universe and make sense of it. Playing music is playing with patterns of sound. It is audible art.

The question becomes, then, can a sentient race notice and experiments with patterns, and yet have no real emotional connection to musical patterns? Could there be alien races that look at musical patterns purely as interesting mathematical formulas, patterns - looking at the interaction of periodic sound waves as means of conveying information or as tools (echo location, investigating structures via sound waves, using sound to destroy things, etc.) with no real emotional connection other than the pleasure of investigation, of learning, of exploring?

Maybe the real question is can a sentient race be sentient and not have emotions? If natural laws naturally gave rise to universe, and if there is a universal biology (that is, biology naturally arises from physical and natural laws given the right conditions), and sentience the natural result of evolution (if given enough time), then are emotions a universally natural result of sentience (or naturally occurs hand-in-hand with it)?

Reference:

Cromie, William J. "Music on the Brain." Harvard University Gazette. 22 Mar. 2001. Web. 22 Sept. 2008. <http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2001/03.22/04-music.html>.

Water Bears in Space!

© USDA

No, not a new Muppet Show skit. Water bears (tardigrades) are intriguing aquatic microscopic (0.5 mm or 0.02 inches) multicellular animals. They have a head and six limbs with claw-like structures. Their liquid habitat range is quite large - they've been found within ice, in oceans down to almost 4 miles beneath the surface, in mountain ponds, and in droplets of water in moss and lichens. They can survive long (7 years) periods of total dehydration, acid attacks, and extreme temperatures and pressures. Recently Dr. Ingemar Joensson of Kristianstad University of Sweden, sent up 3,000 water bears into space for 12 days and discovered that water bears are able to survive the vacuum and cosmic radiation of space.

OK, most did not survive the intense ultraviolet radiation they encountered above the Earth's atmosphere. But some did. These little "bears" are tough! It's no wonder that some people think water bears are extraterrestrials.

But it does make one pause - could life spread out from a planet and evolve surviving in space? I've mentioned transpermia before - the idea that microbes or the organic precursors of life can spread from one planet to another, usually through meteoric impacts. Now it is feasible that multicellular life forms could traverse space.

Ah, but meteors are intensely hot when the streak through the atmosphere, are they not? Yes, but only on the surface. Many times the core is still cold. A dehydrated microscopic multicellular creature resting in the core could conceivably survive the trip. Could a meteor strike on the Earth send up a shower of water bear laden rocks into space, to eventually land on Mars? An interesting thought. Wouldn't it be crazy if when we do discover life on Mars, it turns out to look a lot like a water bear?

So here's to the water bear, possible intrepid space explorer!

(And maybe we ought to be just a bit careful when bringing back rock samples from other planets, moons, and even asteroids...).

References:

Mach, Sabine and Martin. "Tardigrades (Tardigrada): images, video clips, text and monthly magazine." Tardigrades. Sept. 2008. Web. 14 Sept. 2008. <http://www.tardigrades.com/>

"Transpermia." Transpermia - microbes hitch a ride between planets. The Planetary Society Australian Volunteers. 26 Aug. 2008. Web. 14 Sept. 2008. <http://users.tpg.com.au/users/tps-seti/swaprock.html>.

"Unique animal species can survive in space." SpaceRef. 10 Sept. 2008. Web. 14 Sept. 2008. <http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=26387>.

Extrasolar planets simulation site

Stumbled across a most excellent (yes, I watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure) site for those not only interested in the search for extrasolar planets, but would like to help out, even as an amateur: Systemic: characterizing extrasolar planetary systems at <http://oklo.org>. From the "What is Systmeic?" section of their Website:

The near-term goal of the systemic research collaboration is to improve our statistical understanding of the galactic planetary census. This will be accomplished through a large-scale simulation in which the public is invited to participate. No prior experience or expertise with Astronomy is required. All you need is an Internet connection and a desire to learn and explore.

Check it out!

Reference:

Laughlin, Gregg. "What is Systemic?" Systemic: characterizing extrasolar planetary systems. Wordpress. 2 Jan. 2006 Web. 11 Sept. 2008. <http://oklo.org/?page_id=33>