Life in the Universe

There is definitely life in the universe.  It is us!  Is there other life in the universe, though? And if so, are "they" like "us"?  The Drake Equation allows us to consider some of the variables that would influence the development of advanced, technological, intelligent life around the galaxy.  Some others, including Dr. Michio Kaku of City University of New York, have speculated about the nature of advanced life based on the idea that the laws of physics are universal, and they place limits on the development of life. Some of his speculation focuses on the need for advanced civilizations to harness vast amounts of energy just to avoid being wiped out by natural disasters. And of course the biggest natural disaster of them all is the end of the universe- current theories suggest that the universe has an open structure, which means that the ultimate fate of the universe is ever accelerating expansion and cooling, a "Big Chill". If civilizations become advanced enough, they  may be more interested in escaping this universe by manipulating space and time itself rather than contacting their neighbors...

But enough about physics.  From what we k now about the evolution of advanced civilization on earth, which of the following statements would you think is most likely to be as universal as gravity itself?  Write your answer as a blog comment below, before the end of the day December 19 2008.

·         Life will inevitably emerge when conditions are suitable

·         When life emerges, it will lead to advanced intelligent civilizations

·         When life emerges, it will be based on cells

·         When life emerges, it will be subject to natural selection

For more information about Dr. Kaku visit http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=939&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0 

The International Space Station- the tenth anniversary numbers

Nov. 20, 2008- today
Nov. 20, 1998- Russians launch the first component of the International Space Station from their space center in Kazakhstan.
16- number of nations supporting the space station (including NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, and 11 members of the European Space Agency, or ESA: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.)
14- number of countries that have sent crews to the space station
167- number of individuals who have crewed the station
19,000 – number of meals they have eaten in space
30- number of flights to the station by American and Russian spacecraft
114- number of spacewalks involved in the construction of the station
1 - The length of the space station in football fields
6- area of the solar energy panels in basketball courts
240- number of miles above the Earth the space station orbits
57,309- number of orbits the station made in ten years
1,432,725,000- number of miles the station has travelled (That’s about a billion and a half miles- about the distance to Uranus!)
100,000- number of people on earth involved in support for the space station
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/10th_main.html

Phoenix Obituary

The Mars lander Phoenix has apparently stopped functioning after five months of data collection. It was the northernmost landing area of any spacecraft sent to Mars. "Apparently", because the mission engineers will continue to monitor for signals sent by Phoenix, but it is likely that the recent dust storms on Mars have not allowed enough sunlight to reach its solar panels to allow the equipment to continue operation. The lander was originally intended to function for three months. The last signal was received November 2, 2008.

It was a very sophisticated remote laboratory, and among its accomplishments were confirming the presence of water-ice below the surface of Mars (it had an arm for digging into the soil), taking over 25 000 photos using the first "atomic force microscope" ever used outside the Earth, doingn chemical analysis of the martian soil, and studying martian weather, including the first ever observation of snow falling from the clouds on Mars! (See this blog September 29). All things Phoenix can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix .

Accelerating Returns

In August, Richard Dell and Alan Rich from the Google Lunar X-Prize team STELLAR came to our school to talk about their proposal for lunar exploration. In the course of the discussion, some students questioned whether or not the progress Mr. Dell and Mr. Rich were talking about could possibly occur so quickly. Mr. Dell argued that we can expect that rate of progress, and referred to Kurzweil’s law. It might be worth looking into what that “Law” really is.
In a nutshell, it proposes exponential growth in technological progress. But a nutshell doesn’t really do it justice, so we must step back a bit first. Have you heard of Moore’s Law? This states that the capabilities of digital electronic devices will increase exponentially, doubling every two years. Capabilities include such factors as computer processing speed, but also things that are found in consumer electronics such as memory storage capacity, or pixels in a digital camera. Moore’s law was formulated and stated in a paper by Intel co-founder in 1965. It has pretty much been true for electronic hardware. (an argument has been made that software complexity slows things down faster than hardware speeds things up, but that’s another blog entry…)
Ray Kurzweil takes this idea one step farther, and extrapolates to before the invention of the integrated circuit, and beyond to technologies that haven’t yet been invented. He argues that the rate of change is accelerating; that the technological progress during the 20th century (think: Henry Ford and the Wright brothers to Bill Gates and the Space Shuttle) will be exceeded by a factor of a THOUSAND in the 21st century. It even suggests a “technological singularity”, technological progress hastened beyond anything ever seen as a result of machines smarter than humans learning to improve their own designs…
This is not to say that everyone accepts Kurzweil’s Law, there are plenty of criticisms and you can find them in some of the web sites referenced below. Thanks to Richard Dell for helping with the research for this posting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_Singularity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_Law
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Kurzweil#The_Law_of_Accelerating_Returns
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerating_change
http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0610.html?m%3D1

No Sunspots- a 50 year low!

In class we discussed sunspot and other solar activities. I set up the refractor telescope after class in order to image the sun so that you could see some sunspots; but there appeared to be nothing there!  Nothing.  I thought that was very strange, so I did some research.  Guess what?  Just this month NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center announced that we are in the midst of a deep minimum of the solar cycle the likes of which have not been seen since BEFORE the launch of Sputnik (see earlier blogs), even before Mr. Mueller was born!  You have to go back to 1954 to find a year with a quieter sun. If the trend continues, it could end up being the quietest year for solar activity in a century.  Having said that, they believe that the 20th century was a particularly active time for solar activity, and that this may be more of a normal level of sunspot activity.  It turns out that solar wind is also at its lowest level in 50 years.  Coincidence?

  

On the right is the sun on September 27 2001; on the left Sept 27 2008.  Notice the total lack of sunspots. (Credit: ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO))

Sources: 

Phillips, Dr Tony. "Spotless Sun: Blankest Year Of The Space Age." UPI Space Daily. 03 Oct 2008. n/a. eLibrary Science. Proquest. UMI - INTERNAL ELIBRARY SCIENCE TRIAL ACCOUNT. 16 Oct 2008. .

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081006184638.htm 

Hubble: time to say goodbye?

A couple of weeks ago, the famous Hubble Space Telescope developed an equipment malfunction that prevented it from returning data to earth. Although the equipment had been operating contiuously since 1990, and in spite of the fact that there is already a spare part on board, some have been calling for the venerable spacecraft to be put out to pasture. As you might expect, much of the argument comes down to money.

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990, at a cost of about $1.6 billon. Since that time another $8.4 billion has been invested. To service the telescope this year will cost another $900 million dollars. A new infrared telescope due to be launched in 2013 is estimated to cost $4.5 billion, so the Hubble repairs are a lot cheaper than a new optical telescope would be. In addition, it would extend the Hubble's life expectancy anohter six or seven years.

I have seen several accounts of who made the decision, but recently a "Top Ten" of Hubble images has been available. You can see all ten at the link below, but I've copied a couple of my favorites below.

http://www.cosmiclighthouse.com/jun08/articles/hubble_top10

In 1995, after just five years in operation, NASA also announced the "Top Ten" discoveries made by Hubble:

1*Offered the first conclusive evidence for the existence of immense black holes, millions or billions of times the mass of Earth's Sun. 2* Showed that the universe might be much younger than had been previously thought. This was accomplished by calculating the universe's expansion rate based on an accurate Hubble distance measurement to a remote galaxy. 3* Gave the first direct visual evidence that the universe is evolving as predicted in Big Bang cosmology, by resolving the shapes of the farthest galaxies ever seen. 4* Discovered that quasars, very distant and remarkably bright objects, are even more mysterious than commonly thought because many do not dwell in the cores of galaxies, but are isolated in space. 5* Suggested that dark matter in the universe is more exotic than previously thought, by finding that nature doesn't make enough of the extremely small Red Dwarf stars that were once a leading candidate for the universe's "missing mass." 6* Supported the Big Bang theory by refining estimates of the amount of deuterium in space, an element created in the initial cosmic fireball that gave birth to the universe. 7* Solved the mystery of intergalactic clouds of hydrogen by showing that they are really gigantic halos of galaxies. 8* Implied that planets, and presumably life, might be abundant in the universe by discovering disks of dust that might be embryonic planetary systems around young stars. 9* Provided important details and surprising findings of the spectacular collisions of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter last year. 10* Revealed dynamic weather changes on nearly all the planets with a clarity once attainable only with spacecraft flybys. Scientists found that most planets' atmospheres are much more active than previously believed, and the ability of Hubble to 'revisit' the planets allows frequent monitoring similar to Earth weather satellites. http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/1995/95-56.txt

http://www.space.com/news/080930-hubble-worth-saving.html

MESSENGER shows details of Mercury!

More of Mercury is now known than ever before. Monday the MESSENGER spacecraft came within 27,000 km of Mercury- that's 17,000 miles- one fifteenth the distance between the earth and the moon. Very close. It certainly does look a lot like the moon. Go to the link below, and follow the hyperlink to "MESSENGER photo gallery" to see some great high resolution pictures.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/07oct_firstresults.htm

"Unbelievably large" telescopes proposed for the Moon

It might sound like cutting edge science, but this idea was first proposed by Sir Isaac Newton hundreds of years ago! The idea is that instead of a solid mirror, a mirror be made of a rotating bowl of liquid- the surface will naturally form a curved parabolic shape needed to focus incoming light. The only disadvantage is that the telescope can only point in one direction- straight up!



It turns out that this design is not so novel, though- The University of British Columbia has a six meter rotating liquid mirror in their Zenith telescope- making it the third largest optical telescope in North America. Six meters is about 18 feet, well over 200 inches- our school telescope has an eight inch mirror!
Furthermore, there is another telescope that only points up- the massive 1000 foot ( 12,000 inch!) Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, the largest single dish telescope of any kind on the entire planet- the largest in the universe as far as we know! That telescope has technology to allow it to be pointed a little bit- otherwise the rotation of the Earth determines where it is pointed.

Of course, if a lunar telescope were placed near one of the moon's poles, it would get a changing view every 18 years or so. The moon, like the earth, wobbles ("precession"). The moon's wobble is completed about every 19 years. Further, of the telescope were located inside a grater, it could stay in the cool dark all the time; solar panels could be placed on illuminated mountain peaks nearby to produce the electricity needed to run it.

So how big is "unbelievably large"? Well, the first proposed would be a 20 meter ( 60 foot) telescope, much larger than any optical telescope on Earth, but others proposed are up to 100 meters across- larger than the length of a football field!




http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/09oct_liquidmirror.htm?list65645

It's Snowing on Mars!

It is wintertime at the Phoenix Mars lander site. And there is snow to prove it!  The Phoenix has a laser device to study the atmosphere- and it detected snow falling about 4 km (2.5 miles) above the study area. It appears to be evaporating before it hits the ground.  "Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars," said Jim Whiteway, of York University, Toronto, lead scientist for the Canadian-supplied Meteorological Station on Phoenix. "We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground." 

Five months ago when the lander began its three month mission, the sun never set at that latitude. Now, however, the sun is setting for four hours at a time, and the solar panels are producing less and less energy. The mission is expected to run out of energy before the end of the year.  Before that happens, though, the team hopes to activate a microphone, allowing us to hear what Mars sounds like. Watch- and listen to- this space!

Information from JPL http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?

Happy 50th Birthday NASA!

NASA is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.  It was officially created on October 1st, 1958.  Before that, it was the armed forces (army and navy) that had responsibility for the rocketry and space sciences.  

The first successful launch of an American satellite was the January 1958 Explorer I spacecraft, about three months after the Soviet Union launch the very first successful orbital satellite, Sputnik I, and about two months after the Soviets put the first living thing into orbit around the earth, a dog named Laika.  She was a stray Siberian husky, around three years old. She was strapped in, and had access to food and water, and many probes attached to monitor her vital signs. However, there was no attempt made to return the dog safely to Earth. She died in space when her air supply was exhausted. The spacecraft later fell into the atmosphere and burned.  There is a monument to Laika and other fallen cosmonauts in Russia.

It's pretty incredible that it was only about ten years later that the first humans escaped the Earth's gravity and travelled to the moon in Apollo 8, launched by the United States in 1968.  From 1969 to 1972, the United States landed twelve humans on the moon and returned them safely. Since then, we have relied on robotic missions to explore space beyond a low earth orbit. 

Examples of some of these unmanned probes include the Voyagers, launched in the 1970's and just now approaching the edges of our solar system; the robotic explorers of Mars, Opportunity and Spirit, and the recent Phoenix probe; The Hubble Space Telescope; and many many more.  

NASA is currently collaborating with fifteen other countries on the International Space Station.

Chinese Astronauts in Orbit

China is one of only three nations on Earth to send people into space.  Space being, more precisely, in orbit about 350 kilometers (about 200 miles) above the surface of the earth. On September 25 China sent its third manned mission into orbit, with the goal of this mission being a space walk.  China's manned space program has been in existence for 16 years. Previous missions were launched in 2003 and 2005. The next missions are designed to support the Chinese effort to build a space station in orbit around the earth.  Future plans include landing Chinese astronauts on the Moon by 2017 with the expressed purpose of looking into the possibility of exploiting the Moon's Tritium, or Hydrogen-3 as an energy source back on earth...

Although I refer to the Chinese space travelers as "astronauts", they are often referred to in English as "taikonauts" much as Russians are referred to as "cosmonauts". "Taikong" is the Chinese word for space. In China, however, the astronauts are referred to as "yuhangyuans", which translates as "space navigators".  The picture above is artwork from http://www.spacetoday.org/China/ChinaTaikonauts.html 

The LHC is getting lots of press!

The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) got a lot of media attention last week, with Google even modifying their logo to look like the collider.  Apparently it has also generated some music on youtube.  While this video is amusing, it also is quite informative.  The unusual voice at the beginning and end are meant to simulate the voice of Dr. Steven Hawking.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM 

Cutting Edge Science? Or Doomsday Machine?

Scientists at the world renowned CERN research facility (the same laboratory that created the World Wide Web) are about to engage in some new research, creating an environment never before created on Earth. In fact, the objective of the experiment is to do no less than recreate the conditions of the "big bang", the origin of the universe itself. Literally thousands of scientists are involved, from over 80 countries. The laboratory has built a $10 BILLION dollar piece of equipment in a tunnel under the French-Swiss border. It is commonly known (!) as an "atom smasher". With an atom smasher this big, though the amount of data being gathered is staggering. "You can think of each experiment as a giant digital camera with around 150 million pixels taking snapshots 600 million times a second," said CERN's Ian Bird, who leads the grid project. To do the analysis, a new computer grid has been created allowing 150 laboratories to work together on the project. The new computer grid alone has potential to contribute to research that could lead to new drugs to new energy sources.
But some folks worry that the machine could create mini black holes that might just engulf the earth! "It's nonsense," said CERN chief spokesman James Gillies. John Ellis, a British theoretical physicist at CERN, said doomsayers assume that the collider will create micro black holes in the first place, which he called unlikely. And even if they appeared, he said, they would instantly evaporate, as predicted by Hawking.
Well they start work Wednesday September 10th. I guess we'll find out who is right soon!
Items in italics were taken from the AOL News web site http://news.aol.com/article/10-billion-science-project-to-launch/167810?icid=100214839x1209027366x1200509309 and you can go there for more information, and photos.

What does the Soundtrack of Astronomy Class Sound Like?

In class last week someone mentioned the Dave Matthews song, "Satellite". (In my eyes Like a diamond In the sky ...Satellite Strung from the moon And the world Your balloon Peeping tom Someone's secrets You've seen Eyes and ears have been). I didn't really know that song, but it sounds like a lament about "Big Brother" watching us from above.
Then I played the Police song "Walking on the Moon" before class on Friday (Giant steps are what you take Walking on the moon Feet they hardly touch the ground Walking on the moon My feet don't hardly make no soundWalking on, walking on the moon) Pretty factual, anyway.
Then someone else mentioned the Beatles song "Across the Universe" (Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns It calls me on and on across the universe).
Which got me thinking, what music do you as a class think is fitting to our study of astronomy? I know plenty of classics '70's and '80's and '90's that might work. How about "Rocket Man" by Elton John? (Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids In fact it's cold as hell And there's no one there to raise them if you did And all this science I don't understand It's just my job five days a week A rocket man.) Or David Bowie's Major Tom? (For here Am I sitting in a tin can Far above the world Planet Earth is blue And there’s nothing I can do Though I’m past one hundred thousand miles I’m feeling very still And I think my spaceship knows which way to go)
More obscure could be They Might Be Giants and their song from their album "Apollo 18", "See the Constellation" (See the constellation ride across the sky No cigar, no lady on his arm Just a guy made of dots and lines)
I did a quick search on the web for songs about stars, satellites, planets, and such- and found literally hundreds, including classic artists such as the B52's, Black Sabbath, and the artist formerly known as Prince, but also a lot of more recent music. (There's even a band called "Gas Giants")
So what would the sound track of this class sound like? Suggest some songs you know that might relate to astronomy, either literally or figuratively, as a comment to this blog post. This is NOT a homework assignment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aYY1v2r8As

“You Might Give Some Serious Thought to Thanking Your Lucky Stars You’re in Texas,”

That's the motto of the Goode Co. Texas Bar-B-Q in Houston, Texas. http://www.texasmonthly.com/food/onthemenu/goode.php

But what are your lucky stars? I don't really know, but I suspect that it is related to ASTROLOGY. Now, some folks confuse the terms "astronomy" and "astrology". But there is a huge difference. Astronomy is an empirical science that deals with the large scale structure of the universe itself, all that is beyond the atmosphere of Earth. Astrology, on the other hand, is not a true science. It is a study of sorts, but it assumes that celestial objects have a significant impact on the course of human affairs. The position of the sun with relation to the signs of the zodiac at your moment of birth, for example, (your "sign", such as Gemini or Capricorn) are thought to influence your life. Enough of an influence that you are able to read a horoscope in the newspaper that can advise you on what your day holds and how to respond to it. You and approximately 500,000,000 other people on Earth who share that sign...

When we consider what we know about genetics, and how that influences our development and behavior; and what we understand about learned behavior, through both sensory experience and education; the thought that a handfull of stars scattered across hundreds of millions of miles of space has a significant impact on our worldly affairs seems pretty far-fetched.

First Homework Assignment!

Homework 8-21-08 DUE BY MONDAY AUGUST 25 2008
Read the introduction to your textbook, pages 2-11.
Choose ONE of the following questions and answer it thoroughly. This is your first homework, and with it you are making a first impression upon your teacher. Use your best written English to answer the question. Demonstrate your ability to communicate. Your grade will be based on your quality of expression; there is no “right” or “wrong” answer. Show me the best writing of which you are capable. YOUR RESPONSE SHOULD BE ADDED AS A COMMENT TO THIS BLOG.
1. It has been suggested that the universe may be 15 billion years old. The introduction of your textbook defines a light year as the distance traveled by light on one year. Light travels at about 3 x 10^5 kilometers (km) per second. Explain how this information could be used to predict that the universe must be smaller than 2 x 10^26 km across.
2. The Bible states in Joshua 10:12-13 that “…the sun stood still and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.” (Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, 1984, International Bible Society, Colorado Springs, CO. Used by permission.) Is there any conflict between believing the biblical account of the sun stopping in the sky and the structure of our solar system as described in the introduction of your textbook? 

3. One reason that many people are interested in astronomy is the possibility that life exists beyond the earth. With particular reference to the description of the scientific method, what sort of evidence (not including actually meeting an alien!) do you feel would be required to make a strong claim that life probably exists elsewhere?

Google Lunar X-Prize

Last night I attended a presentation by a local consortium including NCSU and private companies, trying to send a robot to the moon! http://www.teamstellar.org/index.htm
Project STELLAR is one of thirteen teams around the world racing to accomplish that goal first, and win up to THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS in prize money. The project director, Richard dell, will be coming to our class on Wednesday August 27 to talk about it. He will be accompanied by a solar system ambassador, Alan Rich. We need to do some intensive learning about the moon in class before Wednesday!

Perseid Meteor Shower 2008

This week the Perseid meteor shower arrived.  Meteor showers happen when the earth travels through debris left behind in the pathway of a comet.  Observers on Earth see a large number of "shooting stars".  There will be three more meteor showers before the end of 2008.  These are the Orionids (Oct. 21), the Leonids (Nov. 17) and the Geminids (Dec. 14). The Geminids promise to be the most dramatic of the upcoming showers.  Meteor showers are named for the constellations from which the meteors appear to originate. 

July 08 Update

July 31 2008
WATER CONFIRMED ON MARS
The Phoenix Mars lander has confirmed via chemical analysis the presence of water on Mars. The lander had found other evidence that suggested the presence of water, but this confirms it. The lander's mission was due to end in late August, but has been extended to September 30.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-153

July 30- ETHANE LAKES CONFIRMED ON TITAN
Titan is the largest moon of Saturn. It has been confirmed via infrared spectroscopic analysis by the Cassini spacecraft that there are lakes of liquid ethane on this moon. This is the only other object in the solar system that definitely has liquid on its surface.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-152

MARS ROVERS CONTINUE TO OPERATE
Tha Mars Rovers, which landed in 2004 with a 90 day mission, are still operating, four years later, even though one has a broken arm and the other a broken wheel. They continue to produce fabulous data and images. A multimedia report from the JPL can be found at this link.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/mer/mer20080731/

Welcome to Astronomy at Saint Mary's School!

This is the first posting, but this will be a valuable resource for us to keep track of new developments in the world of astronomy.
"Watch this space."