Tag Archives: Exoplanets

RAS General Meeting Recap.

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This month’s speaker for the RAS, was Heather A. Knutson.  She is an assistant professor in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology.  She is working onthe physics and chemistry of exoplanetary atmospheres, planet formation and migration, and the search for new low-mass eclipsing planetary systems.

As usual, our meetings are held at Cossentine Hall at La Sierra University.

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Dr. Knutson spoke about her research into smaller exoplanets.  Most of the exoplanets are large, like Jupiter large.  She is trying to find Earth analogous planets.

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She also spoke about some of the planets that have been discovered.

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One particular planet has 6,000 mph winds and liquid rock for clouds!  Trust me, the science works, it just seems odd.

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She also explained that instead of looking at large suns for Earth sized planets, they are starting to look as smaller suns.  It makes perfect sense.  If you can’t make the planet larger to detect, look at smaller suns and the planet gets bigger by default.

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It was also interesting to note that Kepler imaged a very, very tiny part of our galaxy.  That spot with the red arrow is as much as we have looked at to date.  There are a lot of other exoplanet missions planned, but the galaxy, and the universe, are really big.  Lots more data to come.

Remember, everyone is welcome at the meetings and you can find out about the topics by visiting www.rivastro.org.

 

 

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California and I am a Rising Star as rated by Super Lawyers Magazine.  As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

Let The Battle Begin!

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In this corner, the newcomer, SPHERE!

The Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch telescope trained and managed exclusively by the European Space Agency.

And in this corner, another newcomer, the Gemini Planet Imager! Born and trained in North America.

Both these bruisers are set to battle it out for the title of King of Exoplanet imaging!

File:Beta Pictoris.jpg

While most of their contemporaries find planets the old fashioned way, these two imager’s are going to take actual pictures of exoplanets!

Fighting it out down in Chile.  This battle is not to be missed!  And who will win this battle?  Why, we will!  Good luck to both teams and may the data flow begin.

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California and I am a Rising Star as rated by Super Lawyers Magazine.  As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

I’m Kinda Sensitive.

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No, not me.  I’m a ruff an tumble sort of fellow.  Except when I am sick (like now) and want some mothering.  Oh well, such is life.

The sensitive kind I am referring to is a new Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) camera that was installed on the 8-meter Gemini South telescope.  Perhaps they need to stop naming everything Gemini, it could get redundant (get it?  Gemini?  The Twins? Redundant!  Oh, I still slay me).

https://www.gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/gpi/gpi_data_format.png

According to the GPI website: “GPI is an extreme adaptive-optics imaging polarimeter/integral-field spectrometer, which will provide diffraction-limited data between 0.9 and 2.4 microns. The system will provide contrast ratios of 10^7 on companions at separations of 0.2-1 arcsecond in a 1-2 hour observation.”  Which means it is a really sensitive camera.

What is even more amazing is that the GPI was built at the American Museum of Natural History, not NASA or any other space agency.

The Gemini Planet Imager’s first light image of Beta Pictoris b (Processing by Christian Marois, NRC Canada)

So what can this new camera do?  The image above (processed by Christian Marois, NRC Canada) is our first actual real image of an exoplanet!  This is the first direct method that scientists have to confirm the existence of exoplanets.  Before, exoplanets were inferred from data.

It sort of looks like IBM’s images of atoms.  Although IBM has the ability to manipulate atoms to forming cool pictures (and even movies), I don’t think that we will have that much sway over planetary objects.

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California and I am a Rising Star as rated by Super Lawyers Magazine.  As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

A Weighty Problem.

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After all the holiday cheer, and eating, you may find yourself (like me) with a few extra things that you didn’t ask Santa for…like pounds.  Around the middle, not currency.  It turns out that science has weight problems also, not like mine, but just as important.

With all these new planets that we have been finding around the Milky Way, scientist need to know more about them, like their weight (ok, technically it is mass, but that would ruin my metaphor).

Now that we know that other planets exist, it isn’t enough to just keep finding them, we actually need to know more details about each one.  With over 2400 already possible, the sooner we can figure out what types of planets are orbiting distant stars, the faster that we determine which of them are habitable and can concentrate more resources on those planets.

Fortunately, Julien de Wit, the very smart man above, has invented a new way of estimating the mass of exoplanets.

Before, scientists had to use the radial velocity (tiny wobbles in a star’s orbit) of the planet to find the planets mass.  This takes a long time and is really only good for very large planets or very close in planets.

Now scientists have a new technique for determining the mass of exoplanets by using their transit signal (the dips in light as a planet passes in front of its star and partially eclipses it).   Normally, transit data is used to determine the planet’s size and atmospheric properties, but the MIT team has found a way to interpret it such that it also reveals the planet’s mass.

So why is this important?  To determine if a planet is habitable requires knowing an exoplanet’s mass so scientists can figure out if the planet is made of gas or rock and, along with other date, if it is capable of supporting life (at least, life as we know it).  So this technique will be able to use existing data for a new purpose.

Well, that is a weight off my shoulders, now if I could only do something about my waist!

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California and I am a Rising Star as rated by Super Lawyers Magazine.  As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

Exomoons?

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If you have seen the movie Avatar (if you are reading this blog I will assume that you have), then you know the mythical planet of Pandora seems to be orbiting a large gas giant planet.

Although the orbit doesn’t make a whole lot of scientific sense, the model is sound.  Exomoons, by definition, orbit an exoplanet.  However, just like the movie and perhaps our own Solar system, some of these moons may be capable of sustaining life where their parent planet cannot.

Saturn’s moon Titan is believed to be able to sustain life since we have found oceans of water underneath the frozen surface.

So the prospect of an exomoon harboring life is also plausible.

But how do you find an exomoon orbiting around an exoplanet parsecs away?  Teams of scientists are currently working one methods to detect exomoons using the science developed hunting for exoplanets and data already gathered from Kepler.

So perhaps Pandora does exist, but I wouldn’t hold by breath of finding unobtainium anywhere in the Universe.

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California and I am a Rising Star as rated by Super Lawyers Magazine.  As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

Smaller IS Better.

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At least when you are talking about habitable planets.

Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics that the nearest planet in a habitable zone probably lies within fifteen light-years of Earth. This announcement was made after  analyzing recent data from the recently crippled Kepler Mission.

Kepler has revolutionized our understanding of exoplanets and what they are made of.  As seems to be typical with the human race, scientists are really trying to find Earth-sized planets residing in habitable zones around their stars.  The hope being that we can find ourselves somewhere else in the Universe.

Scientists also believe that these planets are the only types of planets that can harbor life.  I am skeptical of this reasoning as we have found life unlike ours on our own planet, let alone have any idea of what is capable elsewhere in the Universe.

But, following current convention, Kepler has identified a host of exoplanets with orbits that are capable of producing surface temperatures that allow water to remain liquid, which scientists have deemed a prerequisite for the development of life.

It turns out that there are about 12 times as many small stars (M-dwarfs about 1/2 the size of our sun) with surface temperatures less than about 4000K.

Hunting for Earth-sized planets around M-dwarfs, therefore, is now particularly interesting to researchers.  Not too long ago, it was believed that the possibilities of habitable planets around M-Dwarfs was small due to the cooler star temperature and the potential that any planet would be tidally lock to the star (like the way the Moon is tidally locked and always facing Earth).  Additionally, small stars tend to flare more which could have deleterious effects on any closely orbiting planet.

New research, however, suggests that suitable habitable regions might develop on a planet anyway. Since there are a lot more small stars, and  it is easier to find and study their planets scientists have begun to concentrate their efforts there.

So far using Kepler data, scientist have  identify 64 dwarf stars and 95 candidate planets.  Just from this data, the statistical probability is that there should be one Earth-sized planet on every 6th star.

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California. As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

Down, but not out?

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By now you have heard the Kepler space telescope is in trouble.  It may have to cease operations soon.

 

There won’t be any repair mission because a) we no longer have any operational shuttles and b) and even if we did, Kepler is about 40 million miles (64 million kilometers) from Earth in a Heliocentric orbit (i.e. it orbits the Sun, not the Earth).

So, what went wrong.  Kepler needs to be pointed with extreme accuracy to point its 1.5 meter mirror.  To do that, there are four reaction wheels that make up a sort of gyroscope keeping Kepler pointed to the exact same spot in space.

One of the four reaction wheels was overheating, so in January of this year NASA shut the whole thing down for ten days to try and cool the reaction wheels off.  It didn’t work.  Kepler could continue with three reaction wheels (redundancy, redundancy, redundancy).  However, it now appears that a second reaction wheel is now failing.

All is not lost however.  Kepler is currently on an extended mission.  The original end date for the project was over a year ago.  NASA agreed to fund the project until 2016, if the equipment lasted that long.  Kepler was launched in 2009 in search of Earth-like planets. So far, it has confirmed 132 planets and spotted more than 2,700 potential ones.  It will take scientists years to figure out all the data.

Considering the very small area of the Milky Way that Kepler was looking at, and the advances made in exoplanet discovery.  I think Kepler was a rousing success.  Too bad it can’t go on.

“I wouldn’t call Kepler down and out yet,” said John Grunsfeld, a former astronaut and Hubble repairman who is NASA’s associate administrator for space science, at a news conference.

Well, hopefully he is right and more planets are discovered.  Kepler II anyone? NASA? NASA?

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California. As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

What’s in a name?

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If you are a member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), alot. With the large amounts of exoplanets being discovered a subtle, but important issue has arrisen. What do we call all those planets?

Right now there is the “official” name (something boring like 51 Pegasi b, or PSR B1620-26 c) and then there is the rest of the world. Some have suggested that the IAU is trying to claim naming right to the whole Universe, other say that they are simply trying to claim the whole Universe.

I don’t think either of those are the case, but I do believe that the IAU needs to be overhauled. I mean they still can’t tell me what a planet is, this of course goes back to my arguement that Pluto is a planet (go New Horizons!). But that is only one example of how out of touch the IAU seems to be with the rest of the world.

We regularly have scientists that are members of the IAU or others that attend the meetings speak at our astronomical societies meetings (always open to the public!). After speaking with many of them, I have discovered that most of them have seen some of the pictures from Hubble, but don’t actually go out and observe the night sky in all its splendor. It is a shame, but most of them are crunching numbers and actually only know the Universe that way.

Perhaps it is time that the scientists came out of the lab and met with the rest of the Universe, up close and personal. Perhaps even talking to a few non-scientists (I find children under the age of 12 extremely insightful) and see if that can’t expand there horizons.

So if you are like Uwingu and want to run a harmless contest to name some of the exo-planets, watch out the IAU will be issuing nasty retorts your way.

At least NASA gets it, after all they named the 5th moon around Pluto Vulcan after a twitter bomb by Shatner and Nimoy. Heck, even Colbert got a treadmill named after him on the ISS. Come on IAU, get with the program…engage the public…don’t push them away.

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney. As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +. If you need help with any patent, trademark, or copyright issue, or know someone that can use my help, please contact me for a free 30 minute consultation by sending me an email or call TOLL FREE at 1-855-UR IDEAS (1-855-874-3327) and ask for Norman.

Norman