Alien Realities

Exoplanet Study Suggests our Solar System is the Norm

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 20:29:00 +0000

Exoplanet Study Suggests our Solar System is the Norm
Source: Centro de Astrofisica da Universidade do Porto press release

Cosmic Evolution Posted: 04/14/12

Summary: A new study reveals that planetary orbits around Sun-like stars have a tendency to be strongly aligned, similar to the disk-like alignment of the planets in our own solar system.

Exoplanets with non-coplanar orbits.
Credit: Ricardo Reis, Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto

Recently, the HARPS spectrograph and the Kepler satellite made a census of the planetary population around stars like our own, revealing a bounty of planetary systems. A follow-up study lead by members of the EXOEarths team (Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto -- CAUP), in collaboration with Geneva University, did a joint analysis of the data which showed that the planetary orbits in a system are strongly aligned, like in a disk, just as we have in our own solar system.

The two most effective methods for detecting extrasolar planets are the radial-velocity method and the transit method. The radial-velocity method detects planets through the reflex motion induced by the planet on the star’s velocity on the radial direction (hence the name). This velocity variation is detected through the Doppler effect, the same that leads to a pitch change in the sound of an traveling ambulance. On the other hand, a planetary transit is akin to a mini-eclipse. As a planet travels around the star, its orbit can locate it in front of the star, and the light we collect from the star is reduced because the planet blocks part of it (even though we cannot image the planet).

Astrobiology Magazine

The Elusive "Wow!"

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:15:00 +0000

The Elusive "Wow!" - What We Do | The Planetary Society
The Quest for the "WOW!" - One Man's search for SETI's Most Promising Signal

Review of Robert H. Gray, The Elusive Wow: Searching for Extraterrestrial intelligence (Chicago: Palmer Square Press, 2011). A Radio SETI update by Amir Alexander. January 27, 2012.

<http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/seti_radio_searches/20120127.html>

Alien Life: Potential habitability of 55 Cancri AB star system and why life began to produce oxygen

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:11:00 +0000

Alien Life: Potential habitability of 55 Cancri AB star system and why life began to produce oxygen

Creatures Frozen for 32,000 Years Still Alive

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:23:00 +0000

Creatures frozen for 32,000 years still alive - Technology & science - Science - LiveScience - msnbc.com

"The existence of microorganisms in these harsh environments suggests — but does not promise -- that we might one day discover similar life forms in the glaciers or permafrost of Mars or in the ice crust and oceans of Jupiter’s moon Europa," said Richard Hoover, an astrobiologist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.....Hoover said the creatures he has found might be able to survive in their suspended state for millions of years. The discovery opens up a whole new possibility that a future mission to Mars might be able to retrieve any life that's there."

Reference:

Britt, Robert Roy. "Creatures Frozen for 32,00 Years Still Alive." Science. msnbc.com. 24 Feb. 2005 Web. 6 Jan. 2012. .

SETI Home needs your help.

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:16:00 +0000

December 2011

Dear SETI@home Volunteer:

We need your help to continue the search for extraterrestrial intelligence!

For the last eleven years, SETI@home has brought the search for extraterrestrial intelligence to millions of households around the world. SETI@home is the longest operating SETI search. We use the largest and most sensitive telescopes on earth to scan the skies for the faint whispers of another technology. Your tax-deductible donation will help enable us to continue the SETI@home and Astropulse projects at Arecibo Observatory, as well as pursue ambitious new experiments all over the world. SETI@home is primarily funded by the financial support of its participants. Your contribution is vital to sustaining our search for intelligent life on other worlds.
During the last year, we have laid the groundwork for expanding SETI@home into new portions of the radio spectrum and new regions of the sky. We have performed observations of Kepler exoplanets with the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, USA, and we are very close to releasing these data to SETI@home and Astropulse volunteers. These observations will allow us to conduct the most sensitive search for intelligent life on these new worlds ever performed. We are also working with our colleagues at observatories all over the planet to install additional SETI@home data recorders to operate in piggy-back mode.

In addition to conducting SETI experiments, the SETI@home group actively trains the next generation of SETI scientists, working with students from high school through doctoral studies. Your contribution directly affects our ability to support additional students working with our group. Engaging the next generation of astronomers and engineers in SETI is absolutely crucial to ensuring its future.
Please consider a donation to SETI@home this holiday season. Any amount you can contribute would be an immense help in sustaining and growing the SETI@home search for extraterrestrial intelligent life. To contribute click here.

Thank you for your support and continuing dedication to SETI@home.

Sincerely,

Andrew Siemion, Project Scientist
P.S.: We are now able to accept PayPal donations!

Andrew Siemion is an astrophysics Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. His research activities focus on designing instruments and experiments to detect rare and novel radio phenomena.

Kepler Confirms ExoPlanet in a Habitable Zone

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:22:00 +0000

An exciting development - a Earth-like planet in a habitable zone (even possible that it has Earth-like temperatures). I am sure this planet will be the target of many investigations, especially as newer, more sensitive, equipment come on line.

This artist's conception illustrates Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. Image Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet in the "habitable zone," the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. Kepler also has discovered more than 1,000 new planet candidates, nearly doubling its previously known count. Ten of these candidates are near-Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of their host star. Candidates require follow-up observations to verify they are actual planets.

The newly confirmed planet, Kepler-22b, is the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone of a star similar to our sun. The planet is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth. Scientists don't yet know if Kepler-22b has a predominantly rocky, gaseous or liquid composition, but its discovery is a step closer to finding Earth-like planets.

Previous research hinted at the existence of near-Earth-size planets in habitable zones, but clear confirmation proved elusive. Two other small planets orbiting stars smaller and cooler than our sun recently were confirmed on the very edges of the habitable zone, with orbits more closely resembling those of Venus and Mars.

Read more of this NASA press release at: <http://astrobio.net/pressrelease/4381/kepler-confirms-exoplanet-in-a-habitable-zone>.

xkcd: The Corliss Resolution

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 20:37:00 +0000

Youngest Planet Seen As It’s Forming

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:27:00 +0000

Kamuela, HI – The first direct image of a planet in the process of forming around its star has been captured by astronomers who combined the power of the 10-meter Keck telescopes with a bit of optical sleight of hand.

What astronomers are calling LkCa 15 b, looks like a hot “protoplanet” surrounded by a swath of cooler dust and gas, which is falling into the still-forming planet. Images have revealed that the forming planet sits inside a wide gap between the young parent star and an outer disk of dust.

“LkCa 15 b is the youngest planet ever found, about 5 times younger than the previous record holder,” said astronomer Adam Kraus of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy. “This young gas giant is being built out of the dust and gas. In the past, you couldn’t measure this kind of phenomenon because it’s happening so close to the star. But, for the first time, we’ve been able to directly measure the planet itself as well as the dusty matter around it.”

Kraus will be presenting the discovery at an Oct. 19 meeting at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The meeting follows the acceptance of a research paper on the discovery by Kraus and Michael Ireland (of Macquarie University and the Australian Astronomical Observatory), in The Astrophysical Journal (available at http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.3808)

Figure 1 Left: The transitional disk around the star LkCa15. All of the light at this wavelength is emitted by cold dust in the disk. the hole in the center indicates an inner gap with radius of about 55 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Right: An expanded view of the central part of the cleared region, showing a composite of two reconstructed images (blue: 2.1 microns, from November 2010; red: 3.7 microns) for LkCa 15. The location of the central star is also marked.

The optical sleight of hand used by the astronomers is to combine the power of Keck’s Adaptive Optics with a technique called aperture mask interferometry. The former is the use of a deformable mirror to rapidly correct for atmospheric distortions to starlight. The latter involves placing a small mask with several holes in the path of the light collected and concentrated by a giant telescope. With that, the scientists can manipulate the light waves.

“It’s like we have an array of small mirrors,” said Kraus. “We can manipulate the light and cancel out distortions.” The technique allows the astronomers to cancel out the bright light of stars. They can then resolve disks of dust around stars and see gaps in the dusty layers where protoplanets may be hiding.

“Interferometry has actually been around since the 1800’s, but through the use of adaptive optics has only been able to reach nearby young suns for about the last 7 years.” said Dr. Ireland. “Since then we’ve been trying to push the technique to its limits using the biggest telescopes in the world, especially Keck.”

The discovery of LkCa 15 b began as a survey of 150 young dusty stars in star forming regions. That led to the more concentrated study of a dozen stars.

“LkCa 15 was only our second target, and we immediately knew we were seeing something new,” said Kraus. “We could see a faint point source near the star, so thinking it might be a Jupiter-like planet we went back a year later to get more data.”

Figure 2 The location of LkCa 15 can be found using this chart.

In further investigations at varying wavelengths, the astronomers were intrigued to discover that the phenomenon was more complex than a single companion object.

“We realized we had uncovered a super Jupiter-sized gas planet, but that we could also measure the dust and gas surrounding it. We’d found a planet, perhaps even a future solar system at its very beginning” said Kraus.

Drs. Kraus and Ireland plan to continue their observations of LkCa 15 and other nearby young stars in their efforts to construct a clearer picture of how planets and solar systems form.

# # #

The W. M. Keck Observatory operates two 10-meter optical/infrared telescopes on the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The twin telescopes feature a suite of advanced instruments including imagers, multi-object spectrographs, high-resolution spectrographs, integral-field spectroscopy and a world-leading laser guide star adaptive optics system which cancels out much of the interference caused by Earth’s turbulent atmosphere. The Observatory is a private 501(c) 3 non-profit organization and a scientific partnership of the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and NASA.

Source: "Youngest Planet Seen As It's Forming." W. M. Keck Observatory. 2011. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. <http://www.keckobservatory.org/news/first_close-up_view_of_a_planet_being_formed/>

TAKE ACTION ALERT! Tell the White House to Let NASA Explore Mars

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 16:13:00 +0000

Humanity’s exploration of Mars will be put on hold for the foreseeable future. We can’t let that happen! ACT NOW!

TAKE ACTION ALERT!
Tell the White House to Let NASA Explore Mars

The October 12 deadline can not be moved.

If you want to see Mars explored, please take action now.

The future of NASA’s – and the world’s -- exploration of Mars is hanging by a thread. And that thread may soon be cut by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB.)

I am writing you to ask that you take immediate action to prevent what could be a fatal blow to Mars exploration for the foreseeable future. Please write to John Holdren, the President’s Science Advisor, and ask him to support NASA’s Mars exploration program.

Right now, the OMB is considering whether to let NASA accept an offer of partnership -- and more than $1 billion dollars -- from the European Space Agency (ESA) so that the two space agencies can work together to launch a mission to Mars in 2016 and to follow it with a 2018 mission that would lay the groundwork for the long-sought Mars Sample Return.

To transfer the money, ESA is asking NASA for a letter committing the U.S. space agency to a solid partnership with the European agency. But NASA is an agency of the U.S. Administration and must do as it is told by powers like OMB–and it appears that that White House office is reluctant to let NASA make that commitment.

Scott Hubbard, former “Mars Czar” for NASA, summarizes the situation: “The European Space Agency is willing to put €850 million ($1.16 billion) to collaborate with us. But for reasons unknown, somewhere in the administration somebody is refusing to release the letter that would allow the head of ESA to collaborate with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. Why on Earth would you refuse to allow over $1 billion of funding? It borders on the irresponsible.”

Mars exploration is expensive – we all understand that. It has reached the point where no one nation – not even the United States -- can afford to do it alone. That’s exactly why ESA has made this offer to share the cost.

If that offer is rejected, it will cause chaos in Mars exploration programs around the world. All the careful plans so painstakingly developed between NASA and ESA will come to naught.

Humanity’s exploration of Mars will be put on hold for the foreseeable future.

We can’t let that happen! And we have to act now!

Please, today, contact John Holdren at the Office of Science and Technology Policy and ask him to intervene and let NASA send that letter to ESA. The ESA Ministerial Council is meeting on October 12 and, if they don’t see that letter from NASA by then, they may order ESA to back out of is collaboration with NASA to explore Mars.

If you want to see Mars explored, please take action now.

Thank you.

Bill Nye
Executive Director

Planetary Society
85 S. Grand Ave., Pasadena, CA 91105

Become a Planet Hunter and Help Find the Next Exoplanet!

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 22:39:00 +0000

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?

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:38:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:42:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:53:00 +0000

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.?

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 19:50:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:16:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 06:59:00 +0000

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>

Book Reviews

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:19:00 +0000

Book reviews will focus on topics related to exoplanets and astrobiology. These will mainly be non-fiction works, though I will also review the occasional pertinent work of science fiction.

The list of books to review is surprisingly longer than I had first expected. But I am happy that this topic is getting increased attention.

The first book reviewed will be Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence by Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI institute.

A Tour of the Exoplanets in Celestia

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 23:56:00 +0000

Celestia is a freeware program that

doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy.

Some folk have written Celestia scripts which will show you what the night sky would look like from an exoplanet (including where in the sky is our sun). For example, Ian Musgrave of Australia has written a script that takes you on a tour of three exoplanets (including showing you what the night sky would look like in the direction of our sun). It can be found in his Astroblog: A Tour of the Exoplanets in Celestia post.

Interview with Jill Tarter, Director of the Center for SETI Research

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:03:00 +0000

Jill Tarter, Director of the Center for SETI Research, is trying to find an answer to a question people have asked forever: is there life on other planets?

A Galactic Biosphere?

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:53:00 +0000

My Brother/Sister, the Alien

In Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (a full review is forthcoming), Dr. Shostak, in his brief mention of panspermia as one possible way life originated on Earth, brings up an interesting point about panspermia:

Panspermia's importance would change if life could survive in rocks that travel not just between adjacent planets but between the stars. If interstellar infection is possible, just a few points of genesis - or even one - might conceivably seed the entire galaxy. So life's beginnings could be highly improbable, but life's distribution could be widespread. In essence, the "biosphere" would extend over light-years. (88)

Thus, if life originating on its own is rare, we can see a scenario where that life eventually spreads throughout the galaxy. We would all be members of the same galactic biosphere - brother and sister creatures in one galactic family

Another way life can spread from one genesis is seeding by an early alien sentient race. This is a notion used by some Hollywood writers. In many science fiction shows we often see humanoid aliens. One reason is that especially for early Hollywood, humanoid aliens were easier on the special effects budget, thus sometimes writers and producers explained the similarity among humans and aliens by using the idea of early race spreading their DNA throughout the galaxy. For instance, in a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode (Season 6 episode "The Chase"), we discover there was an ancient race that seeded the galaxy (leaving clues in each "offspring's" DNA), thus explaining why so many alien races looked so similar. Why would sentient aliens purposefully seed the galaxy? It may be difficult to understand their motivations for sowing their seed amongst the stars, but some possibilities are:

as a means to continue their species / terraforming,
by accident,
as scientific experiments,
as the result of a religious decree (one purpose for life is to spread life, to join in on creation, e.g.) or
a combination of the above.

The Grand Diversity of Life

But even if the residents of the Milky Way are related, life, as we have seen on Earth, comes in a stunning array of diversity. From the deep sea, to deep mines, to hot springs, to tropical forests, to arid deserts, to perpetual frozen ice caps we find life in a myriad of forms. If we look into Earth's past via the fossil record, we find even more strange life forms. Extend this into space, onto other planets, and even if there is a common biosphere bound, the variety of expressions life can take will be mind boggling.

Or, My Half-Brother/Half-Sister, the Alien

In addition, even if life originating on its own is a rare occurrence, in a galaxy of hundreds of billions of stars (estimates run between 200 - 400 billion) and with even more planets (possibly a couple of trillion), there is the possibility that life has originated independently in at least a few places. There could be several galactic families. One wonders if primitive, slow metabolic germs from different origins land on the same planet, would there be a possibility that they could intermix, creating a hybrid life form.

Life in the (Extremely) Slow Lane

But back to the rare origin idea. Dr. Shostak is skeptical of this idea as this would involve million year rides on blasted (from a meteor impact), life-infected, rocks through the harsh vacuum of space. However, as I discussed in an earlier post, Panspermia, Long-Lived Bacteria, and Interstellar Distances, scientists have found microbes with very slow metabolisms that are over a hundred thousand years old living deep (as in miles deep - never seeing the light or fresh air of day) in rocks, and others that have survived lying dormant for a half a million years deep in permafrost. Some studies indicate some bacteria can live suspended in sediments, amber, and halite for millions of years.

So maybe there is a galactic biosphere. Aliens that come to realize this may develop philosophies and theologies that accepts all life on all planets around all stars in the galaxy as extended family.

One way to answer this question is to find life on another planet - even "just" microbial life. If we find that life originated more than once in the same solar system, it is a strong indicator that life originating on its own is not all that rare. It does not mean that panspermia is not an ancillary method, but that the galactic biosphere has gotten more complex and is, in fact, a large collection of individual (though not necessarily isolated) biospheres.

References:

Shostak, Seth. Confessions of An Alien Hunter. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2009.

Image credit: 1. "DNA" by Lynette Cook. 2. "Dark Matter" by Ryan Bliss, DigitalBlaphemy

An Alien Faith Passed On

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 06:39:00 +0000

One fear people have of alien contact is how the proof of alien existence will affect our theologies; this includes how, beyond "just" their existence, alien theologies will affect our theologies.

One thought that popped in my head the other day was what if an alien race had in their theology that they, as a people, would corrupt and lose their true religion - their church would be without leadership, without a head, and that one day a new church leader would come, one who at first did not know they were appointed to be their leader, one who was from another race, one extrasolar and thus alien to them, who would come from the stars, learn their religion and lead their church. How would that affect us?

If their mythology predicted their church would become corrupt and they would lose all knowledge of the true religion and that someone from the heavens would come to show them the right way - that would be a call to action for many, if not most, of the churches on Earth to send missionaries and possibly fight over who would lead the aliens to the light (as Earthlings see it).

But in the first scenario - a human would need to go to the alien planet, learn their religion, and lead them. Would that cause the alien religion to be adopted by some people on Earth? Would they adopt it because it essentially elevates humans as saviors? Would they adopt it because it presents the promise of power? Would they adopt is because they have become cynical of Earth religions? Would they adopt it because they would feel accepted, part of something greater that they were not able to get, for whatever reasons (good or bad or imagined), in churches here on Earth?

Genosia - Hive Races

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:37:00 +0000

I was watching Star Wars: Clone Wars episode 2.7, "Legacy of Terror," and, as usual, am skeptical about insectile sentient beings ("insectoids"). As discussed in my past insectoids post, the anatomical structure of insects precludes them from obtaining great size. Although, there are instances were they could obtain larger size: a humid, oxygen rich atmosphere, or water environment. A dry environment like Genosia is not a likely habitat. However, universal biology will allow for a great range of diversity - insectile creatures on other planets may have some similarities to Earth insects, but they may well have differences, especially if they were able to evolve to high level (i.e., technological using) sentience.

But my main query from watching the episode is one of the several topics I keep returning to: hive cultures. The Genosians have a queen, who spawns the entire civilization, much as an ant queen spawns all the members of her colony. This raises some questions.

Would one queen for an entire planetary civilization even make sense? Many separate colonies ensures the species as a whole survives because a) if an accident or disease strikes down one queen, only her colony dies, the others survive and b) one queen, even if constantly laying eggs, can not hope to produce as many offspring as multiple queens. But as a species evolves to higher order sentience, it is possible that they can eventually go against biological logic: and one queen becomes dominant - eradicating all others. Sentient beings do not always have to make "natural" sense (as we humans have shown repeatedly).

Why always a queen? Even the Borg eventually has a "queen." Why can not a species have a male king who is the only one that spreads his genetic material. Much like a queen sits around constantly (24/7) producing eggs, a king could be doing not much more than just fertilizing female eggs.

If a queen, or a king, is primarily involved in replenishing the species, would they really have that much control over their subjects? Lower species control via instinct and chemical signals. Higher species may be able to fight instincts - an underground, at first, resistance to the monarchy. A non-queen individual could have a mutation that reduces the queen's influence on them. For a lower species, that probably not pose much of a threat to the queen, but for a higher level sentient species, it may prove to be a major threat.

However, let us say for argument sake that the instinct is just too deeply embedded into their makeup, and so they keep their loyalty to the queen even into their technological age. Would such an alien race be bent on making all subject to their queen? Would our shocking level of independence from each other be too much of a philosophical threat? If a queen can not stop reproducing, and the population overruns the planet (especially if "minor" queens are allowed to have colonies of their own, all ultimately loyal to the dominant "alpha" queen), they would be pressured to go out into space and find new places to colonize. It would make sense that they would find safe places such as places that are not populated by a species that would fight back and endanger a queen, or which have microbial life forms which could threaten the queen's health (though there is the scenario that if a queen dies, their species may have a mechanism for one of the subjects to take her place).

And, I wonder, what kind of theologies would a hive-minded sentient culture develop?

Image credit: Animation Factory

Alien Visitors - How to Say "Hello, World"?

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:17:00 +0000

Alien Etiquette Faux Pas

In ABC's "V," a rich source for those who like to speculate on alien realities, the Visitors arrive in very large space craft. Some critics think that such arrivals could not happen without our noticing. However, we Earthlings already are working on cutting edge stealth technologies that address making objects invisible to various frequencies so it is not far-fetched to think that an even more advanced alien species would have perfected such technology. (Do these critics not have access to Discover, Scientific American, Science News, Discovery Channel, or the Science Channel?)

For me their arrival presents a different problem involved with first contact. After 9/11, and after watching movies like Independence Day and District 9, surely an advanced race would realize arriving in large ships unannounced to a jittery planet would be a monumental faux pas. Maybe early in the universe, the first space explorers made such faux pas, but it seems logical that they learned that one needs to study another planetary species carefully, learning their culture and language before contact

Lost in Space Translation (and You Thought Learning Klingon was Hard...)

But learning the culture and language of another world is fraught with incredible difficulties. Aliens that perceive the world differently than we do (live in a water world with heavier gravity, no land masses, and circling a binary star for instance), who use a different means of communicating (communicate via light, or electromagnetism, for instance), and have a different physiology and psychology (asexual, cold-blooded, egg-laying, creatures that feed by sucking the fluids out of other creatures) would have very different frames of references than we do.

And since our words have connotations, and we tend to use idioms and tropes (such as metaphors), an alien would need to understand not only our alphabets, syllabaries, and pictographs, but they would have to enter an strange world more foreign to them than our alien (to them) planet: our minds - what makes us tick.

Think about how difficult that would be. Imagine how difficult it would be for a sentient creature that communicates via light and can see the color blue, a color to which it attaches an emotional sexual connotation, describe that color and convey its connotations to an alien sentient creature that is impassively asexual, blind, and communicates via sound. This goes beyond "lost in translation."

The Internet and World Contact Day

Thus, an alien species, from "neighbors" saying hi to those bent on being our overlords, would likely put long effort into studying us secretly at first: learn our languages and try to decipher and understand our culture, traditions, and psychology. Although, with the advent of the Internet, we've just made the job not only easier, but so much more fruitful - they can gather so much intel from afar by just tapping into our Internet via eavesdropping on our satellites.

Maybe we've hastened the arrival of World Contact Day. Time to learn The Recognized Anthem Of World Contact Day: "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft."

Image credit: 1. 20th Century Fox 2. A&M Records

Brother Alien

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:40:00 +0000

The Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences, along with the Vatican Observatory, held its very first conference on astrobiology, a week long event which concluded yesterday.

Jesuit Father Jose Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, explained that "the questions of life's origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very interesting and deserve serious consideration. These questions offer many philosophical and theological implications."

Father Funes reiterated what he has stated in the past - that the Catholic church has no problem with the idea of extraterrestrial life. The Church can not put a limit to God's creativity. All creation falls under God, and any intelligent extra-terrestrial life, no matter how diverse, would be brothers and sisters in God's expanded family of spirit children.

However, Paul Davies, Arizona State University cosmologist, believes that discovery of intelligent extraterrestrials would create a philosophical dilemma for Christians since "they believe that God became incarnate in the form of Jesus Christ in order to save humankind, not dolphins or chimpanzees or little green men on other planets."

While some fundamentalist sects may have a problem, Father Funes believes that there is no theological crisis here. In an interview with the Catholic News Service in May 2008, he states that aliens may not need redemption as maybe they never lost God's fellowship. Father Funes pointed to the parable of the lost sheep: "We who belong to the human race could really be that lost sheep, the sinners who need a pastor." Thus, that is why God became man in Jesus on this planet - it was we who needed saving the most.

Alternatively, if the aliens also need saving, Father Funes states feels that Jesus' sacrifice would apply not only to humans, but to all intelligent beings in the universe. I am reminded of the gospel passage where Jesus tells his disciples that "other sheep have I" - maybe that includes aliens on extrasolar planets. Jesus picked Earth as the starting point. Either way, Jesus was God incarnate and sacrificed only once.

The Catholic Church is not the only Christian sect that accepts the concept of aliens. For instance in the LDS Church accepts the idea of extraterrestrials, though they feel they will be humanoid because all intelligent advanced life will be created in God's image, as were we. Unofficially some Mormons talk about how Jesus after his resurrection went to teach "other sheep" which includes aliens, and how this proves that the Earth is the worst of all the planets - we are the only ones to crucify Jesus.

Of course, when we say "in God's image" do we really know what He meant by that? Could it be a spiritual image and not necessarily a physical one?

References:

Butt, Riazat. "Vatican Ponders Extraterrestrials." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. 11 November 2009. Web. 11 November 2009. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/11/vatican-extra-terrestrials-catholic>

Maxwell, Neal A. A Wonderful Flood of Light. Bookcraft Pubs, 1990: 25.

Thavis, John. "Vatican astronomer says if aliens exist, they may not need redemption." Catholic News Service. Catholic News Service. 14 May 2008. Web. 11 November 2009. <http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0802629.htm>

Image credit: Futurama, 20th Century Fox Television.

Level 1 Parallel Words Addendum

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. David Michael Merchant) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:55:00 +0000

Level 1 Déjà Vu Speculations

Earlier in Parallel Universe - are some aliens ourselves? I discussed the parallel universe essay by Dr. Max Tegmark, Cosmologist from the University of Penn. In an infinite universe, or a sufficiently large enough one, other Earths exist far far away, with the same history - a Level 1 parallel universe. These parallel universes are regions that are beyond our cosmic horizon - regions beyond the limit of our ability to see or detect. They need to be that far so that the region can be parallel - two Earths in the same space would not be parallel since they would not have the same night sky, the same environment, and observing each other could upset the parallel developments. They exist now, in the past, and yet to be, all echoing our Earth in history. Even with true random chance and free-will, another Earth can accidentally follow ours. Infinity is an eerie thing. We have twins out there. Maybe this level 1 parallel universe explains déjà vu as we somehow in some quantum manner not yet discovered connect dimly at times with our exact duplicates. Of course that would mean at the exact time we experience déjà vu, so would our double.

Jinx!

I wonder, though, if it is necessarily true that parallel Earths have to be in regions beyond our comic horizon. Could a region of space, in an infinite universe, be of such special symmetry that two identical inhabited planets could orbit separate but identical stars and still see the same constellations, have the same interstellar environment? And in discovering each other, discover each other at the exact same time, in the same exact way? It may be the rarest of the rares, but in an infinite universe, could it not still happen? How weird, and frustrating, that would be for the explorers engaging in first contact: both speaking the same thing at the same time (and marveling that they both speak the same language and look and sound the same), flipping a coin to break the impasse and both saying "heads" at the same time, so go to a quantum random number generator to break the impasse (to decide who speaks first, for instance) and while both being truly random still, by chance, coming up with the same number... Probably the further apart, the more likely random effects could affect message transmissions such that the impasse would be finally broken. But I can not help but think in a truly infinite universe, there would be a place where each Earth would always simultaneously echo/parrot each other in perfect unison - hopefully, for those two twin worlds, there would be something in physical laws of the universe that would prevent the perfect parroting from being eternally true.

Breaking the Jinx

Maybe it would be better that another Earth would be similar but not the same. It would aid in establishing a real dialogue. On a theological note, can slightly different Earths be our afterlife/reincarnation (choosing, living, other paths as ourselves)?