JustGetThere

Monday, February 15. 2010

Thunderbolts Of The Gods: The Electric Universe

in Space

Defined tags for this entry: archetypes, asteroids, astronomers, astronomy, black hole, Chandra X-ray Observatory, comet, earth, electricity, electromagnetic energy, galaxy, gravity, history, hubble space telescope, magnetic fields, mythology, nasa, planets, plasma, plasmaphysics, quantum physics, space, stars, sun, sun magnetic fields, sunspots, universe

There are no ‘black holes’, there is no ‘dark matter’, comets are not ‘dirty snowballs’, the sun is not a ‘nuclear furnace’, and the origins of world mythology are not primitive invention but can be directly linked to deep space exploration and leading-edge experiments in plasma physics.

Recent discoveries in space have amazed and perplexed scientists. Current popular theories in the sciences can neither predict nor explain the phenomena we are now observing. In THE THUNDERBOLTS PROJECT, American mythologist David Talbott and Australian physicist Wallace Thornhill and their associates propose a new theory which can both predict and explain these phenomena.

5,000 year old rock art, the origins of world mythology, planetary history, spectacular nebular forms in deep space, and high energy electric discharges in the plasma laboratory – all are inextricably linked by the Electric Model. In an extraordinary synthesis of the scientific disciplines THE THUNDERBOLTS PROJECT presents us with an astonishing new perspective on ancient history and leading-edge astronomy.

http://www.thunderboltsproject.com/home.html

Laboratory experiments, together with advanced simulation capabilities, have shown that electric forces can efficiently organize spiral galaxies, without resorting to the wild card of gravity-only cosmology--the Black Hole. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S. Willner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

Plasma Galaxies

Many of astronomy's most fundamental mysteries find their resolution in plasma behavior. Why do cosmic bodies spin, asked the distinguished astronomer Fred Hoyle, in summarizing the unanswered questions. Plasma experiments show that rotation is a natural function of interacting electric currents in plasma. Currents can pinch matter together to form rotating stars and galaxies. A good example is the ubiquitous spiral galaxy, a predictable configuration of a cosmic-scale discharge. Computer models of two current filaments interacting in a plasma have, in fact, reproduced fine details of spiral galaxies, where the gravitational schools must rely on invisible matter arbitrarily placed wherever it is needed to make their models "work".

The photograph of spiral galaxy M81 above is one of the first images returned by NASA's new Spitzer space telescope, an instrument that can detect extremely faint waves of infrared radiation, or heat, through clouds of dust and plasma that have blocked the view of conventional telescopes. The result is the picture of striking clarity.

Beneath this photograph we have placed snapshots from a computer simulation by plasma scientist Anthony Peratt, illustrating the evolution of galactic structures under the influence of electric currents. Through the "pinch effect", parallel currents converge to produce spiraling structures.

To see the connection between plasma experiments and plasma formations in space, it is essential to understand the scalability of plasma phenomena. Under similar conditions, plasma discharge will produce the same formations irrespective of the size of the event. The same basic patterns will be seen at laboratory, planetary, stellar, and galactic levels. Duration is proportional to size as well. A spark that lasts for microseconds in the laboratory may continue for years at planetary or stellar scales, or for millions of years at galactic or intergalactic scales.

Plasma experiments, backed by computer simulations of plasma discharge, are changing the picture of space. Plasma scientists, for example, are able to replicate the evolution of galactic structures both experimentally and in computer simulations without recourse to a popular fiction of modern astrophysics --the black hole. Astronomers require invisible, super-compressed matter as the center of galaxies because without Black Holes gravitational equations cannot account for observed movement and compact energetic activity. But charged plasma achieves such effects routinely.

Wednesday, February 10. 2010

Professor: We have a 'moral obligation' to seed universe with life - Panspermia

in Space

Defined tags for this entry: astronomers, astronomy, earth, life, nasa, planets, space, universe

Directed panspermia missions could target interstellar clouds such as the Rho Ophiuchus cloud complex located about 500 light-years away. This view spans about five light-years across. The false-color image is taken from the Spitzer Space Telescope.

PhysOrg | Eventually, the day will come when life on Earth ends. Whether that’s tomorrow or five billion years from now, whether by nuclear war, climate change, or the Sun burning up its fuel, the last living cell on Earth will one day wither and die. But that doesn’t mean that all is lost. What if we had the chance to sow the seeds of terrestrial life throughout the universe, to settle young planets within developing solar systems many light-years away, and thus give our long evolutionary line the chance to continue indefinitely?

According to Michael Mautner, Research Professor of Chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University, seeding the universe with life is not just an option, it’s our moral obligation. As members of this planet’s menagerie, and a consequence of nearly 4 billion years of evolution, humans have a purpose to propagate life. After all, whatever else life is, it necessarily possesses an incessant drive for self-perpetuation. And the idea isn’t just fantasy: Mautner says that “directed panspermia” missions can be accomplished with present technology.

“We have a moral obligation to plan for the propagation of life, and even the transfer of human life to other solar systems which can be transformed via microbial activity, thereby preparing these worlds to develop and sustain complex life,” Mautner explained to PhysOrg.com. “Securing that future for life can give our human existence a cosmic purpose.”

As Mautner explains in his study published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Cosmology, the strategy is to deposit an array of primitive organisms on potentially fertile planets and protoplanets throughout the universe. Like the earliest life on Earth, organisms such as cyanobacteria could seed other planets, digest toxic gases (such as ammonia and carbon dioxide on early Earth) and release products such as oxygen which promote the evolution of more complex species. To increase their chances of success, the microbial payloads should contain a variety of organisms with various environmental tolerances, and hardy multicellular organisms such as rotifer eggs to jumpstart higher evolution. These organisms may be captured into asteroids and comets in the newly forming solar systems and transported from there by impacts to planets as their host environments develop.

Mautner has identified potential breeding grounds, which include extrasolar planets, accretion disks surrounding young stars that hold the gas and dust of future planets, and - at an even earlier stage - interstellar clouds that hold the materials to create stars. He explains that the Kepler mission may identify hundreds of biocompatible extrasolar planets, and astronomers are already aware of several accretion disks and interstellar clouds that could serve as targets. These potential habitats range in distance from a few light-years to 500 or more light-years away.

To transport the microorganisms, Mautner proposes using sail-ships. These ships offer a low-cost transportation method with solar sails, which can achieve high velocities using the radiation pressure from light. The microorganisms could be bundled in tiny capsules, each containing about 100,000 microorganisms and weighing 0.1 micrograms. Mautner predicts that the most challenging part of the process would be the precise aiming required in order for a mission to arrive at its target destination after hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of years of travel.

Accounting for the difficulties of each of the steps involved, Mautner has calculated how many microbial capsules would be needed to ensure a reasonable probability of success. He concludes that a few hundred tons of microbial biomass “can seed dozens of new solar systems in an interstellar cloud with life for eons.” With launch costs of $10,000/kg, this amount of biomass would cost about $1 billion to launch. If we can aim precisely at planets in nearby solar systems, the mission would require significantly fewer capsules, smaller biomass, and lower costs. Mautner predicts that, while the technology is currently available, such an initiative will be easier to implement as space infrastructure develops and launch costs decrease.

As Mautner notes, several scientists have previously proposed ways to seed planets (notably, Venus and Mars) in our own solar system with microorganisms in order to alter the atmosphere and possibly make them habitable for humans. Also, some theories suggest that, on Earth, life-supporting nutrients and materials - or even life itself - may have come from somewhere else in the universe, arriving here on meteors, asteroids, and comets. In a sense, Mautner’s proposal would simply be helping life’s planet-hopping journey continue.

But, some critics might ask, what if extraterrestrial life already exists somewhere else, and we infect it with our own invasive genetic material? First of all, Mautner explains that we can minimize these chances by targeting very primitive locations where life could not have evolved yet. In addition, he argues that, since extraterrestrial life is not currently known to exist, our first concern should be with preserving our family of organic gene/protein life that we know exists.

In the long term, Mautner is hopeful that life can continue existing beyond our home planet. Using techniques from astroecology based on the energy output of stars, he calculates that the amount of sustainable life can be significant in other neighborhoods of the universe. Of course, it’s impossible to know for sure how everything will turn out after we’re long gone.

“May life last indefinitely?” he writes. “The habitable lifetime of the galaxy may depend on the dark matter and energy. These forces may need to be observed for many more eons to predict their future behaviour. During those cosmological times our descendants may understand nature more deeply and seek to extend life indefinitely.”

More information: Michael N. Mautner. “Seeding the Universe with Life: Securing Our Cosmological Future.” Journal of Cosmology, 2010, Vol. 5. journalofcosmology.com

Book: “Seeding the Universe with Life: Securing Our Cosmological Future” (available at amazon.com and ebookmall.com)

Websites:
Directed panspermia and the Society for Life in Space (SOLIS): panspermia-society.com
Astroecology and the future of life: www.Astro-Ecology.com
Ethical aspects: astroethics.com

Wednesday, February 3. 2010

Hubble Detects Mysterious Spaceship-Shaped Object Traveling at 11,000MPH

in Space

Defined tags for this entry: asteroids, astronomy, comet, hubble space telescope, nasa, space

By Jesus Diaz

Gizmodo | Hubble has discovered a mysterious X-shaped object traveling at 11,000mph. NASA says that P/2010-A2 may be a comet, product of the collision between two asteroids. Or a Klingon Bird of Prey. Either way, UCLA investigator David Jewitt is excited:

This is quite different from the smooth dust envelopes of normal comets. The filaments are made of dust and gravel, presumably recently thrown out of the nucleus. Some are swept back by radiation pressure from sunlight to create straight dust streaks. Embedded in the filaments are co-moving blobs of dust that likely originated from tiny unseen parent bodies.

OK, David, we will believe you until Jerry Bruckheimer finish his next movie, in which a "comet" suddenly stops, turns to Earth, and starts firing anti-matter rays against our underpants.

The weirdest thing, however, is not only the prettyful X-shaped debris pattern, but the fact that its 460-foot-wide nucleus is outside the dust halo and separated from the trail. This behavior is something which has never been seen before in a comet or any other solar-system-swooshing object.

The images—taken by Hubble between January 25 and January 29—lead NASA to believe that this is a product of the collision of two asteroids. The nucleus would be the "surviving remnant of a hypervelocity collision:

"If this interpretation is correct, two small and previously unknown asteroids recently collided, creating a shower of debris that is being swept back into a tail from the collision site by the pressure of sunlight. The filamentary appearance of P/2010 A2 is different from anything seen in Hubble images of normal comets, consistent with the action of a different process.

In other words: They have no clue about what this is, and they are still speculating about how this object was formed. Maybe it's time to call Dr. Zarkov. [NASA]

Tuesday, December 15. 2009

Spacewalking Astronauts Seen With a Backyard Telescope (Video)

in Space

Defined tags for this entry: astronaut, astronomers, astronomy, earth, nasa, space, space station, telescope

By Alexis Madrigal

Wired | With a big enough telescope and some good fortune, an amateur astronomer can look into the sky and see humans at the space station.

Here’s the proof. On March 21, 2009, astronaut Joe Acaba stepped into space for some extravehicular activity. Down on Earth, Ralf Vandebergh was in his backyard, pointing a 10 inch-telescope at the International Space Station as it passed over Europe.

In reviewing the photos he shot, he saw a few bright pixels appear precisely where the work was going on at exactly the moment it was being conducted. In other words, he was looking at an astronaut!

He posted this new video of his images to YouTube earlier this week.

“The best results occur mostly as a surprise when lighting angle, viewing angle, seeing, distance and other factors of the objects are favorable,” Vandebergh explains on his website.

We’re big fans, obviously, of photos of recognizable features on Earth taken from space, but here’s the reverse: a photo of a human in space taken from Earth. It’s a different kind of sublime, but just as awesome.

Monday, September 28. 2009

The Sun Gets Its Spots (Back)

in Space

Defined tags for this entry: astronomers, astronomy, climate change, earth, nasa, space, sun, sunspots

By Alexis Madrigal

Wired | Two sunspots are visible on our star’s face for the first time in more than a year, possibly ending an unexpected lull in solar activity.

Solar flares rise and fall on an 11-year cycle, so scientists thought sunspot activity would pick up some time in 2008. It didn’t. And this year has been quiet, too. No sunspots have been visible on the sun for 80 percent of the days this year.

Sunspot activity is correlated with the total amount of energy we receive from the sun. If the sun’s activity were to change remarkably, it would have an influence on global climate. So, in the context of climate change, the fact that the current solar minimum has been the longest and deepest in more than a century has been of special interest. (Emphasis added)

In May, a big sunspot seemed to augur a return to normal, but it faded away and sunspotless days returned. The latest activity might not mark the end of the solar minimum, however. People have been counting sunspots since Galileo first observed one in the early 17th century. Through the 28 documented cycles, stretching from 1745 to today, some variation in cycle length has been observed.

That’s why NASA’s former chief sunspot watcher, Michael Kaiser, told us earlier this year that the minimum was “not out of the extreme ordinary.”

The photo above is of one of the sunspots, AR 1026. It was sent to Wired.com by solar photographer Trevor Little. Little lives in southern England and snaps his gorgeous photos with “a Solarmax 60 telescope and a Lumenera Skynyx 2-0m CCD camera.”

If you’re an astronomer and you want to share images with Wired Science, please tweet us @wiredscience or send an e-mail to our editor, Betsy Mason.

(For you sticklers out there, the polarity of solar storms alternates, so technically, a full solar cycle is 22 years long.)

Tuesday, September 22. 2009

Planet found that defies the laws of physics

in Space

Defined tags for this entry: astronomy, planet, space

By Steve Connor

The Independent | It's the planet that really shouldn't exist – or at least not for long. It is 10 times the size of Jupiter, orbits its own star in under 24 hours and should soon be spiralling into the surface of its searingly-hot sun.

Under the laws of physics, planet WASP-18b orbiting a star 1,000 light years from Earth is too big and too close to its sun for comfort. The tidal interactions between the two massive objects should be pulling them together in a deadly gravitational embrace.

British astronomers say they have made a highly unusual planetary discovery in finding WASP-18b. Either they just happened to have witnessed an exceptionally rare event that they have likened to winning the lottery, or they do not understand the tidal forces affecting distant planets beyond our own solar system.

"The problem with this planet is that it's very massive and very close to its star. It should be creating tidal bulging that makes it spiral into its star," said Professor Andrew Collier Cameron of St Andrew's University.

The planet is at least one billion years old, yet at this rate it should have no more than half a million years left before it crashes into its own star. The chances of finding it at this point in its life cycle is about 1 in 2,000.

Professor Cameron said: "This is another bizarre planet discovery. The situation is analogous to the way tidal friction is gradually causing the Earth's spin to slow down, and the Moon to spiral away from the Earth," he said. "In this case, however, the spin of the star is slower than the orbit of the planet, so the star should be spinning up, and the planet spiralling in," he said.

WASP-18b, one of more than 300 known "exoplanets" orbiting distant stars, was discovered by a team led by Coel Hellier of Keele University, whose study is published in the journal Nature.

It is a hot, Jupiter-like planet where temperatures exceed 2,100C – high enough to create clouds of silica-based gems, according to Professor Cameron. If anyone could visit this planet, and survive, they might see a sky full of diamonds and sapphires, he said.

Tuesday, August 18. 2009

Building block of life found on comet

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Defined tags for this entry: amino acids, astronomy, comet, glycine, life, nasa, space

By Steve Gorman

Reuters | The amino acid glycine, a fundamental building block of proteins, has been found in a comet for the first time, bolstering the theory that raw ingredients of life arrived on Earth from outer space, scientists said on Monday.

Microscopic traces of glycine were discovered in a sample of particles retrieved from the tail of comet Wild 2 by the NASA spacecraft Stardust deep in the solar system some 242 million miles (390 million km) from Earth, in January 2004.

Samples of gas and dust collected on a small dish lined with a super-fluffy material called aerogel were returned to Earth two years later in a canister that detached from the spacecraft and landed by parachute in the Utah desert.

Comets like Wild 2, named for astronomer Paul Wild (pronounced Vild), are believed to contain well-preserved grains of material dating from the dawn of the solar system billions of years ago, and thus clues to the formation of the sun and planets.

The initial detection of glycine, the most common of 20 amino acids in proteins on Earth, was reported last year, but it took time for scientists to confirm that the compound in question was extraterrestrial in origin.

"We couldn't be sure it wasn't from the manufacturing or the handling of the spacecraft," said astrobiologist Jamie Elsila of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the principal author of the latest research.

She presented the findings, accepted for publication in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science, to a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington, D.C., this week.

"We've seen amino acids in meteorites before, but this is the first time it's been detected in a comet," she said.

Chains of amino acids are strung together to form protein molecules in everything from hair to the enzymes that regulate chemical reactions inside living organisms. But scientists have long puzzled over whether these complex organic compounds originated on Earth or in space.

The latest findings add credence to the notion that extraterrestrial objects such as meteorites and comets may have seeded ancient Earth, and other planets, with the raw materials of life that formed elsewhere in the cosmos.

"The discovery of glycine in a comet supports the idea that the fundamental building blocks of life are prevalent in space, and strengthens the argument that life in the universe may be common rather than rare," said Carl Pilcher, the director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute in California, which co-funded the research.

Glycine and other amino acids have been found in a number of meteorites before, most notably one that landed near the town of Murchison, Australia in 1969, Elsila said.

Tuesday, June 16. 2009

Planet 'spotted' in Andromeda galaxy

in Space

Defined tags for this entry: Andromeda, astronomers, astronomy, galaxy, nasa, planet, space

Picture: A photo of the galaxy M31 in visible light. (Photo: John Lanoue).

Scientific American | Astronomers believe they may have discovered the first planet ever detected in another galaxy. The new world was apparently glimpsed in the closest giant spiral galaxy to the Milky Way, Messier 31 in the constellation of Andromeda.

It lies an incredible 2.5 million light-years away - too far normally to be seen.

But it revealed itself thanks to a phenomenon called microlensing where the gravitational field of an object closer to Earth acts like a magnifying glass.

Amazingly, it has taken the astronomers five years to realise that they probably netted an extra-galactic planet. They observed a peculiar microlensing event while studying the Andromeda galaxy - which can be seen as a dim blur with the unaided eye - in 2004.

The international team, using the UK's Isaac Newton Telescope on the Canary Island of La Palma, thought at the time that they had recorded a pair of stars orbiting each other.

But computer simulations and other calculations have persuaded them that they actually observed a star with a smaller, planet sized companion about six times bigger than Jupiter.

More than 300 so-called exoplanets have been found orbiting other stars in our own galaxy. And NASA has launched a $595 million spaceprobe called Kepler to watch 100,000 stars for signs of world like Earth.

Tuesday, February 24. 2009

The Precession of the Equinox and 2012

in Space

Defined tags for this entry: 2012, astronomy, precession of the equinox, space

By Les Visible

Smoking Mirrors | Greetings Earthlings… welcome and unwelcome guests. I want to talk about 2012 today and a thing called ‘precession of the equinox’. I want to mention Newcomb’s Constant and Kepler’s Laws. I’d like to present periapsis and the Dwapara Yuga and… I think that should be enough. When I say, I want to talk these things, the truth is that I only want to bring them up and if you are curious enough you are going to look into them and you might speculate about what they have to do with each other and the approach of 2012. You might then consider what it is that uniquely defines the given moment on December 21st, 2012 astronomically speaking and you might give a look into the sunspot activity as well.

I don’t want to talk about this. I don’t want to talk about this. I don’t want to talk about 9/11 Netanyahoo or Mad Dog Avigdor Lieberman. I’m not going to talk about the magical missiles from Lebanon or the looming assault on Iran. You know about the authors of these things or you are living in the real life version of “They Live” or you’re doing an ostrich imitation though, I’ve been told, ostriches don’t really stick their heads in the sand. People do stick their heads in the sand. They even stick them up their asses and often… in these days… up the asses of other people too.

It doesn’t matter what ancient culture you visit or what ancient texts you read. They are uniform in their commentaries about a 26,000 year cycle. You can go to The Vedas and you can go to the Hopis; the Olmecs and the Mayans… the Incas and many others and you will find the same thing differently exposited but congruous with one another in the essential understanding. I’ve given you recourse to modern scientific theorems and presentations that you can use for a transparency overlay in respect of the old and the new in a precise embrace.

What you see around you; all the bankrupt constructs that have defiled and imprisoned the human spirit are headed for the ashcan and you are headed there too, if you find yourself unable to cut them loose. Your political and religious leaders are fools. They are hypocrites, demagogues, thieves and murderers and they are most certainly headed to the ashcan with or without their secret bunkers and midnight rustling of the wealth of the world.

Some of you are going to want to protest the continuing psychopathy of the few and the sycophancy of the many. Some of you are going to want to rebel and resort to guerrilla tactics. Some of you are going to step away from the big bat guano machine. Most of you are going to go along with the program and right into the ashcan. You are going to become the fertilizer for a new age. According to your personal destiny as it is compromised by personal choice you will do what you see fit. My suggestion is that you consider deeply who you are; where you are and what you are. It’s late in the game to change the world so you had better change yourself.

The false prophets, new age hucksters and snake oil salesmen… the high priests and pornographers of this insidious culture of low level sensuality and body worship are due for a big surprise. Everyone is due for a big surprise. Many of you are thinking we’re just going through another rough patch in the road. Many of you think this is just a period of readjustment and that it’s all going to clear up in a little while. It is not going to clear up. It is going to get much, much worse. It is already worse than you think but they’re not telling you that. Time enough for that when it can’t be concealed any longer.

A lot of people are making the choice to go down with the ship in an ‘alas Babylon’ kind of a way. Some portion of you are moving away from that and for you, in general, the news is good. Out of the ashes of what used to be, a new dawn will be rising. I cannot stress enough how important it is to take stock of yourself and to consider what is valuable to you. If the evidence set before you each succeeding day were of the audible sort you would be hearing klaxons and tsunami horns.

It is a most peculiar thing that the majority of the people cannot see this. Apparently it is always this way. I could speculate on the power of rampant self-interest; disregard for one’s surroundings, pleasure seeking as an ultimate course, unfathomable ignorance, highly magnetic delusion and obsession but it wouldn’t serve any useful purpose. Let those who are so inclined remain as they are and may those not so inclined continue as well.

I’m going to suggest that you give some serious attention to the links I have provided you and I’ll throw in a few films as well; 2012, Science or Superstition, Future by Design and The Reflecting Pool just because it’s such an uncanny pseudo-fictional account about 9/11 and one more considerate effort by another one of us wailing in the wilderness or laboring in the provinces. There are some really good people working all over the world on the behalf of everyone. It is a tragedy that there are so few but it is an inspiration to us all, should we be so inclined, to do what we can wherever we may be in respect of the coming paradigm shift.

The recent post on cycles and the post on liars are connected to this one as setups. Smoking Mirrors and the other blogs are going to be less and less concerned with ongoing phenomena and more concerned with practical considerations. As with anything, some transition time is going to be involved. I’ll be on the radio this Sunday night talking about these things here.

It makes no never mind to me whether people pay attention to me or to any of the other fellow travelers whose efforts are directed toward awakening and informing people. To be criticized by those complicit in their own doom is a not unwelcome imprimatur upon my efforts and the efforts of kindred spirits. Have at it with a will while that capacity remains with you.

Rather than offer any general advice where each reader’s situation is different according to location; family, occupation and viewpoint, I would rather extend that timeless exhortation, “seek and ye shall find”.

There is some form of agency that is well disposed to those who are well disposed to our common good and another agency that is not well disposed to those not well disposed to our common good and I would suggest they are both the same thing, representative of the outworking of cosmic law. Defining this agency is a fruitless effort because any effort in that regard will only serve to conceal it more. Each of us perceives destiny and their place in the mix through a different lens and perspective. However you see it the time has come to refine it. The time to inquire and seek with all intensity is at hand. I am confident that no effort in this regard will go unrewarded.

The dissolution of outworn forms is necessary for what is coming. As much as many will look with horror on what is coming, I submit that there are some numbers of us who will look on it with hope and an encouraging industry, brimming with focused purpose. You can think of it as a death rattle or you can think of it as birth pangs. It’s going to look differently to different people depending on how they are looking at it and what their intentions are.

I’m reminded of the admonition seen in the side window of an automobile, “objects in the mirror are closer than they appear”. Everyone always imagines that there’s going to be some kind of a reasonable warning period …while having ignored the repeated and increasingly more obvious warnings all along. Take it for what it’s worth.

Iridescent Dreams

Monday, February 16. 2009

Galaxy Has 'Billions of Earths'

in Space

Defined tags for this entry: astronomy, Dr Alan Boss, earth, life, nasa, planets, space

BBC | There could be one hundred billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy, a US conference has heard.

Dr Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Science said many of these worlds could be inhabited by simple lifeforms.

He was speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago.

So far, telescopes have been able to detect just over 300 planets outside our Solar System.

Very few of these would be capable of supporting life, however. Most are gas giants like our Jupiter, and many orbit so close to their parent stars that any microbes would have to survive roasting temperatures.

But, based on the limited numbers of planets found so far, Dr Boss has estimated that each Sun-like star has on average one "Earth-like" planet.

This simple calculation means there would be huge numbers capable of supporting life.

"Not only are they probably habitable but they probably are also going to be inhabited," Dr Boss told BBC News. "But I think that most likely the nearby 'Earths' are going to be inhabited with things which are perhaps more common to what Earth was like three or four billion years ago." That means bacterial lifeforms.

Dr Boss estimates that Nasa's Kepler mission, due for launch in March, should begin finding some of these Earth-like planets within the next few years.

Recent work at Edinburgh University tried to quantify how many intelligent civilisations might be out there. The research suggested there could be thousands of them.

Wednesday, January 7. 2009

Milky Way Faster And Heavier Than Thought

in Space

Defined tags for this entry: American Astronomical Society, astronomers, astronomy, Milky Way, space

Spinning top: An artist's impression of the Milky Way showing the approximate position of our Solar System.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt

Agence France-Presse | The Milky Way is spinning much faster and has 50 per cent more mass than previously believed, increasing the chance of a collision with another galaxy, say astronomers.

An international team of researchers have used ten telescopes spread out between Hawaii, the Caribbean and the northeastern United States to determine that the Milky Way is rotating at a speed of 161,000 km/h faster than previously thought.

Gravitational pull

That increase in speed boosts the Milky Way's mass by 50 per cent, said Mark Reid, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, in research presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting this week in Long Beach, California.

"No longer will we think of the Milky Way as the little sister of the Andromeda Galaxy," he said.

The larger mass, however, also means that the galaxy has a greater gravitational pull, which heightens the likelihood of collisions with the Andromeda galaxy or smaller nearby galaxies, Reid said.

The Earth's Solar System is located some 28,000 light years from the centre of the Milky Way. At that distance, the new measurements show that the galaxy is rotating at a speed of 965,600 km/h, compared to previous estimates of 804,672 km/h, the astronomers report.

The new observations from the network of radio telescopes is "producing highly-accurate direct measurements of distances and motions," said Karl Menten of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, a member of the team.

Difficult to determine

"These measurements use the traditional surveyor's method of triangulation and do not depend on any assumptions based on other properties, such as brightness," Menten said. The direct measurements "are revising our understanding of the structure and motions of our Galaxy."

It is difficult to determine the structure of the Milky Way because the Earth is inside it.

"For other galaxies, we can simply look at them and see their structure, but we can't do this to get an overall image of the Milky Way," added Menten. "We have to deduce its structure by measuring and mapping."

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