NASA's Kepler Mission - Breaking News

NASA's Kepler Mission Confirms Its First Planet in Habitable Zone of Sun-like Star

Exciting news!  

          Today, Dec. 5, 2011, NASA announced it's first planet found inside the "habitable zone" orbiting a star similar to our sun.  Kepler also discovered more than 1,000 new planet candidates.  Of these, 10 are near-Earth size and orbit their star within the "goldilocks" zone.  The latest discovery is called Kepler-22b, and is the smallest to be found in orbit in the middle of the habitable zone of a star similar to our own.  

          It's unknown if Kepler-22b has a predominantly rocky, gaseous or liquid composition.

Space H2O

On July 22, 2011, NASA reported that, "two teams of astronomers have discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe."  The water surrounds a quasar, and is 140 trillion times the water on Earth.  It surrounds a quasar, more than 12 billion light-years away. The numbers are almost unimaginable.

Andrew Fazekas reported in the National Geographic news of June 13, 2011, a weird phenomena of "a young, sunlike star ... found with jets that blast epic quantities of water into interstellar space, shooting out droplets that move faster than a speeding bullet." 

"Astronomers have known for decades that there is a lot of water in space. Hydrogen is the most common element in the Universe, and oxygen is made in stars and dispersed by events such as supernova explosions. The two elements mix in star-forming clouds and form large amounts of water (H₂O). But because astronomers couldn't measure gaseous water in cold clouds in space, they couldn't be sure of the exact amount of water in those regions."  Astrobiology Magazine: June 4, 2001

Water on Mars

Water on the Moon

Water on Europa, one of Jupiter's moons

NASA's Kepler Mission - update

Kepler celebrated 1,000 days in space on Dec. 1, 2011.  That is quite an accomplishment ... which means, more than one planet discovered per day.  But, that's not all.  On Monday, NASA will be presenting new discoveries at a conference in Calif.  I wait with bated breath.

NASA's Kepler Mission

This is my article assignment from my creative writing class, CREW200 with Frank Moher.
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             After more than 1,000 days in space, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Kepler Mission scientists announced new discoveries at their Calif. Conference on Dec. 5. One exciting find, Kepler-22b, orbits its sun-like star in the middle of the habitable zone, where liquid water could be found. The planet is 2.4 times the size of Earth, and its star is a little smaller than our sun. Whether it is a rocky world, or gaseous, is yet unknown.

            The Kepler spaceship blasted off on March 6, 2009. The planned mission lifetime is 3.5 years. According to the mission's website:

“The challenge now is to find terrestrial planets (i.e. those one half to twice the size of the Earth), especially those in the habitable zone of their stars where liquid water and possibly life might exist.”

“The Kepler Mission is specifically designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover dozens of Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets.”

“Results from this mission will allow us to place our solar system within the continuum of planetary systems in the Galaxy.”

            Previous important finds include Kepler-10b, a rocky planet, the smallest planets detected outside our solar system. This discovery was announced on Jan. 10, 2011. Eight months previously, this planet had been one of hundreds of planet candidates waiting for the verification of data, to reveal that it was, indeed the rocky planet that scientists initially thought it to be. Slightly bigger than Earth, it is the smallest planet ever discovered outside our solar system. Unfortunately, Kepler-10b is very close to its star, so life is unlikely to be there. The planet is perpetually facing its sun on the one side, and out into space on the other.

            Kepler-11 planetary system has six planets in a tight orbit around their dwarf star. If placed over our system, the outer planet's orbit would be between Mercury and Venus. All the planets are bigger than Earth, the largest about the size of Neptune.

            A binary star system with a circumbinary planet, Kepler-16b, orbiting the two suns has been upgraded to a definite find in Sept. 2011. NASA likens it to the two suns from Star Wars' planet, Tatooine, except Kepler-16b is a cold, gaseous planet, unlikely to harbour life. 

            Kepler finds exoplanets using the transit method, whereby, the telescope detects the dips in brightness caused when the planet crosses in front of its star. Three transits need to be witnessed by Kepler to identify a planet as a candidate. Some planets orbit their star (or stars in the case of a binary system) quickly, but some are slow. So, it's not surprising that it can take a long time to upgrade a candidate to a definite find. That's why the telescope must remain focused on one small area of our galaxy, in this case, the Cygnus constellation. No blinking … just staring, and waiting for those dimming dips. So far, there are 28 confirmed planets, and 2,326 planet candidates. Thus far, it seems there is a variety of diverse planetary systems in just this one section of the Milky Way galaxy.

            NASA named the Kepler spaceship in honour of Johannes Kepler's contributions to the field of astronomy. Kepler (1571 – 1630) was born near what is now Stuttgart, Germany. He attended the University of Tűbingen, having won a scholarship there. He is most famous for his mathematical skills and his studies in astronomy. He also invented an improved version of the refracting telescope, called the Keplerian telescope, which makes naming the Kepler Mission after him all the more fitting.

            During his time at Tűbingen, he was influenced by the ideas of Copernicus,including his belief that the sun is the centre of our planetary system. He is famous in the modern scientific community for his three laws of planetary motion (a more amusing version of the three planetary laws of motion) which states (courtesy of Wikipedia):

1. The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci.
2. A line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time.
3. The square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit.

            Dr. Greg Arkos, VIU astronomy professor, calls Johannes Kepler, “the most famous scientist no-one knows.” He says that from Copernicus, to Galileo, Kepler, Newton onwards to our more contemporary scientists like Einstein, the science of astronomy is advancing, ever evolving with each new discovery. The invention of the telescope made seeing farther into space feasible, and this made it possible to verify mathematical equations by observation. Arkos feels that the anticipated $600 million cost of putting a spaceship like Kepler into orbit, and focusing on one area of space, justifies the price for the scientific discoveries that could be made. He believes that if Kepler goes beyond the 3.5 mission years (as is currently being debated), it will likely continue to keep looking in the same direction to spy out planetary systems even farther away. Once the mission is completed, and it is seen that, for example, 25% of all systems have rocky planets, within the “goldilocks” zone, with liquid water (needed for life), he speculates that that could be the basic content of our galaxy, or even the universe. Thus, life could exist within that percentage. Professor Arkos explains that, “farther away – other galaxies – is conjecture, but we see similar chemical building blocks elsewhere.” He notes, about fifty out of the 1,200 plus candidates could be the size of Earth, more or less. And of these, perhaps a number will have potentially Earth-like conditions.

            The sole Canadian scientist working on the Kepler Mission, York University astronomer John Caldwell, notes that, until Kepler came along, finding earth-like planets was much more difficult. In reference to astronomers using space and ground-based telescopes to detect earth-like planets, he says in an interview with CBC News, March 5, 2009. Since Kepler was launched, many gas giants and, more importantly, rocky planets have been discovered.

            Man has looked to the stars for millenia, seeking the answers to life on Earth. The Mayan Empire, the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, even those who built the circles of stone called Stonehenge, have used the stars for various reasons: to guide them on travels, or to make predictions about the future.

            Technology, such as the telescope has given us access to the wonders of our universe; from our own planetary system, and onwards to other suns and their planets via the Kepler spaceship's telescope. Who knows what the Kepler spaceship will find? Science is moving ever onward, and where it will take us, is the exciting question.

            Perhaps one that would answer young Ellie in the movie, Contact, when she asks her father, “Dad, do you think there's people on other planets?” His reply is, “I don't know, Sparks. But I guess I'd say if it is just us … seems like an awful waste of space.”

Links:

Kepler Conference, Ames Centre, California, Dec. 5 (YouTube)

Kepler's Dilemma: Not Enough Time by Kelly Beatty, Sky & Telescope, December 2011 Issue

Mission Update: Kepler, Uploaded to YouTube by NASAtelevision on Feb 6, 2009

Kepler website, About the Mission, Quick Guide

In search of us? By Paul Jay,CBCNews, March 5, 2009

Carl Sagan: Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion (YouTube)

'H' is for Heinlein

The "dean of science fiction writers", Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) was one of the most popular among the authors of the genre.  For many years, Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke were known as the "Big Three" of science fiction." (Wikipedia)  He kept good company indeed.

 

Links of interest:

Wikipedia on Robert A. Heinlein

Heinlein Society

Heinlein's Writing Rules

'G' is for Games

Gaming has introduced many fantasy and sci-fi stories.  Many are shooter games, with background stories.  There are also civilisation building games.  And, of course, multiple player online games.  Here are some of the systems that games are played on:

1. Playstation - Final Fantasy series
2. Nintendo - Zelda series
3. X-Box - Halo series

'F' is for Fables and Fairy Tales

Castles are often a part of fairy tales, such as in Cinderella

I believe our first introduction into Fantasy is via the fables and fairy tale stories of our youth.  Three groups come to mind:  Aesop's Fables, HansChristian Andersen, and the brothers Grimm Fairy Tales.  From the lessons learned in The Tortoise and the Hare (Aesops), to the sad tale of The Little Mermaid (Hans Andersen), and then the romantic story of Sleeping Beauty and the scary Little Red Riding Hood from the Grimm brothers.

Many of these stories have been Disney-washed for the movie industry, but in their original form, were quite frightening or very sad.

Wikipedia Definitions:
A fable is a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, featuring  animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized (given human qualities), and that illustrates a moral lesson, which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.

Fairy tale is a type of short narrative that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies. The stories may nonetheless be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends (which generally involve belief in the veracity of the events described) and explicitly moral tales, including beast fables.

Here is where we find talking trees in dark forests, dwarves, giants, hares that run races against tortoises, scary wolves that talk to little girls and gobble up their grandmothers, witches with candy houses, frogs that turn into princes when kissed, princesses awakened with a kiss, princesses turned into swans, girls falling into tunnels that lead to great adventures, journey to places with little people, or to a giant at the top of a magic bean pole, cats with boots, a wizard called Merlin, fairies in the garden, mermaids, elves, and a myriad of other weird and magical creatures.

I remember my father reading us the story of Peter Pan.  You couldn't get more magical then that, and it had a fairy in the story too.  I loved reading all those wonderful stories when I got older to read them for myself.  I particularly like the stories by C.S. Lewis which has now become so popular in the young generation of today, no doubt because of the movie, The Chronicals of Narnia.

'D' is for Dune by Frank Herbert

I read the Dune books in my teens and twenties, and couldn't tear myself away from them.  I would always be excited when a new sequel came out.  I enjoyed the movies, which came a long time after the books, but I did prefer the novels.  Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. (October 8, 1920 – February 11, 1986) was born in Tacoma, WA.  According to the official Dune website:

Dune is considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, and Frank Herbert left a lasting legacy to fans and family alike. Brian Herbert – Frank Herbert’s son – and coauthor Kevin J. Anderson have continued the series, keeping the original author’s vision alive and bringing the saga to millions of new readers. DuneNovels.com is a place where fans of all-things Dune can come and immerse themselves in Frank Herbert’s rich, desert tapestry.

 So, his son is keeping up with the world of Dune, with the help of Kevin J. Anderson.  I am so glad.  In my opinion, the Dune series is up there with the Lord of the Rings, 2001:A Space Odyssey, Ender's Game, and the Foundation series.  These are the sci-fi/fantasy novels that I read during my teens to late twenties, that influence my writing now.  There are other authors, such as, C.S. Lewis and Jules Verne who are the grandfathers of the genre, that I read over and over when I was a kid.  I haunted the library, waiting for new series of sci-fi to come out that I hadn't yet read.  I remember, at one time there were yellow jacketed sci-fi books, so they were easy to spot. 

Links of Interest:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert
http://www.dunenovels.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_J._Anderson
http://kjablog.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Herbert

'C' is for the movies Contact and Close Encounters of the Third Kind

I put these two movies together because it explores the same theme, that is, the discovery of extraterrestrial life.  Both protagonists seem obsessed by seeing the contact through to the end.  

Contact by Carl Sagan was made into a movie by the same name.  While Close Encounters directs the protagonist to a certain site where the aliens will land, in the Contact scenario the aliens send plans on how to build a structure that conveys the main character to their planet (although that is debatable ... the movie makes it unclear ... it could be her consciousness that is transported by the machine to a place that looks like Earth and the alien looks like her father).

Carl Sagan was "the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and Director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University. He played a leading role in the American space program since its inception." (The Carl Sagan Portal)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind was written and directed by Steven Spielberg, in 1977.  The protagonist is a man who becomes enthused to an absurd point, by a shape of a mountain.  He keeps drawing it, even creating it with mud in his kitchen.  In the end, it is this mountain that the aliens are going to land, and many other people went just as dotty over various aspects of the landing, such as the sound the ship makes, or the lights.  Spielberg has directed many sci-fi movies such as ET and Jurassic Park, and more recently War of the Worlds (not my favourite).  He has been involved in other genres with as much, or even more success.

Links of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan

http://www.carlsagan.com/

The Sci-Fi Blog - Steven Spielberg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Spielberg

'B' is for Ben Bova

I really enjoyed the Voyagers series by Ben Bova.  He was born on November 8, 1932 in Philadelphia and worked as a reporter for a few years.  Like Asimov, he married twice (divorced 1974), having two children with his first wife. 
The latest in the Voyagers series, The Return: Book IV of Voyagers is now available in paperback. 

Links of Interest:

Washington Post article by Dr. Ben Bova

www.benbova.com

wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Bova

Interview on YouTube .... short reply

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