Planetary News: Star Trek Comes to Life

(I am not the professional who assembled and painted this)

It may not be long before ships like this well-known beauty become a reality. Okay, okay, so we're still a long way from warp drive (or any equivalent), but the light/time barrier is not what we're here to discuss today (that will come another time). But what other type of propulsion do Star Trek ships use? This one may be harder to guess if you're not a Trekkie. The answer is: Impulse Drive. Star Trek's famous Warp Drive is used for faster-than-light (FTL) travel. But for sub-light speeds, Star Trek ships used what they called "Impulse Drive" and it is this marvelous piece of technology that may actually be ours in the near future. And before you say, "Well, they just borrowed the name because it sounds cool," let me tell you, it is actually going to work like the Star Trek one. Dilithium crystals and all.

Basically, the University of Alabama-Huntsville has teamed up with NASA, Boeing, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to bring you what they are calling, "Nuclear Fusion Impulse Rocket Engines." According to team member Ross Cortez, "The fusion fuel we're focusing on is deuterium [a stable isotope of hydrogen] and Li6 [a stable isotope of the metal lithium] in a crystal structure. That's basically dilithium crystals we're using." Now, the team has no delusions here. This is not warp drive. This early impulse drive won't even come close to the speed of light (C). In fact, achieving C is impossible according to Einsteinian Relativity, though some scientists believe we may be able to "skip" C and go right into FTL. But that's all theoretical, and has nothing to do with impulse drive, so we'll not spend anymore time on FTL. As previously stated, this impulse drive won't get us anywhere near C, but it will get us from Earth to Mars in about three months of travel time (which is twice as fast as the other major experimental propulsion: nuclear fission). And the best part: the plan is to have a functioning impulse drive by 2030!

Just think of it! In about 17 or 18 years time, we could have a viable means of getting a manned mission to Mars in reasonable time. If the impulse drive works, we could experience in 2031 what others experienced in 1969: live transmission from a human setting foot on an alien world! With this in mind, it is not unthinkable that the average person could make a trip to Mars by the early 2040s. Especially with the advent of private space-flight companies. Mars could be the practice arena for extraterrestrial colonization. Think about it! We've detected habitable worlds like Zarmina's World and Gl 667Cc, but they're over 20 light years away. Even with impulse drive that's a multi-generational journey. Mars is the only habitable world within easy reach. And in a couple of decades we could be sending colonists from Earth to Mars in less time than it took early colonists to get from England to America! We could cross the gulf of space that lies between these two worlds quicker than those 450 years previous could cross that Atlantic Ocean that lay between the two worlds of their time. Isn't that an exciting prospect? Mars is almost within reach!

I think I shall devote my next post to the Red Planet, in light of this news. And then I shall resume discussion of habitable exoplanets.

Sources:

http://txchnologist.com/post/32463368168/channeling-star-trek-researchers-to-begin-fusion

http://www.startrek.com/article/impluse-engines-to-be-a-reality-by-2030

Two Years Later

Two years ago today Stephen S. Vogt, R. Paul Butler, and their team discovered Zarmina's World. As we well know, the initial excitement was offset by the doubting crowd, and indeed the celebration was killed almost before it began when Stephane Udry and his team reassessed the data and came to the conclusion that the planet simply did not exist. Over the past two years, more astronomers have looked at the data, and run tests of their own. Some agree with Udry, others with Vogt. The University of Puerto Rico certainly seems to think Vogt is right. And an honest appraisal of the data tells us Vogt has an 88% - 96% chance of being right. So after two years we still don't know for sure whether Zarmina's World is out there or not. But despite the naysayers, it is looking more and more like the answer is that it exists. And that is exciting news for me.

I apologize for the quietness this month. It's been a busy one. I'm hoping to have more for you all this coming October. I've got the next couple of Planet Profiles planned, and I'm keeping my eye out for any exciting news relating to Zarmina's World or other exoplanets. As soon as I know something, I'll put it here. I'm also planning to start a section on other phenomena in space, from stars to nebulae. Maybe even a section on our own solar system. So thanks for sticking with me thus far, and keep checking in with Fiat Lux, your source for space exploration with a Creationist viewpoint!

Planet Profile: Gliese 667Cc

Official Name: Gliese 667Cc
Unofficial Names: Holy Grail of Exoplanets
Discovered: 21 November, 2011 (made public 2 February, 2012)
Discoverer: Steven S. Vogt et al
Mass: 4.1 - 4.9x that of Earth
Orbital Period: 28 days

Steven S. Vogt has done it again (or so my sources seem to imply, I can't find anything incontrovertible). And this time there's no denying him. Welcome to Gliese 667Cc, also coming to be known as the "Holy Grail of Exoplanets." Like Zarmina's World, Gl 667Cc rests squarely within the Goldilocks Zone. Unlike Zarmina's World, this one is 100% confirmed. It's nickname comes from the following statement made by Vogt, "It's the Holy Grail of exoplanet research to find a planet orbiting around a star at the right distance so it's not too close where it would lose all its water and not too far where it would freeze." Gl 667Cc makes the number two spot on the University of Puerto Rico's Habitable Planet List, with an astounding SE rating of 0.85 (Zarmina's World beats it out by 0.07 with an SE rating of 0.92). Although it is as perfectly "Goldilocks" as Zarmina's World, the factors that most likely reduce its SE rating are its greater mass (meaning higher gravity, roughly 2Gs) and even shorter orbital period. Like Zarmina's World, it is tidally locked, meaning that one side will always face the parent star while the other side always faces away. However, this doesn't mean the same thing for Gl 667Cc as it does for Zarmina's World.

You see, Zarmina's World orbits the red dwarf star Gliese 581, which like our sun is a single star. The Gliese 667 system, however, is not a single star. It isn't even a binary system. It is a trinary system. That means three stars orbiting each other. The smallest of these three is Gliese 667C, a red dwarf. It is unsurprising to find another Goldilocks planet orbiting a red dwarf. Red dwarfs are prime candidates for habitable worlds for a number of reasons which we shall not discuss here (perhaps in another, more star-related post). Since Gl 667C is the parent star, it will be giving constant day to the side of Gl 667Cc that faces it. However, the other side of the planet is not necessarily bathed in endless night. The other two stars would appear somewhat brighter than our moon. They would give enough light to provide a day/night cycle to the posterior half of the planet (though likely not as pronounced a cycle as we have on Earth). This would actually make the posterior half the more preferable side of the planet, unlike Zarmina's World where the anterior side is preferable. The fact that the Gl 667 system is trinary would also make the sky a marvelous sight to behold at any time of day.

Here is a picture comparing the approximate size of the planet (we can only guess at the size based on the known mass) with Earth and Mars, the habitable worlds of our own system. Scientists are confident that worlds such as Gl 667Cc or Zarmina's World will have some kind of life on them. Guillem Anglasa-Escude, one of the astronomers who supports Vogt's claims about Zarmina's World, had this to say about Gl 667Cc, Zarmina's World, and other habitable worlds around red dwarf stars, "With the advent of a new generation of instruments, researchers will be able to survey many dwarf stars for similar planets and eventually look for spectroscopic signatures of life in one of these worlds." While I highly doubt that we will ever encounter life on a scale comparable to humanity (the Bible does say we are the Crown of Creation, after all), I would not be surprised if we found plant life, fungi, and maybe even insects, birds, or primitive mammals on these worlds. It is fascinating to speculate whether these creatures will look anything like Earth's, or if they will be completely alien to us. Personally, I wouldn't put either option past our Creator. As more and more of these worlds are discovered, the exciting prospect of learning more about the universe our God has created grows beyond our wildest dreams. Who knows? Perhaps within our lifetimes the technology will exist to enable us to either visit these worlds, or at the very least see more accurate pictures of them. Gl 667 is only 22 lightyears away, after all (roughly the same distance as Gl 581). That's about 6 parsecs, and therefore right in our stellar neighbourhood. As Kingdom Come's song, "Stargazer" would put it, "Who knows what will come in time?"

Sources:

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/334455/20120427/astronomers-discover-new-planet-gliese-667cc-life.htm

http://mobile.businessinsider.com/here-are-the-top-5-potentially-habitable-alien-planets-2012-7/gliese-667cc-2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_667

Planetary News: The Battle For Zarmina's World Rages On

Gliese 581g (Zarmina's World); artist's concept

Gliese 581g, better known to this blogger and his readers as Zarmina's World, remains the centre of controversy. Earlier this month I posted about how the Goldilocks planet was gaining support. Astronomers Guillen Anglada-Escude and Rebekah Dawson agreed that the extant data supported the conclusions made by Dr. Steven S. Vogt and his colleague, Dr. R. Paul Butler. Likewise, the University of Puerto Rico, an accredited academic institution, has given support by default, by placing the planet at the top of the list of potentially habitable worlds (thus meaning it outranks every non-controversial exoplanet known to man). So it's not as if Drs. Vogt and Butler are simply digging their heels in the sand like stubborn mules. There are other authorities which lend support to the claim that the data we have concerning the Gliese 581 star system supports at least five planets, one of them being Zarmina's World. That should raise more eyebrows than it is.

Opponents of the claim have been very slow with their own counter-interpretations. Michael Mayor, famous for discovering the other planets of the system (as co-discoverer with Stephane Udry), contends that the data argues against the existence of Zarmina's World. Together with his team, Mayor re-analyzed the data, and stated plainly that the planet does not exist, although he waited a year to publish his paper. Mayor's claims have won over the majority of the scientific community, including one of Vogt's former students, Dr. Artie P. Hatzes, who said he was pained to see his former mentor clinging to conclusions that were, "obviously wrong." Another denier was Dr. Thierry Foreveille, who claims that his analysis of the data supports Mayor's: a system of four planets with elliptical orbits. However, Foreveille's data has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. This prevented Dr. Vogt from publishing a response in most current and leading scientific journals.

Dr. Steven S. Vogt. Photo (c) LaurieHatch.com

Despite the negative feedback and the slow responses of the deniers, Dr. Vogt and Dr. Butler have been stalwart. Vogt rejects the claims of Foreveille and says that such a system would be unstable. Circular orbits are a better match, and when the system is observed with this in mind, the data points clearly to the existence of a fifth planet. Even though most scientific journals won't accept Vogt's counter until Foreveille publishes his article in a peer-reviewed journal, there is one that will take Vogt's reply: the Astronomische Nachrichten, which just happens to be one of the oldest scientific journals in the world. They have accepted his article and published it. Foreveille was quick to respond that elliptical orbits for the Gliese system are in fact stable, and that Vogt's paper is wrong. He says the probability that Vogt's planet is a "false alarm" (the term used for false planetary detections) has risen to 4%, which is apparently a bad sign. Dr. Greg Laughlin of the University of California, Santa Cruz, raises the estimate to 12%. But let's think about that math for a minute. Even if Laughlin is correct, that still means Vogt has an 88% chance of being right. While that may not be enough to speak with certainty as to the planet's existence it is also a far cry from dismissal. To his credit, Laughlin is being a fair scientist. For Mayor and Foreveille, the non-existence of Zarmina's World is a foregone conclusion. Laughlin, however, admits that Vogt has "a decent shot" of being correct, and further adds that, "[I]t is likely that if the peak holds up as more data comes in, the planetary explanation is likely to be correct." For that I give props to Dr. Laughlin. He is telling it like it is.  Vogt is confident is his data, and I am confident in him. But, like Dr. Laughlin, we must be honest. It's not an indisputable fact just yet. The odds are definitely in favour of Zarmina's World existing, but we don't know for sure just yet. Only time will tell. But I would not be surprised in the least if in the next year or two we hear that Zarmina's World has been confirmed.

(all quotations and details taken from a New York Times article

 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/21/science/space/just-right-or-nonexistent-dispute-over-goldilocks-planet-gliese-581g.html ; All other material is the opinion of the author of this blog)

Planetary News: Zarmina's World gains support

Zarmina's World. Discovered nearly two years ago by Steven S. Vogt and his team, this planet (officially designated as Gliese 581g, Gl 581g or GJ 581g) has been the topic of discussion, debate, and controversy ever since. Nestled perfectly within the habitable zone of its parent star, Zarmina's World (Zarmina for short) was the first planet ever discovered by man to fit so perfectly into our hopes for a habitable world. Dubbed "Goldilocks Planets" because of the story where Goldilocks had to have everything "just right" these perfectly habitable worlds were expected to exist, but had never been found. Until Zarmina. Zarmina, more than any other discovered exoplanet to date, deserves the nickname of "Goldilocks Planet" because of how perfectly situated within the habitable zone it is.

However, not everyone was excited by the news. Michael Mayor and his team, who with Stephane Udry had been crucial to the discovery of the first four planets in the system, wasn't so sure that Vogt had really found two new planets. They analyzed the data, reanalyzed it, and did it again. When they were finished, they published a paper with their own conclusions: Vogt's two new worlds did not exist. The controversy was born. Had Vogt discovered two new planets, including the most unimaginably perfect Goldilocks Planet to date? Or were his findings wrong?

As mentioned in my early "Planet Profile: Gliese 581g" post, other astronomers quickly went to work assessing the data. Some supported Mayor and said the facts just didn't fit, Zarmina and Gl 581f did not exist. Others countered that the data is sufficient to support Vogt's claim. It was no small matter within the astronomical community. Either Vogt had found the sweet-spot, or he hadn't.

Vogt and his team weren't going to give up. They took all of the data that Mayor et al. had studied, and went through it again. Very thoroughly. On August 1 of this year they published their results. The outer world, Gl 581f was still up in the air, but Zarmina was confirmed. Vogt told space.com that the data they studied, "point to there being at least one other planet beyond the confirmed 4, a 5th planet, with a[n orbital]  period  in the 26-39-day regime." (source: huffingtonpost.com) Vogt would add that although the data examined does not support planet f, the idea of that planet is not dead yet. Further studies may yet prove its existence. But as for Zarmina, the planet is definitely there.

While the scientific and academic community as a whole has not yet accepted the planet's status as "confirmed" some academic institutions are taking initiative. The University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo's Planetary Habitability Laboratory recently published a list of habitable exoplanets, and Gliese 581g makes the top of the list. UPR may not be the most prestigious school in academia, but it is nevertheless a solid, accredited academic institution. And they have accepted Vogt's new data as sufficient to settle the case. Zarmina exists, and her status as the truest of Goldilocks Planets is secured. The list ranks Gliese 581g at the number one spot, with an SE (Similarity to Earth) rating of 0.92. Her sister planet of Gliese 581d (the original gem of the Gliese 581 system) ranks number 5 with a rating of 0.72. Numbers 2 - 4 are Gliese 667Cc (0.85), Kepler-22b (0.81), and HD 85512b (0.77). In the near future, look for me to do some Planet Profiles on these other top-rankers in habitability. But for now, I think it is safe to say that Zarmina's World exists, and she is fit snugly in her habitable zone. 

What wonders has God placed on this world for future generations to explore? God-willing, we may be able to get our first tastes within our lifetimes, but that would require revolutionary new advances in space travel. The Voyager probes only recently reached the edges of our Solar system, and have a bloody long way to go before they could even reach a next-door-neighbour like Alpha Centauri. On a galactic scale, the 22 light-years between the Solar system and the Gliese 581 system is a mere stone's throw. But with current technology, it is an almost unbridgeable gap, and certainly one we cannot bridge in a single lifetime. But we can dream, can't we?

             

Upcoming Perseid Meteor Shower

There are several meteor showers visible per year. The next on the list is the one known as "the Perseids." Their name comes from the Greek for "the sons of Perseus" because they appear to emanate from the constellation that bears the ancient god-hero's name. The Perseids first appeared (or at least, are first mentioned) in AD 36, and have been a yearly recurrence ever since. They are also known to many Christians (especially Catholics) as the "Tears of St. Lawrence" because they tend to peak on or around his feast day of August 10. And yes, this is the same St. Lawrence who, according to tradition, was grilled alive and when told his suffering could end if he renounced Christ, instead replied, "Turn me over, this side's done." Now that we have the historical curiosities aside, let us get to the real matter of the meteor shower.

The Perseids generally begin in late July (typically the 23rd) but they're not too intense yet. If you sit outside and watch the night sky in late July or early August you'll see some, but not a great amount. This year, their peak is expected to come on the night of August 12 - 13. So on or around that date will be your best bet for viewing, and they will continue to adorn our night sky until August 24th or thereabouts, so if you miss the peak don't fret, you'll still have a chance to see them. But the nights of August 10 - 15 or so will be the best for viewing, with 12 - 13 being the most spectacular.

It is recommended that you rise early (about 3:30 or 4am to beat the sun) and view the shower in the predawn hours, when the earth's rotation scoops more of them up as it rotates toward the sun and thus provides the most awe-inspiring show. But if that is too early for you, there will still be plenty to see in the late evening, when the sun has fully set. For best viewing, you should drive away from city lights, and preferably away from busy roads (as passing car lights will hurt your night vision). State or city parks are a good example of places to go, or open fields. Bring lawn chairs, sleeping bags, blankets, or something else to sit in or recline on (you will not want to lie down completely, best visibility will be if you are looking about half-way at the sky). The more comfortable the better. Dress warmly, since the night air can be chilly, even in summer. Bug spray and water bottles are also recommended. You won't need binoculars, the meteors will catch your eye easily. And if you watch during the peak days, you can see as many as 60-100 meteors per hour or more (record for the Perseids is 173 in one hour, back in 2009). That's all I have for you. Happy hunting and enjoy the show!

Planet Profile: Gliese 581g

Official Name: Gliese 581g
Unofficial Names: Zarmina's World, Zarmina
Discovered: September 29, 2010
Discoverer: Steven S Vogt et al.
Mass: 3.1 - 4.3x that of Earth
Orbital Period: 37 days

Welcome to Gl 581g, or as Steven S Vogt and others have begun calling it, Zarmina's World or just Zarmina in honour of his wife. This is perhaps the most amazing planet yet discovered by Man because it is the first known planet other than Earth and Mars to rest solidly within the habitable zone of its parent star. It orbits the star Gliese 581, a red dwarf some 20.5 ly (or roughly 6 parsecs) from our sun.

As yet there remain enough credible scholars who doubt its existence to prevent it from being officially accepted as a discovered world. Astronomers Francesco Pepe and Mikko Tuomi performed their own analyses of the data gathered by Vogt and his team and concluded that the planet does not exist. However, Guillen Anglada-Escude and Rebekah Dawson, after performing their own analyses, say that the existing data support's Vogt. Only time will tell which is correct.

If Zarmina does exist, however, it will have amazing implications. Let me put it to you this way. Gl 581 is 6.3 parsecs (abbreviated "pc") from our sun. Stars that have decent habitable zones (and therefore candidates for having habitable planets) are typically yellow stars like our sun, red dwarfs like Gl 581, or somewhere in between. The number of stars like that within a 6.3pc radius from our sun are ~116 (roughly 85% of the total number of stars within that distance). Of those 116 stars, we have found 1 with a habitable world. That's about 0.86% of those stars. I know that doesn't sound like much, but bear with me.

There are between 100 billion and 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy alone. Assuming our stellar neighbourhood is typical, 85% of those stars will have decent habitable zones. That's between 85 billion and 340 billion stars. And if we assume that 0.86% of those stars have habitable worlds, that leaves us with 731 million to 2.9 billion worlds that would resemble Earth, Mars, and Zarmina. That is a truly staggering figure. And that's for our galaxy alone, not even counting the rest of the universe!

Before 2010, we had no real idea how many habitable worlds could be out there. There were guesses, but they were shots in the dark. Zarmina provides us with the first actual example of a habitable world beyond our own solar system, and gives us a solid figure to work with for the first time in history, making our projections educated guesses rather than shots in the dark. We have our first real glimpse into what the universe beyond our solar system is like. And that is why this planet is so special.

In the beginning...

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1
"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork." Psalm 19:1
And so begins my space blog. At present, the primary purpose of this blog will be to discuss news and facts about extra-solar planets from a creationist perspective. But since I am someone who is genuinely fascinated by all the wonders of outer space, expect to see more than just extra-solar planets in this blog.