Our Active Cosmos

2. September 2010 by admin.

It is way too easy to dismiss the Universe as a static entity that doesn’t change as we go about our daily activities.  We catch a glimpse of the night sky from time to time, but never stop and watch it night after night as our ancestors did.  Thanks to modern technology we can compress years into seconds, and see amazing things unfold that we would have missed otherwise.

A good example of this is the supernova 1987A (which occurred in 1987) in the Large Magellanic Cloud.  In this video you can see how the shock wave has propagated through space from 1994 to 2006. This image from Hubble (below) shows in even better detail the shock wave as it heats the gas and dust that were ejected from the star thousands of years before it went nova.
Source: Hubblesite.org

Another video that always amazes me is one from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) that shows the stars at the center of the Milky Way orbiting around a dark common point over a period of16 years.  This common point is undoubtedly a massive black hole.  It can not be seen in the images, but by the motion of the stars, the mass of the object has been calculated to be about 4 million times the mass of our Sun.  You can read more about this in an article I did: “Stellar Motion: Do Stars Really Move?”

Our Universe is constantly changing.  We just have to slow down enough to see it.

Till next time,

RC Davison

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Do They Know We’re Here?

21. August 2010 by admin.

A week or so ago SETIcon went on in Santa Clara, California.  This is a convention led by the SETI Institute, which is devoted to investigating the possibility of life elsewhere in the cosmos.  There was some buzz about whether or not we should try to broadcast messages advertising that we are here, and interested in communicating.  There was a range of responses from ‘no, we shouldn’t advertise our presence because an alien species might come and do us harm’ (a point of view expressed by Dr. Stephen Hawking) to ‘well it’s too late, since we’ve been broadcasting our presence from the first radio messages that were transmitted in the late 1890’s, early 1900’s’.  This point was echoed by Dr. Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute.

I happen to agree with Dr. Shostak.  We’ve been broadcasting radio signals for over 100 years, and they’ve only become richer with more information as time has passed.  The fears that an alien culture would come here and use us as a food source ignores the reality that we have bacterial, parasitical and viral components that they would probably have no immune defense for.

Just think about what we go through to travel around the world today, in 2010.  We have to be immunized against many of the diseases that are common in certain parts of the world, and/or take other precautions to minimize our chances of exposure to debilitating or even deadly diseases.  In most places you are cautioned about drinking the local water.  We all evolved on this planet - humans, plants, animals, bacteria, viruses, parasites and what ever I’ve forgotten.  What is ET going to do when they have us for dinner?

Of course, one could argue that they may have the technology to inoculate themselves from our little bugs, but why come all this way to have to do that when you can eat the food you’ve evolved eating on your home planet?

Another fear is that they will strip mine our planet.  From what we’ve already learned from Kepler in its first year of service looking for extrasolar planets, (see Blog 24. July 2010) I’ve got a feeling that most of the over 300 billion stars in the Milky Way have some sort of planetary/debris structure orbiting them.  These will be vast reservoirs of minerals, elements and compounds much closer to their home planet.  They won’t need to travel all the way to Earth to pick them up.

So, if they know we are here, and if they have the technology to travel across the cosmos to visit us, we really don’t have much to say about it.  To try to guess whether their intentions are peaceful or not, is a fruitless exercise.  We only have our own history of aggressive expansion and violent behavior as an example of what an advanced society can do.  We shouldn’t judge extra-planetary civilizations based on our violent past, and the way Hollywood has portrayed extraterrestrials.

One last thought.  Even if we didn’t invent radio transmissions when we did, an advanced civilization would have the technology to know that our planet exists.  And, if they are within about 200 lightyears of us, they would have seen the composition of our atmosphere change (or begin to change) over the last 2 centuries.  This would surely be a flag that something was interesting was going on here!

What do you think?

As always, comments are greatly appreciated.

Till next time,

RC Davison

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Kepler And The Search For Extrasolar Planets

24. July 2010 by admin.

NASA’s Kepler mission was launched in March of 2009 with the purpose of simultaneously studying about a 100,000 stars located within a 10 degree field in the direction of the constellation Cygnus.  Kepler is looking for the dimming of the light from these stars to indicate a planet passing, or transiting in front of the star. To label a detection a possible planet, Kepler needs to see the transit at least 4 times.

Within a little over a year’s worth of operation, Kepler has found over 700 possible planets!  Since we’ve been turning telescopes to the sky we’ve only managed to find about 400 exoplanets, and these discoveries have only come in the last 5 -10 years!  But, just think about this for a moment.  Kepler only sees planets that pass between the stars and Earth (in our line of sight), and only those that have passed in front of the stars at least 4 times since it has been watching.  What about those planets that are orbiting perpendicular to our field of view, and what about those planets that have orbital periods of 3, 5, 10, or 20 years or more?

There are a lot more planets out there than we are seeing and I think a lot more that we may have ever imagined!  The more planets, the greater the chances of extraterrestrial life.  What wonders await us in the cosmos?!

(Check out Kepler’s web site for much more great info about this mission.)

Till next time

RC Davison

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New Bill To Study Asteroid Threat Is Now In Congress

19. July 2010 by admin.

Thanks to the efforts of California’s Representative, Dana Rohrabacher, a bill (H.R. 5587) has been introduced to Congress to study the threat of asteroid impacts on Earth.  The bill, titled: “To establish a United States Commission on Planetary Defense, and for other purposes.” is to spend not more than $2 million on establishing the commission for the purpose of:

• (1) determine capabilities of United States Government entities, nongovernment organizations, foreign governments and entities, and international bodies to detect, characterize, and neutralize potentially dangerous Near Earth Objects (in this Act referred to as `NEOs’);

• (2) identify and evaluate roles and responsibilities of United States Government entities to detect, characterize, and neutralize potentially dangerous NEOs;

• (3) determine United States effectiveness in leading international efforts to detect, characterize, and neutralize potentially dangerous NEOs;

• (4) build upon United States Government and foreign analyses, studies, and assessments, without duplicating efforts, to determine current and required NEO characterization and mitigation capabilities;

• (5) identify and report on technology development required to provide effective planetary defense from dangerous NEOs; and

• (6) investigate and report to the President and Congress on its findings, conclusions, and recommendations for corrective measures that can be taken to provide planetary defense.

While this is not funding for an actual search, it is funding that should allow us to understand what our capabilities are, what the threat is, and how to organize a united world-wide effort.  It’s a start!

The bill has been referred to the Committee on Science and Technology for review.   Check out the link above to view the complete bill, or this link for a more complete discussion.

Remember, every journey starts with one step…

Till next time,

RC Davison

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Science Fiction and Science

16. July 2010 by admin.

If you’ve checked out the site, and the blog, you’ll know my passion for science.  So, for me, writing science fiction is a natural extension of that passion.  As far as I’m concerned science and science fiction go hand-in-hand.  And, I firmly believe they drive each other in a convoluted closed loop.

The more that science advances, the larger the base of material a writer has to build upon.  Applying their imagination, and pushing the boundaries of what we can dream of. In turn, that stimulates the minds of the readers, (especially the young ones) laying the ground work they will use when they contribute to society by conducting research and pushing the boundaries of what is possible.  The cycle continues.

Where am I going with this? Well, I just wanted to bring to your attention a few podcast sites that I’ve been following for a while: The Drabblecast, Escape Pod, and PodCastle.

Drabblecast and Escape Pod are Sci-Fi sites, while Podcastle is mainly a Fantasy site, but sometimes that line is not too clear.  The people behind these sites typically put up an audio version of a short story, sometimes  with multiple voice actors, sound effects and music.  They typically run about 30 minutes, but occasionally may run longer. Some of these stories are Hugo Award winners/nominees, and some of the authors are very well know in the publishing world.  You might be amazed at some of the work that comes from people who are new to the industry.

I have no affiliation with these sites, so there is nothing in it for me to promote them other than the pleasure of knowing that I’ve turned someone else on to some great story telling. The bottom line is that there are some really great Sci-Fi short stories  being written and nicely produced.  Of course, not every story will be meet your expectations, but that’s life.  I’ve found that even if I didn’t care for the story, the narration or production makes for an entertaining listen.

Check them out if you get a chance.  I think you’ll be glad you did.  There are extensive archives on each site, so you’ll have a lot to listen to.  (The links to these sites are also on the side of the page under Links.)

Till next time,

RC Davison

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Pan-STARRS and NEOs

30. June 2010 by admin.

Pan-STARRS, the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System, has begun operations with a working prototype - PS1 in Haleakala, Maui.  The final version of this effort - PS4 - will be four times as powerful as the prototype. A very impressive piece of hardware, indeed!  PS1 has a 1.8 meter primary mirror with a CCD array that has a total 1.4 gigapixels and covers a 3 degree field of view.  It will map over 6000 square degrees of the night sky each night! 

The mission for PS1, besides being a proving ground for the complete system, is to monitor the Solar System for near Earth objects or NEOs.  These include asteroids and comets, and with Pan-STARRS’ ability to detect objects down to a magnitude of 24 (over 29 with some averaging of images taken over a few years) it is going to unveil an enormous number of NEOs — how about an estimated 100,000 asteroids/comets, along with 5 billion stars and 500 million galaxies over the next 3 years!

Pan-STARRS will also be doing active research in astronomy and cosmology in addition to scoping-out our local neighborhood - inside and outside our Solar System, where it will search for red and brown dwarf stars.   But, with regard to the search for Earth-crossing NEOs, Pan-STARRS will be our first line of defense in identifying threats.  We need to start developing plans to use this information should the worst case scenario occur.

For more details check out my article on Pan-STARRS on www.Brighthub.com.

Till next time,

RC Davison

DreamHost reviews

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ORBITAL MANEUVERS now available in multiple ebook formats

5. June 2010 by admin.

For those of you who don’t want to lug around a hard-copy of the book, or don’t own a Kindle, you can now download a digital version that is compatible with the iPhone, iPad, Palm, Sony Reader and more at Smashwords.com.

I’m looking forward to some great feedback — the only way to improve the process!

Enjoy!

Till next time,

RC  Davison

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ORBITAL MANEUVERS and 2012?

22. May 2010 by admin.

           Now that the book is available I can take a short breather to catch up on all the things that have been on my list to do. The following issues have been nagging at me to address, and I apologize for this post is a bit long.

 

            I would like to address the issue of ORBITAL MANEUVERS and the myths and hysteria about 2012.  While no one has made any comments associating the two, I feel it necessary to talk about this for two reasons:

 

            The timing of the release of the book was not planned to coincide with the wave of popular media about 2012 that is being generated by the ton everyday.  It was just by coincidence.  The book has been in development since the late 90’s and at that time, December 21, 2012 was only a date on the calendar.  If life had not interfered with my writing, the book would have been out years ago, sufficiently distanced from this upcoming non-event that I would not feel the need to be writing this. 

 

            The second reason for my discourse, and the more important one, is that the fears, anticipation, and madness about 2012 are all for nothing.  Many people in the world are buying into the hype that is being generated to promote this fear and in most cases it is purely for commercial reasons.  In a lot of those cases the information is presented as coming from professionals and experts, who are anything but.  Investigate the credentials of the people involved in this information, you might be surprised.

 

What bothers me the most from all this is the people who are terrified by this misinformation – children, elderly people, people who don’t have the ability or know-how to question what they read and hear.  It has gotten to the point that some contemplate suicide (including children) and even filicide, the killing of one’s own children, by distraught parents not knowing what is going to happen.

 

There is no planet Nibiru that is going to collide with the Earth in the next year and a half.  If it was out there, and that close, astronomers would have seen it by now.  You simply can not hide an object that big.  It would make itself known by gravitational affects on objects in the Solar System even if, for some reason, it was very dim and difficult to see.  

 

If you think that the professional astronomical community is silenced by the government, you are forgetting the millions of amateur astronomers worldwide that watch the heavens every night.  This network of astronomers is well equipped to discover such an object approaching Earth, they are constantly identifying new comets and asteroids and many are doing professional quality work.  Also, with the Internet there is no way this information would not get out and eventually be substantiated by the professional community.  These professionals live on this planet, too, and if a disaster were looming, they are going to suffer the same as anyone else.  And, even if you distrust the US government, there are many other countries in the world that have no reason to side with the US and suppress this information.  It would get out.

 

The alignment of the Earth with the Sun and galactic core is going to happen.  This is true, and it has happened every year since the dawn of time.  The Earth survived, and as evidenced by this discussion, we are still here.  The galactic core is about 25,000 light years away and has no influence on our planet, at least anything that would create the catastrophes predicted. 

 

Another fear is that the planets are going to line up and the combined gravitational pull is going to create havoc on the Earth – earthquakes, tidal waves…  Again, this alignment has happened countless times since the Solar System formed and again, we, and the Earth are still here.   Solar flares?  Yes, they will happen, they always do.   We could suffer blackouts and loss of communications through our satellites in a worst case scenario, but most likely we will have some beautiful Northern and Southern lights to watch as the Sun goes through its paces

.

The point I hope to get across is to question these tales of disaster, be skeptical about what they are telling you and do some investigation on your own.  The Internet is a wonderful resource.  It is abused with much misinformation, but there are many sites that strive to post factual, unbiased information to inform and educate.  Investigate, and when you can’t find the answers to your questions, ask someone.  Many sites have links to send in questions.  Also, your local museums, colleges and universities may provide opportunities to learn about and discuss this topic.

 

We tend to fear the unknown.  The Universe is not something we should fear.  It has many wonders that stretch our imagination and force us to think outside the box, think about our Earth in a much larger context.  By understanding these objects and phenomena we can allay our fears.  Knowledge is power.  Seek the knowledge for your sake, and your children’s.

 

Questions and comments are always welcome.

 

Till next time,

 

RC  Davison

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ORBITAL MANEUVERS is now available at Amazon.com!

13. May 2010 by admin.

ORBITAL MANEUVERS is now available at Amazon.com in paper back, and in a digital version for the Kindle.

RC Davison

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ORBITAL MANEUVERS is now available!

27. April 2010 by admin.

  I happy to announce that ORBITAL MANEUVERS is now available!  The book is available now at CreateSpace.com and will soon be available from Amazon.com and other online and retail book sellers.

I hope you enjoy the book, and I look forward to your feedback.

Till next time,

RC Davison

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