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Baby Galaxies, Part 1 of 4

~ J.S. Pailly ~ Leave a comment
Dr. Eric McKenzie

It is my pleasure to introduce Dr. Eric McKenzie, associate director for the department of astronomy at the University of Maryland.  He received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida, and his research has focused on galaxy evolution at specific wavelengths of redshifted light.  He also helped me get some of my facts straight for the Tomorrow News Network story “The Orion War.”

This week, he will be answering questions about galaxy evolution and what the early universe was like.

James Pailly: Using redshifted light, you’ve peered back in time to see the formation and evolution of galaxies.  What is redshifted light, and how are we able to see so far into the distant past?

Dr. McKenzie: The wavelengths of light that we see from a moving object get shifted to the bluer or redder end of the spectrum because of the motion. The color shift depends on whether the motion is toward us or away from us.  Thus, stars and galaxies look bluer if they are moving toward us and redder if they are moving away from us.

This works just like the wavelengths of sound from a moving object.  Think of the sound when cars, trains, ambulances, etc. go past you.  When they come toward you, the sound is high in pitch (short wavelengths, high frequency).  When they pass you and are moving away, the sound quickly switches to low pitch.  If a car were driving past us at a significant fraction of the speed of light, we would see the visual color shift, as well: it would look first bluer, then redder!

Our universe is expanding: nearly all of the galaxies are moving away from us, and so their light is redshifted.  When we see the most distant galaxies, they are the reddest, because they are moving away the fastest.

By studying galaxies which are billions of light years away, we see what the universe was like at a younger time.  Because light travels at a finite speed, we never see anything as it looks ‘right now’.  The moon is 1 1/4 light seconds away, and so we see it as it was 1 1/4 seconds ago.  The sun is 8 light minutes away, and so we see it as it was 8 minutes ago.  (This leads to the slightly disconcerting thought that, if the sun winked out of existence right now, we would be happily oblivious for 8 minutes while the light rays continued to travel to us.)  Looking at distant galaxies gives us a picture of the early universe.  We can study how galaxy ‘demographics’ have been changing over time, such as their sizes, shapes, colors, and star/gas/dust content.

Why Newt Gingrich’s Moon Base Still Matters

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Moon Base Alpha as seen in Space: 1999.

So Newt Gingrich isn’t running for president anymore, and we’re probably better off for that.  Early in his campaign, he promised that if he were elected he would build a Moon Base by 2020 and give America’s lunar colony the opportunity to become a state.  Of course, this sounded ridiculous and probably contributed to Gingrich’s ultimate defeat in the Republican Primary.  However, returning to the Moon and establishing a Moon Base is still a good idea, and it might still happen regardless of who’s president.

Here are five reasons why a Moon Base is a good idea.

  1. The Hubble Space Telescope has provided scientists a great opportunity to study the universe, but soon it will go into retirement.  NASA is building an even more powerful telescope to replace it, but someday that too will go into retirement.  Establishing an observatory on the Moon could provide all the benefits of space telescopes without the hassle of periodically replacing them.  It could also be more cost efficient.  Click here for more on that.
  2. The Moon has an abundance of natural resources, some of which are extremely rare on Earth.  Helium-3, an isotope of helium, is one of them and could be used one day as a carbon-free, radiation-free fuel source.  Click here for more on how to get the Moon’s helium-3.
  3. The Moon can be used as a launch point for further exploration of the Solar System.  The Moon’s gravity is one-sixth that of Earth’s, so launching from the Moon is about six times easier and cheaper than launching from Earth.  A spacecraft could be built using the Moon’s own resources and sent to Mars, Jupiter, or wherever for a fraction of the cost.
  4. Newt Gingrich wanted his Moon Base to become America’s 51st State, but lunar colonization shouldn’t be for Americans only.  The Russian Space Agency has already approached the European Space Agency and NASA to form a Moon Base partnership.  If their proposal works, the next time human beings walk on the Moon it won’t be about one nation competing with another but many nations working together.  That kind of cooperation would not only advance science but change the way we see our own planet.  Click here for more on Russia’s proposal.
  5. This is the most important reason to build a Moon Base, at least in my opinion: the Moon would make an awesome vacation spot!  Hopefully, I’ll see you there at the low gravity tennis court.

Disclaimer: This is not a political blog, and I am not a Newt Gingrich supporter.  It would have been nice, though, to see a serious debate about space policy in our presidential politics, and maybe someday we will.

Corporate Greed: The Final Frontier

~ J.S. Pailly ~ 4 Comments

Some people look into the night sky and see stars or try to identify planets.  Others look up there and see dollar signs.  Lots of dollar signs.  Enough to change the economics of our whole planet.

According to a report from Gizmodo (click here to read it), a group of wealthy investors have teamed up to start a new company called Planetary Resources.  Their goal is to build spaceships, fly them into Earth orbit, and grab some passing asteroids.

We generally think of asteroids as big space potatoes.  In the famous asteroid field scene in The Empire Strikes Back, some of those asteroids actually are potatoes.  Every once in awhile, we hear about one coming dangerously close to Earth, and we know from Armageddon that a large enough asteroids could wipe out all life on this planet.

What we don’t generally talk about are the material resources asteroids contain.  A company that successfully captures an asteroid could harvest it for metals that are rare on Earth but essential for our fancy electronic devices.  According to Gizmodo, a single asteroid could be worth billions of dollars.

In these times of economic trouble, it’s hard to justify the expense of space travel.  It costs millions to send people into space, but that doesn’t sound so bad when you expect billions in profits.  And adding all those extra resources to the global economy could end this recession for good.

Science fiction has already anticipated this situation.  Ben Bova’s Asteroid Wars series, which is part of his larger, Grand Tour of the Solar System series, tells the story of greedy corporations fighting over control of the Solar System’s resources.  While catching and mining asteroids is exciting and could save our economy, hopefully we won’t let things turn as violent as Ben Bova’s novels predict.

Let’s Go to Alpha Centauri

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If you haven’t read Across the Universe by Beth Revis, you should.  It’s got science, political intrigue, and a healthy dose of human nature—everything a science fiction novel should have.  It’s set on a space ship carrying colonists to a new planet in Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to our own Solar System.  Until recently, scientists assumed Alpha Centauri couldn’t have planets, but new discoveries have called that into question.

Alpha Centauri is a binary star, meaning it is actually two stars orbiting each other.  A third star, Proxima Centauri, may also be part of the Alpha Centauri system, or it may simply be passing nearby.  It seemed impossible for planets to form and survive with the gravity of all these stars pulling in so many different directions, yet scientists recently found a planet orbiting another binary star, Kepler-16.

Right now, the Planetary Society is gathering funding to take a closer look at Alpha Centauri.  The Planetary Society is a nonprofit organization started by Carl Sagan, among others, and currently headed by Bill Nye the Science Guy.  They plan to rent time at an observatory in Chile to watch Alpha Centauri for twenty nights straight, hoping a planet will reveal itself during that time.

If you want to help, click here to donate to the Planetary Society’s Alpha Centari project (select Finds Exo-earths on the drop down menu where is says “direct my gift to”).  Just think how cool it will be if they do find a planet and you can say you helped!  By the way, I am a member of the Planetary Society.  It doesn’t cost much to join, and your membership fees will help this and other research on space and space travel.  If you’re interested in joining, click here.

According to some experts, the discovery of a planet—especially a habitable one—in Alpha Centauri would lead to immediate planning for an unmanned mission to check it out.  Later, we might decide to send human colonists, just like in Across the Universe.  The folks at SpaceRip.com have put together an excellent documentary on what it will take to reach Alpha Centauri.  Click here to see it.

Also, Centauri Dreams recently posted an interesting analysis of Proxima Centauri.  It’s extremely unlikely Proxima has any planets, but not impossible.  Click here to find out why.

The Magic of Space Travel

~ J.S. Pailly ~ 1 Comment

In the last few years, we’ve heard a lot of bad news about NASA.  Every federal agency has suffered budget cuts, and NASA is no exception.  The Space Shuttle program has ended, the ExoMars mission has been canceled, and the cost of the James Webb Space Telescope has skyrocketed so much it sucks up most of whatever money NASA has left.

But yesterday the Space Shuttle Discovery, perched atop a modified 747, flew over Washington D.C.  It was something of a victory lap before the veteran spacecraft went into retirement as a museum piece at the Smithsonian.  People skipped work and pulled their kids out of school to see it.  Politicians snapped photos from their office windows and tweeted about it.  The FAA reportedly broke its own rules to allow the shuttle to fly so low over so many government buildings.

Despite all the money and despite the fact that the shuttle program never lived up to expectations, people cheered for Discovery.  Some cried.  There is something magical about space travel, something that transcends recessions, political squabbles, and even science itself.

In a few years, private companies will take over where the space shuttles left off, taxiing astronauts to the International Space Station and conducting experiments in Earth orbit for businesses, universities, and the government.  For a mere $200,000, they’ll even take you into space (rumor has it that the price will drop significantly as space travel becomes more common).

A new space race is beginning, with China talking about building a Moon base to mine the Moon’s resources.  The United States wants to visit an asteroid; asteroids could also be a source of valuable resources.  One expert described the future as a game of “Solar System Monopoly” with various countries competing over economic interests in space.

No matter what the future brings, no matter what economic interests are involved, human beings will never lose their romantic love of space.  Our true destiny is out there among the stars.  The Space Shuttle Discovery brought us one step closer to getting there.

Videos courtesy of NASA Television.

Tentacle Monsters

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Aliens with tentacles are so common in science fiction they’ve become a stereotype, but you don’t have to go to space to find intelligent tentacle monsters.  Right here on Earth, we have the octopus.  It may be slimy and it may have a funny name, but the octopus is surprisingly smart.

In this first video, we see that octopi are not trapped in the ocean.  They can—and often do—walk on land.  This may be one way they escape predators in the water.  So long as their skin is still moist, they can breathe.

In the next video, we see an octopus open a jar to get food.

Finally, the octopus in this video picks up the broken halves of a coconut shell, hides inside them, and rolls itself down a slope.  The coconut shells provide both defense and transportation (it’s probably fun too), and this is one of the rare examples of non-primates using tools.

For humans, opposable thumbs were a key part of our evolution.  The ability to grasp objects and manipulate them with such dexterity encouraged our ancestors to use their minds.  They began to make tools, to build stuff, and eventually they invented cars and computers and smartphones.  Tentacles are just as useful as opposable thumbs, and now octopi are learning to use their minds too.  In a few million years, they may become as smart as us.  On some other planet, maybe they already have.

What is Science Fiction?

~ J.S. Pailly ~ 2 Comments

Although we’ve all seen science fiction movies or read science fiction books, although we all know about Darth Vader, the USS Enterprise, and the number 42, no one seems entirely sure what science fiction is.  What’s the definition?  What determines that this story is Sci-Fi and this one is not?

Some say science fiction must have some scientific fact at its core.  If you take that fact out and the story falls apart, then it’s science fiction.  However, this definition might include many stories we don’t think of as Sci-Fi.  Many action thrillers involve nuclear weapons, many mysteries use forensic science, and you could even argue most romances depend heavily on biology.

Another definition says science fiction is no different than fantasy except in science fiction the “magic” must have a scientific explanation.  However, this runs into problems when the scientific explanation is not consistent with real science.  Many Sci-Fi purists argue that Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and so forth are not science fiction because of alleged inaccuracies.  They say these stories belong in a new category called “science fantasy.”

I prefer to describe science fiction as anything that depends on a fictional science.  It’s pithy, but it works.  Star Trek has the fictional sciences of warp drive and transporter beams.  Dune has the fictional science of planetology.  The Hitchhiker’s Guide has the fictional science of the number 42.  Nuclear weapons, forensics, and biology are all real sciences, so thrillers, mysteries, and romances can’t sneak into the Sci-Fi section under my definition, and we don’t have to create a whole new genre for the less-than-perfect depictions of science in Star Trek and Star Wars.

Obviously this ongoing debate doesn’t end here.  What do you think science fiction is?  Do you like any of the definitions here, or is there another you prefer?

Tattoos of the Future

~ J.S. Pailly ~ 3 Comments

Tattoos have a long and distinguished history among humans.  In ancient times, they represented power or spiritual authority.  Today they have special significance to the people who wear them.  But in the future, a tattoo may be more than just body art.  It could also serve a practical purpose.

Nokia recently patented a special magnetic material that can be “tattooed” onto your skin.  This material would vibrate when you get a call on your cell phone.  This could be especially helpful in a future where tiny cell phones might be implanted in our ears.  It could also be the first step in turning the human race into cyborgs.  For more on Nokia’s cell phone tattoo, click here.

Even if you don’t want cybernetic tattoos, your doctor might give you a prescription for one.  Researchers have developed a medical tattoo that can monitor glucose levels as they rise and fall.  For people with diabetes, it certainly sounds better to get a glucose monitoring tattoo than having to stick yourself with a needle multiple times per day.  For more on medical tattoos, click here.

No one said tattoos have to be on your skin.  You can also tattoo your teeth, and with a sophisticated dental tattoo made from graphene, your tooth tattoo can monitor the bacterial levels in your mouth.  Graphene is a carbon structure similar to graphite, but much stronger and capable of some unusual electrical properties.  At the moment, it’s ridiculously expensive, but as graphene production gets cheaper you can expect your dentist to offer this product in the future.  However, I doubt I’d ever get one.  Something about combining tattooing with dentistry is just too scary.  For more information, click here.

Cybernetics is an uncomfortable topic.  No one wants to end up like the Borg from Star Trek, with complex, artificial limbs and weird devices stuck to our heads.  But the cyborg revolution might be a little more stylish with the help of a few good tattoo artists.  Maybe you could have your glucose monitor in the shape of a butterfly and your cell phone vibrator could be a Celtic cross.

The State of Science and Science Fiction

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This blog is usually about the future: the distant future where we’re flying off to Mars for our vacations and we have robots to do our laundry for us.  But the more immediate future is important as well.  Given the global economic problems of the last few years, the way we do science and the way we get our science fiction is changing.  I recently found two articles that give us a hint about how different these things will be.

First, Hollywood director James Cameron recently voyaged into the depths of the Marianas Trench.  As far as I know, he did not discover any secret alien civilizations while he was down there.  As the government cuts funding for scientific research, more and more private companies and wealthy individuals are stepping in to take the government’s place.  This article from Deep Sea News suggests that the near future of science may depend on people like James Cameron.

Second, with the rise of the Kindle, the Nook, and other ebook readers, the way science fiction books are published is changing.  In fact, the entire publishing industry is in upheaval.  While many publishing professionals are screaming in terror, some unknown authors are getting a chance to be read for the first time.  This article from Auxiliary Memory looks at the top 100 science fiction ebooks sold on Amazon and how the changing science fiction market may bring us some really good, really strange, new Sci-Fi ideas.

For those of you who care about science and science fiction, please read these articles.  We’re living in the 21st Century, that magical age when science fiction is supposed to become science fact.  The world really is changing, and both science and science fiction are changing with it.