It's A Hoax!

*gasp*  You'll never guess why I missed that last blog post!  Aliens!  They abducted me and took me away to their secret lair somewhere in North America and performed experiments on me!  I can't believe I made it out alive!

This is SOOOOO NOT what happened.  Image from the vast internets.

Okay, that's not what happened.  But after being gone for a month, I figured I owed you a good one.

What really happened is far more mundane, but does lead to an interesting point.  Actually, two things kept me away from the computer for an extended period of time.  Thing number one: the various and sundry snowpocalypse (snowmageddon?) events taking place here in Virginia over the past couple of weeks.

January saw not only the so-called Polar Vortex come through our area, but another round of even deeper snow as well.  And yesterday a weird, sloppy, wintry mess cascaded over again, sending me home early before I could log in to write.  Three snow events in the space of a month in what is usually a maybe-one-good-snowfall-a-year kind of area.  What gives?

Many people claim that the existence of such wintry weather completely negates the idea of global warming.  Not so...in fact, the weirdness and intensity of the weather we're seeing is, in fact, evidence of changes to our global climate.  See, there's the difference.  There's weather - whatever is going on now in the atmosphere - and there's climate - what the environment is like over a wide area averaged over time.  Weather and climate are not the same thing.  Just because the climate of a desert is warm and dry does not mean it never rains there.

A graph showing the departure from a standard global temperature averaged over one year (blue data) and averaged over 5 years (red line).  Such graphs are not always clear in what they are trying to tell us about our global climate.  This one, in fact, comes from a group attempting to deny the existence of climate change.  Image from New Scientist.

Global climate change is a real thing, and it existed long before humans came along.  The climate of the Earth has changed dramatically over the millennia of our planet's existence.  Glacial periods dominated by very cool global temperatures and expanses of ice covering much of the planet, followed by warm interglacial periods where, at some times, even the poles lacked major ice coverage.  Change will happen, whether we contribute to it or not.  But contribute to it we do, also whether we like it or not.  Simply by existing on the surface of the planet, life contributes to the Earth's ever-changing climate.

But we humans are getting good at changing things rapidly without being exactly sure of what we're doing.  No reputable scientist disputes the idea of human-driven change to the global climate - the evidence for it is too strong.  No, the real question is, have we set in motion something that will end up biting us in the tail?  Will the climate change so much, so fast, that we humans won't be able to adapt?  The planet will be fine - it has dealt with great changes before.  But can we?

The unsettled weather we are seeing is likely being at least somewhat driven by the average rise in global temperatures in the past many years.  Raising the temperature of something adds energy to it.  When there's more energy in the atmosphere, that energy is going move things around in different, more extreme ways - including in wintry ways. Just because the weather is cold doesn't mean global warming isn't real.  If you want more detail on why scientists know that global climate change is real, check out Phil Plait's wonderful blog, Bad Astronomy.  He's a wealth of information on the subject.

The other thing that kept me from writing was a nasty cold I picked up that migrated down into my lungs and became bronchitis.  And this even after I got my flu shot.  Why?  Because the virus that causes the flu and the virus (or possibly even bacteria, in the case of the bronchial infection) that causes colds are not the same.  We can vaccinate against the flu...but the rhinoviruses that cause colds...not so much.  And no, I'm in no danger from the flu vaccine itself.  Vaccines are quite safe, and there's no credible link between vaccines and autism.  Again, Phil Plait can point you towards tons of evidence that says yes, you should get your flu shot.

Well, now that I'm finally mostly better and the winter weather is at least somewhat abated, I need to get back to work.  I've got to go move Jimmy Hoffa from under the planetarium projector, and I really wish I could remember where I put that flag I got from the set where they filmed the moon landings...

Just kidding.

Back again in two weeks (assuming we're not buried in a snowtastrophe)...
Carpe noctem!
Kelly

UFOs and All That

Greetings, fellow Earthlings!

So, have you been watching television lately?  There seems to be a new fascination with UFO hunting and finding and proving and conspiracy theorizing out there of late.  So I thought I'd write a little about UFOs and what they do...and don't...mean.

When most of us hear the term "UFO" we think aliens!  Spaceships!  Take me to your leader!  Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here!  But actually, UFO stands for something specific: Unidentified Flying Object.  A UFO is nothing more than something flying in the sky that has not yet been positively identified.  It does not mean the purple pod people have come to eat our brains.  Most of what these shows tout as "aliens" are MFOs - Misidentified Flying Objects (thanks, Phil Plait!).  Someone sees something in the sky and misinterprets it as an alien spacecraft.

So what are the most common MFOs?  Here are the top three:

Believe it or not, I get those phone calls here.  Very nice, normal, not crazy people who call me up and explain they saw something very bright, low to the horizon, which appeared to shift and wiggle around, and change color every so often.  Don't panic, I tell them, you've just seen the most common MFO in the world: the planet Venus.  Venus is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon - it's quite impressive, even in a sky that is not yet dark.  Since Venus orbits the Sun closer in than we do, the planet can never been seen in the skies of Earth more than 45 degrees away from the Sun.  So Venus is frequently seen low to the horizon.  When you look at an object low on the horizon, the light coming from that object has to pass through a lot more air to reach your eyes than a similar object directly overhead.  Well, the moving air of Earth is what causes twinkling - the phenomenon of stars (or planets!) seeming to flash, move, and change color.  So all in all, Venus makes a perfect faux alien spacecraft.

Surely that bright light is an approaching spacecraft!  See the reflection of it in the water!  It can't be a planet!  But it is. It's Venus, seen here in the pre-dawn skies of Earth.  And yes, Venus is so bright, it often shows reflections and casts shadows.  Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

It's not just Venus either.  The second brightest planet in the sky, Jupiter, can also fool people into thinking they've seen aliens.  Since Jupiter is an outer planet, it is more likely to be seen high in the sky, mostly eliminating the twinkling effect.  So why do people think it's a spacecraft?  Well, imagine seeing a bright light in the sky.  You don't know what it is, so you grab a pair of binoculars to get a better look.  Suddenly, that single light becomes 5 lights - one big one in the center surrounded by 4 small ones...and it seems to be moving!  Yep, this happens a lot.  Jupiter is surrounded by moons - and the four largest are easily visible in a pair of binoculars...or with modern high-powered TV cameras.  The motion effect is caused by difficulties in holding the binocs or camera steady while viewing.  Sure enough, TV crews sent to check out reports of a UFO have often "confirmed" it with their cameras...only to be told later by local astronomers they were viewing Jupiter.  Oops.

Surely this one is aliens!  Look at the symmetry!  They must be lights on a spacecraft!  Nope, the center bright light is Jupiter and the 4 smaller lights are the giant planet's largest moons, seen here through a powerful camera.  Image courtesy Satellite Imagination.

Last, but certainly not least, is one that most people can't believe could be true.  One of the more common MFOs is...birds.  Really!  Birds!  Especially when seen close to sunset or sunrise flying in formation.  Lighting can really do funny things to your perception of objects in the sky...and a flock of birds flying in formation eerily lit by the Sun and artificial lights can rapidly convince you you're watching the aliens come in for a landing.  Trust me...I've seen the effect.  I was almost convinced...until my "spacecraft" started honking...they were geese.

Okay, this one HAS to be a spacecraft!  Just look at it!  Or...

...is it a bird?  Yeah, it's a blurry bird picture.  Images by Rob S.

So the next time you see something in the sky you can't identify, don't call the guys from the History Channel show - call me.  Or post a comment here on my blog.  I'm only too glad to help turn UFOs into IFOs (Identified Flying Objects).  And if ever we do make contact, it will almost certainly be by radio.  Any alien civilization capable of talking to us must located very far away - too far for a spacecraft to be of any help - or we'd have met them by now.

But we can still hope, right?
Until next time,
Carpe noctem!
Kelly

Mars Attacks!

Well, actually, when you get right down to it...we're the ones attacking Mars.

Even as I write, the latest in a long series of robotic explorers is on its way to the Red Planet.  The Mars Science Laboratory, with its already-famous rover, Curiosity, launched toward Mars on November 26 of last year and is expected to touch down on the Martian soil in the wee morning hours of August 6, 2012.  If you're a devotee of Mars-exploring robots, you can sit up and watch the landing at the Virginia Air & Space Center, NASA Langley's Visitor Center.  Some folks from the Virginia Living Museum will be on hand too, discussing the ever-popular question of whether life ever got a foothold on Mars.

Mars is a tough planet to land on.

The road to Mars is a hard one, and landing on the surface is an even greater challenge.  Kind of like the superstitions surrounding the Scottish Play in the theater world, there's a long-held fear of Mars in the space exploration community.  It is definitely picky about what probes it chooses to welcome.  Half of all the missions ever sent to the Red Planet have ended in failure.

Russia's Phobos (meaning fear; also the name of one of Mars' two moons) 1 and 2 both suffered from the "Mars Curse."  Phobos 1 died of a software glitch - it lost its lock on the Sun, and since it was running on solar power, that was the end of that.  Phobos 2 seems to have suffered a similar fate - after a successful Mars orbit insertion and just prior to the scheduled release of two landing probes, contact was lost and never regained.  While the official explanation is an onboard computer failure...the subject of alien tampering was raised, and has never really been silenced.

The last image taken by the Phobos 2 spacecraft.  The dark object is often claimed to be a UFO responsible for the loss of the craft, but is most likely a distorted shadow of the craft itself on the surface of Mars.

The U.S. craft Mars Observer was also mysteriously lost.  Three days before a planned Mars orbit insertion, engineers lost contact with the spacecraft.  We'll never know exactly what happened, but the most likely cause seems to have been a ruptured fuel tank which sent the craft into a massive tailspin.

Russia tried again with Mars 96, with disastrous results.  The fourth stage of the rocket failed to ignite, and the whole kit and caboodle came crashing back down to Earth.  The bulk of the craft seems to have landed in Chile, though no pieces of it were ever recovered.  Russian telemetry on the rocket was severely limited, and no specific cause for the crash was ever identified.

The Japanese tried reaching Mars with the Nozomi (meaning Wish or Hope) spacecraft, but a malfunctioning valve resulted in a loss of fuel so great that the poor craft was left with insufficient fuel to reach Mars orbit.  Some science did come out of the mission though - Nozomi was able to make 2 successful fly-bys of Earth and one of Mars.

Probably the most embarrassing loss of a spacecraft goes to the United States and Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO).  MCO was lost when it traveled out of communications by passing behind Mars 49 seconds earlier than expected.  Contact with the spacecraft was never re-established.  Turns out that while the spacecraft software was written expecting flight data in metric units, engineers on the ground were uploading the data in English units.  The spacecraft ended up flying too close to Mars, and likely disintegrated in the Martian atmosphere.  Oops.

We didn't do much better with Mars Polar Lander (MPL).  Contact with the spacecraft was lost during the descent phase as MPL tried to land at the Martian South Pole.  We never heard from the spacecraft again.  No trace of the craft was ever found, but the official explanation for the loss states that vibrations during the descent phase may have tricked the lander into thinking it was on the ground, and it shut off its thrusters, causing it to plummet the last 130 feet or so to a very hard, fatal landing.

Even the British have had trouble with Mars, losing a lander, Beagle 2 (named for the HMS Beagle, the ship that carried Charles Darwin on his famous voyages).  No explanation or cause has ever been agreed upon - the little lander simply disappeared and never made contact after descending towards the surface of the Red Planet.

Clearly, entry, descent and landing (EDL) is a tough time for a Mars-bound spacecraft.  NASA engineers often call the EDL phase the "7 minutes of terror."  This Saturday, we here at the Virginia Living Museum are going to be celebrating Mars with our monthly star party and laser light night...and we've got a special guest planned - NASA!  Exhibits all about Mars and Earth will be available, and Jill Prince, NASA's Mars EDL expert, will be giving a special talk about the 7 minutes of terror.  If the weather holds, we'll be looking at Mars with our telescopes all evening (plus peeking at Venus and Saturn too, I'm sure!), and there will even be a bit of Mars-themed music in the planetarium with Laser Mania!

So come join us for some Mars Mania this Saturday!  Mars activities and exhibits open at 5:30pm, Jill Prince speaks in the planetarium at 6pm, and observing begins after sunset.  All are FREE!  In the planetarium: at 7:30pm enjoy Virginia Skies (with a focus on Mars); 8:30pm see Laser Mania featuring "Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters from a Planet Near Mars" by Weird Al Yankovic; finish the night with a Laser Pink Floyd double feature: The Wall at 10pm and Dark Side of the Moon at 11:30pm.  All planetarium shows are $6, $10 for any two.  Members are always half price!

Don't forget to watch the news for information on the Mars Science Laboratory landing in August...and let's hope the Great Galactic Ghoul keeps his mitts off this one.

Carpe noctem!
Kelly

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Since I'll be off tomorrow, preparing to enjoy the holiday with my family, I figured I'd post a day early, and keep it all on the Thanksgiving theme.

As you've likely come to expect from this blog, there also needs to be a generous dollop of humor, so in honor of Thanksgiving and with apologies to David Letterman...

From the home office in Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, here's my Top Five List of spacey things I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving.

5. The Abbitt Planetarium
Yep, I'm thankful for my job!  And not just for the usual it-pays-the-bills reasons either.  I'm one of those lucky people who truly has their dream job.  I get to work with people of all ages and share with them my love of the universe.  I get to exercise my creative drives and make shows in the planetarium on numerous different topics.  It's like being a Hollywood director without the pressures of Hollywood.  What more could I ask for?  And thank you to all of you who come to visit us and make it possible for me to continue to do what I love.

4. The Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble is truly one of the most remarkable spacecraft ever launched.  It's the telescope with 9 lives (at least!) and has provided us with innumerable stunning images of the cosmos.  It has survived not only the rigors of being launched into space aboard the space shuttle, but also numerous servicing missions designed to repair and upgrade its instruments.  When the initial flaw in the primary mirror was discovered shortly after launch, many people figured the Hubble was a loss.  Thanks to some amazing work by both engineers and astronauts, Hubble's flaw was repaired and for over 20 years this school-bus-sized scope has continually made our jaws drop with its incredible images.

Dying star V838 Mon.  Courtesy STScI/NASA.

Jupiter and its moon, Ganymede.  Courtesy STScI/NASA

Supernova 1987A.  Courtesy STScI/NASA.

Hubble is in decline now, since NASA has retired the space shuttle - the only vehicle which could be used to service the telescope.  Over the coming years, Hubble's systems will slowly degrade, until a final critical failure of some kind renders it useless.  Its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is mired in funding problems as NASA struggles to maintain itself in these fiscally trying times.  Whether JWST makes it up or not, when Hubble images its last, I for one, will shed quite a few tears.  No other instrument, before or since, has done what Hubble can - inspire us all with wonder at the visions of the universe it provides.

3. The Apollo Missions to the Moon
We've been to the Moon.  Men from Earth have stood on the surface of the Moon and looked up at the fragile blue planet we call home.  It was real, we went there.  It was not, as so many people believe, an elaborate hoax.  And it is one of the most inspiring stories of human exploration ever.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface.  Courtesy NASA.

Exploration is always challenging.  But in reaching for the Moon, we had to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.  There is no water or air on the Moon.  Gravity is dramatically less, so machines behave in different and unexpected ways.  We had no idea what the surface of the Moon was like, or how men would react - physically and psychologically - to being in space or on the lunar surface.  And yet, in the space of a decade, we went from dreaming about it to being there.  I hope one day, NASA will be able to have that kind of drive and vision again.  If you don't know the story of our journey to the Moon - check it out.  It's worth it.

2. The Night Sky
There's something entirely captivating about a dark night sky.  Looking up at the stars is a wonderful, peaceful thing to do in a world that sometimes overwhelms us with activity.  And sharing it with someone you love, or even someone you're never met, makes the experience all the more special.  My daughter and I have looked at the sky since she was a tiny baby.  If you've never enjoyed a dark night sky - here's a goal for the new year.  Attend a star party.  Look through a telescope for the first time.  Just go outside one night and look up for a while.  And when you do, remember that all of humanity shares that sky with you.  No matter how far away, no matter how long ago they lived, everyone everywhere has seen the same stars that you can see just by looking up. (I miss you, Dad.)

The arc of the Milky Way in California photographed by Tony Hallas.  Courtesy Astronomy Picture of the Day.

We're in danger of losing our night skies forever as we turn on more and more nighttime lights.  Losing the sky means losing a powerful part of our heritage.  Don't wait too long to see it - or it might not be there for you to enjoy.

And the Number One spacey thing I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving...

1. The Mars Curiosity Rover
We're headed back to Mars!  Mars is a simply fascinating planet, and our exploration of it has only made it seem more intriguing.  While we've found no canals or war-like Martians, we have found tantalizing evidence of massive amounts of water having once covered the Martian surface...and even indications that there once may have been...and even yet may still be...life on our rusty red neighbor.  The Curiosity rover is due to launch on November 25th, with a eye to landing on the Red Planet this fall.  I can't wait to see what amazing new discoveries it will show us.  Stay tuned!

The Curiosity Rover.  Courtesy NASA/JPL.

I wish you all a safe, happy, and joyful Thanksgiving!
Carpe Noctem!
Kelly

Are Aliens All Wet?

Greetings all!  Yes, I know, I'm a day early.  I decided to post today because I've got the day off tomorrow, and I'm spending it with my daughter.  So...let's take a question.

My friend Pam posted the following:

Kelly, why is water the determining factor in finding life on other planets? Doesn't that limit our definition of life to a terrestrial, Earthly paradigm? Couldn't other forms of life exist that require a molecule other than water for survival? 

So I thought I'd talk a little bit about this one (hence the title!), as it's an excellent question (thanks Pam!).  Simply put...yes.  And yes.  It's entirely possible that some kind of lifeform could exist that doesn't require water, and in fact, requires some other compound for survival.  So the question becomes...what would that lifeform be like?  How could we test for it?

You see, all of our physical searches for life beyond our planet have involved robots, which think like a computer.  We can tell the robot to test if certain conditions are met, and it can tell us yes or no.  So what conditions do we program it to look for to see if life is present?  Well...the only life we know requires water.  We know that life forms that require water generally do similar things, like respirate, produce certain kinds of waste products, reproduce themselves and things like that.  These give us parameters to test.  Life based around something other than water is so foreign to us, we wouldn't even know what to begin to test for!  So we make the decision to search for "life as we know it" - that is, water and carbon based.  While this definition limits the kind of lifeforms we are likely to find, it does at least give us a starting point to work from.

So the next question becomes: where can we find water?  Well, water can be found in a whole lot more places than just Earth.  Come visit the museum for our daily 12:30pm planetarium show "Oasis in Space."  It's a beautiful and exciting full-dome program that takes you on a journey through our solar system searching for water.  You'll be surprised at how many places water is hiding right close by!

But let's face it...any life we find here in our solar system is probably going to be minor - something like bacteria, plants, or maybe fish.  When most people talk about aliens, they mean the "take me to your leader" variety...a sentient being that we can carry on a conversation with.  If such highly developed life were present elsewhere in our solar system, we'd probably already be aware of one another.

So what about life on planets beyond our solar system?  There are some 500-plus confirmed other solar systems out there...and the numbers are only going to get bigger.  NASA's Kepler mission is in orbit right now, identifying potential planets, with over 1200 now awaiting confirmation.  Some of them are even approximately the same size as Earth.  Does this mean they are inhabited?  We can't say for sure.  These stars and their attendant planets are hundreds or even thousands of light-years away, and it will be a while before we can figure out if any of these planets have water, let alone support life.  And keep in mind - Kepler is surveying only a tiny portion of the cosmos:

The Kepler mission's field of view (NASA)

So just imagine how many planets there must be in the entire Milky Way galaxy!  That's a lot of planets to check out...so if you're waiting for E.T. to phone home...well...you might want to put the phone on vibrate and go catch a movie in the meanwhile.

Thanks again to Pam for a great question!  And please folks, feel free to post whatever questions you have in the comment section.  I look forward to hearing from you!

See you again in two weeks!
Carpe noctem,
Kelly