Cosmology Bus

The Royal Treatment

Anyone interested in the scientific search for life beyond Earth and the cultural impacts of one day confirming its existence will appreciate learning that The Royal Society is sponsoring a special conference on these topics January 25-26, 2010.

Talk about starting the new year right!

Actually, the event, titled The Detection of Extra-Terrestrial Life and the Consequences for Science and Society, is the first in a series to be held this year marking the 350th anniversary of the world's oldest scientific academy. Ten programs will be held in all. Their purpose is no less than "to raise and address the major scientific questions of the 21st century."

Given that The Royal Society is among the most prestigious scientific institutions on the planet (past and present members include Newton, Darwin, Einstein, and Stephen Hawking), identifying the consequences of finding life beyond earth as a "major" question of our time is significant.

Presenters include cosmologist Paul Davies, astronomer Frank Drake, social psychologist Albert Harrison (author of After Contact: The Human Response to Extraterrestrial Life, one of the few serious treatments of the subject), and Ted Peters, a Lutheran scholar and author of "Anticipating Detection of Life in Space: AstroEthical Scenarios." Peters' presentation on January 26 is of special interest to me: "The Implications of the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life for Religion and Theology."

More information about the event and the preliminary program is posted here.

Readers may also be interested in Seeing Further, a volume edited by Bill Bryson describing the history and scientific contributions of The Royal Society. It was published by HarperCollins in the UK earlier this month.  

 

AAS, 4b Through 8b, & MicroFUN

As the 2010 American Astronomical Society meetings wind-down, two items from the program caught my attention (in addition to Michael Crowe's Doggett Prize and invited presentation, mentioned last time). Both made news.

First, at a press conference held Tuesday, NASA Kepler team members announced the spacecraft's discovery of five new exoplanets beyond our solar system. These are the first exoplanets detected by Kepler since science operations began last May. Predictably, all five were given spectacularly memorable names: Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b, and 8b.

This is understandable: one day, Kepler-discovered exoplanets may number in the hundreds. Or more. No one will know how many until at least November 2012, when science operations are slated to end.

Relative sizes of Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b, and 8b. Credit: JPL/NASA  

Kepler 4b through 8b are gas giants, also known as "hot Jupiters" because of their extreme temperatures (2,200 to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit) and large sizes (about the mass of Neptune to about 1.5 times the mass of Jupiter). You can read the full NASA news release here.

The second item raised an eyebrow when I heard about it yesterday. Scott Gaudi, an astronomer at Ohio State University, reported at a press conference titled "Exoplanet Demographics" that "We now know our place in the universe." Whenever I see or hear statements like this is I always get uneasy (rhymes with queasy), given how much we don't know about the universe in 2010.

But, to be fair, Mr. Gaudi also added this: "Solar systems like our own are not rare, but we're not in the majority, either."  

The statement summarizes the latest findings from a worldwide informal consortium of astronomers participating in something called the Microlensing Follow-Up Network (MicroFUN)—well done!—which hunts for exoplanets using a technique called gravitational microlensing. Microlensing occurs when a star passes in front of another star as seen from Earth. As this happens the light from the farthest away star becomes magnified by the closer star. If any planets are orbiting the "lens star," they increase the magnification in a measurable way as they pass by. This technique works best in detecting gas giants.

Estimating the number of solar systems "like our own" is based on a statistical analysis of MicroFUN survey data. Only one system—having two gas giants similar to Jupiter and Neptune—has been identified so far. Gaudi's argument goes something like this: "We've only found this one system, and we should have found about six by now—if every star had a solar system like Earth's." In other words, not finding very many so far suggests a relatively small number of systems out there similar to the one we belong.

Gaudi admits this is pretty rough and the "final number could change a lot . . . With billions of stars out there, even narrowing the odds to 15 percent leaves a few hundred million systems that might be like ours."

An interesting idea, anyway.

Information about MicroFUN research is available at Ohio State University.

 

Lifetime Achievement

This weekend astronomers from all over the world have been gathering in Washington, DC, for the 215th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society, which runs January 3-7. 

Billed as "the largest astronomy meeting in the history of the universe" (my question: How would they know?), this year's event includes 87 sessions on a galaxy-wide range of topics from molecular clouds to public outreach.

If I was able to attend, I'd gravitate to the sessions on the history of astronomy, and in particular, I'd be among the first to arrive tomorrow afternoon for Invited Session 104, which will be held 4:30 to 5:20 pm in the Marriott Ballroom of the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.

In that ballroom, Dr. Michael J. Crowe will be acknowledged as the recipient of the 2010 LeRoy E. Doggett Prize for Historical Astronomy, after which he'll present a paper titled "Seventeen Key Developments in the History of the Extraterrestrial Life Debate." His will be the only presentation.

As it should be.

The Doggett Prize is awarded by the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society to individuals who have had significant impact on the field of the history of astronomy. Dr. Crowe has certainly done that over a lifetime of scholarship and teaching, nearly all of it at the University of Notre Dame where he is the Reverend John J. Cavanaugh Professor Emeritus in the Humanities in the Program of Liberal Studies and Graduate Program in the History and Philosophy of Science.

Crowe's monumental The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750-1900: The Idea of a Plurality of Worlds from Kant to Lowell (originally published by Cambridge University Press in 1986, with revised editions in 1988 and 1999) established the topic as a legitimate focus of study. And his Biennial History of Astronomy Workshops at the University of Notre Dame, founded in 1993, are widely viewed as the most enjoyable meetings in the field.

Congratulations, and well-deserved, Dr. Michael J. Crowe.

 

Happy New Year

2010. Hard to believe!

But, in all honesty, I've been looking forward to this new year and decade for a while, and now both are underway.

I hope the year ahead will be healthy, prosperous, and full of fresh, helpful discoveries for us all.

Beginning this month, CB readers will see more frequent and shorter posts between longer ones, and no doubt at least a few entries making connections with the Introduction to Anthropology class I'll be teaching as of January 19.

It's no more than an educated guess, but I imagine the ties between cosmos and culture date as far back as our early hominid ancestors in East Africa -- almost certainly to Homo habilis, who produced the ring of stones, bones, and flaked stone tools found in Bed I at Olduvai Gorge about 1.6 million years ago -- and possibly to the older australopithecines.

Anthropologists will never definitively know when culture began, but approximately 2.5 million years ago the earliest known stone tools were made by modern human ancestors. Whether they were produced by an early genus Homo primate (larger brain case, bipedal, and out of the trees at least part-time) or an australopith (smaller brain case, bipedal, and out of the trees at least part-time) -- opinions vary -- their presence reflects patterned behavior. Making and using them requires learning and sharing. They are a marker for culture.

Sunset on Serengeti savanna in Tanzania, Africa, by Vincent van Zeijst (2004). Source: Wikimedia Commons

For this reason, I can pretty easily imagine some early hominid scanning the night sky from his or her comfortable perch high in a tree, noticing all that blackness and light, and perhaps feeling something of the mystery we ourselves sometimes feel when we look up. It may not have been a conscious feeling, but I like to think it was there.

Here's to new beginnings.

Next stop: tbd 

Banner bus photo credit: Dorothy Delina Porter