Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor!

Remember in the original Star Trek series how Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy could diagnose illness by simply waiving a small scanner over the patient? Science fact is now getting closer to science fiction. A new noninvasive medical imaging technique uses nanoparticles and a laser to analyze cancers below the skin's surface.

Hoag's Object

Nothing in particular to say about this, except it was discovered in 1950, is now known to be a peculiar ring galaxy, and it's really, really cool. Courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Why Would They Bother?

That's essentially the answer Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute repeatedly gives to the question of whether or not advanced technological societies in our galaxy would endeavor to travel to our planet if they knew either Earth -- or its intelligent inhabitants -- existed. In a nutshell, Shostak questions whether there is anything or anyone here on Earth interesting enough for even a highly advanced civilization to make the admittedly long and expensive trip, even if they were capable of doing so.

It seems Shostak's voice is becoming an increasingly lonely one in this regard. The day after Shostak's latest post on Space.com, the same site posted a story reviewing a new book, Robots in Space, by a NASA historian and an American University professor. The book explores the possibility of melding humans and machines (computers and robots) to achieve interstellar travel to visit Earth-like extrasolar planets in our galactic neighborhood.

If the idea of humans travelling to the stars -- with or without the help of robotics and artificial intelligence -- isn't too crazy for academic study, then why dismiss the reverse possibility, that the advanced extraterrestrial civilizations for which scientists like Shostak are currently searching might actually travel to our neighborhood? After all, it should be easier for them, since as Shostak has previously pointed out ET is likely to be far more advanced than we are.

Here's another wrinkle when considering the possibility of long-duration spaceflight, whether by humans or ET: researchers are seriously talking about the potential of extending the human life span to 1000 years or more, possibly beginning this century.

That would make the trip a lot easier.

Is ET Really An Idiot?

This item caught my eye a few weeks ago: a common riff on the increasingly discredited Rare Earth hypothesis is that human-like intelligence is not a convergent feature of evolution but rather species-specific.

In other words, since no other species on Earth currently approaches humans in intelligence, intelligence is not a feature likely to arise from the evolution of higher species generally, but rather a fluke or a highly unlikely result of random chance. So, the argument goes, don't expect to find many advanced extraterrestrial societies that meet or (more likely) exceed us in intelligence or technology.

The problem with this argument is that the premise may be highly questionable. I revisited this issue after seeing this article about new evidence that one of homo sapiens' extinct cousins, the Neanderthals, were capable of language -- certainly one of the prerequisites of human-like intelligence. The Neanderthals -- who are now known not to be a direct ancestor of modern humans, but rather an offshoot that shared a common ancestor with us and that died out 30,000 years ago -- coexisted with modern humans for at least 150,000 years.

Scientists have previously said that a common ancestor of Neanderthals and possibly modern humans, homo heidelbergensis, was capable of speech as long as 350,000 years ago.

Anthropologists still debate why the Neanderthals died out (competition with modern humans is certainly one likelihood) but what if they had not? Imagine two distinct but intelligent human species coexisting on Earth now. How about three, or four?

Check out the chart in this article about the recent discovery in Spain of a million-year-old human ancestor: the chart indicates the current scientific consensus that early modern humans shared the planet not only with Neanderthals, but with other now-extinct human species that are not our direct ancestors, such as homo erectus and maybe even the controversial "hobbit" homo floresiensis.

All our human cousins from that time our now extinct, but they undoubtedly had some rudimentary form of intelligence. We beat them out in the evolutionary game -- probably in part because we were smarter -- but in view of this it seems hard to say that human-like intelligence is a once-in-a-billion fluke.

Although all four later human species originated from a common ancestor -- as did, ultimately, all animal life -- it is plausible that early forms of human intelligence coexisted in at least four primal human species.

If that is the case, maybe ET isn't such an idiot after all.

Caution: Planet Under Construction

Scientists announced this week that they may have photographed, for the first time, a planet in the early stages of formation around its host star. The image shows the possibly infant planet in the protoplanetary disk surrounding AB Aurigae, a very young star only 1 to 3 million years old in the constellation Auriga.

Sagittarius Organics

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy announced today the first ever discovery in outer space of an organic molecule resembling an amino acid. The discovery of the organic molecule amino acetonitrile in a giant interstellar gas cloud near the deep space star-forming region Sagittarius B2 gives hope to those searching for evidence of amino acids in interstellar space. Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, have been found in meteorites on Earth but not yet in interstellar space. The discovery moves scientists closer to answering questions about the prevalence of life in the universe.

Signs Of Primitive Life On Enceladus?

As I posted about a few weeks ago, the Cassini spacecraft recently had a close encounter with Saturn's moon Enceladus, scooping up samples of water vapor ejected by giant geysers on the mysterious moon's surface.

Now the scientific results are coming in: signs of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, propane, acetylene, formaldehyde and other organic compounds were detected in the icy plumes. Scientists are intrigued by the findings, which may indicate an ocean of liquid water lies beneath the moon's icy surface. The possibility of primitive life cannot be ruled out at this time, although it is unclear the required prerequisites -- organics, a heat source and liquid water -- actually all exist on Enceladus.

Other scientists are more skeptical, pointing out the composition of the moon resembles that of a comet, casting doubt on whether liquid water really is present under the ice.

Mars Rovers Spared

NASA headquarters has rescinded a threat to cut the budget for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, a day after I posted about the threatened budget cuts here.

Golden Age Of Planet Hunting?

Today's Washington Post has an article exploring the recent flood of extrasolar planet discoveries (the current total stands at 277 planets and 238 planetary systems) and mentions NASA's upcoming Kepler mission, which will launch in about a year.

Kepler will search for small, Earth-like planets by looking for the minuscule but telltale dimming that occurs when an extrasolar planet passes in front of its host star. Kepler will constantly monitor about 100,000 stars that cover an area of the sky about the size of two "scoops" of the Big Dipper's ladle, located in the northern Summer sky between Deneb and Vega. Here's a picture of the general area, with Deneb and Vega both marked.

While it can take anywhere from a few days to many, many years for an extrasolar planet to orbit its host star, a transit lasts only a few hours. Kepler will be sensitive enough to detect the dimming that occurs when a planet the size of Earth passes in front of its host; Kepler's mission is expected to last up to 5 years.

Intelligent Life On Earth Questioned

In another sign that we will probably have an easier time finding intelligent life in outer space than on Earth -- or at least in Washington, D.C. -- NASA headquarters has notified the scientists operating the four-year-old Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars that budget cuts may require shutting down one of the rovers, which have far outlived their original 90-day mission life.

The good news: the budget cuts should not be a death sentence for either rover. Both are still in good shape and producing valuable science; it should be possible to safely and temporarily hibernate one of the rovers to reduce costs.

Be Kind To Your Robot

Many have predicted that humans will one day send robotic space probes to the stars; others have speculated that maybe others have sent them our way already. But 50 years into our Space Age, what is the current state of our robot technology, and where is it going?

Check out this video of the robot BigDog, created by Boston Dynamics, which received a $10 million award to "produce a robot with animal-like strength, speed and mobility" from DARPA. The video shows the "dog" climbing a hill, tiptoeing through snow and regaining its balance after both being kicked and slipping on ice. It is so life-like you feel bad for it.

A few years ago, you would only have seen this in a science fiction movie.

Extraterrestrial Muon Colliders?

SETI scientists may have a new medium in addition to radio and optical light to study in their search for advanced technological societies in the cosmos: neutrinos. A Russian scientist is speculating that the IceCube Neutrino Observatory under construction in Antarctica should be able to detect the intense neutrino signature of any alien-operated muon colliders in our galactic neighborhood.

How could scientists tell if a neutrino beam were coming from a technological as opposed to a natural source, such as a supermassive black hole? Presumably, ET would have to shut his collider down once in a while for maintenance, and the neutrinos would stop for awhile before restarting, something a natural neutrino beam would not do.

Where Is HD 189733?

Wondering where to find the star HD 189733 and its planet HD 189733b, which I posted about a few days ago because astronomers have detected methane in its atmosphere, the first detection of organic molecules in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet? Here it is, in the Summer constellation Vulpecula (near Cygnus the Swan), courtesy of NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day . . . .

An Object Lesson In The Fallacy Of Unbridled Skepticism

On September 15, 2007, something truly extraordinary happened in Carancas, Peru, near the Bolivian border.

Residents reported a ball of fire falling from the sky and smashing into the desolate earth. Further investigation revealed a 60-foot-wide crater at least 16 feet deep, which rapidly filled with ground water. Witnesses said the water in the crater seemed to be boiling and even steaming, and hundreds of people complained of breathing problems, headache and nausea after inhaling the fumes.

Initial witness reports attributed the incident to a meteorite strike.

Poppycock, said the scientific intelligentsia. It couldn't be. The giant crater had to be some kind of volcanic mud geyser. Meteorite strikes simply don't make people sick. It had to be some kind of mass hysteria. Regardless of what witnesses said, the scientific intelligentsia stuck to their preconceived notions. Even the braniacs at one of my favorite sites said the crater was "not likely of cosmic origin."

But then some scientists took to the field and began to investigate. The reality of the meteorite strike was confirmed within days. The illnesses of the witnesses, while not caused directly by the meteorite itself, were attributed to the effects of the strike on the arsenic-rich soil in that area, which caused a plume of nasty dust and fumes.

With skepticism said aside by a few inquisitive investigators, the witnesses' accounts were quickly verified. A meteorite really did strike the Peruvian plains, the crater was not of Earthly origin, the witnesses really did get sick.

Now, six months later, comes word that not only were the Peruvian villages who witnessed this extraordinary event telling the truth, but the event itself was truly extraordinary: for some poorly understood reason, this particular stony meteorite -- estimated to be about one meter in diameter -- augured into the ground at the incredible speed of an estimated 15,000 miles per hour, much faster -- on a scale of 40 to 50 times faster -- than any other known meteorite.

Several theories have been advanced to explain this phenomenal speed. But we know now that the villagers' reports, scorned and dismissed out of hand because they did not fit the existing scientific paradigm, have been vindicated.

First Extrasolar Organics Discovered (Again!)

I first posted on this a month ago when word leaked out, but for some reason it took NASA a month to organize the press conference.

Scientists using the Hubble Space telescope today confirmed they have, for the first time, detected the organic molecule methane in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet, in this case HD 189733b, a Jupiter-class gas giant that orbits a star 63 light-years from us in the constellation Vulpecula. Methane has been detected on most planets in our solar system, and can be a telltale sign of life -- but not in this case. HD 189733b orbits its host star at a distance that is closer than our innermost planet, Mercury, driving the temperature on the planet up to 900 degrees Centigrade, about the melting point of silver.

The real significance of the discovery probably lies in the demonstration of our ability to detect organics in the atmospheres of extrasolar planets, a crucial step in the possible future detection of extraterrestrial life on other planets.

Here's a cool video report.

Cold Case?

Whatever the hell this is or isn't, the Los Angeles Times has an entertaining update on the "California drones" controversy. Coincidentally, someone has dug up an old Popular Mechanics article that may explain what the drones are. Or not.

Free Online Astrophotography

I had no idea. There are three free online telescopes from which you can order astrophotographs of your favorite cosmic targets. A fourth allows unlimited photographs for $100 per year. Response times range from literally seconds to days to weeks.

Particularly nice for those who live is big, light-polluted cities and those who are lazy, like me.

Farewell, Arthur

Author and visionary Arthur C. Clarke has died.

Oldest Artificial Satellite Turns 50

Happy Birthday, Vanguard 1. It's still up there, but some people would like to bring it back.

Exoplanet Of The Day

Courtesy of Planet Quest and the folks at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Gliese 581c

Flashback: at the time of its discovery almost one year ago, it was the most Earth-like planet yet found orbiting another star.

What Would They Do?

This interesting discussion from Douglas Vakoch of the SETI Institute raises an argument I find fascinating, particularly in some implications the article itself does not discuss. The observation is that if extraterrestrial civilizations exist right now in our galaxy, statistically they are likely to be much older and vastly more advanced technologically than we are.

The article goes on from that observation to discuss how we might communicate -- primarily by radio or other bands of the electromagnetic spectrum -- with an advanced extraterrestrial civilization, and what value such a "conversation" might hold for the more advanced society.

But Vakoch also mentions the quite serious efforts we have already made to communicate with extraterrestrial societies that may one day encounter and retrieve one of at least four space probes that are already on their way into interstellar space. In the 1970s NASA loaded Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 with phonograph records containing sounds and images from Earth.

Similarly, the earlier Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft carried gold-plated plaques containing the above image showing the location of our solar system compared to neighboring stars, the probes' trip from Earth to Jupiter and Saturn and into interstellar space, the transition of the hydrogen atom, and a nude man and woman shown to scale against a schematic of the spacecraft.

Admittedly, none of these probes were intended primarily as interstellar probes when first designed as long as 40 years ago, barely more than 10 years after the space age began with the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, but in reality they have become our first interstellar probes. NASA is currently exploring options for building our first unmanned probes intended primarily for interstellar exploration.

Here's the rub. The human space age is only 50 years old. What would a civilization that is currently 1000, 10,000 or 100,000 years more advanced than we are --exactly what SETI predicts they will eventually find -- be up to?

Alien Life Signs On AA Tauri

OK, the headline above from today's London Telegraph made my heart skip a beat when I first saw it, but it's a gross overstatement. The real story: researchers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (no, it is not named after that Spitzer) have discovered signs of water and organic molecules in the planet-forming protoplanetary disk orbiting the infant star AA Tauri.

Amino Acids From Outer Space

Researchers from the Carnegie Institution have discovered the highest levels of amino acids ever found in meteorites. The two meteorites in question, of a carbon-rich type called chondrites, were found in the 1990s in Antarctica, where the may have lain for millions of years before their recovery.

Scientist believe the meteorites came from an asteroid possibly billions of years old that eventually shattered long ago; some of its remnants eventually collided with Earth. The discovery of the extremely high amino acid levels -- ten times the levels previously found in other chondrites -- supports the belief that the early solar system was rich in organic compounds essential for life; the discovery may also support theories of panspermia.

A Trip To Mysterious Enceladus

Here is a cool animated fly-by of Saturn's mysterious moon Enceladus, which the Cassini probe took a close look at yesterday, scooping up samples of water vapor from the frozen moon's geysers.

Pack Your Bags For Alpha Centauri

I posted this early last week about new computer-based predictions about the possible existence of an easily detectable Earth-like planet orbiting our Sun's closes neighbor, Alpha Centauri. Now the mainstream media is picking up the story. Time will tell if planet hunters find their quarry.

Following up on its own story about the research, Space.com posted this interesting review of how we might one day visit these worlds next door, should they exist. Pick your preferred mode of transportation: antimatter? solar sails or laser-powered sails? how about warp drive?

The article points out that some of these methods may leave us facing voyages of up to 50, 100 or 200 years to get to the nearest star. No problem, just consider suspended animation or multi-generational ships.

Wait a minute. If these are serious ideas for interstellar travel -- and there may actually be Earth-like planets circling our nearest neighbor -- why do the folks at SETI keep telling us radio or lasers are the only realistic possibilities for extraterrestrial communication? Why not just send a message in a bottle, or drop in personally on our neighbors?

I think I'll leave a packed suitcase by the door, just in case.

Artificial Intelligence Milestone?

I find this a little creepy. Remember this earlier post, in which Ray Kurzweil predicted that computers would achieve human-like intelligence in 20 years? Now comes this word that researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, have achieved what may be an important milestone in the development of artificial intelligence. They have designed a virtual, computer-based model of a child's mind that can pass the "false belief test."

OK, I admit it's not the same as passing the Turing test. Real children can usually pass the false belief test at age 4 or 5, and psychologists often use it to diagnose disorders such as autism.

Researchers achieved this development in this case by inserting a simple logical statement into the reasoning engine of the virtual child, whose name happens to be Eddie.

Hey, E.T. : Snack Strong!

I'm not sure what to think about this, but my initial reaction is . . . well, I'm not sure what to think. It was bad enough when NASA decided a few weeks ago the best Beatles tune to beam toward the North Star was the schlocky Across the Universe.

Now, a multinational corporation has decided to beam a television advertisement to a relatively close extrasolar planetary system.

The corporation?

PepsiCo, parent company of Frito Lay, the maker of Doritos.

Yep, if there is an undiscovered advanced extraterrestrial civilization on a planet orbiting the star 47 Ursae Majoris, 42 years from this June they will be treated to a TV advertisement as part of Doritos' "You make it, we play it" user-generated-content advertising campaign (it will take that long for the message to get there at the speed of light). The winning advertisement will be broadcast in June by British astronomers using an ultra high frequency radar antenna in the Arctic.

47 Ursae Majoris is known to have at least two extrasolar planets, and may harbor more.

OK, if some SETI scientists were worried about the extraterrestrial reaction to an old song, as I discussed in this earlier post, what do they think an advertisement for our favorite junk food will garner?

My real worry is that this will not be the first time we've bugged any possible residents of this system: at least two previous messages have already been sent, the so-called Teen Age Message in 2001 and Cosmic Call 2 in 2003.

Oh, S**t!!

Here's the bad astronomical news of the week:

A Sydney University astronomer has warned this week that the Earth could be destroyed when an unstable neighbouring star explodes.
Dr Peter Tuthill said that observing WR104, a star system in the Sagittarius constellation, made him feel like he was "looking down a rifle barrel".

Here's another take on the threat posed by WR104:

A spectacular, rotating binary star system is a ticking time bomb, ready to throw out a searing beam of high-energy gamma rays – and Earth may be right in the line of fire.

Another possible solution to the Fermi Paradox, as discussed in this earlier post, and this one?

Let's hope not.

Life Everywhere?

The quickening pace of scientific discovery always reminds one of what remains to be discovered. This interesting survey of the current state of Astrobiology from Space.com comes to us via the folks at the SETI Insitute, and echoes an important point I made earlier in this inaugural post regarding the danger of arguing from an absence of evidence:

It seems like forever ago, but in the mid-1990s we still didn't know whether planets – the cool worlds that are most conducive to life — were superabundant or scarce. In the last decade, astronomers have uncovered nearly 200 worlds orbiting nearby stars.

Planet Hunters Galore

NASA is considering as many as seven proposed missions to hunt for Earth-like terrestrial extrasolar planets as part of its upcoming 10-year misson planning process.

13.73 Billion (Years)

The picture above is from NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (or WMAP) , which has determined the age of the Universe, give or take 120 million years: 13.73 billion Earth years.

Suddenly, I feel much younger.

The picture itself shows microwaves emitted from the most distant source known: the cooling fireball of the Big Bang itself. The WMAP tells us another interesting result. The Universe is "flat," meaning it will expand forever.

Here's more from Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy blog.

Do-it-yourself Drake Equation

Buried in this piece from the Gray Lady regarding Frank Drake and his Drake Equation was a real treat for mathphobes like me: a link to an automated, plug-in-the-numbers Drake Equation computer on MSNBC. Play with the numbers yourself; calculate the odds of extraterrestrial intelligence in our galaxy. Go ahead, it's fun.

The New York Times article itself is somewhat drab and unilluminating, but it does raise a question I raised earlier in this post: does the failure of SETI scientists to find a signal portend a poor outlook for our apparently self-destructive species, or are there more hopeful explanations (in the case of the NYT article, the alternative explanation is that advanced technological societies quickly go electromagnetically silent through the development of new technologies such as satellites and fiber optics).

A Phone Book For ET

The BBC recently published this excellent synthesis of the current status of both SETI and the hunt for terrestrial exoplanets. The article speaks for itself; read it.

One note: multiply the estimated number of exoplanets in our galaxy (500 billion) by 1/8 (the fraction of terrestrial planets to total planets in our own solar system) and you arrive at an estimate of more than 62 billion Earth-like, terrestrial planets in our galaxy alone.

Kill All Space Lawyers!

Science fiction author Ben Bova recently published this strange little rant, apparently blaming lawyers and the 1967 Outer Space Treaty for the fact we haven't built an atomic-bomb-powered interstellar spacecraft like Project Orion from the 1950s and 1960s (not to be confused with NASA's current project to replace the Space Shuttle with what it has christened the Orion spacecraft).

Interstellar spacecraft? Hell, it's been 35 years since we last made it to the moon, and it will likely be another 15 at least before NASA gets us back there via Project Constellation and Orion.

Would Ben Bova would rather have weapons of mass destruction in space as well as on Earth? It's speculative, but maybe the braniacs at NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics program will someday solve the interstellar flight dilemma without taking us down the path of nuking the cosmos.

Across the Universe, Redux

Remember last month's post about NASA using the Deep Space Network to beam the Beatles' hit Across the Universe in the direction of Polaris, the North Star, just for the hell of it, making more than a few SETI scientists a little nervous? Now, Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute has estimated how big of an antenna anyone on a planet orbiting Polaris would have to have in order to hear the song when it arrives in 430 years. The answer: any such antenna would have to be approximately 500 miles by 500 miles. That's big, and far beyond our current fiscal or technological capability. Maybe that explains why NASA's little episode of interstellar American Bandstand made a few astronomers more than a little nervous.

Does Alpha Centauri Host Earth's Twin?

A team of researchers at the University of California-Santa Cruz have proposed a computer model that predicts that Alpha Centauri -- the star closest to our own Sun -- may harbor at least one Earth-like terrestrial planet orbiting one of the component stars within its habitable zone; they hope astronomers may be able to detect such planets, if they exist, in the relatively near future using the well-established radial velocity method that measures the wobble caused by planets as they orbit their host stars. Some researchers are skeptical Alpha Centauri hosts terrestrial planets, but are impressed by the prediction that the radial velocity method -- which has primarily detected Jupiter-class gas giants orbiting close to their parent stars -- can be pumped up to detect smaller Earth-like planets.