tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24286520915640201912024-03-13T16:32:38.281-04:00Exoplanetology<strong>The Art and Science of Exoplanets</strong>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger283125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-33187991244281423672013-03-21T23:51:00.002-04:002013-03-22T10:01:03.468-04:00Living Worldships<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHx6xKzFwxFUnFcNSqTGY62e2_BXi8jj_mYcLlgUsin7PeKJwbwgiKHRhAKxhOP03tB1Ul1oaw_C4WXo56TjAVlcl_vLlAon3VkoF8WtIvy29DPAB58Z4YEOfXkDw7vzm7S__Pwx-NW90/s1600/jellcity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHx6xKzFwxFUnFcNSqTGY62e2_BXi8jj_mYcLlgUsin7PeKJwbwgiKHRhAKxhOP03tB1Ul1oaw_C4WXo56TjAVlcl_vLlAon3VkoF8WtIvy29DPAB58Z4YEOfXkDw7vzm7S__Pwx-NW90/s320/jellcity.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
In <b><i><a href="http://www.imagecomics.com/comics/4954/Prophet-Vol-1-Remission" target="_blank">Prophet</a></i></b>: Remission, a city called <b><i>Jell City</i></b> was described as a corpse of a living ship. For all intents and purposes, Jell City was once a sustainable "<b>Worldship</b>" that needed to be "alive" in order to accomplish its primary purpose--to transport passengers <b>and</b> sustain them during transit. It is biodegradable and recyclable. And its usefulness does not end in its death. Rather, upon reaching its destination it continues to serve even as it rots. Its structure providing shelter and sustenance to its inhabitants.<br />
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There are a lot of key ideas in that panel and this is the reason why I have fallen in love with <b>Prophet</b>, a wonderful sci-fi comicbook that never ceases to send my imagination careening to exowonders. I am amazed at how the idea of Worldships converges with Living Architectures and how one day these ideas will take us to other worlds.<br />
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Lately there has been a lot of discussions about Worldships. A wave of articles flowed after the inauguration of the 100 Year Starship Study. They are listed below for those who are interested about the ideas presented in this post. One may think that these are all just sci-fi and wild imaginations. But there are real people who are pushing the boundaries to make these ideas a reality. such as Rachel Armstrong (<a href="http://twitter.com/livingarchitect">@livingarchitect</a>) and Paul Gilster of <a href="http://twitter.com/centauri_dreams">Centauri Dreams</a> who are passionate about ideas that are stepping stones for humanity's journey to the outer worlds.<br />
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<a href="http://100yss.org/symposium/2013" target="_blank">100 Year Starship Study</a> - http://100yss.org/symposium/2013<br />
<a href="http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=26836" target="_blank">Life Aboard the Worldship</a> - http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=26836<br />
<a href="http://www.icarusinterstellar.org/projects/project-persephone/" target="_blank">Project Persephone – Living Architectures</a> - http://www.icarusinterstellar.org/projects/project-persephone/<br />
<a href="http://news.discovery.com/space/private-spaceflight/project-persephone-icarus-interstellar-100yss-120920.htm" target="_blank">Designing a Sustainable Interstellar Worldship</a> - http://news.discovery.com/space/private-spaceflight/project-persephone-icarus-interstellar-100yss-120920.htm<br />
<a href="http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679275/a-trip-to-the-living-city-of-the-future" target="_blank">A Trip To The Living City Of The Future</a> -
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http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679275/a-trip-to-the-living-city-of-the-future
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<a href="http://www.icarusinterstellar.org/lawless-sustainability-persephone/" target="_blank">Lawless Sustainability: Persephone</a> -
http://www.icarusinterstellar.org/lawless-sustainability-persephone/<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-80313205740791573262013-01-21T22:11:00.001-05:002013-01-22T11:47:02.332-05:00The Constructs of a New Idea<div dir="ltr">
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I've just finished reading a book called 'Design in Nature'. And by sharing what I've learned from that book I am practically validating its premise--that everything in the universe has a tendency to flow--even information itself. Good ideas flow and I am happy to act as a conduit for another great idea to flow onwards via the constructs of social media: That idea is called the <b>Constructal Law</b>.<br />
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I will list 4 major ideas from the book in a short and concise manner and then provide my own comments. I hope I captured the main ideas well enough to stimulate your own mind to explore it further. There were plenty of ideas that captured my attention but I am still reeling from the fresh new eyes I got after reading that book and I am scrambling to write down as much as I can to share it, understand it, and articulate it.<br />
I promise you that I will post more ideas in bite-sized format soon. But for now you may consider this post as a preview.</div>
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<b>1) <u>The Constructal Law makes Design a Concept of Science.</u></b><br />
<i><b>"The constructal law accounts not only for the emergence of design but also its evolution. Design is a spontaneously arising and evolving phenomenon in nature. Design is a phenomenon that emerges naturally as patterns..."</b></i></div>
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In my opinion, the Constructal Law has done a good job of explaining the trouble that has arisen with the word 'Design' in scientific circles. And I wholeheartedly agree that it is time for Science to embrace Design. And I re-iterate that Constructal Law does not give credence to Intelligent Design. As a matter of fact, it clarifies the fact that design arises without any need for a "designer".<br />
Now in terms of planets, I think that the subject of "<b>Planetary Design</b>" will be a very interesting field for future terraformers.</div>
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<b>2) <u>The Constructal Law Can Predict</u></b><br />
<b><i>"We use the constructal law to predict what should occur in nature--that designs should emerge and evolve in time to facilitate flow access."</i></b><br />
This part is what I'm quite excited about because we may have the beginnings of a systematic way to predict the morphology and structure of lifeforms. There are sections in the book wherein the possible configurations of animals (and vegetation and trees) are explained and predicted along with some basic equations and charts to prove it.<br />
Thus, I would assume that these equations, given different environmental parameters that correspond to different planetary characteristics (such as gravity, atmospheric density, etc) can allow us to predict the likely shape of alien lifeforms on another world.</div>
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<b>3) <u>The Constructal Law Challenges Scientific Views</u></b></div>
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<b><i>"An irony of the constructal law is that it is a scientific principle that challenges scientific orthodoxy while confirming impressions of the world held by nonscientists."</i></b></div>
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It is a breath of fresh air to read about science improving on the previous ideas and creating new ones. The author of Design in Nature, Adrian Bejan disagrees with Stephen Jay Gould's idea that if we replay of the tape of life, the lifeforms that would arise would be different. The Constructal Law on Animal Design says that even if we replayed the tape of life, the animals (and vegetation) would still turn out to be similar to the animals we see today in their basic configuration. This is because nature has a tendency to facilitate the movement of mass in the most efficient way possible, and that is where design arises.</div>
The Constructal Law also challenges the Darwinian concept of winners and losers by saying that all the players are not competing against each other but are in fact, working together as components of a larger <i>global</i> organism. I consider this as a nod to Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis, which is itself has been challenged scientifically.<br />
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<b>4) <u>The Constructal Law Unites the Animate and Inanimate. Everything is Alive!</u></b></div>
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<b><i>"Life—flow, with freely morphing configuration—was there from the start"</i></b><br />
I love this idea. Primarily because up until now I've been having a hard time defining what life is in a broader sense. It makes it so much simpler when you look the universe and see that everything is alive.<br />
Just like the Copernican Revolution it may seem to strip us off a pedestal once more--that we have no right to claim any difference from the inanimates. I am actually relieved to think of it that way. And I can feel that it opens up my mind to mentally explore what other sort of 'life' there may be on planets elsewhere.<br />
Although the idea that "everything is alive" brings constructal law a little bit in the camp of mysticism, I am sure there are plenty of good ways to mitigate this, such as assigning "levels" to life.<br />
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<b>Moving Forward...</b><br />
The Constructal Law covers a lot of disciplines. And it will have plenty to contribute to Exoplanetology. For one, I can see that the Constructal Law can validate the idea that smaller planets are more numerous than larger ones, aside from the obvious fact that there are more grains than pebbles, more pebbles than rocks, more rocks than boulders.<br />
It was not discussed in the book, but I am sure that its proponents will come up with the equation to seal it soon enough in a scientific way. And my hunch is that its explanation will have something to do with the idea that clumps of matter can flow much easier, farther, wider, when they are in the form of smaller planets. Therefore, smaller planets must form first and should have higher distribution than larger ones around a star system.<br />
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<b>To Sum it up...</b><br />
The Constructal Law has an extraordinary claim, that it is a "first principle", at par with The Second Law of Thermodynamics. It says that "<i>where the second law describes the universal tendency to flow from high to low, the constructal law describes the universal tendency to generate evolving configurations that facilitate that flow.</i>" The evidence for its claim seem to be extraordinarily clear and visible all around us. It has a lot of potential. Adrian Bejan may have hit upon a great idea right on the spot with the Constructal Law.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-49746819569717793832012-12-13T12:30:00.003-05:002012-12-13T13:46:45.263-05:00River Patterns on Other Worlds<br />
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<a href="http://lightsinthedark.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/a-river-runs-through-it-and-when-i-say-it-i-mean-saturns-moon-titan/"><img border="0" height="220" src="http://lightsinthedark.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/713391main_pia16197-43b_crop.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Just putting in a quick note about this picture of a river in Titan. It came in today just as i was in the early onset of reading this book, Design in Nature, about the Constructal Law which not only explains, but predicts the formation of patterns, such as river flows and other fractal structures in nature. If you ask me, this constructal idea is a pretty monumental claim of answering the question of how patterns and 'design' arises. For a while now, I've always been fascinated about the similar patterns that are visible all around us, like trees, and bifurcating networks, spiral galaxies and hurricanes, and so on. Well, it's worth writing about this river in Titan because what flows in that river is not water but liquid methane and ethane. It stikes me with awe that on the surface of an alien world with a wildly different chemical make up could produce a pattern that is so familiar to us. Should we then expect to see on other planets the familiar patterns we see on earth, or should we expect something different on truly alien exoplanetary worlds?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-63498846356237762772012-11-30T16:37:00.000-05:002012-12-01T20:01:54.559-05:00Solving the Puzzle of Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last week, I stumbled upon an idea called <b>The Constructal Law</b> (for an overview, see this <a href="http://www.constructal.org/en/art/PLREV-2011-bejan_and_lorente.pdf" target="_blank">PDF</a>) and I am browsing through the book 'Design in Nature' by A. Bejan and J.P. Zane. Almost immediately I felt something click as I continued to read it. Some concepts in that book resonate with bits of ideas that have already crossed my mind in the past. This book has wasted no time in explaining the new concepts clearly.<br />
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Parts of the Constructal Law will have something to do with how we should think about exolife, too. It hasn't done that yet, but the time will come.<br />
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We are currently in the age of mashups, integrations, collaboration, and new ways of thinking about the questions and mysteries that confront us. In the context of this blog, some of these questions are timeless, and some are up-to-date with our current stage of discovery: What is Life? What are the patterns that we should look for in order to detect signs of life on alien environments? Will our earth-centric definition of "Life" change once we discover life on other planets?
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Indeed, these questions require us to think beyond the limits of any particular field of science. We cannot hinge solely upon Astrobiology or Exobiology to define exolife and ignore other fields of thought. We also cannot limit our minds to think about life only in terms of computation, complexity theory, or emergence (think Wolfram's New Kind of Science, NKS), nor should we think about life only in terms of physics. We need scientists and thinkers in every field to collaborate and mash up ideas. If you still don't get my gist, please read this <a href="http://www.aeonmagazine.com/nature-and-cosmos/vlatko-vedral-evolution-quantum-physics/">post</a>.
I have been lapse in blogging for a while about unorthodox ways of thinking about life, and i hope to post more about this interdisciplinary aspect of answering questions about exolife, especially on how exoplanets contribute vital clues to solve this exciting puzzle.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-61340035477920203102012-11-20T23:12:00.000-05:002012-11-27T09:45:43.383-05:00Extremophiles, Archaeans, Biogenic Stromatolites, and Mars<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Stromatolites_in_Sharkbay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Stromatolites_in_Sharkbay.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
When a scientist teases the whole world about an "earthshaking" <a href="http://themeridianijournal.com/2012/11/an-earth-shaking-discovery-what-has-the-curiosity-rover-found-on-mars/" target="_blank">discovery</a> on Mars, you just can't help but think what it might be. In the age of social media, you can't help but tweet about it. I was going to <a href="https://twitter.com/Exoplanetology/status/271087200886738946">tweet</a> about extremophiles on impulse but I decided to dig (no pun intended) a little bit further to be more specific and to put more substance into my tweet. For some reason, the word "Stromatolites" came up in my mind. But "Archaean Stromatolites" is a better deal. But now I think "Biogenic Stromatolites" is way much better.<br />
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Some Archaeans are extremophiles and this gives me a good reason to post about it here (because I love extremophiles!) In turn stromatolites are sedimentary structures produced by the activities of microorganisms (such as archaeans) in shallow water. They precipitate calcium carbonate or limestone when they metabolize. Putting together the clues that I know, such as the evidence that water once flowed on Mars, I would think that if they ever existed, these early martian single-celled critters (which I would temporarily equate with archaeans for lack of a better term) must have formed mats of stromatolites or calcites and their signature became fossilized, and then eons later this badass curiosity rover came along and scooped up some of it and unpacked the chemical evidence with its <a href="http://msl-scicorner.jpl.nasa.gov/Instruments/SAM/">SAM</a> instruments and beamed the data to earth. And then one Geologist got so excited that he remarked “This data is gonna be one for the history books," and then everyone got crazy on twitter.
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Well, a little sleuthing about what would make a geologist so excited points me to this paper (<a href="http://www.cornellcollege.edu/geology/courses/greenstein/paleo/schopf_07.pdf">PDF</a>) which I think pretty much sums up most of the clues regarding the puzzle. I'm guessing the findings would be similar, i think, but the main idea is that evidence of fossilized by-products of ancient forms of life on the red planet may have been found by Curiosity. Or could just be organic chemicals, upon which further study is needed to know if it is biogenic or abiotic. But definitely the discovery is not Life itself but perhaps (or maybe i am just hoping) it may be microfossils or some ancient signature of simple lifeforms in the distant past. And so, with that little background you know what I'll tweet about. Of course I may be wrong most probably, but tweeting with some substance is better than tweeting some senseless snarkiness. And relax, it's just a <a href="http://twitter.com/Exoplanetology/status/271105102557876225" target="_blank">tweet</a> about a wild guess.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-74427986808578509722012-11-18T17:24:00.001-05:002012-11-28T14:16:52.451-05:00Halo 4 Review : Exoplanetary Landscapes & Emotions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Having just finished the campaign in Halo 4, I just wanted to give a nod to 343 Industries for making this Halo installment such a great experience. From the perspective of this blog, I begin by expressing my appreciation for the impressive exoplanetary landscapes that was a major part of the game's appeal. All the planetary visuals, including the architecture of the forerunners, are beautiful art. I admire all the aesthetics that was put in every scene and multiplayer maps which makes it such beautiful worlds to step in to.
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But the most important part of the game was the emotional aspect. Thankfully, the facial expressions of the characters (except Master Chief, who never shows his face) shows great detail in conveying human emotions. In Halo 4, you will not be burdened by the botox faces you have come to see in most games (such as in Mass Effect). Halo 4 has used the technology to appeal to the player's emotions, and it proved to be crucial in the storyline.
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As the story goes, Cortana, the AI companion of Master Chief is dying. The emotional stress involved in the prospect of losing her life shows in her face which draws you in. I salute Master Chief because he actually tries to save Cortana and treats her rightfully--as a person. The common folk would have no attachment or feelings for such entities like software. People would simply install a new version or get a new one. But not Master Chief. He truly cares for his companion.
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I am fond of AI constructs (such as EDI and Legion (Geth) in Mass Effect) so it was natural for me to identify my self with Master Chief at the onset. So I knew right from the start that I will definitely finish this game. Indeed I savored every moment of it, and cherished the last moments with Cortana.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-79384970536213035932012-10-23T12:20:00.002-04:002012-10-23T16:34:55.803-04:00Breaking Through the Limits of My World<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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You've heard it said, "<b><i>The limits of my language are the limits of my world</i></b>". It's one of the famous quotes from the only book ever published by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.
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I'd like to share a bit of my personal experience on this matter as I curate content about exoplanets via social media tools such as <a href="http://twitter.com/exoplanetology">twitter</a> and <a href="https://plus.google.com/b/109112831598706657070/">google plus</a>.
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In the last few years of the ongoing discoveries of new exoplanets, I have indeed felt the <b>limit of language</b> in my attempt to describe the new ideas that is brought by the awareness of new worlds. I have often felt that our existing language(s) are not sufficient to support the new changes that will occur in our ways of thinking.
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Aside from the English language, I speak another language and a dialect distinct enough to be considered as a unique language by itself. I experimented with shifting the language of my inner thought from one to the other, and I observed that without the proper words to describe any new concept, the mind is truly limited to effectively grasp, describe, or share new ideas. With this realization, I wondered what other concepts I am missing as a result of not knowing other languages. And I yearned to know more ideas. I longed to break free from the limits of language.
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As I tracked the breath-taking pace of exoplanet discoveries, I stumbled upon new ideas, and new avenues of thought--about other planets, and on the topics of life elsewhere, on interstellar travel, and on the future of humanity. Yet I am at loss for words to efficiently share those new concepts that bubbled inside my mind.
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I am sure others have felt the same. Here are some examples: how would one describe a double exoplanet transit in one word? As what happened with our observations of KOI-94 some has called it 'Exosyzygy'.
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Another recent discovery of a pair of stars orbiting a planet (<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/kepler-ph1.html">PH1</a>) which is orbiting another pair of stars, I'm sure we don't even know what words to describe unique events on such a system (can we imagine an 'exoclipse' or 'multiclipse'?).
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Some words I had to make up in order to make the idea fit within a constrained medium such as twitter. For some phrases I had to borrow and mash up some words. The words listed below are only a handful that I felt I had to 'invent' in order to express some concepts concisely: Exolife, Exogazing, Exoplanetary Thinking, exogasm, Hab Worlds, Known Worlds Law, exostellar, Habitable Bubbles, exoplaneteers, exoprobe.
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I'm not sure if they were used before, or if these words will appear in the <a href="http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=exoplanets%2Cextrasolar&year_start=1900&year_end=2012&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=">Google Ngram Viewer</a> someday, but I am sure that the never-ending discovery of new planets will constantly create a plethora of new words as humanity's noosphere expands further onto other worlds lightyears away. And thus breaking through the limits of our world trains our minds to break through the limits of language itself.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-66112060361550359102012-07-18T16:04:00.000-04:002012-07-19T14:33:11.767-04:00Oh What A Tangled Exoweb...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9c753zUQOIQ/TfgMDvHgS3I/AAAAAAAAAMc/ZbKKzz5Svf4/s1600/Salaak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9c753zUQOIQ/TfgMDvHgS3I/AAAAAAAAAMc/ZbKKzz5Svf4/s320/Salaak.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
As everyone in the exoplanet community have noticed, the Exoplanet Encyclopedia (<a href="http://www.exoplanet.eu/">exoplanet.eu</a>) has updated its site with a nifty new look along with new functionalities. It's great. And I love change. The only thing is that it broke my <a href="http://exoplanetology.blogspot.com/2011/10/total-known-exoplanets-google-chrome.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Exoplanetology+%28Exoplanetology%29">Total Known Exoplanets Chrome Extension</a>. I didn't think anyone ever uses it, until a twitter user <a href="https://twitter.com/AstroExoScience/status/224736885224906754">inquired</a> on when it will be fixed.
So i spent some time to fix it. And now i'm happy to report that the chrome extension is back up online again. Well, at least for now, it's not showing blank. I know it's showing a count that is still late by a factor of weeks but it will be improved on the next deployment. I will now explain the changes that happened under the hood and what it would mean onwards.
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When exoplanet.eu changed its pages, my robotic HTML scraper was no longer getting the updated exoplanet count. Much as i tried, I can no longer grab hold of the updated count from that site. So i turned to the coolest open <a href="http://www.exoapi.com/">ExoAPI.com</a> to provide the exoplanet count.
Using a simple AJAX call, it returns some data that includes the total count. Of course there's always room for improvement and I contacted the awesome developers of ExoAPI to provide a function to grab *just* the total count for speed and lighter load. So now my exoplanet count chrome extension fully depends on ExoAPI to show the latest stats on exoplanets. And I got some new upgrades planned that will make use of ExoAPI some more. Yes, this is another use case showing how important an <b>open</b> exoplanet API is.
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Here's some quirky curiousity on how <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaak">Salaak</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Surfer">Silver Surfer</a> keeps track of planets. I am definitely sure that they maintain a database of planets to do their job (it would be awesome to see at least one issue of green lantern corps mention that 'fact') and that they must have some form of API in order to pass along data and work with other advanced lifeforms' technology.
In light of this fiction, can you imagine what it would mean if we suddenly made contact with a more advanced civilization? For some reason, I think that their web developers would be awesome enough as to provide an API for us to be able to access their own planet database. But prior to that, via the <a href="http://twitter.com/Exoplanetology/status/213288498105561088">Known Worlds Law</a> it is automatic that advanced civilizations have a huge database of planets containing information on gazillions of worlds. And I am optimistic that they will share that information--which would mean access to study trillions of planets!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-54651622594520714142012-06-21T11:17:00.000-04:002012-06-21T15:02:18.231-04:00Spaceships and Exoplanets [part 3]<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVvg5IRfQwjOup31lfU7FC0JzJ5cTrp5Zyst9tPdbNNs8AH39RNm2xvhVgJk0nuWi0OwkdZsUJ5neGugucnJVE_iI70FJ7LdykTk1cVzo4FAmwNVsLiu_uB3sBZVqhqGh0t2_QviyAYRk/s1600/spaceship-vintage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVvg5IRfQwjOup31lfU7FC0JzJ5cTrp5Zyst9tPdbNNs8AH39RNm2xvhVgJk0nuWi0OwkdZsUJ5neGugucnJVE_iI70FJ7LdykTk1cVzo4FAmwNVsLiu_uB3sBZVqhqGh0t2_QviyAYRk/s320/spaceship-vintage.jpg" /></a>
Since we're at it, let me refer you to this wonderful collection of <a href="http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2012/06/rare-wonderful-1950s-space-art.html">vintage spaceship art</a> to wrap up my <a href="http://exoplanetology.blogspot.com/2012/06/spaceships-and-exoplanets-part-2.html">previous</a> posts on the impromptu series "Spaceships and Exoplanets". This collection of rare retro space art by <a href="http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2012/06/rare-wonderful-1950s-space-art.html">Dark Roasted Blend</a> certainly made me reflect on how far we've gone and how far we have to go. In the 1950's there were no known exoplanets at all. Now we have more than 700 hundred exoplanets catalogued. How did our new planetary discoveries impact how we think? How did it change our designs of spaceships? If you look closely at these vintage space artworks, what do you notice? Did anything change in the design of the spaceships as the pioneers envisioned them back then versus our modern day ship designs?
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First of all, these vintage photos confirm the pattern that <b>spaceships and planets go together</b> on spaceship artworks, as I've noted in the <a href="http://exoplanetology.blogspot.com/2010/02/spaceships-and-exoplanets.html">first</a> Spaceships and Exoplanets post. Another thing is that spaceship designs back then were symmetrical, while spaceship designs nowadays are 'becoming' non-symmetrical (take a look at <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=eve+online+spaceships+pictures&hl=en&prmd=imvnsfd&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=pTzjT6n8OOHE0QHluZzSAw&sqi=2&ved=0CFUQsAQ&biw=1203&bih=750">ship designs in Eve-Online</a> to grok what i mean). Spaceships are mostly designed for outer space so they do not need to be aerodynamic (duh!).
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I could go one blabbing about spaceships but I would rather leave you thinking about the fact that more than 60 years after these imaginative art were envisioned, we still haven't landed an actual spaceship on another planet. A lot of <a href="http://100yss.org/">work</a> needs to be done to make our <a href="http://www.buildtheenterprise.org/">science fiction</a> a real fact for future generations.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-19885761525195769302012-06-20T18:54:00.000-04:002013-02-06T14:34:56.665-05:00On Prometheus<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrcbLF-syvdmJ9m9tiMvhnLGg-tyU_MpIelCO0j8GEooih0JskU1ZuK3ddm8JW_PgR-MSiUoXCayQS7dbiXClQhvrrvYGhG8S37kMlnx9uMhdn9LV86muFlnkWXFdCsoU9WN6Bj79qpw8/s1600/Prometheus-still-star-field.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrcbLF-syvdmJ9m9tiMvhnLGg-tyU_MpIelCO0j8GEooih0JskU1ZuK3ddm8JW_PgR-MSiUoXCayQS7dbiXClQhvrrvYGhG8S37kMlnx9uMhdn9LV86muFlnkWXFdCsoU9WN6Bj79qpw8/s320/Prometheus-still-star-field.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1DmcLAfk3kCbQyqXf4h7WR4e7xHGo1yDNeCgk748zOFvDksx-BXF2Vuj87jTzC41qnvqPZ5q1iU1YG62M2ZD-BWLihfw71unU7kEmWWJno5LB4VfNOye3T1oo3GqHiv9RuD9LXoLzOHA/s1600/prometheus-david.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1DmcLAfk3kCbQyqXf4h7WR4e7xHGo1yDNeCgk748zOFvDksx-BXF2Vuj87jTzC41qnvqPZ5q1iU1YG62M2ZD-BWLihfw71unU7kEmWWJno5LB4VfNOye3T1oo3GqHiv9RuD9LXoLzOHA/s320/prometheus-david.jpg" width="320" /></a>Prometheus is an eye candy. The visuals and special effects are well done. The design of the space suits are unique and beautiful. The user interface to control gadgetries and machineries are good. And the star maps are marvelous. The photos shown are part of my favorite scenes in the movie.<br />
Beautiful as its visuals may be, an eye candy is what Prometheus will ever be. It failed to live up to the hype. It will not be among the classic science fiction films such as <i>Blade Runner</i>, <i>Solaris, The Matrix (1), Aliens,</i> or <i>The Fifth Element </i>that one would watch (over and over again) for the sheer engagement of the mind, complemented with great visuals.<br />
I thought the film was going to be smart, as projected by snazzy marketing tidbits such as Weyland's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUxdAWrsag8">TED talk</a> and great <a href="http://www.projectprometheus.com/newworlds/">interactives</a>. I felt cheated because when the film finally came out it had a lot of dumb moments. It had massive holes in the plot. The science was flawed in many instances, and the stupidity of all the characters distracted me throughout the movie. The promotional materials used to market the film seemed smarter than the actual film itself. Lastly, I am disappointed because it made scientists (astrobiologists and archaeologists) look like fools.<br />
Although I am happy about the exoplanetary aspects of the film, it's just that Prometheus is hollow and is not inspiring at all. There's no enduring character to remember and no brilliant concept to keep.<br />
But I do recognize the artistic aspect in the cinematography of the film. I am aware that one must not be taken in by all the fantastic visuals and one must look deeper into the analogies and metaphors expressed by the movie--that it tells of our endless yearning to search and know our beginning and our future. And yes I am also aware of the claim that there is a 'religious <a href="http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html">hidden message</a>' in it. But whatever those messages were, or the metaphors therein, the film's attempt to express them utterly failed.<br />
Besides, I do not agree with panspermia--it will not answer our quest for the <b>origin</b> of life, so the idea that we were created by those burly but lame 'Engineers' was a wrong premise to begin with. Sure, the film gets merit for ending with a question (of who created our creators), but perhaps the film-makers should have started with that instead, rather than making this one which turned out to be a spectacular scifi incarnation of <i>Dumb and Dumber</i>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-61314441659822014792012-06-20T13:25:00.000-04:002012-06-20T15:30:28.409-04:00Spaceships and Exoplanets [part 2]Well, well, well. Two nice visualizations have grazed the interwebz just days apart. And now it's my job to make sense of it all and share the wisdom. The idea could be a variation on my previous post about <a href="http://exoplanetology.blogspot.com/2010/02/spaceships-and-exoplanets.html">spaceships and exoplanets</a> but it's still worth reiterating nevertheless.
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The other day, the <a href="http://supernovacondensate.net/2012/05/20/model-spaceships/">spaceships chart</a> came out from supernova condensate. Today the <a href="http://xkcd.com/1071/">Exoplanets</a> rendered by xkcd exploded on the net.
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Why, spaceships should have destinations, right? And that is exactly the reason why I bring them together in one post lest people fail to get the point.
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Our species must expand to other planets! Let's build the spaceships and starships and worldships and go to Mars and beyond. You see, the destinations are real. These exoplanets are out there for real. Yet the means to go there isn't here just yet. That means we have plenty of things to catch up with.
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I know it's hard, but it's ok. We just have to do something simple persistently, like send out extrasolar probes every year as our technology allows. This will keep the inspiration alive to keep the action going for centuries to come.
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The Voyager1 probe is on the threshold of being <a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-177">interstellar</a> so it is a perfect time to stress the point: <b>Let's go 'exo' !</b>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxHm8eAzucGO6ORWWdnp5x-r-7RYACo-I76zPMWPqKsHTlFxkSpsmmoKNVnURwuEZz0HX56y8jq9lqgtuc62_VupCTZytyZv8eVOu_WFMUjORjlCyIyoXNVDn3AesvJeV78XDI9XYxgOE/s1600/spaceshipchart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxHm8eAzucGO6ORWWdnp5x-r-7RYACo-I76zPMWPqKsHTlFxkSpsmmoKNVnURwuEZz0HX56y8jq9lqgtuc62_VupCTZytyZv8eVOu_WFMUjORjlCyIyoXNVDn3AesvJeV78XDI9XYxgOE/s400/spaceshipchart.jpg" width="400" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOyySdo8_z6QHboRy1NEvAYPjg3xgXWct8QS8ogl-oiO0bFufGZp_03vF-CoxBUSoUryyDqU2VBP8hn982xFenlbsHKi9cD6BVlqUs9498z4sPsy_YDMqmeg-930_3zIJN2Z7h4pn7I6E/s1600/exoplanetschart.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOyySdo8_z6QHboRy1NEvAYPjg3xgXWct8QS8ogl-oiO0bFufGZp_03vF-CoxBUSoUryyDqU2VBP8hn982xFenlbsHKi9cD6BVlqUs9498z4sPsy_YDMqmeg-930_3zIJN2Z7h4pn7I6E/s400/exoplanetschart.png" width="400" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-90228744667302212522012-06-11T11:58:00.000-04:002012-07-08T15:15:53.194-04:00The Skroderider<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxF7Vt05E8Wx6lMr4SWvNnWIvkdIvJbc7kJhIbIczaqity84D0hrVvyittnZKZDvUgQJX-jcyIDNgC4bEKAMR7cfMrhHLAlUCzkGbzg2XyhL6yP2oYlJmrte67fWzv3fTEtAQ3XRrYLYg/s1600/skroderider.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxF7Vt05E8Wx6lMr4SWvNnWIvkdIvJbc7kJhIbIczaqity84D0hrVvyittnZKZDvUgQJX-jcyIDNgC4bEKAMR7cfMrhHLAlUCzkGbzg2XyhL6yP2oYlJmrte67fWzv3fTEtAQ3XRrYLYg/s320/skroderider.jpg" width="196" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I just felt compelled to share what I saw last saturday at the <a href="http://www.fluxfactory.org/projects/bionic-garden">Bionic Garden</a>: The Orchidarium named "<a href="http://othermikesmith.com/2012/01/orchidarium-project/">Floriguay</a>" by artist Mike Smith had a 'Big Dipper' setup solely for plants! Yes, for plants!!! A set of LED lights was used to simulate the constellation (and some fireflies) for the plants' enjoyment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I think that the whole setup was fun and awesome. Imagine if plants can actually gaze up at the stars and see constellations. Wouldn't that be amazing? You know, somewhere at the back of my mind, on some other world there exists plant-like creatures that could really see and think.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">It's a perfect timing that I've been reading Vernor Vinge's "Fire Upon the Deep" in which there are sentient plants called "Skroderiders" (one of them is aptly named <i>Greenstalk</i>).</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The Skroderiders often become lost in thought when they see spectacular landscapes which I imagine to be stars, constellations, and ringed star systems. They also are perched or riding on a contraption called '<i>skrodes</i>' that enables them to move around (hence the term <i>Skroderiders</i>) but also contains other mechanisms that aid their memory, among other things. The skrodes were a gift to them by an advanced civilization.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">So you can just imagine my delight when i saw the <b>Floriguay</b>, a wheeled frame outfitted with wires and tubes, a laptop, and LED lights and other contraptions. This is a Skroderider in the flesh! Or rather, a Skroderider on a skrode!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-42656791410761037752012-04-17T12:34:00.001-04:002012-07-08T15:15:24.742-04:00ExoAPI: SpaceApps ChallengeYay! The <a href="http://spaceappschallenge.org/challenge/exoapi/">ExoAPI</a> I proposed to be included as a challenge to the <a href="http://spaceappschallenge.org/">INTERNATIONAL SPACE APPS CHALLENGE</a> has just been posted. For now I just wanted to get the word out and encourage anyone and everyone to support this endeavor and share their ideas to help create an ExoAPI, a platform that will allow any programmer to grab exoplanet data and create mashups that is accessible on the internet.<br />
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The exoplanet era is upon us. And data about exoplanets are growing at a massive pace. However, most of that data are not being harnessed to its full potential. Most of it are locked into private databases that are scattered. The ExoAPI goal will allow us to harness these exoplanet datasets by making it accessible in a streamlined fashion. <br /><br />Web Programmers like to create mashups and the first thing that must be done is to create accessible datasets. Currently, the most popular format on the web is JSON and the way to go about it is via AJAX or RESTful interface using javascript. If we are able to provide this capability to access exoplanet data in a RESTful way, it would allow web programmers to create fun and interesting things with exoplanet data.<br />
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With the exoAPI, programmers will be able to create mashups, games, visualizations, mobile apps, and an interface to allow the public to participate in research and discovery. The possibilities are endless! So please. Join this endeavor and lets move onwards to brave new worlds!<br />
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Note: For those who have a background in coding, I would like to encourage you to contribute a few cycles of your brain processing power to a worthy cause that has something to do with space and the future. I encourage you to participate in the International Space Apps Challenge. Please <a href="https://spaceappschallenge.org/register/">sign up</a> and browse through all the other challenges and look to see where your talents could most likely be helpful.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-37997463416712876932012-03-31T12:57:00.007-04:002012-03-31T13:24:29.783-04:00Planets Outnumber the Stars. Planets Outlive the Stars<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1eJla5gGh1RroUi-6tE-5MaJy76g41hZF9bI7UOL8T3GvrtE-IYzYZuYusIArOCYxB38fF5GlYF_Zsw50OR8ecGTfjxP1AW-7Ov0NowMgBxkTI8UdfpF5_xEwT7eBaENM13n37Pd7OAc/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-03-31+at+11.51.02+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1eJla5gGh1RroUi-6tE-5MaJy76g41hZF9bI7UOL8T3GvrtE-IYzYZuYusIArOCYxB38fF5GlYF_Zsw50OR8ecGTfjxP1AW-7Ov0NowMgBxkTI8UdfpF5_xEwT7eBaENM13n37Pd7OAc/s200/Screen+Shot+2012-03-31+at+11.51.02+AM.png" width="163" /></a></div>So I finally had the chance to attend a lecture from Debra Fischer, one of the great Exoplaneteers of our time. I managed to catch the last portion of her lecture, "Searching for Earthlike Worlds" at The American Museum of Natural History in NYC.<br />
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During the Q&A section, I raised my hand in an almost desperate manner to get to ask the last question but I wasn't selected by the moderator. So after the end of the lecture, when I started to walk toward the stage, I was surprised that she recognized me and knew I was the guy from all the way at the back of the room who desperately wanted to ask her something (planet-hunters truly have sharp eyes and a keen sense of observation!)<br />
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She went down from the stage, just so she could hear me ask the question face to face. I shook her hands and felt it a great honor to finally meet a great planet-hunter in person. She was keen to give her full attention to all other people who had questions as well. Though she is involved in searching for other earths, she's still a down-to-earth person! A very nice lady indeed!<br />
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So I proceeded to ask my question and it went something like this: <br />
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"We now know that planets outnumber the stars, right? In light of the recent findings from a survey of planets around red dwarfs, will it be that, even though red dwarfs live for a very long time, planets will outlive the stars?"<br />
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Yes, she said. Planets will outlive the stars. She also mentioned that not only do M-dwarfs live for a very long time, they're also the most common and numerous type of stars, comprising around 70% of stars in the galaxy. She added that this is the reason why a lot of planet-hunters are focused on finding planets around M-dwarfs.<br />
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Until the lights in the auditorium grew dim, Dr. Fischer proceeded to answer all other questions with enthusiasm. And she did not fail to mention her ongoing effort to find planets around the Alpha Centauri system. She is positive that even though the Centauri binary system is separated by around 25AU, it doesn't rule out the possibility that planets can still exist in a tight orbit around each star (she also mentioned that Proxima Centauri is actually on its way to leave the centauri system, on a weird trajectory away from the galaxy's disc). Even though it's been difficult with lack of funding, she still periodically makes trips back to the telescope in Chile--hopeful and persistent to find planets around Alpha Centauri.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-66700960779588173892012-03-29T18:22:00.005-04:002012-04-01T15:32:42.055-04:00Connected Worlds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYpslCyNuqsttKVwXYq7H0c26W6CbE_taCgoFqBk7fqlaF9K3kFwClF7qmitEPzNk8PGmpaqZtJNjywIPwIFWl5HORAM9RXeR_p_CitR_35Rgx3BL6ONFRh5ClIkOekK2DGpWHlS0VZtw/s1600/dust514-eve.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYpslCyNuqsttKVwXYq7H0c26W6CbE_taCgoFqBk7fqlaF9K3kFwClF7qmitEPzNk8PGmpaqZtJNjywIPwIFWl5HORAM9RXeR_p_CitR_35Rgx3BL6ONFRh5ClIkOekK2DGpWHlS0VZtw/s400/dust514-eve.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>For those of you who have been playing Mass Effect 3, you've seen how the 'Galactic Readiness' affects the outcome of the game. Playing the multiplayer mode increases your 'readiness' rating which helps you in the final run of your single-player campaign. The message is clear: There is a connection between multiplayer mode and the campaign storyline of Mass Effect 3.<br />
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Although some will dismiss this 'connection' as a mere ploy just to keep gamers playing, what I am about to reveal highlights the fact that this kind of simple 'connection' actually gives a hint of a very important innovation in gaming that is coming.<br />
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To highlight what I mean I'll need to point you to an awesome game called <a href="http://www.dust514.com/">Dust 514</a>.<br />
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Dust 514 is an upcoming shooter game whose settings are on the surface of different planets. It's already enticing that Eve fans and game developers have been discussing how the battle would occur on different types of planet. But what interests me even more is the fact that what happens on the surface of the planet--where all the action occurs--is connected with the persistent universe of Eve Online.<br />
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Eve Online is an MMO and Dust 514 is a shooter game. CCP ties them together in one persistent Virtual Universe. To illustrate the connection, just imagine this scenario: While you're in a battle on one planet, you request an airstrike from your pal who is the pilot of a warship hovering above the planet at that moment. You see, connection is a powerful thing.<br />
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I recognize this feature as a very important aspect in the evolution of gaming and I am quite excited about it. I'd like to see this innovation in all the other sci-fi games that I play. Kudos to the developers of Mass Effect, Eve Online, and Dust 514. You guys are truly exoplanetary!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-71562349231078309532012-02-17T12:49:00.006-05:002012-02-17T15:37:45.366-05:00Habitable Bubbles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGB7iCWMxhEwMzdW3kVE-uBuZ8s1h5CRWneFtudWpwYvvVHBMxmuKqJjMOylJ7XSKdPaCHwOXcozegtvj9tUc8uxEEp7HL2YKKxJ0EA0LpBEHWxGe2QQXKThYGT2_WZLAXRnnuxwdRcIw/s1600/habitable_bubble.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGB7iCWMxhEwMzdW3kVE-uBuZ8s1h5CRWneFtudWpwYvvVHBMxmuKqJjMOylJ7XSKdPaCHwOXcozegtvj9tUc8uxEEp7HL2YKKxJ0EA0LpBEHWxGe2QQXKThYGT2_WZLAXRnnuxwdRcIw/s200/habitable_bubble.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Finding planets that orbit within the Habitable Zone (HZ) is hot in the list of Exoplaneteers. The growing list of habitable planets at the Planetary Habitability Lab's <a href="http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog">Habitable Exoplanets Catalog (HEC)</a> and at <a href="http://www.hzgallery.org/">The Habitable Zone Gallery</a> is testament to the fervor at which scientists are focusing on finding that sweet spot.<br />
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All these are excellent! And now somehow i think that there should be an additional field of Thought to consider when trying to find life in other places.<br />
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How about the idea of <b>Habitable Bubbles</b>? It's very simple. Habitable Bubbles are tiny packets, or "bubbles" of environment where life can thrive. In contrast with the Habitable Zone, which is often represented as a disc around stars where liquid water can exist, Habitable Bubbles can simply be represented as tiny bubbles scattered throughout a planet--on the surface and underneath, and even above it, in the atmosphere. <br />
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The idea of habitable bubbles can complement the Habitable Zone, and their relationship can be explored in this way: a planet that orbits within the habitable zone may probably have more habitable bubbles than a planet that lies outside the Habitable Zone. Of course, that is not the rule, but it's something to think about, for starters.<br />
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In essence, Earth is a habitable bubble in and of itself. And it is a bubble relative to a 'hostile' environment that is outer space. It is pretty obvious, but this simple idea of a habitable bubble can be scaled to other astronomical objects and not just planets. If Europa is teeming with hydrothermal vents, then Europa has a lot of potential habitable bubbles within that icy crust. Now think of exomoons and how many more there are elsewhere.<br />
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The point is this: even planets that lie outside the Habitable Zone can have habitable bubbles. In these 'extreme' planets, where a large part of the planet is considered unfriendly to life, there may still exist small packets that may be conducive to life.<br />
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I think that viewing habitability in terms of 'bubbles' is a good addition to our methods in thinking about life. A planet that may seem hostile at first sight could in fact harbor habitable bubble regions that are hidden.<br />
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Perhaps thinking in this bubble paradigm can provide additional insights about habitability elsewhere in the universe. For example, Hydrothermal vents can generate a habitable bubble, the heat from black smokers create a sphere of environment that can support life amidst the frigid waters of the antartic.<br />
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The young earth itself was once an inhospitable planet. Yet somewhere, somehow, a tiny region of Habitable Bubble provided an opportunity for that spark of life. And the subsequent interaction of the bubble and life itself gradually expanded the sphere of habitability until the whole Earth itself became habitable.<br />
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In the search for life, perhaps we should not only search for planets within a habitable zone, but we should also be on the lookout for planets with potential Habitable Bubbles!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-81779173500525823922011-11-11T13:12:00.008-05:002012-04-09T11:37:34.601-04:00The Social Media aspect of SETI<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx8gzDMzWY3J6-vdWLpxmFFJKG4ifozS5JN5EMRi2RlVq2_IFDyU1p9kVTy27o1Kb9rWUx7CRZUPlnLfJCLIl1VxFbxMz1v6AfhCPXrafkWAHSKxBfDVfzsjTRBsforXRaNTF7vP9_wrI/s1600/socialmedia_seti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx8gzDMzWY3J6-vdWLpxmFFJKG4ifozS5JN5EMRi2RlVq2_IFDyU1p9kVTy27o1Kb9rWUx7CRZUPlnLfJCLIl1VxFbxMz1v6AfhCPXrafkWAHSKxBfDVfzsjTRBsforXRaNTF7vP9_wrI/s320/socialmedia_seti.jpg" width="310" /></a></div>Let me guess. You are on Facebook. Or you may be on Google+. And of course, you might be on twitter as well. Why? Is there is an added sense of "existence" gained by being connected on social media platforms?<br />
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Now I have that nagging feeling that Life itself is <i>social</i>. If Life arises somewhere, it will attempt to interact and seek others, and it will try to interconnect.<br />
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Life is Social. This mantra goes all the way down to the very basic constituents of life itself. From cells, to DNA strands, and proteins that seem to want to snap together, curl, mingle, and interconnect. This "social" behavior seems present at all levels of emergence, it bubbles up from neurons connecting with other neurons, all the way up to an entire civilization’s yearning to detect life on other worlds.<br />
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So why haven't we made contact yet? <i>Where are they</i>? The answer has been staring us in the face on the first paragraph of this post. We have not found the <i>Social Media of the Cosmos</i>. There is no friendster, myspace, facebook or google plus for any communicating civilization to join into and interact with. We are isolated. We are on an island. We are alone. Or maybe we are just lonely.<br />
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Perhaps we should also do a Search for "Cosmic Social Media", or even better, to build one ourselves. Lately, humanity has been tweeting from space aboard the ISS, and sharing wonderful pictures of earth from above. And on a good note, NASA has been <a href="http://research.ijcaonline.org/volume31/number8/pxc3875348.pdf">attempting to build</a> an Interplanetary Internet, which has been known as the “Deep Space Internet”.<br />
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A galactic internet platform is hard to build unless you have a good communications medium to begin with. But what would be the best possible kind of signal for outer space? Sadly, in the vast distances involved in deep space communications, light is a limiting factor. The Electromagnetic Wave is just too slow.<br />
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How do you create an intergalactic social platform for civilizations in a universe where the speed of light limits the communication? How would advanced civilizations build their internet in space?<br />
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Sadly we haven't discovered anything from the realms of physics yet that would make a good medium for communications in the vast distances of outer space.<br />
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Perhaps our particular universe is not conducive for communicating with other advanced lifeforms because our physical laws renders the communications medium too slow. Other universes might have been luckier with their speed of light that may be faster. But not in our universe. Perhaps, each universe yields a different answer for the Fermi Paradox depending on the limits imposed upon the lifeforms asking the question.<br />
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Sure, we may find signs and biosignature of other lifeforms on other planets, but making contact with <b>intelligent</b> exolife would be rare.<br />
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Are we doomed to be trapped in island planets, island star systems, and ultimately "island universes"? The universe keeps expanding. Galaxies are spreading ever farther from each other. Perhaps in the far future, we would simply mingle amongst “ourselves” within our local star system--with humanoid species on Mars whose roots are from the earthkind. They'd be the migrant "humans" who eventually adapted to the properties of their homeworld. The 'aliens' will be us. And the question of other intelligent life on other star systems and exoplanets could remain with us for a very long time. Perhaps even forever.<br />
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On a positive note gleaned from the realms of fiction, imagine if we found the planet <i>Ballybran</i>, and extracted the ‘<i>Black Crystal</i>’ that makes instantaneous communication possible. Imagine if the <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansible">Ansible</a></i> did become a reality, and when we turned it on we heard the Cosmos alive with chatter. By then, we have joined the Social Media of the universe, and finally we are truly not alone.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-31214860664286204442011-11-06T09:43:00.003-05:002011-11-06T10:09:19.655-05:00Our Expanding View of the Universe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL1fmiVNSOVSHRyfjk7ZRYTxS8crmynssCS8CUu8i3kN8PX-wig4aRjqna9Qa2j0o_FbPllwpcFvm662yjEe1gnCigMv-dpCqpTetRRxWNZgS0A0inmMbQwGO7shMPSFPCXDoPcqhxxfA/s1600/VisibleUniverse.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="194" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL1fmiVNSOVSHRyfjk7ZRYTxS8crmynssCS8CUu8i3kN8PX-wig4aRjqna9Qa2j0o_FbPllwpcFvm662yjEe1gnCigMv-dpCqpTetRRxWNZgS0A0inmMbQwGO7shMPSFPCXDoPcqhxxfA/s320/VisibleUniverse.png" /></a></div>Recently, I've started collecting Data Visualizations and Infographics about Exoplanets. You may see some of them randomly displayed in the <a href="www.exoplanetology.com">Exoplanetology</a> homepage. I use a third party tool called <a href="http://vi.sualize.us/exoplanetology/">Vi.sualize.Us</a> to make it quick and easy for me to tag images and share awesome exoplanet visualizations that i come across in the web.<br />
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For my latest entry, I'd like to share this nugget of <a href="http://www.popsci.com/content/visible-universe-then-and-now">Interactive Data Visualization</a> about our expanding view of "The Visible Universe, Then and Now". <br />
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As you marvel at the new astronomical objects we have discovered, don't forget to compare how it looked like back then in the 1950's and how little we knew about the things around our star.<br />
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Exoplanets play a big part in the recent upgrades in how we see our universe. In just a mere decade, an entire generation of humans would realize that our earth is just one among billions and gazillions of planets out there. <br />
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Take a moment to wonder how much we have learned in such a short span of time. Was there any difference at all in how we behaved as a species? More importantly, take a moment to look into yourself and see how the new knowledge of other worlds changes your way of thinking and how you now see the world.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-48557201226598913132011-11-01T17:40:00.011-04:002011-11-02T14:50:34.045-04:00Trees and Exoplanets<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://tom-w.deviantart.com/art/Alien-Trees-184675576" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="180" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDQjsjyTpGpjHAkU_0Iqb7k48NUwR3CpzjWj14UGD4Zbywao0qKxPdkFPXySpw06aRgazB_PpLXFDbrV45LF0yjfqKt0sVtS6c2neNTH8_A5qjfWdvtae_z2h5qbBQXZJ-C2-gXQKe2-w/s320/alientree.jpg" /></a></div>Over the last weekend, I witnessed something I've never seen before: October snow in the East Coast! Never have I seen snow this early, and what I observed was quite intriguing.<br />
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As I was driving home, I saw branches breaking and falling dangerously on the streets. Apparently, the snow were piling up on the leaves, and as they became too heavy, the branches simply snapped.<br />
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It's only then that I realized why trees evolved the capability (or adapted) to shed leaves before winter comes, to avoid losing limbs or getting uprooted. Naturally, those who fail to adapt will perish. And what I’ve witnessed is only one among many mechanisms that the tree employs to prevent damage and survive during harsh winter weather. Shedding leaves also prevents the tree from losing moisture during winter--which tends to be drier than anyone would think. Of course in the context of this post, I am only referring to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deciduous">Deciduous</a> trees.<br />
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Deciduous trees have developed specific adaptations to the seasons. We all know that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season">seasons</a> are linked to the tilt of the earth's axis from the orbital plane, and the eccentricity (or elliptical) orbit of the planet, among other things. This makes me wonder about the kind of adaptations that trees on other planets would have, depending on the characteristics of their home planet--which would have its own unique seasons.<br />
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There isn’t much information linking trees and exoplanets (as we haven’t detected any exotrees yet!). But some say that it’s <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/81605/forests-might-be-detectable-on-extrasolar-planets/">possible</a> to detect trees on other planets. And I heard that that there could exist trees with wild foliage on weird worlds with different light conditions. For <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13130740">example</a>, a planet orbiting the habitable zone of a red dwarf would harbor trees with black foliage to capture as much energy as possible from the feeble light of their sun.<br />
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We can only imagine the amazing variety of trees that could exist on other worlds, which is a reflection of the diversity of exoplanets with different properties and characteristics.<br />
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See also: <a href="http://exoplanetology.blogspot.com/2008/04/exoplanetary-plants.html">Plants and Exoplanets</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-15258239975681768552011-10-31T16:54:00.003-04:002011-10-31T18:30:53.430-04:00Happy Samhain<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/17p3KziJ-98zSIX7rwEd4AFwAAj6k7qEHEQaDpOH9MM?feat=directlink" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5CVKepZ4kKDc_TRwCj3sEi8ax7szMWCeud_VRAwvJX8_zpv8l4QBPqBaO9_xQycVl8dVGK8uU0YG0TVpzk9XJww04Ce5pbIUlP_VuP9M3qH9bkXybnNO-sTFmz2R5GnpR3K6aJFAZTMU/s320/samhuin_halloween.jpg" width="320" /></a>As I checked twitter today I saw a greeting, "Happy Samhain". I never heard of <i>Samhain</i> before, but it sounded so familiar. A quick look at wikipedia and i found out that Samhain is a Gaelic harvest festival held on October 31. The Modern Irish word Samhain is derived from the Old Irish samain, <i>samuin</i>. And hstorically, Samain or <i>Samuin</i> was the name of the <i>feis</i> or festival at the beginning of winter observed in medieval Ireland.<br />
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<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/kzHJ5dUXvnOX7xPa3RJkGQFwAAj6k7qEHEQaDpOH9MM?feat=directlink" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOev4Efh24bZ_aHbyxalzaVV9PJsOTqE4wfVEVTw36-EhtLYmQv0bMkw_k7ZpzKKTqyql2KGmIe3V-xmrj1e7le-mmA2bd2AYc_7GwskDZ22yn5CmFhQMNfulLkewYKeKYhWvil74jfsk/s320/samhuin_halloween2.jpg" width="320" /></a>It only took a minute and suddenly I remembered a planet called Samhuinn in <a href="http://exoplanetology.blogspot.com/2011/01/exodyssey.html">Exodyssey</a>--an awesome book I had for several years now. I quickly grabbed the big hardbound book and opened to the last chapter. And sure enough, the local creatures on the planet, called <i>Samhuinians</i>, had some inspiration from halloween. As a matter of fact, several pages were devoted to what the artists called "Halloweenian Creatures". I feasted my eyes on the biological artworks and wondered about the diversity of alien lifeforms on other planets.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK_uOc1xE6jhi38z67nHi6Uyn2FAcUpH8Ku5Y0jvGSxYAGDHVkIRvUYJObwp-MmGwXCSjb09s51gceHNfVsi5wbq0NCYUFdEbNjVhyphenhyphenduu5qLBvzOf1EGOnZdwLjYJ0cTqRJGTzi_tklxU/s1600/samhuin_halloween3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK_uOc1xE6jhi38z67nHi6Uyn2FAcUpH8Ku5Y0jvGSxYAGDHVkIRvUYJObwp-MmGwXCSjb09s51gceHNfVsi5wbq0NCYUFdEbNjVhyphenhyphenduu5qLBvzOf1EGOnZdwLjYJ0cTqRJGTzi_tklxU/s320/samhuin_halloween3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/DfwGOp4-rg7MdGUYwSNMngFwAAj6k7qEHEQaDpOH9MM?feat=directlink" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="181" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqx3IcqGwVovC4lYvj0Jq0w0pGuoScjjH29V5jmCEk8O377VV1ZOZxYprpv0ZV2SCLzBzyRf3jXkljva6qCbpo-pHFgMOgagAjDOO4zrQ3PSVX4OPNi3Hv-aSD-SsMKW4ZhZShhOJzidY/s320/samhuin_halloween4.jpg" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-33645639106325428572011-10-19T18:52:00.004-04:002012-07-18T18:03:43.909-04:00The Total Known Exoplanets Google Chrome Browser Extension<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/exoplanetology/totalknownexoplanets/index.html" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMnfELRrAftR2LVjZDH5kU-MCoCH3LS3vYR7qMIv4qOovc2acbpLpc8YNBUTAdU97BXXiq21Gu-aYBpo4SLl9jog5UICTPjsEV0pFESwGa8CQEnP-Q0GVKdPQKvcFQ1N_ebjuNbvNMkjI/s320/totalknownexoplanets_icon128x128.jpg" width="128" /></a></div>
Just a quick note to tell you something about the first ever Google Chrome Browser Extension I ever made which is a very simple counter for the total known exoplanets. With a click of a button, you'll see how many known exoplanets humanity has discovered so far. <br />
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So if you use the Google Chrome browser a lot, and if you’re obsessed about exoplanets, why don’t you install this handy extension so you can feed your exoplanet fix? You can install it from the official extension page from Google: <a href="http://bit.ly/TotalExoplanetsChrome">Total Known Exoplanets Chrome Extension</a>.<br />
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So how does it work? Well, everytime you click on the icon, it sends me an alert, and I type the number of the latest count of known exoplanets on that tiny bubble. Simple enough, right?<br />
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You’d think i’m crazy to do that. And you’re right. That’s why I automated the process. So here’s what happens behind the scenes after your click. (Warning: technical stuff ahead.)<br />
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<b><a href="http://exoplanetology.blogspot.com/2012/07/oh-this-tangled-exoweb-we-weave.html">IMPORTANT UPDATE (July 18, 2012) !!!</a></b>
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After you click on the icon, the extension requests data from a <a href="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=fqjUTs652xGCrd5sFG_cUw&_render=json&_callback=?">pipe</a> i made on <a href="http://pipes.yahoo.com/">Yahoo Pipes</a>, called "<a href="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=fqjUTs652xGCrd5sFG_cUw&_render=json&_callback=?">Exoplanet Count Spy</a>" which spews out data in JSON format (which contains the updated <i>number</i> of known exoplanets).<br />
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<i>Yahoo Pipes</i> allows you to get hold of data in convenient JSON format from an external RSS feed source. Its JSONP capability is a very useful feature, which subverts the cross-domain barrier and allows you get data from external sites and use them.<br />
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So where does my “<i>Exoplanet Count Spy</i>” pipe get its data from? It grabs it from a <a href="http://feed43.com/6236507860214423.xml">news feed</a> from <a href="http://feed43.com/">Feed43</a>, another great third-party service on the web that generates RSS feeds from an HTML page. Now comes the real source of data where i get the number from.<br />
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It's been a long chain of events so far only to find out that the ultimate source of data is the <a href="http://exoplanet.eu/catalog.php">Exoplanet Catalog</a> from the venerable <b>Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia</b> (<a href="http://exoplanet.eu/">exoplanet.eu</a>) maintained by <a href="http://luth7.obspm.fr/~schneider/">Jean Schneider</a>. Many thanks to him for faithfully updating the tally of exoplanets. Without him doing it, this extension will lose it's functionality.<br />
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All those things described happen behind the scenes of the extension. But on the surface, the Total Known Exoplanets counter simply consults the exoplanet tally page from the Exoplanet Encyclopedia and shows you the result on your browser. That’s all.<br />
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I hope you find the Total Known Exoplanets extension useful!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-91209661516834548202011-10-07T15:12:00.007-04:002011-10-07T18:04:53.854-04:00Open Tasking: Exoplanet Data in JSON Format NEEDEDI love programming. And i'm thankful when i heard that today is <a href="http://findingada.com/">Ada Lovelace Day</a>. Ada Lovelace is known to be the World’s First Computer Programmer. I was going to do something else today but Lovelace reminded me to code instead. And so I did. <br />
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I worked on some exoplanet data today, and have a goal of creating a code-accessible database of exoplanets. But then time flies so fast. I can't do it alone, but I know I belong to a hive of coders and i'm just one node among many of the programming collective. So i'd like to tap the collective and start "Open Tasking". It's like this: i'll tell you where i'm at with this self-inflicted project, and then i'll let you know what kind of help that i need on a particular task. In return, I will share what I learned in the hopes that it will benefit others.<br />
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Basically, I am setting up a CouchDB database for Exoplanets. It will be something anyone can use and replicate for any purpose. There's a ton of sub-tasks that need to be done before it becomes a reality so i am posting this as i go along. At the moment, I need help to write a script to convert the XML format of exoplanet data into JSON format so i can import them into CouchDB. <br />
The source data can be found here: Open Exoplanet Catalogue [ <a href="https://github.com/hannorein/open_exoplanet_catalogue/tree/master/data">https://github.com/hannorein/open_exoplanet_catalogue/tree/master/data</a> ] and the intended destination where the exoplanet JSON will be stored will be in here Exoplanets at Cloudant [ <a href="https://cloudant.com/futon/database.html?metapsyche%2Fexoplanets/_all_docs">https://cloudant.com/futon/database.html?metapsyche%2Fexoplanets/_all_docs</a> ].<br />
[ If you really want to take a peek at where i'm at right now feel free to check <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/exoplanetology/exoplanetviewer/index.html">The Exoplanet Viewer</a>. It's really nothing at this point actually, just some preliminary code ]<br />
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I've already contacted HannoRein of the <a href="http://github.com/hannorein/open_exoplanet_catalogue">Open Exoplanet Catalogue</a> and he said he has no plans to provide the data in JSON format. Bummer. So, right now, I am trying to write javascript code to convert XML to JSON so I can automate a batch conversion of the XML exoplanet data into JSON and then load them into my CouchDB database at cloudant. Why Javascript? So i can use it with <a href="http://nodejs.org">node.JS</a> and make streamlined process to keep up with the fast-paced exoplanet updates. So if you already had experience with the task described, and you already have a working set of code, please help me.<br />
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I've done quite some research on this and i can't find any usable code at this point. The JSON output should validate at JSONLint [ <a href="http://jsonlint.com">http://jsonlint.com</a> ]. At the moment, I am using this <a href="http://extjs.org.cn/xml2json/xml2json_online.php">http://extjs.org.cn/xml2json/xml2json_online.php</a> to convert XML manually. But as I said, I need a streamlined process to keep up with the rapid pace of exoplanet data growth and updates.<br />
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Links:<br />
<a href="http://exoplanetology.blogspot.com/2010/10/exoplanets-and-open-data.html">Exoplanets and Open Data</a><br />
<a href="http://exoplanetology.blogspot.com/2011/08/open-exoplanet-data-on-couchdb.html">Open Exoplanet Data on CouchDB</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-39847793548011459842011-09-15T15:11:00.011-04:002011-09-15T18:10:09.996-04:00Tatooine. Pwn'd.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyFJCKgJ51hRaS6cOpwY_PRnZtgKp9nCq2lMQXafWmA93iYn_XSdpE82F9OfYC5Is5ea4RqBBaCWcXkl4wYC-YJc2QudahE5gFfA51INwZpkw2yC7Qd5lZbrMej6GTlkRPJ7ZcztSbc6U/s1600/tatooine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyFJCKgJ51hRaS6cOpwY_PRnZtgKp9nCq2lMQXafWmA93iYn_XSdpE82F9OfYC5Is5ea4RqBBaCWcXkl4wYC-YJc2QudahE5gFfA51INwZpkw2yC7Qd5lZbrMej6GTlkRPJ7ZcztSbc6U/s320/tatooine.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Today, the discovery of the first transiting circumbinary planet orbiting two stars have just been announced. <a href="http://exoplanet.eu/star.php?st=Kepler-16%20(Ab)">Kepler-16 (AB) b</a> or simply <i>Kepler-16 b</i> has been revealed.<br />
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Kepler-16 b is 216 light years away, and it orbits around two stars that are orange and red in color, both are smaller and "cooler" than our own sun. Kepler-16b orbits them far enough such that the two stars are being felt as one source of gravity. The planet is on a stable orbit, but the movement of the two stars orbiting each other makes the Habitable Zone dynamic and could vary the temperature of that zone by at least 30 degrees. This tells us to to look at the Habitable Zone not as a fixed "place" but as something <b>dynamic</b>. "The notion of habitable zones in a planetary system has got to change. It's a dynamic thing," says one of the scientists.<br />
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All this makes the Kepler-16 star system a wonderful laboratory that will definitely teach us more about Habitability in the future. And it will tells us the possibility of planets around other binary Star Systems like Alpha Centauri which is just 4.2 light years away.<br />
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So what is it like on that planet? Although some describe it as "Tatooine-like", Kepler-16b is actually a cold and frigid place. It's surface may actually be different than the depicted planet in Star Wars. It's a mix of gas and rock and the temperature on its surface is described as "kind of like a nippy day on Antartica" or "like a nippy day on Mars". It's just outside the Habitable Zone (but the Kepler team is looking for an exomoon around it which may turn out to be habitable). The dramatic thing is that no two sunsets on that planet are alike. Its two suns will cast shadows with hues of orange and red. Very dramatic, indeed. I think that's what makes it "Tatooine-like".<br />
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Truly, the discovery of Kepler-16b is a landmark not only in Exoplanet Science, but also in terms of Humanity's mode of imaginative thinking because it pushes the boundaries of what we once thought were not possible. It tells us to dream bigger possibilities!<br />
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<i><b>Update</b></i>: There have been <a href="http://exoplanetology.blogspot.com/2009/02/additions-to-exoplanets-in-binary.html">other planets found in binary systems</a> in the past, but Kepler-16b has been the clearest detection yet of a <b>transiting</b> planet orbiting a <b>Circumbinary System</b>. It's the first of a new class of planets (Circumbinary Planets) that will be revealed by Kepler in the coming weeks or months. [ Hint: 150 candidate circumbinary planet candidates in 750 Kepler eclipsing binaries! in the pipeline ]<br />
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Links:<br />
<a href="http://exoplanet.eu/star.php?st=Kepler-16%20(Ab)">Kepler-16 (Ab)</a><br />
<a href="http://exoplanetology.blogspot.com/2009/02/additions-to-exoplanets-in-binary.html">Additions to Exoplanets in Binary Star Systems</a><br />
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Image: NASA/JPL-CaltechUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-36128238437523265482011-09-09T17:18:00.008-04:002011-09-09T18:45:06.132-04:00Worlds as MetaphorIt's been several months ago that I <a href="http://twitter.com/Exoplanetology/status/73747971279294464">tweeted</a> about how planetary or exoplanetary thinking is making its way into the human psyche. It became more apparent when a "planetary" model of organization surfaced in the design of User Interface (UI).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2748/5774775246_45f4d379b6_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2748/5774775246_45f4d379b6_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>You know, we live in an age of data explosion. So much that you need an effective interface design to interact with data in a meaningful way. That's why this "planetary" design hit a sweet spot in organizing and representing your music collection. I remember Last.FM had some solar system visualization back then, but this working interface from <a href="http://blog.bloom.io/2011/07/11/creating-new-worlds/">Bloom</a> rocks.<br />
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I felt compelled to write this post after I came across a more detailed <a href="http://t.co/apnLxUc">exposition</a> of how this "Worlds" interface was created. I am amazed how the representation of data about artists, albums and songs fits in place "naturally" with how nature has organized stars, planets, moons, and galaxies. It almost seems to say that music and nature are intertwined. And it is intertwined! <br />
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All this just proves that it is most elegant to use <b>Worlds as Metaphor</b>, not just in interfacing with machines and data, but in interacting with ideas!<br />
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Links:<br />
<a href="http://t.co/apnLxUc">Creating New Worlds</a><br />
<a href="http://t.co/0LVVCiZ">Worlds, Not Windows</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2428652091564020191.post-70581086612560581452011-09-06T12:15:00.009-04:002011-09-06T16:24:02.302-04:00Supernovae and Exoplanets: A Possible Connection?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIprQVOTp3zQseRFHY6NIldpfcyYcpszWuMckiooKB1_bOoLCPdXTcN45RZz02SgUqGkcVfZHwP5PJNgJ8KtfoPI9-O9F1B0ACsoekbwYLN7T7ToxFIJ40_7fcR_xrpaOMTK9L3V1opRc/s1600/hotjupiter.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIprQVOTp3zQseRFHY6NIldpfcyYcpszWuMckiooKB1_bOoLCPdXTcN45RZz02SgUqGkcVfZHwP5PJNgJ8KtfoPI9-O9F1B0ACsoekbwYLN7T7ToxFIJ40_7fcR_xrpaOMTK9L3V1opRc/s320/hotjupiter.gif" width="320" /></a>Last week, I <a href="http://exoplanetology.blogspot.com/2011/09/supernova-and-exoplanets.html">posted</a> about a recent supernova in our sky called the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PTF%2011kly">SN 2011fe</a> in the Big Dipper. The title of that post does not imply any connection at all between supernovae and exoplanets other than the fact that there's a couple of known planet-bearing stars which can be exogazed in the same patch of sky roughly 7 degrees in diameter.<br />
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In this post however, i'm going out on a limb to investigate a possible relationship between exoplanets and supernovae that is more direct than simply being in the same patch of sky. I'm hoping that this post would serve as a prompt and a question for astrophysicists because i'm really curious if what i'm thinking is true or not.<br />
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Today, I read from an <a href="http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2011/pr201123.html">article</a> that some old stars (specifically White Dwarfs) may be held up by their rapid spins, and like ticking "time bombs"--the moment they slow down, they explode as supernovae. Immediately, I was reminded by an earlier <a href="http://exoplanetology.amplify.com/2011/09/06/close-in-hot-jupiters-speed-up-rotation-of-parent-star/">finding</a> that close-in exoplanets (commonly "Hot Jupiters") transfer angular momentum to their parent star which makes them spin faster. <br />
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Bringing these two research findings together, I therefore think that in some cases of these ticking "time-bombs" on the verge of collapse, the presence of a close-in planet can delay the parent star from going supernova. Can a planet ever affect a star in the context of a supernova?<br />
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However, the close-in exoplanet loses orbital energy and spirals inwards to its star. My wild imagination tells me that the hot jupiter will be consumed and all of its mass transferred to the parent star. Will the ill-fated exoplanet cause its star to become a supernova? <br />
Maybe not. So let's avoid the mayhem and investigate first how to prevent a supernova with exoplanets, shall we?<br />
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Links:<br />
<a href="http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2011/pr201123.html">Our Galaxy Might Hold Thousands of Ticking "Time Bombs"</a><br />
<a href="http://exoplanetology.amplify.com/2011/09/06/close-in-hot-jupiters-speed-up-rotation-of-parent-star/">Close-in Hot Jupiters Speed Up Rotation of Parent Star</a><br />
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Image Credits:<br />
An artist's depiction of an early stage in the destruction of a "hot Jupiter" (a gas giant with a very close orbit) by its star. NASA/GSFC/Frank Reddy<br />
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UPDATES:<br />
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