Planets Outnumber the Stars. Planets Outlive the Stars

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.

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!)

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!

So I proceeded to ask my question and it went something like this:

"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?"

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.

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.

A Tale for the Transit Method

I’ve always been fascinated when planet-hunters describe the difficulty they face regarding the detection of exoplanets. They often refer to the analogy of trying to find a firefly against the backdrop of a huge bright searchlight. As if that's not hard enough, so I had a crazy “what if” moment, as i imagined other factors that could screw up their data. What if a fly actually walked across the field of view (FOV) of a CCD/telescope? Would it mimic the transit of an exoplanet across the face of a star when doing photometry?

I went on to find out by asking several astronomers about it. The ones i caught were displaying their awesome telescopes at Battery Park during the World Science Festival in New York. [Incidentally, that was also the same night when the James Webb Space Telescope was being showcased--a full-size replica was on display].

So when I asked real astronomers what the effect would be, if a fly (or any insect, for that matter) walked across the mirror of a telescope with a CCD during a photometry session--they all agreed that the fly would actually cause a dip in the captured brightness of the star!

Honestly, I don’t think so. And I am not yet convinced that the “fly effect” would occur when a housefly transits a star by way of strolling across the surface of the telescope mirror. I have no CCD at hand (and no volunteer fly as well), so I have no way to find out for sure. But my gendanken experiment ended up as a short story entitled The Fly and the Planet-hunter.

So, I dedicate that story to all the astronomers in the world (grumpy or not), and to all the flies, bugs and mosquitos who make astronomers’ lives astronomically difficult. No, its not that astronomers are grumpy, nor that planet-hunters are mean old men. Astronomers are actually very nice people, and eager to share their passion for astronomy. Sidewalk astronomers would even let you peer through their telescopes--but just don't touch the eyepiece because that will freak them out.

But the real work of astronomers are really tedious and requires a lot of maddening patience. Reflecting upon that, I had the urge to cheer up these dedicated folks, specially the amateur planet-hunters who go through challenging and dangerous situations (bear, anyone?) just to find exoplanets.

So I hope you'll enjoy the story. Perhaps it's a tale you can tell your grandkids as you show them the stars and how to find exoplanets, oh ye grumpy ol' man! :)


Short Story: The Fly and the Planet-hunter

TRAPPIST, A New Exoplanet-Hunting Telescope

For the record, I'd like to post this info about TRAPPIST, the most recent entry to our slew of planet-hunting telescopes. TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) is a new robotic telescope from ESO at La Silla Observatory, in Chile. It is devoted to the study and detection of exoplanets and it will also study comets orbiting around our Sun. That is a nice combination to deal with the theme in Astrobiology about the study of the origin of Life.
TRAPPIST is a 60-cm telescope being remotely-operated from a control room in Liège, Belgium, 12,000 km away.
As it's name suggests, TRAPPIST will use the transit method, which is the same method that Kepler uses to hunt for planets. From its official website, there is no mention whether it is equipped with Adaptive Optics to counteract the effects of the Earth's atmosphere. But from the excellent night sky in Chile--aside from adding more entries into our known exoplanets database--we hope TRAPPIST will be capable of detecting earth-like planets as well.

Links:
TRAPPIST Official Website

Exoplanet data: A landscape to be filled and mined

This post is about the data aspect behind the study of exoplanets.
I learned the other day that Kepler was one of the first advocates of freely sharing scientific data. In the spirit of astronomy and open source, I would like to call on the organizations behind planet-hunting telescopes and the soon-to-be-launched new generation telescopes to eventually share the data to enable amateurs to help in the discovery of new exoplanets. (winks at NASA)
Perhaps we can revolutionize amateursourcing and take it to new levels. "Amateur" comes from latin word amatore which means "lover" or "lover of". You'll be amazed at the power of love!
On another vein, I would like to invite enthusiasts to contribute to exoplanet data on Freebase - an open database of structured information.
When information is structured, you can systematically query and extract useful information far more easily and quickly. With Freebase, you can ask questions like "Which exoplanets are habitable that are older than earth?" or "Which exoplanets discovered via Gravitational Microlensing lie within the Habitable Zone (HZ)?". You can then get answers fairly easily using their query language (MQL). This ability to tap into structured data could provide us with unprecedented insights into the study of Exoplanets.
The only problem right now is that we don't have enough data yet in there to extract useful correlations. And that is why you are needed. Once you jump in and contribute data, you'll have so much fun learning, too.
"I learn as I contribute" is the mantra I have discovered in my experience with Freebase. Alternately, it's also true the other way around: I contribute what I learn.
Here's a tip for any enthusiast, researcher and student of exoplanets: Open Freebase in a window pointed at the exoplanetology base or exoplanet table. Then start with a question. Don't worry if it sounds silly. A question will get you going. Say, "Which terrestrial exoplanet is closest to Earth?" Then try playing with the filters and views. The advanced filter has been the most fun for me, coupled with edting the views.
This exercise will enable you to begin seeing the missing pieces of data that are needed to answer your question(s).
You may then have to go to noteworthy sites like the The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia to get the bits of data that you need. Some other sources of data can be found in this list of catalogs for cross-referencing.
Then try entering these gems of data into Freebase.
Soon enough, you'll find out that having the capability to query structured multi-dimensional data makes Freebase a wonderful tool for Science2.0. But first we need the data and the volunteers to make it happen! :)
Come on, join the fun, and show the love!

The Future of Exoplanetology

They say the best way to predict the future is to invent it. Here is how the future will be invented as seen from the lens of Exoplanetology. The list below can be treated as a roadmap for those involved. It can also be considered as a hopeful glimpse of what is to come.

1) Deluge of Exoplanets - between 60 to 80 new exoplanets within 2009 will be discovered. Last year's forecast of 60+ new exoplanets for 2008 came true. Yet again, there is no reason why this year's planet-hunt won't be as exciting as last year.
2) New Eyes - The development of new generation telescopes (both space-based and land-based) will continue from this year onwards to bring unprecedented new discoveries. See this list of telescopes to see astronomy's new arsenal, which includes Kepler, Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF), James Webb Telescope, Spitzer Telescope, New Worlds Mission, and Space Interferometry Mission (SIM). Although direct imaging technique will continue to make waves in the news, transit method will continue to pile up new exoplanet discoveries. The power of a new set of eyes will set the stage for amazing things that is to come.
3) New Brains - data gathered by some new generation telescopes will gradually be opened up for public consumption starting in 2010 or 2011. Number-crunchers, algorithms and software will sift through terabytes and petabytes of collected data to discover new planets by way of numbers, statistics, and computation. Candidates for "habitables", exoplanets that lie inside the habitable zone (HZ), will be filtered from massive amounts of data, helping telescopes identify good interesting targets.
More powerful but cheaper computers, with dual core or multiple core set up in parallel, will enable more detailed simulations of planet-formations and alien solar systems, providing better insights for exoplanet science.
4) Amateur Boom - Amateur exoplanetology will explode. Projects similar to Systemic, SETI@home (or their mashup) will enable amateurs to contribute to science. Crowdsourcing, baby! Or call it Amateursourcing!
Cheaper and more powerful telescopes, and affordable CCDs for differential photometry will enable amateur astronomers to discover new exoplanets, a la do-it-yourself (DIY) exoplanet-hunting. This will take off, possibly going mainstream in amateur astronomy sometime in 2010 or 2011 onwards.
5) Signs of life - More signs of life beginning in 2010-ish. More organic clues detected in atmosphere of exoplanets. Strong evidence will continue to mount, pointing to the ever-growing possibility of extra-terrestrial life.
6) Superdupers - More Super-Earth detections will become more common starting in 2011 or 2014. "Habitables" or "Habs" will pour in. Water-worlds will flood the news.
7) Exotics - Exomoon detection capability takes off in 2012 to 2014. New exotic discoveries will also start to pour in. Classifying celestial objects becomes even more challenging for astronomers. Imagine earth-sized exomoons with their own moons! What will you call them? Exomoonoids?
8) Earth Galore - More and more Habs and earth-like planets in habitable zones between 2015 to 2020 will pour in. Advances in technology and planet-hunting methods will enable us to resolve exoplanets the size of earth and smaller. There will then be more than a thousand total exoplanets in the list. Direct-imaging methods will be in greater demand as ever.
9) Shockwave - Mankind will be thrown in a theological and religious turmoil. A period of adjustments in worldviews will occur as mankind tries to make sense of their being amidst the impending discovery of another earth with life.
Spiritual individuals have no problems with it whatsoever. But Religions will start to revise old beliefs and begin re-interpreting scriptures to prepare for the ramifications of the discovery of...
10) Life - Scientific confirmation of exo-life happens between 2020 to 2030-ish. Astrobiologists will finally confirm that life exists on another planet of another star. It may not be in an earth-like exoplanet at all, perhaps not even in a planet, and may not even be life-like. It is something so incredible that no one has ever predicted.

Planet Hunters (Documentary)

A documentary about the search for extrasolar planets and about the people who dedicated their lives to hunt for exoplanets.

Song for Exoplanetologists

Planet-hunting can be boring at times, so I thought i'd dedicate a song for lonely exoplanetologists out there. Here's Rocky Took A Lover by Bell X1 for those who take on the hard research, the difficult task of looking at numbers, and the mind-numbing experience of analyzing data, and for those who often experience the lonely feeling of gazing at the stars alone in the night. The song has honest lyrics, totally human, and I think the video fits well for Astronomers who need a little romance. The song is just plain perfect for Exoplanetologists, too. Viktor Frankl said that "What is to give light must endure burning", so for those who endure the burning hardship to enlighten us with knowledge of the stars and planets, here's a song for you:



Rocky Took A Lover
Bell X1

He said 'I wanna shine in the eye of Orion
But I drove my soul through the Black Hole!'
She said 'What a wonderful way to wake me
You weren't so nice last night
You're such an asshole when you're drunk'
He said 'At least I'm OK in the mornings'

He said 'The three wise men came a long way
Following that pin hole in the sky
Yeah that one right there'
She said 'I don't believe in any old Jesus
If there was a God, then why is my arse
The perfect height of kicking?'

He said 'I'll shine for you, I'll burn for you
Yea I'll shine for you, that's what I'll do'

He said 'They're like headlights
In the rear view mirror
They're closer that they seem
And from this gutter we're still staring at the stars'
She said 'Would ya go away and shite
Last night all you did was curse those stars
You said they sang to you of hope'

He said 'The sun gives life, and it takes it away
But like all the greats, it'll burn out someday'
She said 'I don't mind, I don't want to get bored
I don't want to end up beached on this shore
I want to be that star'

And then I'll shine for you. Then I'll burn for you.
Then I can shine for you. That's what I'll do


And for those who Rock, below is a 'Rocky' version of the song.

Do not be afraid of Math

I love this interview of a planet-hunter named Rachel Akeson, who uses the Keck Telescopes in Mauna Kea to hunt for exoplanets. Her advise to enthusiasts on planet-hunting resonates with me. When asked about her advise to people who are interested in the field, she said:

"There are all kinds of people working in this area, so you shouldn't get scared off if math isn't your thing. There are lots of different careers, from science journalism to public outreach, that people can be a part of."

I'm no good in math, but i really am interested in the heavens, the stars and planets therein. Times come when i get uninspired, and hearing something like that from a real planet-hunter makes me continue onwards with this blog and website on exoplanetology.

Link: The Planet Hunters

Exoplanetology and The Encyclopedia of Life

Life is what we make it, they say, so they made an Encyclopedia of it! The Encyclopedia of Life (eol.org) was launched today.
It's inspiring, and yet saddening at the same time. It mentioned that some species might never make it there because of mass extinction, a result of the destruction to Mother Earth.
Also, in connection to Exoplanetology.com and this blog which I launched just a few days earlier, it gives me a "de-energizing" feeling whenever I am reminded of the thought:
"We haven't even fully catalogued all life on our own Planet, so why would we want to look for life on alien worlds ?"
Just by thinking of the variety of life on Earth, i already feel overwhelmed. Double that by the magnitude of the endeavor to find new exoplanets and life in them.
But despite it all, the Encyclopedia of Life still inspires me more.
It is a great start! Look, they named it as Encyclopedia of Life, hence it does not exclude life on other planets or exoplanets! So i am imagining the day when a new category will appear on its pages: Exoplanetary Life - Flora and Fauna from other Worlds!
It's a vision worth pursuing, therefore, onwards we must go with the science of exoplanets! Go exoplanetology!

Source: EOL.org goes online
Link: Encyclopedia of Life (eol.org)

Forecast: A Deluge of Exoplanets To Be Discovered in 2008

This is the Golden Age of Exoplanetology and Planetary Science. For this year, we might see at least more than 60 new Exoplanets yet to be discovered before the end of 2008. The chart shows the number of exoplanets discovered each year.
With Planet-hunters getting better and better at their craft of planet-detection, armed with better telescopes at higher and higher resolutions, and more powerful data-crunching computers, there's no reason why the planet-hunters would score lower than last year's 60 exoplanet discoveries. As of writing, we currently have 3, but as more and more amateur astronomers are jumping in on the hunt, we will see an explosion of new extrasolar planets to be added in the Exoplanet Catalog, and more planet-hunters to be added in history!
The big fish is a small rocky earth-like exoplanet somewhere in the habitable zone. I am hopeful that at least one of them will be snagged this year.
So what are you waiting for?! Let's join the hunt!

Data Source: http://exoplanet.eu
Chart Engine: Google Chart API

Online Telescopes for Astronomers (and Planet-Hunters, maybe)

The latest issue of Wired Magazine (March 2008, page 060) featured 4 online telescopes for the "urban astro-nerds". Its been said that you can control these telescopes remotely from the web and order prints of your photos. That's very cool, but I have yet to find out if these robotic telescope observatories can effectively be used to hunt for exoplanets. If not, they're still great as an introductory tool for amateur astronomers and budding Exoplaneteers!
Here they are:

• Bradford Robotic Telescope


• Micro-Observatory


• Seeing in the Dark


• Slooh
  

The Living Cosmos: An Inspiration for Exoplanetology

If there is any book at all that magnified my enthusiasm for exoplanetology, then it is The Living Cosmos by Chris Impey. It's mostly on Astrobiology but the parallels to exoplanetology are unmistakable.
An exoplanetologist will learn most from the whole book, but Chapter 6, "Distant Worlds" is what i think is the most devoted to exoplanetology. It's where the planet-hunters are mentioned (such as Geoff Marcy, Debra Fischer and Greg Laughlin) as well as the current techniques used in planet-detection (such as Planetary Transit Method). Future initiatives such as NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) which will be launched in 2015 is mentioned as well.
The book is highly readable, and most of all truly inspiring.