Surreal Exoplanet Landscapes

One of Joan Fontcuberta's recycled landscape.

For a while now, I’ve been quite lapse on featuring some exoplanet art on this blog. Allow me to make up for it with this post featuring an unlikely source of imaginary digital realms that give a glimpse of exoplanet landscapes.

In Joan Fontcuberta’s Landscapes without Memory, the method in how these landscapes were produced is as interesting as how they were generated. Instead of inputting maps into the scenery-rendering Terragen software, Fontcuberta entered masterpieces by Paul Cezanne, Andre Derain, Gustave LeGray, Jackson Pollock, Edward Weston, and others to make 3D landscapes from the two-dimensional artworks. "The contours and tones of these painted and photographic landscapes were transformed into three-dimensional mountains, rivers, valleys, and clouds. The result gives the user the illusion of navigating in three dimensions which had previously been visualized only as a flat image".

To me, Fontcuberta’s work offers a glimpse of otherworldly landscapes, and it mirrors the unexpected surprises that exoplanets provide as we continue to discover these worlds that could prove to be more surreal than we could ever imagine.

Links:
Joan Fontcuberta’s Recycled Landscapes (From FlavorWire)
Landscapes Without Memory (Book)

The Exoplanet Seeker and Mendeley

I recently built a tunnel to a new source of information about exoplanets. This new source is an outfit called Mendeley, in which i tapped their API to bring in lists of Scientific papers about exoplanets and present them inside The Exoplanet Seeker's pages.

There’s still a lot to be improved in The Exoplanet Seeker, especially in terms of getting the right names of exoplanets. Often, a simple blank space causes null results (HAT-P-7b vs. HAT-P-7 b) from the datasources. So, i would continue to improve it as time goes by. For now, the most notable upgrade is the addition of Mendeley among the data sources, and the creation of a faster launcher page for The Exoplanet Seeker. It now has a new home, so please update your bookmarks.

I heard about Mendeley in the past, but i felt it was too “sciencey” and inaccessible for a laymen like me. All that changed when I heard about their open API. So i immediately coded up something to test what they had to offer. And it did not disappoint.

In as much as new exoplanet discoveries are starting to change the landscape of Humanity’s Thought (to be punctuated by the revelation of earth-like planets) the evolution of the web is also changing the landscape of Science. What Mendeley has done with their Open API is great for the proliferation of Scientific study via the internet for both professional scientists, researchers and lay-people.

What i am anticipating is the imminent data explosion in Planetary Science brought about by the accelerating discovery of new exoplanets. How will Scientists keep up with petabytes of raw data? How will web technology keep up? How will the internet enable Citizens to contribute to science for the love of it?

Clearly, we are living at a time like no other. Right now i can only say two words that keep me excited about the changing landscape of the relationship between Science and Technology: Fascination and Wonder!

Links:
Pipe Dream: http://exoplanetology.blogspot.com/2010/01/data-pipe-dream.html
Space Matters: http://exoplanetology.blogspot.com/2008/06/space-matters.html
The Exoplanet Seeker Home: http://bit.ly/ExoplanetSeeker

On Kepler Data and Beyond

It's almost a dream come true. For so many months, I've been wishing to take a look at actual Kepler data, and I often tweeted how Citizen Science could help analyze exoplanet data. And now that moment is close at hand!
For starters, when you look into this arXiv paper you'll see some data on 306 of the 706 exoplanet candidates.
Also, an important tidbit is that the paper lists 5 multi-planetary transiting systems. If any one among them is confirmed, then it will be the first case of a transiting multi-planet system known.
I was patiently monitoring the MAST website where the promised new data set can be downloaded from, but it didn't come as of yet. In my boredom, I just downloaded the FITS file of Kepler-4, hoping to practice with it before handling the exciting new data.
When I finally got hold of the FITS files via FTP from the MAST website, my initial reaction was: "So now I have the data! But What Next?!"

It was a sudden realization: Yes it is very good that the exoplanet data is being shared to the public, but now we need tutorials on how to analyze those data. Suddenly, I am now wishing that Scientists and Astronomers would post how-to's and tutorials on how to analyze FITS data to find planets! And I am hopeful, that day will come!
For now, I scrambled my way in the dark on finding the right software to be able to view and edit FITS files. Once I found the excellent "FV", I played with the data set and it felt nice seeing regular dips in the curve. So I am thankful for all the people responsible for giving us this chance to see actual scientific data.
Looking at all this, I realized that we are now at a threshold moment where ordinary people can do Science. This is definitely the beginning of a new era of Scientific Discovery. And I say, it's amazing! I can't wait to see what's beyond!!!

Links:

Abstract: http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/1006.2799 
PDF (Direct Link) http://lanl.arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1006/1006.2799.pdf

MAST: http://archive.stsci.edu/kepler/

FV: http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ftools/fv/fv_download.html

Amateur Planet-Hunting via Web-based Observatories (WBO)

Because I live in a light-polluted area, the idea of renting remote telescopes to study or hunt exoplanets has been in my mind for almost 2 years. During that time, it was too expensive and the capabilities of those rental telescopes were not yet sufficient to hunt for exoplanets. But lately, the idea of renting telescopes for planet-hunting is slowly but surely moving closer to reality. The advancement of Web-Based Observatories (WBO) is an exciting event in the history of Astronomy, moreso for our case--in amateur planet-hunting.

There are many WBO's out there, but on this post I mention the exciting features of Global Rent-a-Scope (GRAS) which seems to me as the most appealing for amateur exoplanet hunters so far.

GRAS gives the option to write your own script and run it at a specific time in the future. This is perfect for training planet-hunters by generating their own light curves of known transiting exoplanets. Another great feature of GRAS that is potential for hunting exoplanets is their capability to do photometry via a software called Photometrica. Remember, the Kepler telescope uses the Photometry method!

And for the more advanced users, GRAS offers direct control on the CCD camera plus a host of other software and application such as MaximDL, The Sky, and FocusMax that let you directly control the telescope.

What's next? Perhaps adaptive optics might get incorporated into these amateur WBO's someday. And as CCD technology advances further, plus new technologies in astronomical instrumentations (like Astrophotonics) gets implemented onto larger but hopefully more affordable telescopes, then perhaps a hopeful exoplanet discovery via WBO is near the horizons!

Links:
Web-based Observatories (PDF Direct Link)
Global-Rent-a-Scope (GRAS)

Brainwave: On The Sound of Planets

The room was packed. There was a grand piano on the side of the stage, which I thought Philip Glass was going to play while Greg Laughlin would sing for an opening number. But no, both men went straight to their seats and started the discussion right away.

This is Brainwave, one of a series of events at the Rubin Museum in New York City that features Artists and Scientists together in an engaging conversation. This time it was the Laughlin/Glass duo. An Astrophysicist and a Composer discussing the Music of the Spheres. 

Laughlin started with an overview about how just a few years ago, it was mere speculation that other worlds orbited other Suns. And now we have known hundreds of exoplanets at our disposal to analyze. He then proceeded to view our solar system on the Systemic Console, a software he wrote on java.

The Systemic Console is somewhat a simulator, with GUI controls that allows you to play around with planetary properties such as mass, period, eccentricity, and so on . It can then plot charts and graphs, and generate wav files, or "sonify" the planets.

Then he played the sonification of how the inner planets in our solar system sounded like. It was "bland", as Laughlin described it--to which Glass disagreed, saying "no" in a manner as if waking up from a sleepy trance. From then on, Glass periodically injected deep thoughts into the conversation--often catching Laughlin offguard while in the middle of his hand gestures explaining planetary orbits. On the first occasion, Glass raised the question of a 'Cosmic Ear'. He asks, "Is there someone out there listening to the sound of these planets?" The discussion that ensues sometimes ends up with Glass discovering the answer to his own questions, often ending in wonder and amazement. For example, he reached the conclusion that "this exercise makes it personal" as he tried to reflect upon our ability to generate sounds from planetary orbits and to actually listen to them.

For a moment I thought I heard Laughlin say that there is no music of the spheres. We simply use technology to generate audible sounds that we can relate to. But to which Glass remarks that this sound is the incident that makes him interested.

Laughlin mentions that a few seconds of the clips spans a thousand years of a planetary system's evolution. Glass follows up that the resonances that Laughlin describes is actually what musicians often think about.
Then they talked about how they admired Kepler, who tried to make sense of planetary motions. Briefly touching upon the life of the man to whom a planet-hunting telescope is named after.

As I listened, I realized that Glass is curiously funny. Quite a surprise from what I thought at the beginning that he might be grumpy. While Laughlin is soft-spoken and mellow. Together they make a perfect balance.

Laughlin played sounds of other varieties of exoplanets with different parameters. Some of them actually sounded good, like an intro from an ambient song. Then he plotted the orbital evolution and stability of our own solar system. But this time changing the mass of any planet in a what-if scenario alters the stability of the other planets as well. The sound generated by the oscillating system sounded very eerie, like psychotic ghosts singing a comical requiem.

The question and answer portion ensued, with the audience dealing some good questions, eliciting good answers in turn. The discussion ended in a deep and mystical way, as both men reflected upon the great unknown and the mystery that surrounds us in this universe. And that is fascinating, Glass says "That's where Art and Science meets..."

EVE goes Exoplanetary

EVE Online, one of my favorite Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) has just made an important update. They added more details to the exoplanets in their universe.

The last time I've played EVE was almost 4 years ago during the months when I was unemployed. It was one of the virtual worlds I explored, attempting to earn income and hoping it would support my expenses in the real world. Of course, you can't make real money with EVE but it was an awesome experience just simply playing the coolest game ever. I miss my garage setup which I considered as my cockpit. I explored interstellar space through several monitors which I imagined as windows to another universe, a metaverse so to speak.

In EVE there are jump-gates that your ship needs to go through in order to reach a target destination via a series of warp jumps. These gates are somewhat bigger than those in Stargate Universe. Often, these jump-gates are near Extrasolar Systems, and the view is splendid. But then, I was virtually confined to my cockpit. The best I could do was to admire the view of planets and suns from afar because I cannot land on any planet and walk on it's surface. To that effect, I was simultaneously running several instances of Second Life and Entropia Universe on several other CPU/monitors--to give me the feel of being on the surface of another planet.

Today, Eve players still cannot land on any extrasolar planet "in-world". And with the recent upgrade concerning the details of the planets, I can only wonder how much Science they put into the Dominion update. Did they incorporate parameters for gas giants, super-earths, waterworlds or earth-like planets? Did they include exomoons? How did they incorporate the planetary details in the gameplay? Can the players mine the planets? How do the planets fit in the new storyline? These questions only draws me closer to sign up and set up my rig once again to find out.

As I reflect on my virtual-immersion days I realize that my past experience with virtual worlds was a valuable part of my journey to fully appreciate our natural world--our real universe. And though in the back of my mind the Ontological question remains whether any universe--virtual or otherwise--is real or not, the adventure to learn more about the wonders of our Cosmos remains steadfast.

Because exoplanets remain unseen, they provide ample ground for the mind to play between the real and the imaginary, or the wonderful and the mysterious. Exoplanets are a natural bridge between Science and the Arts.

Eve online's potential as a great teaching tool for Science is enormous. It's also a good source of inspiration for space travel, specially for this generation trapped in an age where human space exploration is not yet a reality.

But in my mind's eye, I can see that day when the first Exoplaneteer will brave the Cosmos, the first Exonaut who will visit Worlds I've never seen or imagined.



Links:
EVE's planetary graphics kicked up yet another notch for Dominion expansion
Eve's New Look at it's Planets
More Clips

Fireflies in the Sky

If you are enthralled by the sight of fireflies then you should definitely see Iridium Flares. They're like fireflies in the sky. It's my way of describing it after I saw a moving flash of light from a firefly just the other night. It made me remember the first time I saw an Iridium Flare months ago while I was randomly stargazing. It was an amazing treat! It was quite different from a 'falling star' so it ticked my curiosity. And i was able to verify that it was an Iridium flare using an online tool from NASA.
Iridium Flares are bright flashes of sunlight reflected by the satellites. But the light from Fireflies are produced via Bioluminiscence. The wonders that these two marvels provide is a great way to get inspired by nature and technology: Fireflies and Satellites, what a tandem!
So how do you get to see Iridium Flares? Head to Heavens Above and check when the next flare will be visible from your area. And if you have a gPhone or iPhone, there is an app that extends the data from the Heavens Above website to provide you with a list of the next occurence of a flare visible from your current location. These mobile apps goes by the same name, "Iridium Flares".
Summer's here, look down and the sparks from fireflies will definitely bring you to an eerie magical world. Look up and the stars and flares will treat you to an exoplanetary sight.
Fireflies and Satellites are two marvels from different realms, yet these "fireflies in the sky" signify an important synthesis: Biology and Technology, Nature and Astronomy, Earth and Space. They all go well together. Just take a look.

A Review of Google Sky Map for Android

What was the first app I installed on my Android GPhone? Google Sky Map! Could it be one of the reasons why I got the gPhone instead of iPhone? Yes! It's the only one of it's kind that seems to let me "see" through walls to survey the stars from anywhere at anytime.
Google Sky Map almost transforms your Android gPhone into a kind of "Augmented Reality" device. Here's how it works: When you hold or move your phone at any direction, the screen shows the stars, planets, constellations and other celestial objects in that area of the sky. They are correctly labeled for your convenience. It also shows the grid of the Right Ascension (RA) and Declination.
The thing I can share is that ever since I used it, it seems to have expanded my Astronomical Sense of Awareness(tm), well in aspects of orientation at least. Now I can tell you exactly where the Polaris is from my bedroom, or cubicle. Also I can point where the Southern Celestial Pole is even while sitting at my favorite toilet seat! Is this the glimmerings of a heightened sense of awareness?
With continued use, I will soon be able to answer anyone who asks me where Cygnus is, at any time of the day.
Another great thing about it is that it allows me to look at the Southern constellations as well. I point it on the ground of course, and it gives me an eerie feeling that I'm actually floating in space.
Below are some notes that I've compiled regarding it's features.

Zoom.
Great. It resolves some notable Double/Binary Systems.
Search.
Awesome. I'm always looking out for Jupiter, and Cygnus--where Kepler is staring at. You just input the object's name and an arrow will guide you to which direction you should hold your phone. The arrow changes color as you sweep closer to the target, and turns yellow as you "lock-in" on the object.
Sometimes I look like a "pervert spinning around trying to photograph a fly" during my sweeping motions to home in on the target. One time, I didn't realize the object I was searching for happened to be in the direction of another person. So when I finally managed to lock on the target, my gPhone was directly in front of a lady's face. Don't ask me what happened next.
Tip: Do not use the search feature when around other people.
Responsivity.
Fast. Provided you don't run other memory-intensive apps in the background, it is smooth when you sweep across the sky. (But it jitters a bit even when you hold the phone completely still) Tip: Close other apps to maximize performance. Also, turn off the Sky Gradient in the settings to improve responsiveness.
Multi-Tasking/Multi-Threading.
It performs well running in parallel with Twidroid and Twitta. But it sucks with Last.FM. It starts to jiggle wildly.
Accuracy.
Excellent. Stars and Constellations are where they are supposed to be. :) Tip: If you notice a misalignment, wave the phone (using your wrist) in a figure-eight, zen-like manner to re-calibrate, and the constellations will fall into their rightful place!
User Experience.
Excellent. If it overlayed graphics over real image, it would be the ultimate Amateur Astronomer's Augmented Reality system, similar to Wikitude.
The GPS+Compass+Gyroscope sensor combo is a real killer. Google Sky Map managed to leverage that by implementing it to my favorite subject, Astronomy.

Exogazing Use.
This App will be indispensable for Exogazing now that it can show me the Right Ascension (RA) and Declination of the sky. I used to find an exoplanet's location in the sky via constellation, but now i know which part of the sky it is when given the RA/Dec values. The Planetary Society gives this info in their Catalog of exoplanets so I'll be using both in tandem. I just count a few lines on the Declination grid to get an estimate, though.

Other Fun Tricks
Using velcro, I attached my Android on top of my binocular and the experience is amazing! While holding the whole contraption sweeping across the sky, after I lock-in on an object using the search feature of Sky Map, I then just simply look through the eyepiece and the object is there! It works swell specially when the zoom, calibration and orientation is perfectly matched between the App and the binocular.
Oh, now i wish my binocular has this graphics overlay directly inside of it's field-of-view!

Feature Requests:
1) Search via Right Ascension (RA) and Declination (Dec). I need to find some objects given the RA and Dec coordinates. Also, it would be great if the Declination were labeled so i didn't have to count lines?!
2) Zoom feature must at least reveal the fainter stars when you zoom in at a closer Field-of-view (FOV).
3) FOV scale. I need an easy way to match my binocular's 4.5 degree FOV with the current zoom setting of Sky Map. Right now I resort to calibrating using two guide stars of the big dipper. It would be awesome if it shows the zoom level in the interface.
4) Satellite tracking/search. I'd like to see Iridium flares on demand. Is that too much to ask?
5) Option to use camera and over-lay graphics on the image in real-time. This would make it truly an Augmented Reality device!

Conclusion
Over-all, the Sky Map is a great tool for Astronomy enthusiasts. It's a great learning tool and a wonderful teaching instrument. Now you can do astronomy in broad daylight and see stars and constellations from the other side of the hemisphere.
And yes, it is fun!

The Role of Computer Simulations in Exoplanetology

A few posts ago, I have predicted about the huge potential of utilizing computer simulations to help in the theoretical aspects of Exoplanetology.
This latest software in data visualization is a welcome news in the field: It makes analysis and visualization of huge data sets possible without the aid of a supercomputer. It's algorithm slices up data into more manageable chunks, then stitches it back together on the fly, so that the data can be manipulated in three dimensions, all on a computer with the power and capacity of a high-end laptop.
I think it will help amateurs to jump in on any data intensive field of research that deals with huge data sets, and make visualizations. I can't wait to download this software and run my own simulations of planet-formations.
I will keep a close watch as it will be released as open source sometime in March.

Now here's the surprise:

A few days after reading about that software and drooling over it in my sleep, some news came about a computer simulation that solved how massive stars form. A three-dimensional computer simulation was used to model the collapse of a giant interstellar gas cloud to form a massive star. Now I do not know what software they used to pull off such a feat. Did they get an early edition of the software I was raving about? It's all shrouded in secrecy.
Whatever the case, the role of computer simulations will be a very important factor in Exoplanet Research in the coming years. And with Open Source Software, it will indeed be very interesting for amateurs and enthusiasts in the field.

A Glimpse of Science Behind Spore

I was surprised to come across a program from the creators of Spore: ParticleMan simulates gravitational attraction between particles in a cloud. It's system was used to study such gravitational dynamics as orbits, nebula formation, star formation and particle streams from sources like pulsars and black holes.
My experience with the ParticleMan was clean. I saw the formation of stars and planets through the process of accretion - dusts and gas "coagulating" to form larger bodies. I also saw clues of binary star formations and interactions. Often, stars dance around tugging each other in circular orbits until some disturbances from planetesimals (or larger bodies) cause one of them to be hurled out of the Solar System at high speed (as is the fate of some unfortunate planetesimals that get in their way). Sometimes, though they merge together forming a bigger blob of mass.
What I can gleam from observing the simulation provided by ParticleMan is that proto-planets seem to battle it out for survival in the early stages of a Solar System's formation. In the chaotic melee, smaller clumps of rocks either get hurled out or get swallowed by bigger, more massive objects. The survivor planets are the ones that now occupy the stable orbits of a Solar System in equilibrium.
After a few minutes of observing, I was impressed with the light-weight program, considering the fact that it was just one of their many prototypes in the early stages of exploring the game's directions.
Stating the lack of science behind the game in my previous post about the Spore Creature Creator might have been premature, as there could be so much more to see in the actual Spore game to be launched in the next few months. I could be blown away when it finally goes out.
If game-makers deal with these kinds of Science, Gaming could be a great ally in teaching a great deal about the actual universe we live in.

Exoplanet Visualization Tool (exoExplorer coming soon)

I eagerly await this forthcoming Exoplanet Visualization Tool called 'exoExplorer' being developed by the Planetary Biology Team. The software is set to be released in June 2008.
From the looks of it, the exoExplorer visual interface will depict the exoplanet's surface features and environmental appearance based on its known characteristics as inferred from the exoplanet data.
The interface will be highly interactive - almost like a game, and as such I foresee a kind of immersive 3D experience, and your avatar will be a spaceship or a rover.
Head over to their project page to find out more. June 2008 is just around the corner for its release. I'll keep you posted.