Our Expanding View of the Universe

Recently, I've started collecting Data Visualizations and Infographics about Exoplanets. You may see some of them randomly displayed in the Exoplanetology homepage. I use a third party tool called Vi.sualize.Us to make it quick and easy for me to tag images and share awesome exoplanet visualizations that i come across in the web.

For my latest entry, I'd like to share this nugget of Interactive Data Visualization about our expanding view of "The Visible Universe, Then and Now".

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.

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.

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.

Trees and Exoplanets

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.

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.

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 Deciduous trees.

Deciduous trees have developed specific adaptations to the seasons. We all know that seasons 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.

There isn’t much information linking trees and exoplanets (as we haven’t detected any exotrees yet!). But some say that it’s possible 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 example, 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.

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.


See also: Plants and Exoplanets

Happy Samhain

As I checked twitter today I saw a greeting, "Happy Samhain". I never heard of Samhain 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, samuin. And hstorically, Samain or Samuin was the name of the feis or festival at the beginning of winter observed in medieval Ireland.

It only took a minute and suddenly I remembered a planet called Samhuinn in Exodyssey--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 Samhuinians, 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.

The Total Known Exoplanets Google Chrome Browser Extension

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.

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: Total Known Exoplanets Chrome Extension.

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?

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.)

IMPORTANT UPDATE (July 18, 2012) !!!

After you click on the icon, the extension requests data from a pipe i made on Yahoo Pipes, called "Exoplanet Count Spy" which spews out data in JSON format (which contains the updated number of known exoplanets).

Yahoo Pipes 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.

So where does my “Exoplanet Count Spy” pipe get its data from? It grabs it from a news feed from Feed43, 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.

It's been a long chain of events so far only to find out that the ultimate source of data is the Exoplanet Catalog from the venerable Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia (exoplanet.eu) maintained by Jean Schneider. Many thanks to him for faithfully updating the tally of exoplanets. Without him doing it, this extension will lose it's functionality.

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.

I hope you find the Total Known Exoplanets extension useful!

Open Tasking: Exoplanet Data in JSON Format NEEDED

I love programming. And i'm thankful when i heard that today is Ada Lovelace Day. 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.

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.

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.
The source data can be found here: Open Exoplanet Catalogue [ https://github.com/hannorein/open_exoplanet_catalogue/tree/master/data ] and the intended destination where the exoplanet JSON will be stored will be in here Exoplanets at Cloudant [ https://cloudant.com/futon/database.html?metapsyche%2Fexoplanets/_all_docs ].
[ If you really want to take a peek at where i'm at right now feel free to check The Exoplanet Viewer. It's really nothing at this point actually, just some preliminary code ]

I've already contacted HannoRein of the Open Exoplanet Catalogue 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 node.JS 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.

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 [ http://jsonlint.com ]. At the moment, I am using this http://extjs.org.cn/xml2json/xml2json_online.php 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.

Links:
Exoplanets and Open Data
Open Exoplanet Data on CouchDB

Tatooine. Pwn'd.

Today, the discovery of the first transiting circumbinary planet orbiting two stars have just been announced. Kepler-16 (AB) b or simply Kepler-16 b has been revealed.

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 dynamic. "The notion of habitable zones in a planetary system has got to change. It's a dynamic thing," says one of the scientists.

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.

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".

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!

Update: There have been other planets found in binary systems in the past, but Kepler-16b has been the clearest detection yet of a transiting planet orbiting a Circumbinary System. 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 ]

Links:
Kepler-16 (Ab)
Additions to Exoplanets in Binary Star Systems

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Worlds as Metaphor

It's been several months ago that I tweeted 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).

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 Bloom rocks.

I felt compelled to write this post after I came across a more detailed exposition 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!

All this just proves that it is most elegant to use Worlds as Metaphor, not just in interfacing with machines and data, but in interacting with ideas!

Links:
Creating New Worlds
Worlds, Not Windows

Supernovae and Exoplanets: A Possible Connection?

Last week, I posted about a recent supernova in our sky called the SN 2011fe 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.

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.

Today, I read from an article 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 finding that close-in exoplanets (commonly "Hot Jupiters") transfer angular momentum to their parent star which makes them spin faster.

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?

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?
Maybe not. So let's avoid the mayhem and investigate first how to prevent a supernova with exoplanets, shall we?

Links:
Our Galaxy Might Hold Thousands of Ticking "Time Bombs"
Close-in Hot Jupiters Speed Up Rotation of Parent Star

Image Credits:
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

UPDATES:

A Supernova and Exoplanets

If you're planning to take a peek at the M101 supernova tonight, then have a look at the chart I made to help you spot it speedily. You may need binoculars to spot other objects of interest such as a couple of exoplanetary systems in the same patch of sky, namely HAT-P-3 and HD 118203. Their magnitudes are approximately 11 and 8 respectively, so it would be quite a challenge to spot them.

At the handle of the Big Dipper, Alkaid, Mizar and M101 makes a semi-equilateral triangle (length of 7° each side). This makes it so much easier to spot them all by star-hopping.

Do not miss this supernova of our generation, named SN 2011fe, a Type Ia supernova at the Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101). In the next few days, it might reach at least magnitude 10 at it's peak brightness around September 12. At its brightest, it may be quite visible using good binoculars, or small telescopes on excellent conditions of the night sky.

Other Links:
The Big Dipper and Exoplanets

Worldships: A New Battlecry to Reach the Stars

Not so long ago, I posted about my observations that exoplanets and spaceships often go together in most space artworks involving interstellar ships. Today, that post clearly needs updating when I saw this blog about concept ships.

It’s also high time to mention my latest fave word: Worldships.

I first heard “Worldships” mentioned by Paul Gilster of Centauri Dreams and I instantly got hooked on it. Could it be only because it contained my first favorite word: “World”? Or could it be that it is a mashup of “Worlds” and “Starships”? Perhaps. But just how any neologism gets its appeal is the deeper concept behind it.

From what I gathered, "A worldship is self-contained and self-sufficient, carrying a crew that may number hundreds to thousands and might even contain an ocean, all directed towards an interstellar colonisation strategy. Worldships would travel to the stars with cruise velocities of around 0.5% of the speed of light, taking hundreds of years to reach the nearest stars."

The primary focus of this blog should only be about Exoplanets. But there has always been that inevitable question of how to get there--to visit these unexplored Worlds. And that’s where Spaceships come in--these wonderful vehicles of imagination that has inspired many brilliant minds to take up exciting endeavors in the Arts, Engineering and the Sciences to make the impossible possible.

But somehow it is time to move on from that ‘adolescent’ concept of the ‘Spaceship’ or from the more mature 'Starship' and take a new battlecry to reach the stars. It is time for Worldships.

The main concept that sticks in my mind about worldships is that it is a generation ship--something i’ll never set foot in my lifetime. It will take several generations of humans to build it, and several generations more to ride in it! But it's funny how i feel that its 'impossibility' during my lifetime renders its possibility in the future even more real.

As more of us adopt the concept of the Worldship--understanding that it is a long-term goal--each generation will tirelessly move forward to make it a reality in the future.

With Worldships and whatever new form Humanity takes, in due time mankind will finally reach the stars.

Links:
Concept Ships
Colonizing the Galaxy Using World Ships
Spaceships and Exoplanets

The Call of Cthulhu

Waking up at exactly 3am for no reason at all and then learning that it was H.P. Lovecraft's birthday is nothing short of a call from Cthulhu. I dug through my pile of books and read through a couple of graphic renditions on Lovecraft's work--The Haunter of the Dark (illustrated by John Coulthart), and Graphic Classics that featured several works of Lovecraft. From them I got a sense of what twisted kinds of terrifying imagery will befall the mind of anyone who reads Lovecraft.

Lovecraft's mythos includes The Great Race of Yith, and of course, Cthulhu among others.

Reflecting upon these characters with ancient and cosmic backgrounds, I can say that we don't know how many generations of suns have been before our Sol. The fact that Life sprung forth on this planet does not preclude the thought that older civilizations and lifeforms from an ancient generation of stars and worlds may have lived before us elsewhere...or nearby.

Aliens may strike great fear among many, as with how the unknown often strikes terror. Who knows what an ancient form of life will do to unsuspecting humans?

Our species is a young one, and the birth of mankind's consciousness is barely a blip in the timeline of the earth.

Humanity's collective mind is new and we are only beginning to explore new worlds. It is a time of great wonder, but who knows what terror awaits? Carl Sagan said, "We are at a crossroads in human history. Never before has there been a moment so simultaneously perilous and promising."

Apparently, HP Lovecraft has seen a glimpse of this terror deep within man's psyche.

"I have whirled with the earth at the dawning,
When the sky was a vaporous flame;
I have seen the dark universe yawning
Where the black planets roll without aim,
Where they roll in their horror unheeded, without knowledge or lustre or name."

~ H. P. Lovecraft, Nemesis

Open Exoplanet Data on CouchDB

I haven’t been able to do much coding lately. Summer has been busy and my laptop broke. There’s so much I want to do for the field of exoplanetology but i just couldn’t even start without a usable open database platform.

Anything practically useful begins with data and the truth is, we have a great amount of exoplanet data floating around already in all these exoplanet catalogs, but they’re just lying there, and not really being maximized to their full potential.

How can we enable the the wider use of exoplanet data in more useful and practical applications? It begins by providing an open access to that data and a programmatic way of accessing all that exoplanet data.

CouchDB has been my choice due to its advantage of replication and flexibility. I cannot even begin to list down all the many wonderful advantages of using couchDB for an open exoplanet data source that anyone can build upon.

Exoplanet data that is inside a couchDB database can be used and re-used via typical web standards, primarilly javascript. It spews out data in JSON format and this allows anyone to create engaging websites, games, and apps atop all that data. I am even positive that couchDB can be used for scientific analysis of a huge exoplanet data to find patterns and trends, and create dynamic visualizations from it.

There doesn’t seem to be any couchDB implementation of exoplanets yet, so I am posting this to start off the movement in this area of exoplanetology. Watch out for this space.