Category Archives: Astronomy

Astronomy, Exoplanets, Space participation

Project Blue: Crowd-funded space telescope aims to image exoplanet

Project Blue at the BoldlyGo Institute 

is a new science initiative to capture the first photograph of a potential Earth-like planet orbiting another Sun-like star. The mission aims to launch a lightweight space telescope to directly image exoplanets around Earth’s nearest star system, Alpha Centauri A and B.

With a budget the fraction of the cost of a mid-size astrophysics mission, and a planned launch by the end of the decade, this venture represents an ambitious leap forward in low-cost, high-impact space exploration.

Through active collaboration between research institutions, universities, private industry and citizens, Project Blue seeks to make space exploration a participatory, collective endeavor and inspire millions worldwide to engage in scientific inquiry.

The key technology will be a coronagraph that blocks the otherwise blinding light of the star and allows the planet’s far weaker reflected light to be observed:

Project Blue will place a state-of-the-art exoplanet imaging telescope into orbit. The instrument will be equipped with advanced high contrast imaging technologies embedded in a coronagraph with a deformable mirror, multi-star wavefront control, and specialized post-processing techniques.

Together they can efficiently suppress the light from both stars (Alpha Centauri A and B) separately, thus allowing any planets to be seen. Our team has extensive experience developing and testing these technologies — now it’s time to get them into space!

More details of the space telescope are described here.

Alpha Centauri A and B were chosen because:

  • Unusual proximity: At only 4.37 light years distance, Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to us, and contains not just one, but two stars similar to our Sun. The next Sun-like star is located 2.5x further away and would require a telescope 2.5 times larger in size.
  • Accessible Habitable Zone: Its proximity allows us to observe the habitable zone of each star for Earth-like planets with a modest space telescope with a powerful coronagraph, while any other star requires telescopes of at least 1 meter in size.
  • Fertile ground: Proxima Centauri, which is thought to be part of the same system, is now known to have a potentially habitable planet. We are acting on a new scientific urgency to investigate our nearest Sun-like stars!

The goal is to launch the privately funded observatory in 2019.

To sign up for email updates and/or to donate to the project, see Get Involved.

Follow developments at

Some articles about the project:

Update: Here is the official press release about the project:

The Push to Photograph Earth-Like Planet Begins With Launch of Project Blue
BoldlyGo Institute and Mission Centaur to Lead Consortium of Prominent Organizations Including the SETI Institute and University of Massachusetts Lowell to Reach the Next Great Milestone of Space Exploration

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwired – Oct 11, 2016) – A consortium of prominent science and research institutions led by BoldlyGo Institute and Mission Centaur today announced Project Blue, an endeavor for a new era of discovery and space exploration. Employing recent technological advances, Project Blue is designed to be the first mission capable of obtaining an image of another planet like Earth — a powerful next step to understanding and exploring worlds outside our solar system. This new kind of privately-led, non-profit space initiative unites an extraordinary range of experts, including teams from the SETI Institute and the University of Massachusetts Lowell, on a daunting scientific and technical challenge.

Project Blue will work to fund, build and launch a compact exoplanet imaging telescope aimed at Alpha Centauri — the closest star system to Earth — to determine whether Earth-like planets exist around it and if so, to capture a direct “pale blue dot” image. While NASA’s Kepler mission has shown that terrestrial-sized planets are common in our galaxy, no one has yet been able to take a picture of one as small as Earth, in an orbit that could potentially sustain life. Project Blue would be the first. The mission will take about three years to construct and will conduct an intensive two-year study once in orbit.

“Now is the time to embark on this mission. Scientific imperative and technological advancements have converged to a point where we can finally take a serious look at our closest neighbor, Alpha Centauri,” said Jon Morse, CEO of BoldlyGo Institute. “Does it contain rocky planets? Do they have oceans and atmospheres? Could they conceivably support life? We launched Project Blue because we believe such a discovery would profoundly impact humankind’s understanding of the universe and spur a new wave of excitement in science and astronomy.”

Seeing Blue

Recent developments, including the extraordinary success of the Kepler mission and advances in optics and imaging technologies, have laid the groundwork for Project Blue. Kepler has discovered over 2300 confirmed exoplanets through indirect observation techniques, many of which scientists believe could have Earth-like characteristics. Imaging one directly is an achievement that would open a new path to detecting and characterizing possible life-sustaining worlds around nearby stars.

An Earth-like planet is characterized as 0.5 to 1.5 times the size of Earth and orbiting within the host star’s “habitable zone,” where the temperature could allow liquid water to exist on the planet’s surface. Such a planet with oceans and an atmosphere similar to Earth, unless obscured by clouds, could appear blue to the human eye.

Project Blue’s customized telescope will be mounted on an optimized commercial spacecraft and specifically focus on Alpha Centauri, allowing it to maintain modest size and cost compared to larger astrophysics missions. The spacecraft will conduct its study of the Alpha Centauri system from a special north-south, low-Earth orbit that provides the stable conditions necessary for such precise measurements.

Despite Alpha Centauri’s proximity, there is currently no telescope with high enough contrast capability to observe orbiting planets directly; detecting an Earth-sized planet next to its host star has been compared to detecting a firefly next to a lighthouse from ten miles away. Additionally, Alpha Centauri’s binary structure makes it a particularly challenging target. Since the system’s two stars, Alpha Centauri A and B, appear so close together in the night sky, observation requires a special approach to suppress both light sources to see any orbiting planets.

“What makes the Alpha Centauri system so attractive is that each of the two stars is a lot like our own sun, which gives us two chances to find planets in either of their habitable zones,” said Supriya Chakrabarti, professor in the Department of Physics and Applied Physics at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and director of its Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology. “This also gives us an opportunity to design a mission that leverages technology we’ve been developing and space qualifying in our NASA-supported programs.”

The Blue Moment

Beyond pioneering a range of cutting-edge technologies, Project Blue represents a new kind of endeavor: a privately-funded partnership of research organizations, universities and industry aiming to play a leadership role in space science. With BoldlyGo Institute and Mission Centaur at the helm, a number of leading institutions will partner on the project, with the list expected to grow.

“We’re excited to be an original member of this distinguished consortium working on this seminal project,” said Bill Diamond, President and CEO of the SETI Institute. “The SETI Institute has accumulated world-class scientific and technical expertise from previous space missions that we can contribute to make Project Blue a success.”

The partnership will combine its expertise to design, construct and operate the mission. Launch services will be provided by one of several commercial vendors expected to be proven by the time of launch.

About BoldlyGo Institute: The BoldlyGo Institute is based in New York and was founded to address highly compelling scientific questions through new approaches to developing space science missions while engaging the global community in the quest. The organization is led by a highly qualified and reputable Board of Directors, comprised of space scientists, engineers and explorers. Board members have decades of combined space involvement, including more than a decade of recent, senior leadership experience across NASA, specializing in spaceflight and the development of space hardware.

About Mission Centaur: Mission Centaur is a nonprofit organization that fosters public and private collaboration through Project Blue, an initiative seeking to find and capture the first image of an Earth-like planet in our neighboring star system Alpha Centauri. Mission Centaur was founded by a group of philanthropists, scientists and engineers to pursue one of humanity’s most ambitious and transformational space exploration missions.

Astronomy

ESO’s VISTA sees stars through the dust

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) latest report:

ESO’s Dustbuster Reveals Hidden Stars

In this new image of the nebula Messier 78, young stars cast a bluish pall over their surroundings, while red fledgling stars peer out from their cocoons of cosmic dust. To our eyes, most of these stars would be hidden behind the dust, but ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) sees near-infrared light, which passes right through dust. The telescope is like a giant dustbuster that lets astronomers probe deep into the heart of the stellar environment.

This richly detailed view of the star formation region Messier 78, in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter), was taken with the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. As well as the blue regions of reflected light from the hot young stars the image also shows streams of dark dust and the red jets emerging from stars in the process of formation.
This richly detailed view of the star formation region Messier 78, in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter), was taken with the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. As well as the blue regions of reflected light from the hot young stars the image also shows streams of dark dust and the red jets emerging from stars in the process of formation. [Larger imagers].
Messier 78, or M78, is a well-studied example of a reflection nebula. It is located approximately 1600 light-years away in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter), just to the upper left of the three stars that make up the belt of this familiar landmark in the sky. In this image, Messier 78 is the central, bluish haze in the centre; the other reflection nebula towards the right goes by the name of NGC 2071. The French astronomer Pierre Méchain is credited with discovering Messier 78 in 1780. However, it is today more commonly known as the 78th entry in French astronomer Charles Messier’s catalogue, added to it in December of 1780.

This zoom sequence opens with a wide-field view of the Milky Way. We close in on the constellation of Orion and, as we zoom in on to a region close to Orion’s famous belt, a fascinating region of dust and reflection nebulosity starts to come into view. The final scene reveals a colourful and richly detailed new image of Messier 78 taken with the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. Credit: ESO/S. Brunier/Chris Johnson, (cuttinedgeobservatory.com). Music: Mylonite Recordz Production

When observed with visible light instruments, like ESO’s Wide Field Imager at the La Silla Observatory, Messier 78 appears as a glowing, azure expanse surrounded by dark ribbons (see eso1105). Cosmic dust reflects and scatters the light streaming from the young, bluish stars in Messier 78’s heart, the reason it is known as a reflection nebula.

The dark ribbons are thick clouds of dust that block the visible light originating behind them. These dense, cold regions are prime locations for the formation of new stars. When Messier 78 and its neighbours are observed in the submillimetre light between radio waves and infrared light, for example with the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope, they reveal the glow of dust grains in pockets just barely warmer than their extremely cold surroundings (see eso1219). Eventually new stars will form out of these pockets as gravity causes them to shrink and heat up.

These comparison cutouts show how differently parts of this rich star-forming complex in Orion appear at different wavelengths. In the infrared images from the VISTA telescope (lower row) the dust is much more transparent than in the visible light pictures from the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope (upper row).
These comparison cutouts show how differently parts of this rich star-forming complex in Orion appear at different wavelengths. In the infrared images from the VISTA telescope (lower row) the dust is much more transparent than in the visible light pictures from the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope (upper row). [Larger images]
In between visible and submillimetre light lies the near-infrared part of the spectrum, where the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) provides astronomers with crucial information. Beyond dusty reflections and through thinner portions of obscuring material, the luminous stellar sources within Messier 78 are visible to VISTA’s eyes. In the centre of this image, two blue supergiant stars, called HD 38563A and HD 38563B, shine brightly. Towards the right of the image, the supergiant star illuminating NGC 2071, called HD 290861, is also seen.

This video takes a close-up look at a richly detailed new view of the star formation region Messier 78, in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter), taken with the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. As well as the blue regions of reflected light from the hot young stars the image also shows streams of dark dust and the red jets emerging from stars in the process of formation. Credit: ESO/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org). Music: Johan B. Monell (www.johanmonell.com). 

Besides big, blue, hot stars, VISTA can also see many stars that are just forming within the cosmic dust strewn about this region, their reddish and yellow colours shown clearly in this image. These colourful fledgling stars can be found in the dust bands around NGC 2071 and along the trail of dust running towards the left of the image. Some of these are T Tauri stars. Although relatively bright, they are not yet hot enough for nuclear fusion reactions to have commenced in their cores. In several tens of millions of years, they will attain full “starhood”, and will take their place alongside their stellar brethren lighting up the Messier 78 region.

This comparison sequence switches between a visible light view of the reflection nebula Messier 78, and its surroundings, from the WFI camera on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope, and an infrared view from the VISTA telescope. In the infrared the dust is more transparent and many new features appear. In addition the red jets of material from very young stars can be seen prominently. Credit: ESO/Igor Chekalin. Music: Johan B. Monell (www.johanmonell.com)

Astronomy, Software

Cosmic Watch – An interactive 3D tool for time and more

Check out the Cosmic-Watch app for Android and Apple:

The Cosmic Watch shows the local time at every location worldwide – just touch the place on the depicted globe to indicate the time. The watch is also an astronomical navigator, an armillary sphere (machine of the world), a radix chart, time travel machine, solar system simulator and eclipse detector.

It’s an app that models the Earth, the solar system, and most of the familiar constellations in 3D specifically as they relate to both real time and any point in the past. The COSMIC WATCH is also a fun learning tool to explore the relation between time and the celestial dynamics.

Astronomy

ESO: ALMA observes stellar cocoon in nearby galaxy with odd chemistry

A new report from the European Southern Observatory (ESO):

ALMA Catches Stellar Cocoon with Curious Chemistry

A hot and dense mass of complex molecules, cocooning a newborn star, has been discovered by a Japanese team of astronomers using [the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)]. This unique hot molecular core is the first of its kind to have been detected outside the Milky Way galaxy. It has a very different molecular composition from similar objects in our own galaxy — a tantalising hint that the chemistry taking place across the Universe could be much more diverse than expected.

This artist’s impression shows the molecules found in a hot molecular core in the Large Magellanic Cloud using ALMA. This core is the first such object to be found outside the Milky Way, and it has significantly different chemical makeup to those found in our own galaxy. The figure is a derivative work based on material from the following sources: ESO/M. Kornmesser; NASA, ESA, and S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team; NASA/ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)/HEI.
This artist’s impression shows the molecules found in a hot molecular core in the Large Magellanic Cloud using ALMA. This core is the first such object to be found outside the Milky Way, and it has significantly different chemical makeup to those found in our own galaxy. The figure is a derivative work based on material from the following sources: ESO/M. Kornmesser; NASA, ESA, and S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team; NASA/ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)/HEI. [Larger images]
A team of Japanese researchers have used the power of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to observe a massive star known as ST11 [1] in our neighbouring dwarf galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Emission from a number of molecular gases was detected. These indicated that the team had discovered a concentrated region of comparatively hot and dense molecular gas around the newly ignited star ST11. This was evidence that they had found something never before seen outside of the Milky Way — a hot molecular core [2].

Takashi Shimonishi, an astronomer at Tohoku University, Japan, and the paper’s lead author enthused:

“This is the first detection of an extragalactic hot molecular core, and it demonstrates the great capability of new generation telescopes to study astrochemical phenomena beyond the Milky Way.”

The ALMA observations revealed that this newly discovered core in the LMC has a very different composition to similar objects found in the Milky Way. The most prominent chemical signatures in the LMC core include familiar molecules such as sulfur dioxide, nitric oxide, and formaldehyde — alongside the ubiquitous dust. But several organic compounds, including methanol (the simplest alcohol molecule), had remarkably low abundance in the newly detected hot molecular core. In contrast, cores in the Milky Way have been observed to contain a wide assortment of complex organic molecules, including methanol and ethanol.

This figure shows observations of the first hot core to be found outside the Milky Way with ALMA and a view of the region of sky in infrared light. Left: Distributions of molecular line emission from a hot molecular core in the Large Magellanic Cloud observed with ALMA. Emissions from dust, sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitric oxide (NO), and formaldehyde (H2CO) are shown as examples. Right: An infrared image of the surrounding star-forming region (based on data from the NASA/Spitzer Space Telescope).
This figure shows observations of the first hot core to be found outside the Milky Way with ALMA and a view of the region of sky in infrared light. Left: Distributions of molecular line emission from a hot molecular core in the Large Magellanic Cloud observed with ALMA. Emissions from dust, sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitric oxide (NO), and formaldehyde (H2CO) are shown as examples. Right: An infrared image of the surrounding star-forming region (based on data from the NASA/Spitzer Space Telescope). [Larger images]
Takashi Shimonishi explains:

“The observations suggest that the molecular compositions of materials that form stars and planets are much more diverse than we expected.”

The LMC has a low abundance of elements other than hydrogen or helium [3]. The research team suggests that this very different galactic environment has affected the molecule-forming processes taking place surrounding the newborn star ST11. This could account for the observed differences in chemical compositions.

It is not yet clear if the large, complex molecules detected in the Milky Way exist in hot molecular cores in other galaxies. Complex organic molecules are of very special interest because some are connected to prebiotic molecules formed in space. This newly discovered object in one of our nearest galactic neighbours is an excellent target to help astronomers address this issue. It also raises another question: how could the chemical diversity of galaxies affect the development of extragalactic life?

Notes

[1] ST11’s full name is 2MASS J05264658-6848469. This catchily-named young massive star is defined as a Young Stellar Object. Although it currently appears to be a single star, it is possible that it will prove to be a tight cluster of stars, or possibly a multiple star system. It was the target of the science team’s observations and their results led them to realise that ST11 is enveloped by a hot molecular core.

[2] Hot molecular cores must be: (relatively) small, with a diameter of less than 0.3 light-years; have a density over a thousand billion (1012) molecules per cubic metre (far lower than the Earth’s atmosphere, but high for an interstellar environment); warm in temperature, at over –173 degrees Celsius. This makes them at least 80 degrees Celsius warmer than a standard molecular cloud, despite being of similar density. These hot cores form early on in the evolution of massive stars and they play a key role in the formation of complex chemicals in space.

[3] The nuclear fusion reactions that take place when a star has stopped fusing hydrogen to helium generate heavier elements. These heavier elements get blasted into space when massive dying stars explode as supernovae. Therefore, as our Universe has aged, the abundance of heavier elements has increased. Thanks to its low abundance of heavier elements, the LMC provides insight into the chemical processes that were taking place in the earlier Universe.

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