Author: szy194

This past week, I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Derek Fox, an associate professor here the in astronomy and astrophysics department. The interview was part of a project for my astronomy seminar class, and I learned a lot about Dr. Fox’s work and research. My partners and I had to read a paper to prepare for the interview, and the one my group read was about his work on using the detection of neutrinos to trace their sources, which happened to be a blazar. According to Astronomy.com, a blazar is a quasar that is oriented directly at earth. At the center of most galaxies, there are black holes driving the force of the galaxy. In some galaxies, this black hole will collect interstellar debris that swirl around it, and sometimes they shoot these debris out at speeds near the speed of light. Scientists call this phenomenon a quasar. When these quasars are oriented at earth, the colossal jets of material shoot towards earth. This is called a blazar.

Derek Fox and his team at Penn State were studying neutrinos that were crashing into earth, and they discovered that the neutrinos actually came from a blazar called TXS 0506+056. To being the story, we must go to the IceCube neutrino observatory in Antarctica, which was able to sift out higher energy cosmic neutrinos from regular background radiation from their lower energy counterparts. The neutrinos with high energy are proof that they originated from far away. When IceCube detected a neutrino, it alerted telescopes around the world to scan the region of space that the neutrino was detected from. The interesting neutrino that was discovered, and the source of Dr. Fox’s research was called IceCube-170922A. They traced the neutrino to a blazar located 3.7 billion light years away.

One of the biggest challenges in detecting such high energy neutrinos is that they interact very weakly with matter. However, IceCube has gotten over this challenge by putting its sensors more than a kilometer below the ice, and watching the ice very closely with highly sensitive detectors.

The implications of the research are also huge. This is a relatively new topic of study, as IceCube has only really been active in the last decade or so. According to the paper, “it’s premature to extrapolate our findings from the modeling of the TXS 0506+056 flare to other blazars.” Essentially, there’s not enough evidence out there to draw parallels between this studied blazar and other blazars.

Space research is growing, and we are learning new things about the universe every day. It’s an exciting field, and every day, month, and year answers more questions about the wonderful universe in which we live. Of course, some of those answers lead to more questions, but that’s part of the fun of science, isn’t it?

As curious as we are, it’s hard for humans to truly explore the vast space around us. We can’t literally go into space, so we have to send drones for us. These space missions take time, and sometimes things go wrong and interfere with the drones. One of the most famous spacecraft sent to space (or two, I guess) were the Voyager missions. As cited from the NASA website mission overview, “The twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft are exploring where nothing from Earth has flown before.” These spacecraft have been send from Earth, and are now farther away from Earth and the Sun than Pluto. They were launched in 1977, and have been in space for over 40 years. Both have now entered interstellar space, which is defined by scientists as where the Sun’s constant flow of material and magnetic field stop affecting its surroundings. The fact that both of these infamous spacecraft are so far away from Earth is a monumental achievement and one that we should be proud of. Some of our best pictures of Saturn have also been taken as a result of the Voyager missions. Take a look at this stunning picture:

If you look closely, you can see three of Saturn’s moons on the left. Saturn has 82 confirmed moons, according to a new published article by National Geographic, and the three pictured here are: Tethys, Dione, and Rhea. There’s also a shadow of Tethys that appears on Saturn’s body, evident by the black dot.

Another extremely famous item that was placed on the Voyager missions were the Golden records, which were selected for NASA by Carl Sagan. As quoted by Dr. Sagan, “The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space.” The record contains a plethora of information, including diagrams and instructions leading potential ancient civilizations on the origin of the spacecraft. There are musical pieces, spoken greetings, and messages from President Carter. It’ll take these spacecraft forty thousand years before they even begin to approach other planetary systems, which is truly a long time. By that time, humanity will either have mastered interplanetary colonization or died out, but no matter what happens we can take solace in fact that a piece of our civilization is out there, floating peacefully. There is a small chance that an alien race technologically advanced enough to understand the meaning of the Golden Record exists, and that is a thought that is truly exciting.

Let’s talk about one of my favorite movies of all time, Interstellar. This masterpiece was directed by legendary director Christopher Nolan, who also directed other award winning films such as The Dark Knight and Inception. The film stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, and Bill Irwin. Interstellar is set in the future, where living conditions seem bleak. A group of brave astronauts travel through a wormhole near the planet Saturn in an effort to search for a new home for humanity. Interstellar’s brilliant visuals and gripping storytelling keeps the audience on the edge of their seats the entire time, waiting in anticipation for what will happen in the future.

Another thing about Interstellar is that they tried to stay on the track of realistic physics, especially regarding the black hole. Kip Thorne, an astrophysicist professor at Caltech, helped simulate the black hole using mathematical equations. The black hole, named Gargantua, is a part of what makes Interstellar such a gorgeous piece of visual stimulation. And to be completely honest, the black hole isn’t too far from reality. In a stunning reveal, astronomers and astrophysicists revealed the first image of a supermassive black hole, seen in the form of radio waves. After years of collaboration from many scientists from around the globe, the public can now get their first taste of what black holes truly look like.

On April 10, 2019, a coordinated press conference revealed the image of M87, a galaxy with containing a supermassive black hole at its center. M87 is a galaxy 55-million light years from earth, and the black hole is 6.5 million times the mass of our Sun. Of course, black holes are so dense and powerful that light cannot escape its gravitational pull, but the materials around it shine brightly against the dark backdrop. What we are seeing is the “shadow” of the black hole, and required the cumulative efforts of eight telescopes around the globe. When these eight telescopes come together, it’s effectively one telescope the size of Earth. According to Paul Hertz, director of the astrophysics division at NASA in Washington, this stunning feat achieved was “decades ahead of time”.

As you can see, the simulated Gargantua and the actual picture of the black hole are actually quite similar, Of course, they aren’t exactly the same, but it is an incredibly close representation. The fact that we were able to capture an object literally strong enough to prevent light from escaping is very promising for the future. As the years go by, more and more scientific boundaries shall be broken, and with each one the library of human knowledge expands. It’s very doubtful that we’ll know all there is the know, but part of the fun in science is knowing that we don’t know everything, isn’t it?

When we think about the unexplored and the unknown, we think about deep space, but another alien world lies miles underneath: the deep unknown under the sea. It is said that humans have only explored 5% of the ocean floor, which is crazy considering we have a good sense of what the surfaces of many planets look like. A major barrier between us and the bottom of the ocean is high water pressure, the pure darkness of a lack of sunlight, and extreme temperatures. There are species found in the deep sea that look alien-like, and I would not be surprised if someone showed me one of those creatures and said that they came from an alien planet. Just look at this funny looking deep sea creature:

This is called a blob sculpin, and it looks right out of a sci-fi movie. I would not be surprised in the slightest if they were plucked off the icy surface of Europa, but alas, they live in oceans off the Pacific Coast of the United States. Blob Sculpins are crazy looking, but they are not unusual considering some of the other stuff living in the deep sea. Also, since we don’t know much about the ocean floor, there is a high possibility of even weirder and crazier stuff hiding down there.

It’s ironic that we know so little about the oceans, considering that water is pretty much the blood that keeps the earth up and running. There are waterfalls in the ocean higher than Angel Falls, and there are lakes over 300 feet deep. Just think about all the creatures that are living down there, waiting to be discovered. In terms of exciting discoveries waiting to be made, the bottom of the ocean can be equated to exoplanets in the cosmos, where there are unidentified life forms just waiting to be found.

Speaking of water organisms awaiting discovery, Europa is an exciting prospect in the world of extraterrestrial life. This is mainly due to the fact that on the icy Galilean moon of Europa, there exists an ocean ten times as deep as the one on earth, and the possibility of life exists due to the very fact that there is an ocean. Europa is extremely far away from the sun, so the fact that water exists in the liquid state shows promising things for underwater life. Now, the life there might be intelligent, but the fact that life might exist within our very own solar system is an exciting one.

 

Space is a vast mystery. We are far from the times when we boldly assumed that us humans were at the center of the universe, for now we know that our little rock in the cosmos is just one in billions. Unfortunately, even though we now know of the existence of many other planets, our limited technology doesn’t allow us much more than to simply glance at them from millions of light years away. And yet humans are curious creatures, and we will not let the boundaries of inferior technology stop us. So we come up with theories and equations to help us unravel just a little bit of the secrets that are hiding somewhere in the endless universe. One such equation was conceived by Dr. Frank Drake, now famously known as the Drake Equation. The Drake equation measures the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life in the universe, but since we can’t actually see if other planets in the cosmos literally support life, we need to be searching for something else.

The Drake Equation is as follows:

It looks like a complicated math equation, and in a sense it is, but in reality it’s quite simple. The product of seven different variables spits out a number equal to the number of possible intelligent civilizations. The Drake Equation isn’t anything that’s groundbreaking; rather, it’s a talking point for people interested in the possibility of intelligent alien life. Personally, I look upon the Drake Equation with hope because it’s proof that there are scientists out there who share my passion for the search of extraterrestrial life.

The thing is, there aren’t 100 percent calculated numbers for these variables, so there isn’t a definite answer to the equation. It probably won’t be verified anytime soon, but astronomers are makings strides at locating planets they think may be suitable for life. In 1995, the first planet around a star similar to the Sun was discovered, and Michel Mayor, an astronomer on the team who discovered the first exoplanet, called that age “fantastic times”. The discovery was in 1995 and the quote was spoken in 2005, and since then, astronomers have made tremendous progress in discovering a multitude of new exoplanets. Planets can be discovered in traditionally one of two ways. Astronomers can look for a repetitive dim in the star’s light, which would indicate that something is orbiting the star, or a slight gravitational wobble in the star which would indicate the pull from the planet’s gravity. Now, nearly 4,000 exoplanets have been discovered, and there’s surely more to come. 

As someone who is extremely excited about the direction the future is going in terms of astronomy, I applaud people like Dr. Drake for pioneering the way in the search for extraterrestrial life. Hopefully, someday in the not so distant future, we will get confirmation on extraterrestrial life and take another big step into the future.

Sometimes, when we pass a hard test or ace a quiz, we feel on top of the world. Sometimes, we learn or hear about things that make us want to rip our hairs out, punch a wall, or even question our own sanity. And yet those very questions that push us to our limits are somehow the most captivating, including the theoretical Einstein-Rosen bridge, more commonly referred to as the wormhole.

Part of the reason I’m so interested in space is because of the absolute insanity of it all. A hole in which we can hop in and appear somewhere else in the universe, not unlike magic? A cosmic doorway in which we can travel to a parallel universe and experience the events of Avengers: Endgame? A way to travel back and forth between the seemingly binding restrictions of time? Count me in! Of course, it’s not as simple as that.

First and foremost, wormholes are only theoretical. We don’t know for sure if they exist or not; for all we know, they might only exist in our wildest imaginations and not at all in reality. But even if wormholes don’t exist, they are forever etched into history by way of the film industry. Movies like Interstellar depict wormholes as ways for characters to traverse great distances in the blink of an eye, but unfortunately, that might be all the wormhole is good for. A plot device for the big screens. Even if wormholes do exist, they will most likely never be a way for humans to blink across the cosmic plane. According to Kip Thorne, an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology, a major reason for such unfortunate news has to do with the wormhole’s instability. Thorne stated that wormholes require a large amount of negative energy, otherwise the walls of the wormhole will simply collapse too fast. 

Even if wormholes remain speculation for the rest of time, their existence is still fun to think about. According to Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen, spacetime could become so warped that two points in space can end up sharing the same physical location. It sounds crazy, and probably is, but just think about it: A distance normally millions of light years apart can be traversed in under a minute. Maybe one day all physics as we know it will turn up incorrect, and wormholes become the preferred method of travel for humanity’s intergalactic civilization, or maybe the very idea of wormholes become so obsolete they are hidden away in the lines of some history book. Personally, I much prefer thinking about the former. Life becomes much more interesting that way.

When I first heard of water bears, my first thought was of giant water predators that preyed on smaller fish. I imagined the kings of the ocean, unfazed by anything that stood in their way. What I didn’t expect was a microscopic animal whose photograph needed to be taken under the lens of a microscope. These microscopic animals are tardigrades, often called water bears. They are nearly indestructible and can survive in almost all environments. According to Smithsonian.com, tardigrades can survive in temperatures ranging from -328 degrees Fahrenheit to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. These eight legged, caterpillar looking organisms are unlike any other on earth, which is probably why they will continue living on long after humanity has disappeared.

In fact, tardigrades may very well survive until our Sun itself dies out. Considering the hardiness of these species, it’s not hard to imagine why life on other planets will most likely be microscopic organisms rather than intelligent human-like species. In fact, life already exists elsewhere in the solar system! Well, only technically, and it’s only because we sent them there.

On April 11, 2019, the Beresheet spacecraft crash landed on the moon, releasing tardigrades in the process. Some people think it’s cool that there are organisms on the moon, while others are afraid of a space horror science fiction film in the making. I, for one, think it’s kind of cool that tardigrades are currently somewhere besides earth. Even though we put them there, looking at the moon at night and knowing that there exists these organisms puts smile on the part of me that hungers for the discovery of extraterrestrial life. The deeper question to ask is if we humans should be allowed to populate the moon with other organisms such as tardigrades. Monica Grady, a professor of planetary and space sciences at Open University thinks the answer to that question is no. According to her, tardigrades have breached the “pristine environment” of the moon. Personally, my stance on this topic is a bit unclear. My instinctive answer is no, but after thinking about it for a while I’m honestly not certain “no” is truly what I believe. I’ve always wanted to explore the universe, but I’ve never really thought about what we would do if we did find another planet suitable for life. Would we just sit back and not try and explore it ourselves? Humans are naturally curious, so naturally we would want to set foot down on that theoretical planet, right? I know I would, but I guess we’ll never truly know the answer. 

When I was a young child in middle school, I loved watching this show called Ancient Aliens. Yes, I know that the show comes with extremely heavy skepticism, but middle school me cared little for the skeptics. You see, I was totally obsessed with the idea of extraterrestrial life and the possibility that they might have visited Earth in the past (an idea I’m all but gotten over now). I would watch these shows every chance I got, sacrificing cartoons to learn about how the Pyramids were secretly built by the aliens how or the ancient Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan resembles a circuit board. Looking back, these ideas seem far fetched, but the episodes were clever enough to make it all sound very convincing. Seriously, look at the side to side comparison of Teotihuacan to a modern day circuit board.

However, as one would expect, any show preaching wild alien conspiracies would be debunked, and Ancient Aliens was no different. Just search “ancient aliens debunked” on Google and a million different articles will pop up, such as this one written by a Scientific American blogger.  As I grew older, I started taking information show with a grain of salt rather than falling into every fallacy woven by the show writers, but the damage had been done. I’m now extremely interested in the possibility of extraterrestrial life, and even though I might not believe there are green men on Mars anymore I’m still open to the idea that we are not alone in the universe.

In my opinion, the universe is way too big to not be able to sustain extraterrestrial life. The Milky Way has hundreds of billions of stars, and over 2,500 of those have planets orbiting them. And that’s just in our own little galaxy in our corner of the universe. When we factor in the billions of galaxies in the observable universe, and then the galaxies beyond that, well, the number just becomes too high to count.

Ancient Aliens may be mocked for everything, from it’s wildly unscientific and inaccurate portrayal of evidence to narrator Giorgio A. Tsoukalos to the point of becoming an internet meme, but it does occasionally raise interesting questions and ideas to ponder. And when I truly think about it, not the conspiracies but the idea of other life out there, I get a feeling that I don’t feel anywhere else. It’s a feeling of wonder and captivation, a feeling of pure giddiness and excitement. It’s a feeling I don’t want to stop experiencing. And so, the question I’m leaving behind is: