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We often think about interstellar probes only in the context of what they find at the end of their journeys — astrobiologically interesting planets seem to be the whole story. But not so fast. As Ian Crawford (University of London) notes in a recent paper, there are quite a few fascinating — and indeed critical — things we need to learn about interstellar space itself, in this case what is known as the Local Interstellar Medium (LISM). Crawford, who has been analyzing these matters for the Project Icarus team, notes how much we’ve learned about the LISM since the Daedalus...
Published on Monday 6th of September 2010 10:18:20 PM
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Posted by admin / Under Interstellar Travel
December 23, 2009: The solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist. In the Dec. 24th issue of Nature, a team of scientists reveal how NASA's Voyager spacecraft have solved the mystery. "Using data from Voyager, we have discovered a strong magnetic field just outside the solar system," explains lead author Merav Opher, a NASA Heliophysics Guest Investigator from George Mason University. "This magnetic field holds the interstellar cloud together and solves the long-standing puzzle of how it can exist at all." The discovery has implications for the future when the solar system will...
Published on Monday 6th of September 2010 10:18:20 PM
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Posted by admin / Under Interstellar Travel
The idea that life on Earth might have originated elsewhere, on Mars, for example, has gained currency in recent times as we’ve learned more about the transfer of materials between planets. Mars cooled before the Earth and may well have become habitable at a time when our planet was not. There seems nothing particularly outrageous in the idea that dormant bacteria inside chunks of the Martian surface, blasted into space by comet or asteroid impacts, might have crossed the interplanetary gulf and given rise to life here. But what of an interstellar origin for life on Earth? The odds on...
Published on Monday 6th of September 2010 10:18:20 PM
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Posted by admin / Under Interstellar Travel
Dr. Robert W. Bussard died at his home in Santa Fe, NM on October 6th. Inventor, entrepreneur and author, he was the originator of the Interstellar Ramjet as known on Star Trek as the Bussard Collector. A fixture in Science Fiction literature, the Ramjet continues to be the only method known with the possible capability to propel humankind to the stars. Dr. Bussard was also instrumental in developing the nuclear rocket program at Los Alamos National Lab in the 1950s and 60s. At his death, Dr. Bussard was the President and CEO of Energy Matter Conversion Corporation (EMC2), a company...
Published on Monday 6th of September 2010 10:18:20 PM
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Posted by admin / Under Interstellar Travel
A two-year survey of enormous interstellar dust clouds has turned up eight organic molecules in two different regions of space. One is a stellar nursery awash in light while the other is a cold, starless void. The finding, detailed in the current issue of Astrophysical Journal, supports other recent studies suggesting molecules important for life commonly form in the gas and dust clouds that condense to form stars and planets. The molecules were discovered using the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), a large radio telescope located in West Virginia. "Finding eight [organic] molecules in the space of two...
Published on Monday 6th of September 2010 10:18:20 PM
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Posted by admin / Under Interstellar Travel
The good news is that polls continue to show that between one and two-thirds of the public thinks that extraterrestrial life exists. The weird news is that a similar fraction thinks that some of it is visiting Earth. Several recent television shows have soberly addressed the possibility that alien craft are violating our air space, occasionally touching down long enough to allow their crews to conduct bizarre (and, in most states, illegal) experiments on hapless citizens. While these shows tantalize viewers by suggesting that they are finally going to get to the bottom of the so-called "UFO debate", they never...
Published on Monday 6th of September 2010 10:18:20 PM
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Posted by admin / Under Interstellar Travel
Scientists recently decoded the first confirmed alien transmission from outer space. It said: "Please send 5x10 (to the 50th power) atoms of hydrogen to each of the five star systems listed below. Then, add your system to the top of the list and delete the system at the bottom. Transmit copies of this message to 100 different solar systems. If you follow these instructions, you are guaranteed that within 0.25 degrees of a galactic rotation you will receive in return sufficient hydrogen stores to power your own civilization until the universe reaches inevitable maximum entropy. This really works!" OK, it's...
Published on Monday 6th of September 2010 10:18:20 PM
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Posted by admin / Under Interstellar Travel
Mail, not phone, might be best for interstellar messages. If an extra terrestrial wanted to send a field report describing all she had learned about Earth, she might be better off writing rather than phoning. A new analysis has concluded that a physical object would be a more efficient way to send a long message to the stars than a beam of radio waves. So while we scour the heavens for radio broadcasts from other worlds, we should also search our planetary backyard for a parcel of alien information, says Christopher Rose, an electrical engineer at Rutgers University, Piscataway, New...
Published on Monday 6th of September 2010 10:18:20 PM
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This Day In History
Brazil: the largest country in South America declared its independence from Portugal (1822)
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