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Political Economics of Space Exploration
Image from NASA Press Release
I remember when I was young thinking, why haven’t we put humans on Mars yet? We have the feasibility to do so, but why? The answer comes down to the intersection between power politics and economics that often hamper, restrict and sometimes fuel the drive for space exploration. Before this class, I remember wondering why scientists keep demanding more and more rovers and explorations of Mars. I did not understand why, after one fly-by or orbit of Saturn, scientists pushed the need for more. After completing this course, I now realize the reason is simple economics and budgetary constraints placed on NASA by Congress.
Additional missions to planets arise from several reasons. One is that its not efficient to launch a probe with hundreds of specialized instruments. Later missions are thus needed to fill in data gaps missing due to simple engineering constraints. Other times, NASA mission proposals are afforded a maximum cap on their budget that prevents equipment from being installed that is otherwise feasible. This leads to a definite desire for further missions, diffusing already sparse funds from a mission designed for symbolic goals of planting the American flag on Mars.
At the same time, space exploration is heating up due to International great power competition. The Chinese lunar exploration agency aptly states that “the universe is an ocean, the moon is the Diaoyu Islands, Mars is Huangyan Island. If we don’t go there now even though we’re capable of doing so, then we will be blamed by our descendants. If others go there, then they will take over, and you won’t be able to go even if you want to. This is reason enough.” I write my final blog post on this because I intend to major in Law, History, and Society with a focus on pre-law along with a minor in Global Politics (Political Science) and (hopefully) Astronomy. This question about the future of space exploration and economic prioritization centers on competition between international powers and hopes to use pre-existing and future legal frameworks to center future colonization and exploration of space. We live in a very interesting time, and I certainly intend to pay attention to the consequences and discoveries of future astronomical discovery.
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Scientists Dream of Complex Life on Europa
Images from BBC Article on Europan Life and CNET Article on Proposed NASA Rover
The search for extraterrestrial life is often focused upon deep space with distances the human mind can barely comprehend. However, evidence has been building that complex life could be present in our cosmological backyard on the icy moon of Europa. The Galileo space probe passed by Europa in the 1990s, finding compelling evidence for a 60 mile deep ocean capped off by an icy crust with fissures and later observed suspected geysers of water. In the past 20 years, evidence has built that, despite common assumptions that life needs sunlight to flourish, that Europa could be home to life and potentially even a complex ecosystem.
The reasonably scientifically accurate 2013 movie Europa Report highlights the human discovery of an octopus-like animal prowling the oceans beneath Europa. The discovery and categorization of extremophile bacterium has lent credence to the idea that life can potentially flourish in environments of extreme pressure, no sunlight, and near hot hydrothermal vents. Scientists theorize that these vents might exist if there is a rocky surface next beneath the ocean and layer of ice. Also, since water can apparently escape in geysers, it is plausible that oxygen and carbon can enter the ocean, providing ingredients for life.
The planned Europa Clipper project by NASA would aim to change that. Designed specifically with the intent to scope out the potential for life on this world, it would carry instruments not available to Galileo, “including a camera that will image most of the surface; spectrometers to understand its composition; ice-penetrating radar to map the ice shell in three dimensions and find water beneath the ice shell; and a magnetometer to characterise the ocean.” Overall, the instruments along with theoretical proposals of flying through geysers to ascertain the presence of organic compounds and potential landers lay the groundwork for at the very least some fascinating new discoveries over the next decade.
Sources include Article from BBC on Potential for Life and Business Insider Commentary on Prospects for Life on Europa
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A World Where It Rains Glass
This planet, HD 189733b, is the first exoplanet to have its color confirmed. We now know it is a deep, dark blue from a technique called secondary eclipse that scientists used to determine its albedo. As the planet was just about to finish transiting its host star relative to us, scientists measured light emission wavelengths and compared them to those of the star alone. It revealed a deep blue color “quite distinct from the atmosphere colors seen in our solar system.” Scientific American.
However, unlike the Earth and its blue oceans, the coloration of this planet, which lies 63 light years away from Earth, is due to clouds laced with silicate particles. This planet is a hot Jupiter, orbiting its host star in 2.2 days, tidally locking one side of it to be forever in darkness and the other forever in light. The temperature would thus be an average of 1,000 degrees Celsius, based on observations, and a temperature difference between near and far sides of 260 Celsius. This could fuel winds up to 8,700 kph littered with glass. Silicates condense at temperatures above 1300 Celsius, so this planet likely has ripping winds with shards of glass embedded in it. This example shows just how varied and extreme worlds can be in the universe. Nature sometimes stretches the human imagination and renders science fact more strange than science fantasy. Glass Rain.
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Waterworlds Make Earth Look Dry
In a system 218 light years from Earth, scientists have discovered two planets, Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 d, which make Earth look like a desert in comparison. Both planets were initially thought by scientists to be rocky super-Earths. However, after closer examination by the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists were able to determine that both planets are three times the volume of Earth, but only twice the mass. Although there are alternative explanations, the most likely one is that 50% of their mass is water. In comparison, the Earth’s mass is only 0.02% water. Source.
This was ascertained by the planet’s higher density than elements like gaseous hydrogen or helium, yet lower than a density equivalent to rock. However, the proximity to their host red dwarf star increases the predicted surface temperature of the planet. Since the presence of an atmosphere is likely with such an abundance of surface water, the planets probably have a thick atmosphere of steam with a water ocean beneath this atmosphere. The ocean might even have strange properties due to a combination of high pressure and high temperature. The most stunning prediction was an average ocean depth before reaching rock of 1,243 miles. Earth’s average ocean depth is around 2 miles. Source 2.
The significance of this discovery is obviously the likely presence of liquid surface water on an exoplanet’s surface. However, it also has implications for planetary formation models which show waterworlds only forming as ice worlds like Europa. This lends credence to the idea of planetary migration. It also opens scientists’ eyes to new possibilities of conditions on exotic, strange new worlds and the potential widening of human knowledge by continuing the hunt for new exoplanets.
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JWST: The Newest Oldest Galaxy?
The James Webb Telescope has come across the most distant and oldest galaxy known to humankind. It has been named HD1 and is sitting at a redshift of 13.3, currently located 33.3 billion light years from the earth, and viewed at a time when the universe was only about 300 million years old. This on its own is fascinating, but there is more to this discovery than meets the eye. HD1 is challenging scientifically accepted theories about the formation of galaxies and the nature of the early universe. You see, HD1 according to older models is too bright and too massive to exist that soon after the Big Bang.
Original models predicted that galaxies of such size and brightness would take around a billion years to form. The Hubble Space Telescope and previous models supported this assumption, yet Hubble still found unusually bright galaxies. This new data is blowing old assumptions out of the water. However, scientists have been tweaking their models to account for this situation and find that the models might indeed hold up. The highly bright galaxies could be explained by active black holes attracting gas before shooting it back out at a much higher brightness than stars alone could produce. Despite this, galaxies are much bigger much earlier than expected, and this new observation is inspiring a race for new data and study into the earliest stages of the universe. JWST HD1
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TRAPPIST-1e: Another Earth?
Circling a red dwarf star 40 light years away is a system of seven, Earth-like planets. All seven planets are similar enough in size to Earth to hold atmosphere and potentially have volcanic activity. However, only one of those is located within the Goldilocks zone. In other words, TRAPPIST-1e has the potential to have liquid water on its surface. TRAPPIST 1 Planet Could Host Life
The star around which the planets orbit is a red dwarf, nine percent of the size of the Sun. That means this star will exist for 12 trillion years, and is right at the edge of being a brown dwarf, or failed star, and true star. This means that all seven planets have a semi-major axis smaller than that of Mercury. TRAPPIST-1e orbits its star in roughly six days, which means that all planets are extremely close. Computer models show that the three inner planets to 1e are likely Venusian with run-away greenhouse effect evaporating all liquid water. The outer three planets are probably similar to Mars with frozen water. TRAPPIST-1e
These models are very similar to the ones used by scientists to compare Venus, Earth, and Mars and their atmospheric compositions. TRAPPIST-1e is likely to receive enough energy that it would allow oxygen to be split from hydrogen and small enough in mass for the hydrogen to float away. It is 90 percent the Earth’s size and nearly has a nearly identical density. This leads to the likelihood of a high oxygen atmosphere. Indeed, it has no hydrogen in its atmosphere, raising the possibility of an oxygen-rich atmosphere. The James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to observe the planet, seeking signs of an atmosphere and signatures of life. It is the most promising exoplanet currently under observation for Earth-like conditions. It also importantly allows for further study of planetary formation conditions both in their geological composition and atmospheric composition. Hydrogen Free Atmosphere
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Why the Speed of Light May Not Be Constant
Source: Speed of Light Properties Explained
One of the biggest current paradigms in the science of astronomy is the certainty that the speed of light is constant in a vacuum. However, new research shows that this might not entirely be accurate which could have massive consequences for cosmology.
Thanks to the use of lasers here on the earth, the speed of light has been measured very accurately at a speed of 299,792,458 m/s. Current scientific knowledge has this placed as the ultimate speed limit in the universe. Two scientific papers propose that the speed of light varies due to the very nature of spacetime. They propose that with the assumption that the vacuum of space is full of basic quantum particles like quarks, they speed of light is affected by them. Depending on their charge, these quarks would absorb and emit photons, effecting the speed of light by one millionth of one billionth of a second for every square meter of vacuum.
This study also purports that the charge of the quark, which varies, would also vary the effect of it on the speed of light. Since the incidence of these quantum particles would be random, the speed of light could, over billions of light years, be random. Although the second paper proposes subatomic particles’ interaction with electromagnetic fields, rather than individual photons, the proposal is the same. Although this is firmly in the hypothesis portion of the scientific process, this would have drastic implications on cosmology and the cosmic distance ladder. Predictions on the age of the universe could be drastically off and estimates on the size of the universe could similarly be off.
The studies proposed experiments with ultra accurate lasers at larger distances to see if they could detect variations in the speed of light here on Earth that would compound over the vast scale of the universe to rattle our assumptions about the nature of the universe.
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Historical Astronomers in Context
Tycho Brahe was an aspiring Danish lawyer when he first became fascinated in astronomy. He was reportedly inspired by a total solar eclipse then later a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which is where his practical advancements in astronomy came from. The Ptolemaian and Copernican models were off by several days on predicting the conjunction, so Brahe set to right this. Upon the death of his father and uncle, Brahe set up an observatory to accumulate observations of the sky. His notable accomplishments include compiling data on the movement of planets in the sky, locations of stars, and the observation of a new star that appeared in the distant sky, upsetting preconceived notions of an unchanging sky. This prompted him to propose a system where planets and stars orbited the sun and the still stationary Earth. He did all of this with simple tools, recording instruments, and his eyes. He was born in 1546 and died in 1601. Source: Tycho Brahe
In 1588 the Spanish Armada sailed on England and Queen Elizabeth. Following the religious turmoil between English Catholics and Protestants within the country, the Spanish sought to exploit this by deposing the Protestant Elizabeth and reinstating a Catholic monarch. This had partly arisen due to Elizabeth’s support for a Protestant revolt in the Habsburg controlled Netherlands and the establishment of the Dutch Republic. The Spanish invasion fleet was decisively defeated, and England established naval primacy until 1900 with the rise of the United States Navy, with England also acquiring implicit right to colonization in North America. Source: Spanish Armada
In 1555 the Peace of Augsburg established a legal right to Lutheranism in the Holy Roman Empire. It was a peace settlement between the Emperor Charles V and followers of the Augsburg Confession. It established legal right to rule by princes of non-Catholic denomination, only Lutherans though. It arose by conversion of electors of the empire to Lutheranism and thus codifying legal rights for religious toleration. It set a precedent for political federalism and self-determination of local rulers. Source: Peace of Augsburg
Ivan Vasilyevich, colloquially known in English as Ivan the Terrible, is Grand Prince of Moscow and later the first Tsar of Russia. Despite increases in the prestige of the Slavic and Orthodox world, such as more government centralization and conquests of Muslim rump Mongol states in the East such as Kazan in 1552, he instituted a reign of terror over his new realm. He executed thousands of threats to his power base, established the first Russian secret police, and even murdered his own son Ivan in anger. He’s notable as a forebearer of Russian autocracy and the future of centralization and police state in the Soviet Union under his ideological predecessor Josef Stalin. Source: Ivan the Terrible
The study of history is the study of us today if we were put into a different culture or time. Ivan the Terrible has a historical analogue in Josef Stalin. The Spanish Armada is strikingly similar to Trafalgar. The Peace of Augsburg reminds me of the Treaty of Versailles. I didn’t particularly learn much from this exercise because I’m a history major, but it does drive home the importance of concurrent events. Being able to mentally scroll over a map to see that Elizabeth I was ruling England at the same time the Danish Tycho Brahe sought to peer into the celestial realm, or some degree of religious tolerance swept over Europe. Incidentally, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, a successor of Charles V who signed the Peace of Augsburg, patronized Tycho in Prague. In any case, humans remain the same, some seeking knowledge, power, prestige, peace, war, glory, wealth. When Tycho peered into the sky political powers influenced his study of the sky, as do they today with NASA.
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The Unfathomable Scale of the Universe
A logarithmic scale of the universe, used to highlight humanity’s cumulative knowledge about the universe. Source: A Logarithmic View of the Universe
The above image will highlight what I’m writing here about today, because in all of our daily lives we’re pretty myopic, but for good reason! We grew up here on this planet with our heads in the sand, so to speak. We focused on food, water, and survival. However, with the vast amount of knowledge we’ve gained, now we can look to the stars to perceive the whole universe. And here it is, at a logarithmic size scale so one can see the main features
The universe is truly massive, with most estimates showing that there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on planet earth, 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars! It’s so, vast that the universe is incomprehensible to most people. Everything that we know, even our Milky Way Galaxy is one out of an estimated 100 billion galaxies in the OBSERVABLE universe. This is what we can see in the universe because the it’s so far away that light has taken since the beginning of the universe to reach Earth here today. There could be even more to it!
Last night when I was doing homework for my Judicial Process class, I took a break and started surfing the web with several questions. What is it like at the edge of the universe? How could cosmologists ever think the universe is infinite if it had a beginning? What I found is that basically no one knows for sure, but there’s no reason to believe the universe ends at the cosmological horizon, the edge of what we could ever see. The answers are very complicated, so I can provide a link if anyone is curious to learn more: Size of the Universe. But essentially, the observable universe is estimated at 93 billion light years in diameter, but hypothetical models extend the actual universe’s size to 7 trillion light years at the low end, to 10 sextillion, to potentially even infinity. That’s a ridiculously large number, and even more scary that our observable universe could be a drop in the pond for all of reality.
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About Me
Hi, I’m George and here’s a little about my life at home and before Vanderbilt. This image is Lake Maxinkuckee, a summer resort lake in Culver, Indiana and also the location for my boarding school.
Find more about Culver Academies: https://www.culver.org
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Learning about the Solar System One Step at a Time 