Report
on an interesting exoplanet discovery that has taken place within the last two
years and which has implications for the field of astrobiology. Be sure to
summarize what is particularly significant about this discovery.
As the Kepler space telescope has been sent
on its second or K2 mission of finding planets outside our solar systems almost
150,000 stars that are in our galaxy has been found. Moreover, the telescope
uses transit model to find out about the exoplanets that are part of the solar
system of those stars. This method used the dip in brightness when a planet
crosses the star in the view of the telescope. So this is one method that
relies on probability heavily. Almost
4000 planets are found by the scientists till date and the 1000th
one just has been confirmed by the telescope in the 2016 January.
Among these planets there are some that are
part of other solar systems that are vastly different than our sun. Although
due to various reasons these planets exhibit the same characteristics as earth.
The climate and structure and the materials are similar to the earth although
the sizes of them vastly differ. These planets are far away some of them more
than 1100 light-years away so there is no question of verifying if there is
really similar life forms on the planets. So the astrobiology mostly depend on
the simulation on whether these planets could sustain life or not. There are also
550 candidates of planets among which six are similar to earth in size and are
in the habitable zones of the relevant solar systems. The discovered and
confirmed planets also have the planets similar to earth and consistent
rotation so that the climate of the planets are habitable (Nationalgeographic.com,
2016).
Two of the newly discovered planets Kepler-438b
and Kepler-442b that are less than 1.5 time the size of earth. Among them the Kepler
438b is 475 light-years away and is 12% bigger than earth. And Kepler 442 b is
1100 light-years away and 33% bigger than earth. They are part of a solar
system that have a sun much less hot than the earth’s sun so the habitable
zones are much closer to the sun and for that reason the different planets are
much faster while rotating their stars as they are closer to them and the orbit
is smaller (NASA, 2016).
With each new discovery there are even more small
planets that might host a similar suitable condition for life to thrive on the planet
are found. There is 90 % chance of the planet having
water which is essential for life to exist and it has to be in liquid from. And
the planets are made by rocky substance which is another essential factor. The
most significant thing to note about this discovery is the small planets that
are in the habitable zone in the solar system are also possibly able to sustain
life. It is found that the planets number in the habitable zones of the stars
are high and soon it will be discovered if the planets are able to sustain life
or not.
The success of the Kepler Space Telescope at
finding exoplanets has provided motivation for even more ambitious missions
which would be capable of making detailed observations of Earth-like
exoplanets. One such example is the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
(TESS). Please provide an overview of the planned TESS mission, being sure to
outline how it will improve on what Kepler has already done.
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is one
of the proposals chosen by NASA for funding. It improves on the idea of the
Kepler space telescope and will use the same transit method to survey the
brightest stars near the solar system and they will help in finding the
existence of the exoplanets that exist within the solar systems. This project
was proposed by MIT and seed funding came from Google. This satellite will
provide many high resolution cameras on all directions with wide view so all of
the sky can be monitored by the same satellite which was impossible in the case
of Kepler space telescope. TESS will be able to observe the intensity of more than 500,000
stars during a two year mission that is searching for temporary drops in
brightness caused by planetary transits. Kepler used to focus on the some segment of
the sky for a period of time over the time of its total operations. And once
the stabilizer of the Kepler was malfunctioning the satellite became stationary
and was adjusted by the pressure of solar wind. From that point it pointed in
only one direction and observed the same segment of the sky for some period (TESS
- Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, 2016).
TESS will monitor the sky at 27degrees to
the side where the sun does not shine and after 27 days it will move 27degrees
east to scan another section of the sky. By the use of the wide angle cameras
the overlap between the two segments will allow the TESS to observe the stars
for longer periods of time than the Kepler was able to do. Because of the
orbiting period of the 13.5days the TESS is allowed to view and observe the
anti solar sky for more than 27 days a month which has never been done before. TESS
will mainly center on G and K type of star with scale brighter than 12. Its
surveillance sky area would be approximately 400 times larger than Kepler. Each
of the TESS cameras will take one minute exposure as part of transit search and
30 minute full frame exposure to search for other transient event. The main
equipment used by the TESS is 24x24 field of view low noise high exposure CCD
cameras (TESS - Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, 2016). TESS is now in
the final preparation stage where the delivery and launch system are being
prepared and it is scheduled to launch on august of 2017 from the cape carnival. As it is a major improvement over the Kepler
space telescope it can be hoped that it will uncover many mysteries that the
Kepler was unable to unravel (TESS - Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite,
2016).
Suppose
that the SETI search is successful, and a clear signal is detected from an
alien civilization later this year. Much has been written about the possible
impact of such a discovery. Read up on this topic, and then write a summary of
how YOU think such a discovery would change things for humankind in this
century.
If the SETI search is successful and a
definite alien signal is recorded by the NASA and finally after all the
deliberation about the existence of alien life is ended with a solid scientific
proof then it will definitely be a breakthrough for the scientific researchers
who have tried to prove the existence of sentient extraterrestrial life form.
But in simple world where the human nature is cautious of any change in the
popular beliefs then first response of the humans are distrust and fear and
disbelief. It has been proven again and again in the ages as the revolutionary
scientists were imprisoned and threatened and even killed. So the proof of
existence of sentient alien life form will definitely provoke a similar
response in the human society (Space.com, 2015). But there are other
implications on the field of religion and natural sciences that will challenge
the popular beliefs. The theory of evolution will be proven correct that
without the help from any divine being life can be created from the planet if
the conditions are favorable and it will develop based on the conditions it
faces. If the existence of god or any higher power is disproven then there is
the chance of chaos ruling the society and the social structure is liable to
breakdown. But the effects of such can not be bad as the more scientific
approach to life will help the society to dispel the misgivings of the
religious conflicts and it will give the humans a clear single minded purpose
in the pursuit of science (Daniken, 2002).
And as the different need of religions are
ended then the resources that have previously been used in the conflict between
religious sects will be free to be used in the development of science and the improvement
of condition of the living for humans and if any idea of the society of the
alien culture can be found then the human society will have the chance to see their
own condition and prejudices from a neutral perspective (Karling, 1997). The
different effects of the human society will be diminished and we will have
something to compare ourselves to. So the ethics and the natural behavior will
be changed as the beliefs of the people are changed but it can be either
detrimental or incremental (Daniken, 2002). The different aspects of the
society will have different effects on human culture and the different beliefs
of the men will be shattered like the belief o\f human superiority over all the
species. Whatever the case might be it will surely have an impact on the human
society whether the effect will be good or bad still remains to be seen.
Daniken, E. (2002). The gods were
astronauts. London: Vega.
Karling, C. (1997). UFOs &
extraterrestrials. Denver, Co.: Green Earth Research Publications.
NASA, (2016). NASA’s Kepler Marks 1,000th
Exoplanet Discovery, Uncovers More Small Worlds in Habitable Zones -
Astrobiology Magazine. [online] Astrobiology Magazine. Available at:
http://www.astrobio.net/topic/deep-space/new-planets/nasas-kepler-marks-1000th-exoplanet-discovery-uncovers-more-small-worlds-in-habitable-zones/
[Accessed 26 Mar. 2016].
Nationalgeographic.com. (2016). Astrobiology
- The hunt for life beyond Earth. [online] Available at:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/astrobiology/ [Accessed 26 Mar. 2016].
Setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu. (2016). SETI@home.
[online] Available at: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ [Accessed 26 Mar.
2016].
Space.com. (2015). SETI: All About
the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Infographic). [online]
Available at: http://www.space.com/30043-seti-search-for-extraterrestrial-intelligence-infographic.html
[Accessed 26 Mar. 2016].
TESS - Transiting Exoplanet Survey
Satellite. (2016). The TESS Mission. [online] Available at:
http://tess.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [Accessed 26 Mar. 2016].
Tess.gsfc.nasa.gov. (2016). TESS
Overview. [online] Available at: http://tess.gsfc.nasa.gov/overview.html
[Accessed 26 Mar. 2016].
