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            <title>MARVELS-1: A case study in healthy paranoia in science (Part II)</title>
            <description><![CDATA[<div><a href="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/2013/05/marvels-1-a-case-study-in-healthy-paranoia-in-science-part-i.html">Last time I wrote</a> about our discovery of a second signal in the MARVELS-1 brown-dwarf system that showed the 6-d substellar object had an interior Jupiter-mass planet in a perfect 3:1 resonance. &nbsp;I was particularly excited because I had the opportunity to make a significant contribution to the MARVELS project (I was added on as an External Collaborator for this one target, since I'm not a member of the SDSS-III consortium).</div><div><br /></div><div>Our discovery really got the whole MARVELS team excited, and we summoned the various experts on the MARVELS team to, Voltron-like, combine forces against this single target. &nbsp;Suvrath and I requested Director's Discretionary Time on HET to pin down the period ratio better and help the dynamicists with their modeling. &nbsp;Justin Crepp headed off to Keck to work <a href="http://bit.ly/UyoiPE">his</a> <a href="http://bit.ly/Tt8tGs">AO</a> <a href="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/2013/05/is-that-a-white-or-brown-trendy-degenerate-dwarf.html">magic</a>. &nbsp;Scott Gaudi, Josh Pepper, and Jason Eastman got to work looking for potential transits in KELT and other photometry. &nbsp;Matt Payne and Eric Ford got to work on the dynamical analysis of this particular 3:1 resonance. &nbsp;Brian Lee and a suite of other MARVELS collaborators went back to the spectra to further refine the stellar parameters so we could get a better stellar radius and mass.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>And the whole time we're all paranoid something is wrong. &nbsp;The system is too weird, too distinctive, and too unexpected. &nbsp;All that in the first substellar MARVELS target! &nbsp;Could we be missing something? &nbsp;Scott Gaudi's first reaction to the news showed the skepticism tempering his excitement:</div><div><br /></div><div><blockquote style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;"><div><span style="color: rgb(80, 0, 80); font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Here's a disturbing thought that just occurred to me. &nbsp;Have we looked at the bisector variations for this star? &nbsp;Could this be a blend system that is throwing off the RV measurements? &nbsp;I guess the limits on secondary lines must elliminate most of the parameter space for this, but maybe not all?</span><br style="color: rgb(80, 0, 80); font-family: arial, sans-serif;" /><br style="color: rgb(80, 0, 80); font-family: arial, sans-serif;" /><span style="color: rgb(80, 0, 80); font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Jason, is it easy for you to look at the shape of the bisector or the cross-correlation peak as a function of epoch?</span><br style="color: rgb(80, 0, 80); font-family: arial, sans-serif;" /></div></blockquote><font color="#500050" face="arial, sans-serif"><br /></font></div><div><font color="#500050" face="arial, sans-serif">The answers to these questions were "no, maybe, yes, no". &nbsp; &nbsp;Suvrath was more blunt:</font></div><blockquote style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;"><div><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Holy ****! Yes we need more precision. We are planning on asking for DDT time anyways early next week...</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif;">What if its an SB2? Could that cause aliasing of some sort to create this signal?</span></div></blockquote><div><font color="#500050" face="arial, sans-serif"><br /></font></div><div>The more I thought about it though, the more I was convinced that there was no mode of contamination that could create the illusion of a 3:1 resonance. &nbsp;Such a thing had never been seen before, in thousands of planet search targets. &nbsp;Contamination has a lot of weird effects, but this wasn't one of them.</div><div><br /></div><div>The oddities piled up as our HET time came in and collaborators got back to us:</div><div><br /></div><div><ul><li>Juggling the HET queue, we slowly started knocking down the sidelobes of the power spectrum with "adaptive scheduling" to only observe on nights (and tracks) that would rule out competing aliases of the period consistent with a 3:1 resonance. &nbsp;Sure enough, every shot we got strengthened our conviction that the 3:1 resonance was the correct solution. &nbsp;But the resonance was <i>perfect.</i>&nbsp; Most resonances show period ratios <i>near</i> an integer ratio, but rarely exact, because of dynamical interactions. &nbsp;This ratio was perfect to <i>within one part in ten thousand</i>.</li><li>Matt Payne's analysis struggled with the sparse data, but we finally got enough points for his code to settle into a favored overall solution, and the stable solutions were very dynamically active (which means, very exciting for a dynamicist to study!) &nbsp;They also predicted HUGE transit timing variations, if the system was transiting (10 hours!), an order of magnitude larger than anything seen before (this was pre-Kepler).</li><li>The KELT photometry came back totally stable: &nbsp;this was not some sort of variable star or eclipsing binary. &nbsp;It was tricky to look for transits, given the large variations expected, but Scott and the others were able to rule out most transiting scenarios, which was disappointing to some extent, but the stable photometry ruled out most false positive scenarios, too.</li><li>The spectral analysis came back clean, with no hint of contamination, again. &nbsp;But the gravity of the star changed with the new data: &nbsp;we now had a regular main sequence F star, not a subgiant. &nbsp;This wasn't a big deal, but it was strange that we couldn't pin it down better.</li><li>Then Justin Crepp found a couple of AO companions, just to make our lives interesting:</li></ul><div><img alt="Screen shot 2013-05-13 at 10.17.06 AM.png" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/Screen%20shot%202013-05-13%20at%2010.17.06%20AM.png" width="398" height="392" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" /></div></div><div><div>They were faint, but could they have something to do with our signal? &nbsp;All 3 stars would be in the HET fiber. &nbsp;We wrote, we thought, we fretted. &nbsp;No, these things were a couple of magnitudes fainter in H band; they couldn't possibly contribute significant flux in the optical, where HET works. Justin Crepp raised the old concern again:</div></div><div><br /></div><div><blockquote style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;"><div><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif;">I am speculating (flying by the seat of my pants more like it -- just&nbsp;</span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif;">to make sure we cover all the possibilities) that the 6-d period and&nbsp;</span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif;">2-d period may be produced by the two stellar spectra beating&nbsp;</span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif;">against one another due to regular old RV shifts. In other words,&nbsp;</span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif;">should we be worried about the various pipelines treating the&nbsp;</span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif;">combined spectra as a single star?&nbsp;</span></div></blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div>But we couldn't think of any model to make this idea work, and we didn't have the code spun up to look for line profile variations, anyway. &nbsp;We were also in a hurry; we really wanted to get this out fast, and it was now 9 months after the discovery of the resonance. &nbsp;Would somebody scoop us?</div><div><br /></div><div>More than once we were ready to pull the trigger, ready to send out the paper with our best guess at the system. &nbsp;I remember standing in Don Schneider's office with Suvrath, discussing the system, in summer of 2011. &nbsp;The MARVELS and Sloan folks were itching to publish MARVELS' big result. &nbsp;I was 90% sure it was right, but I wanted more data first. &nbsp;I wanted to <i>solve</i> the system, not just be pretty sure. &nbsp;We held off yet again. &nbsp;It was maddening. &nbsp;I kept writing to Suvrath "I <i>hate</i> this system".</div><div><br /></div><div>Eric Ford and I had some Keck time through NASA to study interesting multiplanet systems, and we were going to use it to study this resonance. &nbsp;MARVELS-1 was coming out from behind the Sun in a month. &nbsp;All of my concerns about contamination from those companions in that big fat HET fiber would be gone if the narrow slit of HIRES saw exactly the same signal. &nbsp;So we went back to the telescope...</div><div><br /></div><div>More (much more) to come...</div><div><br /></div>]]></description>
            <link>http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/2013/05/marvels-1-a-case-study-in-healthy-paranoia-in-science-part-ii.html</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 09:15:52 -0500</pubDate>
	    
	    
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            <title>Should I Have Asked For Templeton Money?</title>
            <description><![CDATA[On his <a href="http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/">blog, Preposterous Universe</a>,&nbsp;Caltech Physicist Sean Carroll explains why he will not take money from the John Templeton Foundation (I saw the article <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/05/i_won_t_take_money_from_templeton_science_and_religion_can_t_be_reconciled.html">reprinted at Slate</a>). &nbsp;This gave me pause: did I make a mistake when I applied for a grant through their New Horizons program, and an even bigger mistake when I accepted grant money to work on the research I proposed?<div><br /></div><img alt="Screen shot 2013-05-10 at 9.59.19 AM.png" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/Screen%20shot%202013-05-10%20at%209.59.19%20AM.png" width="435" height="63" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" /><div>I encourage you to <a href="http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2013/05/08/on-templeton/">read his post</a>, because he makes a cogent argument, and I don't want to address all of the points he makes (because it would take me longer than I want to spend on the topic).<br /><div><br /></div><div>Dr. Carroll's main point follows from his naturalism and atheism.&nbsp; He believes that religion and science are fundamentally irreconcilable, and he believes that the John Templeton Foundation is dedicated to contradicting that belief. &nbsp;He writes:</div></div><div><br /></div><div><blockquote style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;"><div>Any time respectable scientists take money from Templeton, they lend their respectability--even if only implicitly--to the idea that science and religion are just different paths to the same ultimate truth.</div></blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Carroll does not take money from the John Templeton Foundation because to do so would "dilute the message" that naturalism "is arguably the single most important bit of progress in fundamental ontology over the last 500 years" and that it "can really change people's lives." &nbsp;He considers such dilution a "grave disservice" to humanity. &nbsp;He wants the world to be more atheist because this will make it a better place, and he says that there is "no question that Templeton has been actively preventing" this message from spreading. &nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>I agree that his message is an important one to share, so let me assert it: &nbsp;science and religion are not different paths to the same ultimate truth, and science can make the world a better place, both materially and ethically. &nbsp;And I see Carroll's reasoning, but I don't share Carroll's conclusions. &nbsp;Now, I'm certainly in a compromised position,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/a-wise-search-for-kardashev-civilizations.html">being actively supported by a Templeton grant</a>, in that I have strong motivations to rationalize taking the money. &nbsp;But I am pretty sure that my position would not be any different if the question were a purely hypothetical one.&nbsp;</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Here is the salient part of John Templeton Foundation's <a href="http://www.templeton.org/who-we-are/about-the-foundation/mission">stated mission</a>: "We encourage civil, informed dialogue among scientists, philosophers, and theologians and between such experts and the public at large, for the purposes of definitional clarity and new insights."</div><div><br /></div><div>Further, they support "Big Questions" with fundamental implications for philosophy and, yes, religion. &nbsp;Questions like whether the Universe is deterministic, causal, and finitely old have real, serious ramifications in theology; in the past 200 years, science has answered them (no, yes, and yes, at least within its positivist framework). &nbsp;Questions like those in <a href="http://www.newfrontiersinastronomy.org/research-grant-program.html">the "New Frontiers in Astronomy and Cosmology" research grant program</a> do, too. &nbsp;It doesn't seem nefarious to me at all that a religious institution would want clarity on those topics. &nbsp;Would Carroll refuse money from, say, the Vatican Observatory to investigate these topics? &nbsp;I presume so (and that his reason is that they believe that clarity should flow the other way -- from religion into science -- too).</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm glad that theologians and clerics find science to be an important aspect of their work. &nbsp;Where would be be without <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre">George Lemaître</a>? &nbsp;I find the boundaries between science and religion interesting and worthwhile to explore <i>on philosophical grounds</i>. &nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>All that said, I am not religious. &nbsp;Professionally, I assume that the Universe is governed by Natural Law, which I sometimes call the "no miracles" assumption. &nbsp;I assume this because that is the fundamental postulate of science (which cannot be proven or disproven by scientific inquiry because whenever you are not making this assumption, you are not practicing science). &nbsp;Personally, I live my life as though this assumption were true (I do not believe beyond doubt that there is no God of any kind, but does not make me "agnostic" any more than <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1655720,00.html">a practicing and devout Catholic who has doubts</a> and acknowledges the unprovability of their beliefs is "agnostic".) &nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>First of all, I know lots of good, religious scientists. &nbsp;Do I "dilute the message" of atheism by collaborating with them? &nbsp;My Astronomy 101 class is filled with the names and accomplishments of the founders science and astronomy: Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, and many more. &nbsp;Do I "dilute the message" of atheism by telling my students that most of them were religious? &nbsp;I suppose I do in both cases, but science is a social endeavor done by real, messy people, and I embrace that.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>Secondly, do I implicitly endorse the aims of any funding agency I take money from? &nbsp;I suppose I must to some extent -- I would not take money from an organization whose aims in giving me that money I thought were evil. &nbsp;But the John Templeton Foundation's stated aims are to explore the boundaries of science and religion, not to undermine science. &nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, if the board of the Foundation believes that this exploration may reveal deep, spiritual truths, well, they might be right (because science can answer big questions that religion asks). &nbsp;If they believe this exploration will be reciprocal -- that a spiritual exploration will reveal deep truths about astronomy and cosmology -- well, I'm not afraid to say I believe they're wrong, and I don't see how the grant program I applied to could do that, besides. &nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>I guess the big difference I have with Carroll is that I'm too pluralist to evangelize my non-religiousness on this point. &nbsp;I don't think I'm being naive about the John Templeton Foundation's aims; I just don't see much about them to be bothered by.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>To Carroll I would argue this: I don't think that the message of atheism will spread without dialog with non-atheists, and I see the John Templeton Foundation's mission as being the active encouragement of that exactly that dialog. &nbsp;Perhaps it's true that they have an idea of where they think this dialog will lead that Carroll (and I) strongly disagree with, but since Carroll isn't arguing that they are putting their thumbs on the scales, so what?</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>At any rate, I'm happy to be a part of that dialog, in my own tangential way. &nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>One last point: &nbsp;I think that Carroll is not correct (or, at least, not precise) when he writes this:</div><div><br /></div><div><blockquote style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;"><div>Due to the efforts of many smart people over the course of many years, scholars who are experts in the fundamental nature of reality have <a href="http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2013/04/29/what-do-philosophers-believe/">by a wide majority</a> concluded that God does not exist.&nbsp;</div></blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div>I think it would be more precise to day that they have concluded that they have "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Simon_Laplace#Religious_opinions">no need for that hypothesis</a>" (to misquote Laplace). &nbsp;"God" means a lot of things to a lot of people, and I think Carroll's perception of "religion" here is pretty narrowly focused on a particular set of of Western religious beliefs he rejects (i.e. those that insist the Universe is not governed entirely by Natural Law ("miracles exist"), or that divine inspiration can yield scientific truths). &nbsp;I don't think that's all that the John Templeton Foundation has in mind; &nbsp;the variety of human religious and spiritual experience goes far beyond that. &nbsp; &nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>But regardless of what one means by "religion", questions like the ultimate origin of the Universe and Natural Law may be beyond scientific inquiry (to believe otherwise is, I think, an act of unjustified faith). &nbsp;It can give us great comfort to live our lives according to some not-disprovable assumptions about their answers, and I do not begrudge anyone their succor against existential darkness (after all, we all must have our own). &nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>]]></description>
            <link>http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/2013/05/should-i-have-asked-for-templeton-money.html</link>
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            <pubDate>Fri, 10 May 2013 08:56:22 -0500</pubDate>
	    
	    
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            <title>Is That a White or Brown Trendy Degenerate Dwarf?</title>
            <description><![CDATA[<div>Jill Tarter was just here at Penn State, and at the beginning of her colloquium told us that she coined the term "brown dwarf" in her PhD thesis title<sup>1</sup> because atmosphere codes weren't good enough then to determine what the infrared colors would actually be, so she chose "brown" "because brown is not a color." &nbsp;Even today, brown dwarf colors are causing problems!</div><div><br /></div>Justin Crepp has been getting AO imaging of our planet-search targets, helping us to figure out what the causes of our "trendy" stars are. &nbsp;I've written about his work discovering benchmark M dwarfs orbiting nearby stars before <a href="http://bit.ly/UyoiPE">here</a> and <a href="http://bit.ly/Tt8tGs">here</a>.<div><br /></div><img alt="Screen shot 2013-05-08 at 12.18.55 PM.png" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/Screen%20shot%202013-05-08%20at%2012.18.55%20PM.png" width="100%" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" /><div>The basic idea is that our precise RV monitoring for decades of nearby stars often reveals long, slow accelerations of the star due to an unseen stellar companion. &nbsp;We occasionally see some curvature and can constrain the orbit, but usually we just see a constant acceleration, a "trend" in the radial velocities that we subtract off when we look for planets. &nbsp;Justin then goes digging with Keck adaptive optics to find those stellar companions. &nbsp;The ones whose orbits are not too long can then have their orbits analyzed and Justin can determine masses for both components, making them new benchmark objects (since they should share ages and metallicities).</div><div><br /></div><div>Well, <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.0571">Justin has a new result that's pretty cool</a>. &nbsp;When following up the trend in HD 114174 (above) he found this companion (below) with the neutral NIR colors and absolute magnitude of a brown dwarf. &nbsp;A nearby benchmark late T dwarf!</div><img alt="Screen shot 2013-05-08 at 12.23.15 PM.png" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/Screen%20shot%202013-05-08%20at%2012.23.15%20PM.png" width="418" height="519" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" /><div>T dwarfs have neutral ("blue") near infrared colors because they have a lot of absorption features from high pressure molecular gasses (such as collisionally induced absorption from hydrogen gas) their atmospheres. &nbsp;So even though they are cold, they aren't "red". &nbsp;Teasing apart the degeneracies between gravity and temperature in brown dwarf atmospheres would be much easier with a benchmark object like this with a known mass and age (eventually).</div><div><br /></div><div>The only catch is that there is no way that this brown dwarf could create the RV trend we see. &nbsp;The implied minimum mass of the object is over 0.25 solar masses: &nbsp;it's got to be a star at that separation!</div><div><br /></div><div>Justin's conclusion: &nbsp;it's actually a white dwarf! &nbsp;The high temperature of a white dwarf would make it as bright as a brown dwarf, even though it is 10 times smaller, and also make its colors quite neutral. &nbsp;White dwarfs also have collisionally induced absorption from hydrogen, which further makes their colors similar. &nbsp;Crazy!</div><div><br /></div><div>So this, as far as I know, is the first compact object confirmed to come out of the [radial velocity] planet search programs. &nbsp;It's also going to be a useful nearby, benchmark white dwarf, to go along with Sirius B and Procyon B. &nbsp;It is not the first degenerate object, though, because brown dwarfs are supported by electron degeneracy pressure, like white dwarfs. &nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><sup>1</sup> It's true, look it up in the <a href="http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/256302?redirectedFrom=brown+dwarf">Oxford English Dictionary</a> or <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/81685/brown-dwarf">Encyclopaedia Britannica</a>.<div><br /></div><div>[<b>Update</b>: Yes, I meant the first compact object from the precise RV surveys. &nbsp;Kepler has discovered a few white dwarfs at this point.]</div>]]></description>
            <link>http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/2013/05/is-that-a-white-or-brown-trendy-degenerate-dwarf.html</link>
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            <pubDate>Wed, 08 May 2013 12:09:38 -0500</pubDate>
	    
	    
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            <title>MARVELS-1: A case study in healthy paranoia in science (Part I)</title>
            <description><![CDATA[My first experience using the HET spectrograph for precise radial velocities was as soon as I arrived here at Penn State 3.5 years ago. &nbsp;Suvrath Mahadevan had asked me to get some RVs for some candidates from MARVELS, the multiplexed Doppler instrument on the Sloan telescope, and part of SDSS-III.&nbsp;<div><br /></div><div>MARVELS had detected many apparent radial velocity variations of stars, and the best candidates (that is, the ones most likely to be due to planets) needed some follow-up observations with a more precise instrument.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>One star in particular, TYC-1240-954-1, showed a clear signal from a brown-dwarf mass object in a 6-day orbit. &nbsp;It was a unique discovery in mass-period space, and getting the orbit with an instrument like HET would be easy -- fish in a barrel. &nbsp;The only problem was I had no Doppler code suitable for HET.</div><div><br /></div><div>So I called up Debra Fischer and asked for her Doppler code, and calling upon all of my powers of graduate school, wrote my own "quick and dirty" raw reduction pipeline for the High Resolution Spectrometer at HET (HRS). &nbsp;Lots of diagnostic chats with Debra later (including a visit to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study to get things going) I finally managed to get a rough pipeline installed on my Mac. &nbsp;I still remember being holed up in my mother-in-law's guest bedroom, trying to get the velocities out before Christmas so that they could go on Brian Lee's AAS poster announcing the thing (and so that I could get back to Christmas!). &nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><img alt="apj377130f2_lr.jpg" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/apj377130f2_lr.jpg" width="100%" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" /><blockquote style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;"><div>Figure 2 from <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011ApJ...728...32L&amp;db_key=AST&amp;link_type=ABSTRACT&amp;high=4025f809aa26647">Lee et al.</a>, announcing MARVELS-1 b, the brown dwarf companion to MARVELS-1.</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>The velocities were disappointing. &nbsp;They strongly confirmed the 6-d orbit, but the residuals to the fit were around 100 m/s, which was way too high for the iodine technique. &nbsp;I had expected more like 10 m/s, given the faintness of the target and the rough nature of the Doppler code.</div><div><br /></div><div>Once the <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011ApJ...728...32L&amp;db_key=AST&amp;link_type=ABSTRACT&amp;high=4025f809aa26647">paper was published</a>, I went back to see where things had fallen apart. &nbsp;Could it have been the barycentric correction? &nbsp;Maybe the instrumental profile was totally wrong.</div><div><br /></div><div>But the more I pushed, the weirder things got. &nbsp;Other MARVELS stars we looked at came back fine. &nbsp;Standard stars like sigma Draconis came back fine. &nbsp;The code seemed to be working at the 3-10 m/s level, which is about where HET had always performed. &nbsp;Something was different about MARVELS-1.</div><div><br /></div><div>Graduate students Sharon Wang and Sara Gettel got a proper raw reduction pipeline going with REDUCE. &nbsp;The residuals remained. &nbsp;Sharon and I got John Johnson's Doppler code running here at Penn State. &nbsp;The residuals remained. &nbsp;We tested John's pipeline on standard stars and optimized it for HET. &nbsp;The residuals remained.</div><div><br /></div><div>So I started looking at those residuals: &nbsp;maybe there was a diurnal signal because we had the position of the star on the sky wrong? &nbsp;This star did not have a Hipparcos position, so it might be high proper motion or something. &nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>When I plotted the residuals by sidereal time, I saw an obvious pattern. &nbsp;Aha! &nbsp;The culprit was found! &nbsp;But the signal was not at a sidereal day, or even a solar day. &nbsp;It was at <i>roughly</i> 2 sidereal days -- but not <i>exactly</i> 2 sidereal days.</div><div><br /></div><div>I poked around; what could cause this signal? &nbsp;Then I realized that the apparent period of the 100 m/s residuals was <i>exactly one third of the period of the brown dwarf</i>. &nbsp; When I fit a two-planet solution to the data, we got roughly the residuals we expected, around 10 m/s, and the periods showed a perfect 3:1 commensuribility.</div><div><br /></div><div>This was something new! &nbsp;A hot Jupiter orbiting in a 3:1 resonance interior to a brown dwarf. &nbsp;This was big. &nbsp;This was a press release. &nbsp;This was exciting. &nbsp;This was my first really big result as Penn State faculty.</div><div><br /></div><div>This was the beginning of a very long journey to a very long paper. &nbsp;Those who have seen the astro-ph posting know the punchline, but I'll continue the story, and the suspense, in another installment.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><a href="http://bit.ly/12u7vio">[Part II is here]</a></b></div><div><br /></div>]]></description>
            <link>http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/2013/05/marvels-1-a-case-study-in-healthy-paranoia-in-science-part-i.html</link>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 07 May 2013 08:05:21 -0500</pubDate>
	    
	    
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            <title>University Park, State College Station, etc.</title>
            <description><![CDATA[<font face="Georgia, serif"><span style="line-height: 20.796875px;">I was at <a href="http://www.bjc.psu.edu/Events/bob_seger__the_silver_bullet_band/718.aspx">a concert at the Bryce Jordan Center</a> on campus a couple of nights ago, and <a href="http://www.bjc.psu.edu/Events/bob_seger__the_silver_bullet_band/718.aspx">the headliner</a> accidentally called out to all of us in "College Station". &nbsp;He graciously corrected himself in the encore (working in both "State College" and "Happy Valley" into his banter). &nbsp; I bet it's a common mistake for musicians to forget which town they're in, and even commoner amongst the variously named college towns.</span></font><div><font face="Georgia, serif"><span style="line-height: 20.796875px;"><br /></span></font></div><div><font face="Georgia, serif"><span style="line-height: 20.796875px;">For those who still aren't sure where or what Penn State is, here is a handy guide in both list and graphical form:<br /></span></font><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">"PSU", "Penn State", or The Pennsylvania State University Nittany Lions. That's us.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">"Penn" is&nbsp;<i>usually</i>&nbsp;the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. They're Quakers, not lions. &nbsp;It's not technically wrong to refer to us as "Penn", but unnecessarily confusing.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">Penn Station: Famous train station in New York (and other places). Not us.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">College Station: City hosting the Texas A&amp;M Aggies. Not us.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">College Park: City hosting the University of Maryland Terrapins. Not us.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">State College: Town hosting PSU. Us.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">University Station: Campus name of the University of Texas Longhorns in Austin. Not us.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">University Park: Campus name of PSU. Us.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">Park University: In Missouri. Not us.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">University College: School in London. Not us.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">College University: Web comic. Not us.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">State University: Common appellation of public schools in US. Sort of us.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">State Park: Common appellation of public parks in US. Not us at all.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">Park State: Bank in Duluth. Not us.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">State Station: On the T in Boston. Not us.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">Park Station: Condos in Utah. Not us.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">Station Park: Hotel in London, Ontario. Not us.&nbsp;</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">[<b>Update</b>: Adam Kraus informs me that Park University was once Park College. &nbsp;Add another one to the grid below.]</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><font face="Georgia, serif"><span style="line-height: 20.796875px;">In graphical form:</span></font></div><div><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><table border="1" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.796875px;"><tbody><tr><td><br /></td><td>University</td><td>State</td><td>Park</td><td>Station</td><td>College</td></tr><tr><td>University</td><td>x</td><td>x</td><td>Us</td><td><a href="https://foursquare.com/v/us-post-office--university-station/4b82cd27f964a520dbe530e3">Texas</a></td><td><a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/">London</a></td></tr><tr><td>State</td><td>Us</td><td>x</td><td>Not us</td><td><a href="http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/lines/stations/?stopId=14471">T stop</a><br /></td><td>Us</td></tr><tr><td>Park</td><td><a href="http://www.park.edu/">Missouri</a><br /></td><td><a href="https://www.parkstatebank.com/">Bank</a></td><td>x</td><td><a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g57097-d99825-Reviews-Park_Station_Resort_Condominium-Park_City_Utah.html">Condo</a></td><td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_University">Missouri</a></td></tr><tr><td>Station</td><td>x</td><td>x<br /></td><td><a href="http://www.stationparkinn.ca/">Hotel</a></td><td>x</td><td>x</td></tr><tr><td>College</td><td><a href="http://www.newgrounds.com/collection/collegeuniversity">Comic</a></td><td>x</td><td><a href="http://www.collegeparkmd.gov/">Maryland</a></td><td><a href="http://www.tamu.edu/">A&amp;M</a></td><td>x<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p> </p></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.796875px;">I hope that clears things up.</span></div>]]></description>
            <link>http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/2013/05/university-park-state-college-station-etc.html</link>
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            <pubDate>Sat, 04 May 2013 14:55:11 -0500</pubDate>
	    
	    
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            <title>Ethics and Evil</title>
            <description><![CDATA[One of my hats at Penn State is as a <a href="http://rockethics.psu.edu/">Rock Ethics</a> Fellow, which means I've had a short training course in ethics (with a focus on applications to an academic context) and serve as a visible resource for people with ethical quandries. &nbsp;This was instituted before the late unpleasantness, but has gotten higher visibility since then. &nbsp;<div><br /></div><div>I try to work ethical academic and research behavior into my classes. &nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>In my First Year Seminar class the focus is on academic dishonesty and the virtues of time management. &nbsp;We discuss how cheating is antithetical to the students' avowed reason for being in college (it's about learning not the grades) and also simply unfair. We discuss hypotheticals like "If the dean offered to give you your BA right now, no questions asked, would you take it" (this is their first semester on campus). &nbsp;I argue that time management is a virtue because it prevents you from encountering ethical dilemmas in the first place. &nbsp;If you are never late or behind on things and have a sense for how much free time you have, then you don't encounter as many dilemmas with no good solution (do I cram for this test or help a friend in need tonight?)</div><div><br /></div><img alt="images.jpeg" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/images.jpeg" width="228" height="169" class="mt-image-right" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;" /><div>In my introductory astronomy class for nonmajors the focus is on how being skeptical of yourself and your motives, and recognizing our minds' inherent illogical habits. &nbsp;Knowing that we all suffer from confirmation bias and motivated reasoning helps us recognize it in others and ourselves, and helps us prevent ourselves from wrongly justifying unethical behavior. &nbsp;I argue that a skeptical, scientific approach to things will help us better recognize when what we want is actually unethical and make better choices.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, in a <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_spectator/2013/04/macbeth_and_the_shakespearian_roots_of_evil_in_the_boston_marathon_bombing.single.html">recent review</a> of a novel adaptation of Macbeth, (a review disguised as a meditation on the meaning of evil in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings),&nbsp;<a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_spectator/2013/04/macbeth_and_the_shakespearian_roots_of_evil_in_the_boston_marathon_bombing.single.html">Ron Rosenblum writes</a>:</div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;"><div><div>Perhaps the best response to laying off the blame for evil to ideology or theology comes from Murray Kempton... [who] tossed off one of the single wisest things I've ever heard said about ideology and evil: "It took me a while to discover this," he said, "but the biggest mistake you can make is to follow your ideas <b>[i.e. act on them according]</b> to their logical conclusions. You can make a lot of other [mistakes], and every now and then you can be right. But when you follow your ideas to their logical conclusions you are always wrong."&nbsp;</div></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>(Bold edit mine). &nbsp;This also strikes me as wise, and here is why. &nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>A major problem in ethics is to what degree one must respect opinions we disagree with, when they lead others to commit acts we consider unethical. &nbsp;I feel that being a pluralist society means that we sacrifice our impulse to require others to live by our moral standards, and in exchange we acquire the right to live by our own unmolested (though not, of course, unchallenged). &nbsp;This must have its limits, of course, but in general those limits roughly correspond to the boundary between personal and social behavior: &nbsp;your right to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose (or your child's.... that's one place things start getting complicated).</div><div><br /></div><div>A major reason that Kempton's words are wise (and scientific thinking supports ethical thinking) is that it comes from an understanding that all knowledge is (and should be) provisional. &nbsp;Having the courage of one's convictions is only absolutely justified if one's convictions are fully informed. &nbsp;As scientists we know that that is rarely the case, and, even worse, we are easily mistaken about the amount of certainty our beliefs warrant.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the influential essay <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/23/books/the-opening-of-the-american-mind.html?pagewanted=all&amp;src=pm">The Opening of the American Mind</a>&nbsp;Arthur&nbsp;Schlesinger Jr. discusses the American impulse for pluralism and how it deals with its variety of absolute moralities in an anecdote that has haunted and guided me since I read it in high school:</div><blockquote style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;"><div><br /></div><div>'Deep-seated preferences,'' as Justice Holmes put it, ''cannot be argued about . . . and therefore, when differences are sufficiently far-reaching, we try to kill the other man rather than let him have his way. But that is perfectly consistent with admitting that, so far as it appears, his grounds are just as good as ours.''</div><div><br /></div><div>Once Justice Holmes and Judge Learned Hand discussed these questions on a long train ride. Learned Hand gave as his view that ''opinions are at best provisional hypotheses, incompletely tested. The more they are tested . . . the more assurance we may assume, but they are never absolutes. So we must be tolerant of opposite opinions.'' Holmes wondered whether Hand might not be carrying his tolerance to dangerous lengths. ''You say,'' Hand wrote Holmes later, ''that I strike at the sacred right to kill the other fellow when he disagrees. The horrible possibility silenced me when you said it. Now, I say, 'Not at all, kill him for the love of Christ and in the name of God, but always remember that he may be the saint and you the devil.' ''</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Act boldly, but skeptically. &nbsp;Words to live by.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>[Update: </b>Dr. J points out an ambiguity in the phrase "follow your ideas to their logical conclusions". &nbsp;In the sense of the article I'm quoting, it means "act according to those ideas' logical conclusions" not "think through the logical consequences of your beliefs". &nbsp;The latter is crucial to critical thinking, the former lead can lead to great evil. For instance, "abortion is murder of innocents" and "murderers should receive the death penalty" are reasonable beliefs many people hold. &nbsp;Executing every woman who has willingly obtained an abortion would be evil.]</div>]]></description>
            <link>http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/2013/04/ethics-and-evil.html</link>
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            <pubDate>Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:43:08 -0500</pubDate>
	    
	    
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            <title>Linkedy Links</title>
            <description><![CDATA[<img alt="click-me.jpg" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/click-me.jpg" class="mt-image-right" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;" width="110" />In the spirit of <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/">Steinn Sigur<span class="st">ð</span>sson's periodic "Linkedy Links" posts on his blog</a>, I present my own roundup (most courtesy of him, actually):<br /><br />There is <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21829112.100-alien-megaprojects-the-hunt-has-begun.html">an article in New Scientist</a> (free login required, or go <a href="http://engineeringevil.com/2013/04/09/alien-megaprojects-the-hunt-has-begun/">here</a>) about the new wave of archaeology SETI, including work by AstroWright buddies Lucianne Walkowicz and Andrew Howard.<br /><br />Centauri Dreams is on the Dyson sphere beat with two entries, including coverage of the New Scientist article:<br /><a href="http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=27233">Archaeology on an Interstellar Scale</a><br /><a href="http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=27251">Finding ET in the Data</a><br /><br />Speaking of, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576513001148">here is an interesting argument by Armstrong and Sandberg</a> that Type III Kardashev civilizations are not ambitious enough:&nbsp; if you can travel the stars then you should inevitably span <i>multiple</i> galaxies.&nbsp; I think this might be right.<br /><br />Popular Science online had an initial reaction to the IAU press release <a href="http://t.co/aKrEIm65Fp">here</a>.
They fixed it, and interviewed me for the longer article <a href="http://t.co/FpcsEOv1zK">here.</a><br /><br />Finally, more pics and text about the first telescope of the Minerva array <a href="http://mahalonottrash.blogspot.com/2013/04/minerva-update-eagle-has-landed.html">here on John Johnson's blog</a>.<br /><br /><br />]]></description>
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            <pubDate>Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:28:00 -0500</pubDate>
	    
	    
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            <title>What the IAU should have written</title>
            <description><![CDATA[<div>Here is a marked-up version of <a href="http://www.iau.org/public_press/news/detail/iau1301/">the press release</a> whose text I would have not objected to (except that I think the entire endeavor was totally unnecessary and motivated by a misguided attempt to bash Uwingu, but that is not my fight).</div><div><br /></div>  <style type="text/css">
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 <p class="p6"><b>In the light of recent events, where the possibility of </b><span class="s3"><b>buying the rights to name</b></span><b> </b><span class="s2"><b>nominating or voting on popular names for</b></span><b> exoplanets has been advertised, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) wishes to inform the public that </b><span class="s3"><b>such schemes have no bearing on the official naming process </b></span><span class="s2"><b>astronomers do not use such names and the international astronomical community currently has no plans to do so</b></span><b>. The IAU wholeheartedly welcomes the public's interest to be involved in recent discoveries, but would like to strongly stress the importance of having a unified naming procedure</b><span class="s2"><b> for official names and designations</b></span><b>.</b></p>
<p class="p6">More than 800 planets outside the Solar System have been found to date, with thousands more waiting to be confirmed. Detection methods in this field are steadily and quickly increasing -- meaning that many more exoplanets will undoubtedly be discovered in the months and years to come.</p>
<p class="p6">Recently, an organisation has invited the public to purchase both nomination proposals for exoplanets, and rights to vote for the suggested <span class="s2">popular </span>names. In return, the purchaser receives a certificate commemorating the validity and credibility of the nomination<span class="s2"> with the organization</span>. <span class="s3">Such certificates are misleading, as these campaigns have no bearing on the official naming process -- they will not lead to</span><span class="s2">The IAU stresses that these certificates are not from the IAU and that there is currently no process that would accept the certificate as indicating </span>an officially-recognised exoplanet name, <span class="s3">despite</span> <span class="s2">regardless of </span>the price paid or the number of votes accrued.</p>
<p class="p6">Upon discovery, exoplanets and other astronomical objects <span class="s2">usually </span>receive unambiguous <span class="s3">and official</span> catalogue designations<span class="s2">, according to a convention adopted by astronomers and recognised by the IAU</span>. While exoplanet names such as 16 Cygni Bb or HD 41004 Ab may seem boring when considering the names of planets in our own Solar System, the vast number of objects in our Universe -- galaxies, stars, and planets to name just a few -- means that a clear and systematic system for naming these objects is vital. Any naming system is a scientific issue that must also work across different languages and cultures in order to support collaborative worldwide research and avoid confusion.</p>
<p class="p6">To make this possible, the IAU <span class="s2">has the authority to </span>act<span class="s3">s</span> as a single arbiter of the naming process, and is advised and supported by astronomers within different fields. As an international scientific organisation, it dissociates itself entirely from the commercial practice of selling <span class="s2">"official"</span> names of planets, stars or or even "real estate" on other planets or moons. <span class="s3">These practices will not be recognised by the IAU and their alternative naming schemes cannot be adopted.</span></p>
<p class="p6">However, the IAU greatly appreciates and wishes to acknowledge the increasing interest from the general public in being more closely involved in the discovery and understanding of our Universe. As a result in 2013 the IAU Commission 53 <a href="http://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/commissions/53/"><span class="s4"><i>Extrasolar Planets</i></span></a> and other IAU members will be consulted on the topic of having popular names for exoplanets, and the results will be made public on the <a href="http://www.iau.org/"><span class="s4">IAU website</span></a>. Meanwhile, astronomers <span class="s3">and the public are encouraged to</span> <span class="s2">will</span> keep using the existing accepted nomenclature <a href="http://www.iau.org/public_press/news/detail/iau1301/#1"><span class="s4">[1]</span></a> -- details of which can be found on the <i>Astronomy for the Public</i> section of the IAU web page, under <a href="http://www.iau.org/public/naming/"><span class="s4"><i>Naming Astronomical Objects</i></span></a>.</p>
<h3 style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; color: #333333; background-color: #ffffff"><b>Notes</b></h3>
<p class="p7"><span class="s4">[1]</span><span class="s1"> </span><span class="s3">A c</span><span class="s2">C</span>atalogue<span class="s2">s</span> of the exoplanets discovered, with their <span class="s3">officially assigned</span> <span class="s2">generally accepted </span>catalogue designations, can be consulted in the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia (<a href="http://exoplanet.eu/"><span class="s4">http://exoplanet.eu/</span></a>)<span class="s3">.</span><span class="s2">, the Exoplanet Orbit Database (<a href="exoplanets.org"><span class="s5">http://exoplanets.org</span></a>) and the Exoplanet Archive (<a href="http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/"><span class="s5">http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/</span></a>)</span></p>]]></description>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 15 Apr 2013 09:43:36 -0500</pubDate>
	    
	    
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            <title>Some Points Of Clarification</title>
            <description><![CDATA[<div><p class="p9">A<span style="font-family: Arial;">&nbsp;few points of clarification about my earlier post, in response to the large volume of responses I received:</span></p><div><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial;"><b>"The IAU does not name planets" (by which, of course, I meant "exoplanets"):</b></p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial;">1) Obviously, the IAU has the power to decide on official names an designations for celestial objects. My point is that it has never formally exercised its power for exoplanets, despite claiming in the press release that "Upon discovery, exoplanets and other astronomical objects receive unambiguous and official catalogue designations." The word "official" there is this highly misleading, because it suggests that the IAU has some role in giving planets designations.</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(51, 50, 51);">2) The IAU has had a quasi-official list of planets and names as recently as 2006, when the Working Group on Exoplanets was dissolved. I pointed this out in my original post. This list was never adopted by the General Assembly, to my knowledge.</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial;">3) The IAU Working Group on Exoplanets (now Commission 53) unofficially blessed the practice of adding a lowercase letter starting with 'b' after a valid star name, increasing in order of planet discovery. It did not invent this scheme, nor did it ever enforce it when competing schemes or ambiguous cases appeared in the literature; the scheme arose organically amongst the early planet hunters and is applied inconsistently (for instance, HD 10180 b, GJ 581 g, the mu Arae system).</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial;">4) I would be fine with the IAU resolving naming disputes of planets, like those in the mu Arae system, for instance. This would require, at a minimum, a vote from Commission 53, as I understand things.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>I'm not calling on them to do this, though; bureaucracies are slow, and it's probably unnecessary because these cases are not so common that I can't keep track of them. &nbsp;So far.</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(51, 50, 51);">5) I don't think there is a global conspiracy going on here; I think that in its haste to condemn Uwingu the IAU misstated its role in naming planets. I suspect that most of this was just sloppiness, and instead of using the term "official" the IAU should have simply referred to the convention that astronomers usually follow. I think they unnecessarily implied that the IAU has been involved in planet nomenclature to give themselves greater rhetorical authority on the subject in order to bash Uwingu.</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial;"><b>"The IAU press release cannot represent IAU policy":</b></p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial;">6)&nbsp;My original use of the phrase "rogue press agent" improperly implied that I believed the press agent acted without the authority of the IAU General Secretary or the Commission President. I did not mean to imply that or to insult Mr. Christensen, and I apologize. "Rogue" referred to the fact the assertions in the press release did not reflect any vote by the relevant committee or by the General Assembly.&nbsp;I have edited the post.</p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial;">7) My issue was not with the IAU pointing to exoplanet.eu as an example of how astronomers give names to exoplanets, which is fine, of course. Indeed, it was Jean Schneider's hard work on exoplanet.eu that led the Working Group to abandon its efforts at keeping its own list. My issue is with the IAU stating that the names and planets on that list have "officially assigned catalog designations", which is false. There is nothing "official" about those names. Indeed that list differs from mine because of differing standards for calling something a planet and differing applications of the unofficial convention for nomenclature.</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial;">Commission 53 is charged with resolving these issues, but has not done so yet, so the endorsement of that list without a vote is premature and inappropriate.</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial;"><b>Uwingu:</b></p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial;">8) I have no role in Uwingu and have not contributed to their organization.&nbsp;I applaud their overall goals, I respect its board and team, and I am sure they are not running a "scam."&nbsp;I take no position on the wisdom of their planet naming contest because I don't have strong opinion about it.</p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial;">9) I pointed out in my post that Uwingu should make it clearer to casual readers of their website that their names would not necessarily be IAU sanctioned. I think the Uwingu team and board thinks this is already clear, and I think they did not intend to suggest otherwise.</p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial;">10) Many people wanted to know if I would use the names that win votes at Uwingu. My answer: not unless they appeared as useful designations in the peer-reviewed literature, and even then I would prefer IAU sanction.&nbsp;I note&nbsp;Uwingu is clear that it is proposing "popular" names for exoplanets, which astronomers often use in press releases but very rarely in peer-reviewed papers.</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p></div><p></p></div>]]></description>
            <link>http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/2013/04/some-points-of-clarification.html</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 15 Apr 2013 06:54:21 -0500</pubDate>
	    
	    
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            <title>No, the IAU does NOT officially name planets</title>
            <description><![CDATA[<img alt="UwinguLogo-v2.png" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/UwinguLogo-v2.png" width="150" height="129" class="mt-image-left" style="float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;" />The IAU has <a href="http://www.iau.org/public_press/news/detail/iau1301/">issued a statement</a> regarding the naming of planets by a group called Uwingu that is misleading or inaccurate in several ways. &nbsp;Reading it, one could be forgiven for coming away believing that the IAU has given official names to planets, that these names can be found at <a href="exoplanet.eu">exoplanet.eu</a>, and that the commission responsible for this process has refused to consider Uwingu's names. &nbsp;All three implications are absolutely false. &nbsp;<div><br /></div><div><div>The IAU states "<b>In the light of recent events, where the possibility of buying the rights to name exoplanets has been advertised, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) wishes to inform the public that such schemes have no bearing on the official naming process....&nbsp;</b><b style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">&nbsp;they will not lead to an officially-recognised exoplanet name, despite the price paid or the number of votes accrued.</b><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); &gt;" <="" span=""></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">This is misleading for several reasons:</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>1) Contrary to the press release's implication, t</b></span><b style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">he IAU does not name planets.</b><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">In the 20 years since the discovery of exoplanets, the IAU has never officially named any of them. There is not even an official scheme for binary stars, or an official definition of an exoplanet! &nbsp;(There are recommendations and conventions for both, but these do not carry the official weight of an IAU definition, which is what the press release implies. &nbsp;For instance, the oft-used 13 Jupiter mass threshold for planet-hood was endorsed by an IAU Working Group as a useful working definition, but it is not "official". &nbsp;The planet definition that killed Pluto explicitly applies only to Solar System objects.)</span></div><div><br /></div><div><b>2) Contrary to the press releases's assertion, t</b><b style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">here is no "official naming process."</b><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">&nbsp;</span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">As another part of the IAU statement makes clear, the IAU may establish one in the future through its Commission 53.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><b>3) Contrary to the press release's assertion,&nbsp;Commission 53 has not foreclosed the possibility of using Uwingu's names.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div>Since there is no official process, there has been no decision about what names to use. &nbsp;Thus, t<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">here is no reason that the Uwingu database could not be used in a future process established by the IAU</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">. &nbsp;That decision is up to the members of Commission 53, not an IAU press agent [<b>Update:&nbsp;</b>or any other signatory of the press release]. &nbsp;In fact, I'll bet the members of Uwingu, given their prominent status in the astronomical community, will ask the members of Commission 53 to use their database as a source of potential names.&nbsp;</span></div><div><br /></div><div><b style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">4) Contrary to the press release's implication, the press release does not and cannot describe official IAU policy.</b><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">&nbsp;</span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">IAU policy is determined by democratic vote of its commissions and General Assembly. &nbsp;Neither has endorsed any nomenclature for planets, much less the assertions of the press release.&nbsp;</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The IAU statement is thus the product of a rogue press <strike>agent</strike> release<sup>*</sup>.</span>&nbsp; I know this because I have contacted a member of Commission 53 and learned that they were not consulted for or even informed of this press release before it went out, and that the commission has not established a naming process since it met in Beijing in 2012.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>5)&nbsp;</b><b style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Contrary to the press release's implication,&nbsp;</b><b>Uwingu is not actually promising to give official names to or to sell naming rights to specific planets</b></div><div>The press release refers to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.uwingu.com/nominate-planet-names/#.UWqO4Ss_9r1">a project by Uwingu to nominate names for astronomers to use to name exoplanets</a>. &nbsp;Uwingu is a <strike>non-profit</strike> organization, founded by scientists, dedicated to funding science, and is trying to raise money and awareness of exoplanets. &nbsp;</div><div><div><br /></div><div>The Uwingu project in question does not promise "rights to name exoplanets". &nbsp;It is compiling a database of names that astronomers, including those in charge of nomenclature at the IAU, might use to name exoplanets. &nbsp;This is quite distinct from&nbsp;<strike>scams</strike>&nbsp;"novelties" like&nbsp;<a href="http://starregistry.com/">the International Star Registry</a>&nbsp;who claim to allow you to "officially" name a particular star. &nbsp;(Today, that registry is careful to point out astronomers will not use your name; in the past they have done everything they could to imply the names would be official.)</div></div><div><br /></div><div>There is an Uwingu contest to name one particular planet -- alpha Centauri B b. &nbsp;They post a letter by that planet's discoverer, Xavier Dumusque, endorsing this contest. &nbsp;This is not a meaningless gesture -- the discoverer of asteroids, for instance, can nominate an official name according to the official IAU naming process.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><i><b>That said, I think that Uwingu should make it much more clear that the IAU could establish such an official naming scheme in the future, and that if it does so it is under no obligation to use Uwingu's names.</b></i>&nbsp; But the IAU's press release goes far beyond this caveat.</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, and this is where things get personal: &nbsp;the press releases states:</div><div>"<b>A catalogue of the exoplanets discovered, with their officially assigned catalogue designations, can be consulted in the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia (http://exoplanet.eu/).</b>"</div><div><br /></div><div>Let's be clear:<b>&nbsp;<a href="exoplanet.eu">exoplanet.eu</a> is NOT an "official" list of exoplanet names, or of exoplanents</b>. Comparison with other lists, such as mine at <a href="exoplanets.org">exoplanets.org</a> or <a href="http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/">the Exoplanet Archive</a> reveals it contains many planets that are not on those lists. &nbsp;This is because those planets have never been subject to peer review, or that their very existence is dubious. &nbsp;The IAU has never officially defined any list, any planet names on any list, or the process by which those planets would appear on those lists. &nbsp;In fact, those times the IAU has given quasi-official status to a list many years ago (for instance, <a href="http://www.dtm.ciw.edu/users/boss/planets.html">here</a>), they did NOT use the list at exoplanet.eu.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is not to disparage exoplanet.eu: &nbsp;it is an invaluable resource that my group uses on a daily basis, and the astronomical community is in debt to Jean Schneider and his team for their hard work on that site. &nbsp;But exoplanet.eu is not an official arm of the IAU, and it does not contain a perfect list of exoplanets.</div><div><br /></div><div>I hope the IAU issues a clarification on all of these points.</div><div><br /></div><div>OK, glad I got that off my chest. :)</div><div><br /></div></div><p><sup>*</sup>[<b>Update 2: </b>My original use of the phrase "rogue press agent" improperly implied that I believed the press agent acted without the authority of the IAU General Secretary or the Commission President. &nbsp;I did not mean to imply that or to insult Mr. Christensen, and I apologize. &nbsp;"Rogue" referred to the fact the assertions in the press release did not reflect any vote by the relevant committee or by the General Assembly.] &nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>[<b>Update:&nbsp;</b>Uwingu is apparently not actually a nonprofit;  I fact-checked that item before adding it (it was not in the 1st version of that post) but now cannot find the source.  The website does say that Uwingu is a for-profit. &nbsp;Still, my point was not so much to praise Uwingu, which I have no involvement in and I have not contributed to, but to point out the IAU's lack of due process.  As for <em>caveat emptor</em>, I know Geoff Marcy, and Alan Stern is a reputable scientist with a true passion for this stuff.  Profits go towards science and education, and the Twitter feed asserts that Uwingu team members do not receive salaries.  Of course, this <em>proves</em> nothing, but given that I know the people involved I'm sure it's not a scam.]</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>@<a href="https://twitter.com/physicschris">physicschris</a> @<a href="https://twitter.com/uwingu">uwingu</a> No one at Uwingu has ever been paid, we have all worked for free from the start.</p>-- Uwingu (@UwinguSky) <a href="https://twitter.com/UwinguSky/status/323236043354697728">April 14, 2013</a></blockquote>
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            <title>First Light!</title>
            <description><![CDATA[I've teamed up with <a href="http://exolab.caltech.edu/">John Johnson</a> and Nate McCrady to build an array of small (0.7 m) telescopes to find rocky planets orbiting the brightest, nearest, Sun-like stars.&nbsp; We call it Project <a href="http://exolab.caltech.edu/research/minerva.html">Minerva</a> (originally this was a sort of portmanteau/initialism of "miniature" and "RV array" and other various ideas from an earlier version of the project; now it's just a distinctive name).&nbsp; <br /><br />Penn State is providing the first of the telescopes, a <a href="http://planewave.com/?page=1&amp;id0=6&amp;id=0">PlaneWave CDK-700</a>.&nbsp; I had originally envisioned that Minerva would join <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/main/index.html">Swift</a>, the <a href="http://www.as.utexas.edu/mcdonald/het/">Hobby-Eberly telescope</a>, and even the rooftop and new arboretum telescopes on campus as part of "Nittary Observatory" (<a href="http://strategicplan.psu.edu/efficiencies">one observatory, geographically distributed</a> echoing our (now-indicted) former president's description of Penn State).&nbsp; <br /><br />Anyway, this first telescope was to be called the PSU Automated Telescope for Exoplanet Reconnaissance at Nittany Observatory (PATERNO).<br /><br />Yeah, I know.&nbsp; Things change.<br /><br />So for now we call the telescope "T1".<br /><br />Anyway, I'll do a blog post on the rationale and methodology later, but for now I'm thrilled to report that T1 is really finally actually ours!&nbsp; <br /><br />The delivery date to our Pasadena testbed was supposed to be April 1, which excited me because I just happened to be giving a talk at Caltech that day (why we bought that delivery date I'll never know:).&nbsp; It was pushed back because of a faulty lens, so I missed delivery, but now everything is ship-shape and ready for use.<br /><br />The Apogee camera doesn't have any filter wheels yet, but we can still take white-light images.&nbsp; Here is the first, of M51:<br />&nbsp; <img alt="M51.jpg" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/M51.jpg" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" height="400" /> The Caltech team apparently used 
tricks from near-infrared astronomers to subtract the bright sky background 
(nodding and subtracting) to produce this "first-light" image.&nbsp; Exposure time is 60s and no flat fielding was performed.&nbsp; Not bad for 2".7 seeing from the middle of Pasadena!&nbsp; Here are our first-night observers in the "<a href="http://lcogt.net/tags/aqawan">aqawan</a>" enclosure on E. California Boulevard across from Cahill:<br /><br /><img alt="IMG_9563.jpeg" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/IMG_9563.jpeg" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" height="320" /><br /><br />Actually, I'm told first light was really the crescent moon (I guess they couldn't wait to get on sky)!<br /><img alt="photo2.jpg" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/photo2.jpg" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" height="336" /><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /><br /></div>]]></description>
            <link>http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/2013/04/first-light.html</link>
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            <title>The Camp of Getting Solar Power Off the Ground</title>
            <description><![CDATA[One of the difficulties we all have when we start to ponder the power supply of advanced civilizations (such as we may become) is a strong "giggle factor" when it comes to mega-engineering. &nbsp;When Arthur C Clarke estimated how far in the future a space elevator would be, he decided it was "fifty years after everybody stops laughing." &nbsp;When someone says they work with SETI, the first instinct is often to smirk and think "good luck with that". &nbsp;When one calculates how long it might take a civilization to cross the galaxy the reaction is often "yeah, but that's so <i>loooong</i>." &nbsp;<div><br /></div><div>It's hard to wrap one's mind around ideas that involve expanding current capabilities by many orders of magnitude. &nbsp;That's one reason that the Apollo missions were so mind-blowing: &nbsp;we still hadn't come to terms with space travel being possible when we went ahead and <i>did</i> it (<a href="http://members.shaw.ca/rlongpre01/moon.html">as newspapers at the time so memorably attested</a>).</div><div><br /></div><div>But there's no reason that these things are impossible or even all that hard. &nbsp;<a href="http://bit.ly/XZlFbG">We already have (or will have) interstellar space probes</a>. &nbsp;We already know how to do human space flight. &nbsp;We have nuclear reactors, and we're working hard on artificial biospheres. &nbsp; There's no showstopper here except the will and the time. &nbsp;If humanity can spend $1 trillion blowing stuff up and killing people for years at a time (and it has done this, in 2013 dollars, on many occasions), then logically we could do something inspiring and constructive with a similar amount of effort. &nbsp;The only defensible skepticism isn't from doubting the physical feasibility of such projects, it's the cynical position that we just aren't the kind of species that would do something like that.</div><div><br /></div><div>I have a hypothesis, which may be very wrong but strikes me as plausible, that this is the fault of sci-fi camp. &nbsp;Science fiction is where most people learn their science (think about that) and first seriously explore the ideas of interstellar travel, contact with alien species, and the future of humanity. &nbsp;And it's often really bad. &nbsp;Everyone's paragon of a bad film isn't some romantic comedy or action film, it's a pie-plate-saucer-on-a-string, guy-with-a-rubber-suit, actors-rocking-in-their-chairs-to-simulate-missile-impacts, ham-acting-bumpy-forehead-aliens, corny-dialog sci-fi film. &nbsp;Most sci-fi requires such a strong degree of suspension of disbelief, and so much of it is low-budget when it needs to be high-budget, that it can seem absurd to take it seriously (see, Trekkies). &nbsp;</div><div><img alt="51DTCVHNJNL._SL500_SS500_.jpg" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/51DTCVHNJNL._SL500_SS500_.jpg" width="500" height="500" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" /></div><div>Similarly, the ideas that inspired those books, films, and TV shows can become associated with this &nbsp;<a href="http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/sontag-notesoncamp-1964.html">failed seriousness</a>, and thus seem campy themselves.</div><div>&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div>So when I write that <a href="http://bit.ly/XGX8Ve">the power supply of a civilization could exceed the fraction of sunlight striking the planet, and that in the long run this means constructing solar collectors in space</a>,it seems so absurd and far-fetched that it induces a strong giggle factor.</div><div><br /></div><div>But is this really so far-fetched? &nbsp;The idea is old. &nbsp;The technology exists. &nbsp;If we wanted to do it, we could. &nbsp;If we really appreciated the true costs of using fossil fuels for energy, it would be an obvious alternative.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/alternative_energy/2013/03/solar_power_in_space_ray_guns_will_beam_it_back_to_earth.single.html">And so here we are:</a></div><div><img alt="130326_ALT_SpaceSolarPower.jpg.CROP.rectangle3-large.jpg" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/130326_ALT_SpaceSolarPower.jpg.CROP.rectangle3-large.jpg" width="568" height="346" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" /></div><div>Pacific Gas &amp; Electric and other companies are working hard to increase alpha, the fraction of sunlight we collect as a species to power our energy use. &nbsp;Note the title:</div><div><h1 class="sl-art-head-dek" style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.384em; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></h1><h1 class="sl-art-head-dek" style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.384em; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/alternative_energy/2013/03/solar_power_in_space_ray_guns_will_beam_it_back_to_earth.single.html">The entirely serious plan to collect solar energy by spaceship and beam it back to Earth with lasers.</a></h1></div><div><br /></div><div>This is a "Slate-y" headline (in the sense that it is provocative because it is counter-intuitive and you really want to see how they can justify it; this is something Slate.com is notorious for, especially when the article isn't actually all that counter-intuitive). &nbsp; &nbsp;But this headline also protests too much: who is proposing solar collectors in space but isn't serious? &nbsp;Why would our instinct be to assume something like that was a joke? &nbsp;The only people I can think of wouldn't be serious about such a suggestion are some of the purveyors of science fiction.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, I'm a fan of bad sci-fi (seriously), and I believe that it has done more good in popularizing these ideas than harm in making them seem silly, so I'm not complaining. &nbsp;I'm just trying to locate the source of the giggle factor that hinders serious contemplation of these sorts of projects.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div>]]></description>
            <link>http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/2013/03/the-camp-of-getting-solar-power-off-the-ground.html</link>
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            <pubDate>Wed, 27 Mar 2013 11:34:43 -0500</pubDate>
	    
	    
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            <title>We are now an interstellar species</title>
            <description><![CDATA[<p>[<b>Update</b>: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/jpl/news/voyager20130320.html">Or not?!?</a>]
<p>Just saw this on Twitter via @kathrynpeek:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>AGU: Voyager 1 has left the solar system, sudden changes in cosmic rays indicate. <a href="http://t.co/hx6mhEOnu5" title="http://www.agu.org/news/press/pr_archives/2013/2013-11.shtml">agu.org/news/press/pr_...</a></p>-- AAS Press Office (@AAS_Press) <a href="https://twitter.com/AAS_Press/status/314397752123596800">March 20, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><div>Very cool! &nbsp;Apparently this was announced at the AGU meeting in December, but I missed it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Voyager 1 is our spacecraft to leave the Solar System. &nbsp;The "official" boundary is called the heliopause, which is where the effects of the Sun's magnetic field no longer dominate the particles in space. &nbsp;<a href="http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/interstellar.html">There's a great (now outdated!) writeup here.</a>&nbsp; The heliopause has a long tail, so when you "officially" reach interstellar space depends on which direction you head out in; &nbsp;Voyager 1 is headed out in the direction of the Sun's motion, so it had one of the shortest possible trips. &nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>So we are now officially an interstellar species, with a spacecraft travelling among the stars. &nbsp;Voyager 2 will follow in a few years. &nbsp;The Pioneer spacecraft are on their way out, as well, but as far as I know we are no longer in contact with them, and I'm not sure which way they are going. &nbsp;New Horizons (the Pluto mission) is on its way out as well.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>The Voyager craft have messages on them in the form of golden records (as in LP's) with instructions on how to play them and a map to Earth with respect to pulsars. &nbsp; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contents_of_the_Voyager_Golden_Record">The records encode both analog sounds and digital pictures of humans and nature.</a></div><div><img alt="The_Sounds_of_Earth_Record_Cover_-_GPN-2000-001978.jpg" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/The_Sounds_of_Earth_Record_Cover_-_GPN-2000-001978.jpg" width="500" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" /></div><div>Will anyone ever listen to them?</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Will humans ever lay eyes on these craft again?</div><div><br /></div> 
							<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gxAaVqdz_Vk?rel=0&amp;start=80" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><div><br /></div><div>[Clip from The Motionless Picture trimmed down to bare bearability. &nbsp;For all of Star Trek's corniness, ham acting, and bad physics, it has done a great job over the decades of popularizing interesting concepts in physics, astronomy, and space travel].</div><div><br /></div><div>[Update: Stephen Kane points out an alternative (and better paced) fate, in this case for Pioneer 10:</div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LOqoljJ0ees?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><div><br /></div><div>Clip from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (that's the one where the Enterprise finds God at the center of the Galaxy and destroys him with a photon torpedo. &nbsp;Can we please get an excuse to post a clip from an <i>even</i> numbered Trek film at some point here?!?)]</div>]]></description>
            <link>http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/2013/03/we-are-now-an-interstellar-species.html</link>
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            <pubDate>Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:55:24 -0500</pubDate>
	    
	    
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            <title>Big Spheres Around Small Stars</title>
            <description><![CDATA[I'm sure I'm not the first to notice this, but stars at the bottom of the main sequence have the special property that their luminosities put their Habitable Zones at the same distance at which orbital acceleration is equal to 1g.<div><br /></div><div>The reason this is interesting is that if you built an actual solid sphere with radius 1.5 solar radii around a 0.1 solar mass star then its effective temperature would be about the same as Earth's&nbsp;<i>and so would its surface gravity.</i>&nbsp; I'm not talking about just a <a href="http://bit.ly/143aGSa">Dyson-sphere style swarm of collectors or radiators</a>, but a structurally rigid object.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now these numbers are approximate -- I hope Jim Kasting doesn't catch me just scaling effective temperatures to calculate my "habitable zone" here, and I haven't done a rigorous mass-luminosity relation, nor have I considered the back reaction of the sphere on the star. &nbsp;But somewhere around 0.1 solar masses is about right for this special configuration.</div><div><br /></div><div>This means that if you could build such a thing -- and I don't think you could, even just considering the mechanics of light-travel time and how stresses on the sphere would be balanced -- then you would have an object with 22,000 times the surface area of Earth, about its temperature, and about its surface gravity. &nbsp;Oh, and you'd have 10<sup>-4</sup>&nbsp;solar luminosities of energy to work with, doing all sorts of work inside the shell. &nbsp;The waste heat from this work would warm your cities and your atmosphere (there's a lot of it) as you went about your life in eternal nighttime. &nbsp;The amount of material needed is not a problem: if you deconstructed the Earth and spread it out over this area, it would form a solid shell over 100 meters thick.</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/url-1.jpeg"><img alt="url-1.jpeg" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/assets_c/2013/03/url-1-thumb-600x285-369108.jpeg" width="600" height="285" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" /></a><div>So, in contrast to Star Trek:TNG's imagining of having people living&nbsp;<i>inside</i>&nbsp;their huge star-spanning sphere (above; I guess you can do that when you have artificial gravity) you could very comfortably live on the outside, no antigrav required.... except for the whole gravity-crushes-the-impossibly-large-structure bit. &nbsp;And the gravity-means-it-quickly-drifts-into-the-star bit. &nbsp;Those would require some major&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treknobabble">Treknobabble</a> to overcome.</div><div><br /></div><div>So there is no reason to think that these could exist, but the formal existence of this solution to the problem, engineering aside, is not something I had noticed before.</div><div><br /></div><div>[Image: art from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Dyson Sphere, fun but totally wrong episode based on a misinterpretation of the idea of a Dyson sphere]</div> ]]></description>
            <link>http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/2013/03/big-spheres-around-small-stars.html</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 Mar 2013 08:41:44 -0500</pubDate>
	    
	    
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            <title>Artifact SETI</title>
            <description><![CDATA[The <a href="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/a-wise-search-for-kardashev-civilizations.html">search for waste heat from alien civilizations</a> can be thought of as a form of artifact SETI. &nbsp;That is, instead of looking for the signals of alien civilizations, we look for physical evidence of their existence. &nbsp;This could be <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v9oIsc_Bmc0/T9fCLuP7ryI/AAAAAAAABJs/QfeJvpcjLhw/s1600/monolith_moon-625x281.jpg">markers scattered throughout the Solar System</a>, <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c4/RoswellDailyRecordJuly8%2C1947.jpg">crash-landed spacecraft</a>, or, of course, parts of Dyson spheres. &nbsp;Richard Carrigan calls searching for such things <a href="http://home.fnal.gov/~carrigan/infrared_astronomy/infrared_astronomy_master.htm">"interstellar archaeology"</a>. &nbsp;<div><br /></div><div>A "partial" Dyson sphere would periodically eclipse or transit its host star, creating distinctive photometric signatures. &nbsp;<a href="http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/10/05/grants-help-scientists-explore-border-between-science-science-fiction/">Geoff Marcy is looking for such signals in <i>Kepler</i> data</a>, and my search for waste heat is looking for the glow of these mega-engineering projects.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0503580">A provocative and smile-inducing paper was published</a> by Luc Arnold that investigated <i>Kepler's</i> ability to find such things. &nbsp;Arnold's angle was actually at the border between artifact SETI and traditional communication SETI. &nbsp;Arnold first pointed out that Kepler would be able to distinguish between spherical planets and other shapes -- say, triangles -- if the transit signal was strong enough. &nbsp;He argued that artificial objects the size of planets placed in orbit around stars would have a low-baud-rate but be fantastically efficient -- essentially you would get around the problem of how find the power to communicate over very large distances by using the star itself as your beacon. &nbsp;It's a brilliant idea: &nbsp;you don't need to collect the power of your star to use it to power big radio transmitters, you just need to block enough of it that other civilizations notice it flickering, and you've essentially got a one-solar-luminosity transmitter!</div><div><br /></div><div>After calculating sensitivities to non-circular cross-sectioned planets, Arnold demonstrates that by building a huge sheet with moveable louvres, or by creating complicated and obviously non-natural swarms of objects one could vary the transit depth observed and send simple signals. &nbsp;For instance, prime numbers:</div><div><img alt="Screen shot 2013-03-09 at 5.00.15 PM.png" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/Screen%20shot%202013-03-09%20at%205.00.15%20PM.png" width="100%" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" /></div><div>Or, using the louvres:</div><div><br /></div><div><img alt="Screen shot 2013-03-09 at 5.04.19 PM.png" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/Screen%20shot%202013-03-09%20at%205.04.19%20PM.png" width="635" height="112" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" /><img alt="Screen shot 2013-03-09 at 5.04.30 PM.png" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/Screen%20shot%202013-03-09%20at%205.04.30%20PM.png" width="100%" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" /></div><div>Clearly, the message here is that a "cheap" way for aliens to attempt communication would be to build these devices that might last for a very long time with little maintenance and send signals visible across the Galaxy. &nbsp;We should always be on the lookout, it follows, for transits from planet-sized objects with highly variable depths. &nbsp;After all, it would be very difficult to come up with any natural explanation for such a phenomenon (*<a href="https://wesfiles.wesleyan.edu/home/wherbst/web/KH15D/">ahem</a>*).</div><div><br /></div><div>Which brings me to <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.2662">KIC 12557548</a>, a bizarre star in the Kepler field of view with an apparently transiting object whose eclipse depths vary by a factor of six (sound familiar?): &nbsp;</div><div><img alt="Screen shot 2013-03-09 at 5.24.42 PM.png" src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/Screen%20shot%202013-03-09%20at%205.24.42%20PM.png" width="312" height="294" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><font style="font-size: 0.8em;">Transits of KIC 12557548, from Fig. 2 of Rappaport et al. 2012</font></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>The authors go to valiant lengths to find a natural explanation for this, and come up with a Mercury-sized object that is evaporating, and the cometary cloud behind it has turbulence that generates highly variable opacity to the starlight. &nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, I don't know what this is. &nbsp;Maybe it really is an evaporating planet (the best guess, I'd say). &nbsp;Maybe it's <a href="https://wesfiles.wesleyan.edu/home/wherbst/web/KH15D/">KH15D</a> all over again, but with some high-frequency twist of some kind. &nbsp;I'd bet my house on it <b>not</b> being aliens.</div><div><br /></div><div>But given that he went way out on a limb and <i>predicted</i> almost exactly this sort of thing, don't you think Luc Arnold at least deserved a citation?</div><div><br /></div><div>(To be fair, I should be generous and assume that the authors weren't aware of Arnold's paper. &nbsp;But I'm not at all sure they would have cited it if they had. &nbsp;And, who knows?, perhaps the referee wouldn't have taken it seriously if they had.)</div><div>&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>]]></description>
            <link>http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/2013/03/artifact-seti.html</link>
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            <pubDate>Sat, 09 Mar 2013 16:33:22 -0500</pubDate>
	    
	    
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