Science and Religion Today » Space

Image of the Entire Sky From the Planck Telescope

Heather Wax — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:36:05 +0000

Here’s how to interpret it: The bright line through the middle is the main disc of our Milky Way galaxy, and it’s surrounded by the dust where new stars are being formed.
The red and yellow areas at the top and bottom are the cosmic microwave background radiation, the oldest light in the universe. (Astronomers will digitally remove the Milky Way’s emissions to see the whole microwave background, hoping to learn much more about how the universe formed and evolved.)

What Is Dark Matter?

Heather Wax — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 16:09:55 +0000

Paul Davies, director of Beyond: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University and a Science & Religion Today contributor, explains:

After the big bang that created the universe 13.7 billion years ago, matter was spread smoothly through space. Aided by the gravitating power of the dark component, ordinary matter was pulled into clumps, which later evolved into galaxies that spawned stars, planets, and, in one case at least, life.
A consensus has emerged that dark matter mostly consists of massive particles coughed out of the big bang. The reason for the appellation “dark” is because, unlike atomic particles, they have no electric charge, so cannot emit or scatter light. Nor do they feel the strong nuclear force that traps protons and neutrons in atomic nuclei. As a result, the dark particles interact so feebly with ordinary matter that they mostly pass right through it.

Wow! Amazing New Photos of the Universe

Heather Wax — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:05:34 +0000

Behold the Butterfly Nebula—one of a new batch of images from the upgraded Hubble Space Telescope.
The telescope can now look deeper into space than ever before, as NASA explains:

Hubble’s suite of new instruments allows it to study the universe across a wide swath of the light spectrum, from ultraviolet all the way to near-infrared. In addition, scientists released spectroscopic observations that slice across billions of light-years to probe the cosmic-web structure of the universe and map the distribution of elements that are fundamental to life as we know it.

Comet Contains One of Life’s Building Blocks

Heather Wax — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:24:37 +0000

NASA scientists have found glycine in the samples the Stardust spacecraft collected from the dust and gas around the comet Wild 2. As Jamie Elsila of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center explains:

Glycine is an amino acid used by living organisms to make proteins, and this is the first time an amino acid has been found in a comet. Our discovery supports the theory that some of life’s ingredients formed in space and were delivered to Earth long ago by meteorite and comet impacts.

Will We Find Other Planets Like Earth?

Heather Wax — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:00:00 +0000

The “fun” has begun for NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, says William Borucki, the mission’s science principal investigator. In other words, the spacecraft has started its search for other Earth-like planets. It will look in what are called the “habitable zones” of our galaxy—regions at distances from stars (like our sun) where the temperature allows possible lakes and oceans to exist. Water, it’s believed, is necessary to support primitive life.
For the next three and a half years, Kepler will look for signs of these other habitable planets by staring at more than 100,000 stars. If planets are orbiting a star, its brightness will dull when the planet crosses in front of it and partially blocks the light.
“If Kepler got into a staring contest, it would win,” says James Fanson, the mission’s project manager. “The spacecraft is ready to stare intently at the same stars for several years so that it can precisely measure the slightest changes in their brightness caused by planets.”
You can follow Kepler’s progress with its updates on Twitter. —Heather Wax

Telescope Launch Day Is Only a Week Away

Heather Wax — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:27:00 +0000

Two new telescopes will launch next Thursday, and scientists are hoping to look deep into space to gain greater insight into the history and composition of the universe.
Researchers will use the Herschel Space Observatory, a huge infrared telescope, to study some of space’s coldest objects, searching for signs of organic molecules and traces of water. “We’ll be studying the full extent of chemistry in space and we hope to learn what types of organics are out there as a function of their distance from a star,” Ted Bergin, a University of Michigan astronomer, says of the Herschel mission. “And we want to understand the chemical machinery that led to the formation of these organics.”
Bergin will use the telescope to study the gas and dust around young stars, looking for organic molecules. Many scientists believe the ingredients needed for the emergence of life on Earth came from space in things like comets and meteorites. “The chemistry of space makes molecules that are the precursors of life. It’s possible that the Earth didn’t have to make these things on its own, but that they were provided from space,” Bergin says. “Most of the water in the solar system is not where we are, but further out in the solar system. Most theories suggest that the Earth formed dry and impacts from asteroids or other objects provided the water here.”
The other telescope, Planck, will map the oldest light we see—the afterglow of the big bang, which we today call the “microwave cosmic background radiation.” And it will do so more accurately than has ever been possible before. The hope is that the new information will give scientists a better idea of how the universe began and what its future will look like. —Heather Wax

Are Other Planets Like Earth Out There?

Heather Wax — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:07:00 +0000

Last week, NASA launched the Kepler spacecraft, which is designed to look for other habitable planets in our galaxy. Since water, it’s believed, is necessary to support primitive life, the mission will look for Earth-size planets in the “habitable zones”—regions at distances from stars (like our sun) where temperatures allow water to stay liquid.
Are there lots of Earthlike planets in the galaxy or is ours unique? It’s too early to speculate, and it will take the mission at least three years to find and confirm the existence of planets like our own. “Even if we find no planets like Earth, that by itself would be profound,” says William Borucki, the mission’s science principal investigator. “It would indicate that we are probably alone in the galaxy.”
You can follow Kepler’s progress with its updates on Twitter. —Heather Wax

Expanding the Search for Extraterrestrials

Heather Wax — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:03:00 +0000

This week came news from the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco that scientists are broadening their search for extraterrestrial life to “super-Earths”—giant, cold, icy planets (very little like Earth, in fact) that are seen on the outskirts of about one-third of solar systems. In most cases, the search for life has involved looking for planets in another solar system’s “habitable zone,” the distance from a star that provides temperatures at which water stays liquid. But the scientists believe super-Earths, which are in the farther reaches of these solar systems, might have an internal heat source that allows liquid water to form under the ice.
“It turns out that if super-Earths are young enough, massive enough, or have a thick atmosphere, they could have liquid water under the ice or even on the surface,” says Scott Gaudi, a professor of astronomy at Ohio State University. “And we will almost certainly be able to detect these habitable planets if they exist.”
It’s too early to speculate on what kind of life (biologically simple? intelligent?) might be found on these super-Earths or other planets, but over on Counterbalance, systematic theologian Ted Peters (who, earlier this year, released the “Peters ETI Religious Crisis Survey of 2008″) speculates on the theological implications of possible contact with these different types of extraterrestrials, a branch of theology he calls “astrotheology” or “exotheology.” —Heather Wax

Planetarium Explains Earth’s Ancient Age

Heather Wax — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0000

“Many independent lines of scientific evidence show that the Earth and universe are billions of years old. Current measurements yield an age of about 4.6 billion years for the Earth and about 14 billion years for the universe,” reads a statement released by the International Planetarium Society, which also explains how these ages are determined (through diverse research, often from different measurements of different physical principles, and by competing research teams). “These measurements of age,” the statements goes on, “are accepted by nearly all astronomers, including both research astronomers and planetarium educators. These astronomers come from nations and cultures around the world and from a very wide spectrum of religious beliefs.”

Digitized DNA (Stephen Colbert’s!) Off to Space

Heather Wax — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:22:00 +0000

Next month, video game designer Richard Garriott (son of astronaut Owen Garriott) will travel to the International Space Station aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and he’ll be taking with him a time capsule of sorts—a backup of humanity meant to protect us from extinction if disaster strikes and everyone on Earth is wiped out. Stored at the ISS, this “Immortality Drive” will “save a history of humanity’s greatest achievements, digitized human DNA, and personal messages from people all over the world,” according to the Operation Immortality Web site. Stephen Colbert recently agreed to have his digitized DNA sent into space, as did Digg founder Kevin Rose, singer-songwriter Joe Ely, Olympic gymnast Scott Johnson, and American Gladiator Matt Morgan, among a handful of others. “In the unlikely event that Earth and humanity are destroyed, mankind can be resurrected with Stephen Colbert’s DNA,” Garriott said in a statement. “Is there a better person for us to turn to for this high-level responsibility?” —Heather Wax