Alien Plausibility Review: Kal-El (a.k.a. Superman)

Big Blue. The Metropolis Marvel. The Last Son of Krypton. The Man of Steel. Superman, the hero of heroes. He stands for truth, justice and the American way. He fights for humanity by protecting the innocent and the weak. He is the guardian of Earth and maintains himself as an example to follow. He came to us 75 years ago this year (2013) from the minds of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Superman was easily the first costumed superhero, as well as the most notable and impacting. All the superheroes that follow after him are, in some way, a part of Superman. This character has appeared many times in popular media:

• Roughly 40+ people have portrayed Superman from 1940 to 2013 in television, radio and movies
• Superman has appeared in 13 movies, over 4 television shows, and been involved centrally or secondarily in another 35+ animated movies and television shows
• There have been over 38 video games, 13 novels, 76 songs and various amusement park rides regarding Superman
• And, of course, an infinite - absolutely INFINITE - amount of Superman merchandise. 

So, he is a popular guy. But is he a plausible alien?

Another Red Dwarf Super-Earth Located

The Planetary Habitability Laboratory has announced the discovery of another Superearth...that is to say, a rocky planet with a mass somewhere in the ballpark of Earth's mass. In this case, Gliese 163c has a mass of 6.9 Earths (minimum) and 1.8 to 2.4 Earth radii. It has an orbital period of just 26 days! The star, Gliese 163, is a Red Dwarf Star found some 50 light years distant from us. Yes, folks. That's ANOTHER Superearth found around ANOTHER Red Dwarf. Is it possible that we will find life in a Red Dwarf system and not in a Yellow Dwarf system, like ours? Gliese 163c is apparently much warmer than Earth, so the prospect of life is minimum, but not impossible...at 60 degrees Celsius, even some Earth-based extremeophiles can dig it. 

As the PHL notes, more and more potentially rocky Earth-like planets are being found around red dwarf stars. Scientists who study these exoplanets didn't initially think that red dwarfs would be likely candidates for habitable planets. But times they are a-changin. From the stellar PHL article: 

"The potential for habitable planets around red dwarf stars has been and issue of much debate. Tidal effects on the planets around these stars might cause extra surface heating or even tidal locking (always giving the same face to its parent star). Also, these stars are more active and their stellar wind might erode planetary atmospheres much faster. These factors might preclude the potential for life on smaller planets but not for planets with thicker atmospheres, something expected for superterran planets. Our Solar System lacks an example of a superterran. Its eight planets are either the smaller terrestrial kind, like Earth, or the larger gas giants, like Jupiter. Understanding superterrans around red dwarf stars, a non Sun-like star, just adds to the challenge of assessing their habitability."

Do check out the ORIGINAL ARTICLE over at the Planetary Habitability Laboratory, which is by far the best way for the public to understand current research on exoplanets. 

Welcome Gliese 163c! Click to see in detail. 

Alien Plausibility Review: Xenomorph from the Alien Franchise

Image lifted shamelessly from wikipedia.org

The aliens of the Alien Franchise are formidable, intense and frightening organisms. They are extremely territorial, intelligent and uncontrollable. And they are very popular. Thus far there have been 7 movies about them, along with various comic books, novelizations and video games. Film makers went to some lengths to create a creature based on the general rules of biology. Indeed, the alien appears to be a biological creation through and through where as movie and television aliens from yesteryear usually ignore principles of biology, as well as the laws of physics and the periodic table of elements. But just how plausible an organism is this alien, which is referred to as the Xenomorph for lack of a better name? Is it possible for a creature like this to exist somewhere in the galaxy or universe? Let's examine the issue using the Alien Plausibility Review, or APR. There are 8 categories for an APR: Evolution, Originality, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Behavior, Intelligence, and Presentation. Each category is worth up to 1.00 point and can be scored in quarter units (like 0.25, 0.50, and 0.75). A total score of 8.00 is possible, which indicates that the alien is a perfectly plausible organism. In addition to AstroExo's score, which is explained in the post, you have a chance to contribute to a CrowdScore. If you disagree with some aspect of the scoring, then leave your own scores and reasoning in the comments section. After a time, an average score will be calculated from all of the scores offered from the crowd and will be posted in the article. Now, about the Xenomorph...

Neil Armstrong Leaves Earth One Last Time

Thank you for the adventure, Neil.

Blurring the Lines: Carnivorous Plants and Photosynthetic Animals

There is a relatively simple dogma in a layperson's rules of biology concerning the difference in plants and animals. It is this: Plants make their own food. Animals do not. The resultant food chain or pyramid begins with food producers (plants) at the bottom and food consumers (animals) at all the layers above the producer layer. The difference between plant and animal is so categorically different, that they are organized by taxonomists into separate kingdoms...and there are only 5 (or 6) kingdoms of life. There is, of course, no overlap.

However, it really isn't that simple. First of all, there are plants out there that, in addition to using photosynthesis to make their own food, can capture and consume prey, albeit in a rudimentary fashion (some 630 species worldwide). Plants like the Venus Flytrap, Pitcher Plants, Flypaper Plants, Bladder Traps, Lobster-pot Traps, and other plants in a similar category (an additional 300 species) have evolved to flaunt such biological categorical dogma as the plant-animal divide. The existence of these plants proves that evolution by natural selection, one of the foundational laws of biology, knows no bounds or category and will capitalize on any naturally-existing phenomenon in order to gain some tangible advantage in survival. Although elm trees aren't hunting gazelles on some exotic savanna quite yet, the nature of these plants who behave like animals is nothing short of extraordinary. Want to know what is even crazier? You can OWN some of these plants as houseplants. That's right...you can flaunt biological dogma in your own living room.

Where and How to watch the Curiosity Landing

So, you have heard about MSL Curiosity, the most audacious probe/rover/thing sent to another world by humanity. Its scheduled to land on Mars in under two days (1 day and 13 hours, as of this post). So, how can one watch this marvelous, historical undertaking...LIVE? Turns out NASA has prepared and rolled out several methods with which you can participate, including smartphones and video game consoles.

The first step is to find out AT WHAT LOCAL TIME CURIOSITY WILL LAND for your area. Easy. Click here on this map to figure that out (map provided by @pillownaut of pillownaut.blogspot.com).

Now, choose your preferred device or source.

NASA MSL Cursiosity Mission Homepage
NASA TV
NASA JPL Ustream Channel 1 (with commentary)
NASA JPL Ustream Channel 2 (uninterrupted)
Follow @MarsCuriosity on Twitter for live updates
Watch the Curiosity Landing on Xbox Live
Watch with Ustream on Android
Watch using the NASA TV app on Android
Watch with NASA TV app on iOS
In Los Angeles area? Go to Planetfest, set up by the Planetary Society
Use this map to find Curiosity Landing Parties in your area (set up by @Pillownaut)
Follow #GoCuriosity on Twitter for live conversation during the landing
Live Google+ hangout with Fraser Cain, Pamela gay, Phil Plait (@BadAstronomer) as well as other guests from the Planetary Society and the SETI Institute
Check out the awesome event site http://getcurious.com/ (has a wicked countdown splash page)
Worldwide Landing parties

Fingers crossed, ladies and gentlemen...MSL Curiosity promises to be one of the greatest achievements in NASA history, and certainly among the greatest in the history of Humanity. #GoCuriosity

Super-Earth Found Hiding in Gliese 581 Star System After All

Gliese, or GJ, 581 - a star 20 light years from here

The Gliese 581 star system is roughly 20 light years away from Earth. If we could travel at the speed of light as a species, Gliese 581 is a place a human could visit in a single human lifetime. It is an M3 dwarf star, which is to say it is a Red Dwarf star. This means that its light is relatively faint compared to our Sun (which is a Yellow Dwarf star) and considerably smaller than our Sun, too. Scientists once felt that red dwarfs weren't places you would expect to find habitable worlds, but now - considering that red dwarfs make up maybe 70% of the Milky Way Galaxy - scientists are reconsidering. The Gliese 581 system is a good example of this change in attitude. Previous to the most recent news, Gliese 581 is suspected to contain up to 4 exoplanets (Vogt et al 2010). 

Now a new paper out by Steven S. Vogt, R. Paul Butler, and Nader Haghighipour re-examines the previous HARPS data for the Gliese 581 system. They found that previous attempts to examine the system (Forveille et al 2011) excluded outlying data points. Re-examination of the numbers by Vogt's team confirmed the same 4 planers previously known as well as some additional worlds, including confirmation of the now famous Gliese 581g:

"The periodogram of the residuals to a 4-planet all-circular-model reveals significant peaks that suggest one or more additional planets in this system. We conclude that the present 240-point HARPS data set, when analyzed in its entirety, and modeled with fully self-consistent stable orbits, by and of itself does offer significant support for a fifth signal in the data with a period near 32 days."