In the shadow of the super-jumbo, its soaring flares and dazzling Planets:
For the first time, I saw the stupendous Sun with H-Alpha filter. The filter can turn off all the wavelengths other than red. H-alpha is a grossly expensive filter used for solar flares and sun sport viewing. As we approched dusk, we set our telescopes for catching some of the dramatic objects of Tucson’s night sky. Saturn with continually shrouded thick clouds was the forerunner to signal the splendid arrivals. 30 degree zenith from Taurus, Saturn appeared with its dusty rings and gravitated satellites – Rhea, Enceladus and Titan.
Every night I crossed the Bio-5 dept in UoA, I saw an object at 50 azimuths from Taurus. I always thought that was Mars. For all my surprise, I found today that was Antaris (rival of Mars). (Antaris is a look-alike of Mars). The best visible, familiar Mars made the final entry with its beautiful Mie-scattering effects (May be Martian aerosols are the best ones to place the bet when it comes to Planetary Aerosol Science. You can probably imagine the entire chemical cycle cooking up in the heart of dust storms almost every Martian day).
When the world went Kepler crazy!
From the flurry of results gleaned from Kepler and other orbiting satellites, we are taking tender steps into the fabulous discoveries of Planets in this Universe. When Kepler discovered Gliese 581 planet series in Goldlilock (habitable) zone outside the Solar system, the world went crazy! Peer reviewed papers, endless analyses, fuzzy engineering and geeky insights soared to prove microbial or intelligent life elsewhere in the ‘waiting to be unravelled’ category. But the debate continued – is it worth investing in such scientific expts? Why hitch hike on Gliese when we have not yet solved the Arctic-Antarctic ozone puzzle on Earth? (Wondering why Arctic? Take a look – Nature 478,469–475 (27 October 2011 doi: 10.1038 /nature10556).
As we get closer and closer to cornering the unifying theory of Universe on one side, we cannot single out Earth and justify science on the other side. They must occur simulatenously. To put it in perspective, ‘Comparative planetology’ is the need of the hour! Scouting through a couple of examples might convince you on this concept. I was in Aspen for a conference on Exoplanets last January (Exoclimes - http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/exoclimes/). Some breathtaking points I learnt from the conference:
Mirror Mirror ….
“Sorry I was an early bird, but please do include me now” - Oxygen warming- this happened in the early history of Earth and is now seen in Exoplanets.
Hot Jupiters out there - “I’m a hot jupiter too. Study me to understand Ur own Jupiter! I have oceans, I’m tidally locked just like Ur Earth’s moon and I have atmosphere!”Many such Jupiter sized Planets exist outside our solar system. Infact, one of the authors had used MODIS images and algorithms to model exoplanets. I went speechless!
The dusty ferric mass – “I have more mighty dust storms! Look how powerful I’m! I completely inactivated the little rover you sent to spy on my surface when you tear Ur brains to tease out the chemistry and physics of Haboobs and Dust devils in your south west and Sahara, I have enough. Also, when you are mulling over better GPS systems for future, you can push your technology and creativity forward by experimenting with Pseudolites in my surface. Why not use my foot prints to better understand your home planet? By the way, if you still wonder, who I am- I’m Mars, the pretty red dot! “
Spilling the beans!
Everytime Astronomers say “star”, they’re probably looking for a way to say “life” because Life, star and Planets are inter connected. To satisty the great expectations on Earth and to solve the mysteries here, studying Earth just within Earth is not sufficient. Confluencing datasets from Earth and other planets is the ultimate decider of the veracity of our results.
The starry and magnificient star party left me with the thought that someday, we might scout the serendipitous moments with the computer touch screens taking less than a minute to whirl us from one planet to another from one marvel to another - Mercury’s frightening thermal inertia, Earth’s rewarding monsoons, mighty Martian dust devils, titan’s methane lakes and light curves from Exoplanets will be featured all in one room in a way similar to images from different satellites and different landscapes of Earth which we have today!!!
