Podcast: Should We Search for Extraterrestrial Life?

Posted on by onespaceman2000

Here is a podcast if you like the debate format so you can listen to both sides before settling on your own position. Intelligence Squared has great discussions involving experts on a multitude of topics, but few touch upon astronomy. Hence, this is an episode worth sharing.

Here is the set up for this debate:

For decades, scientists around the world have dedicated their lives — and research dollars — to one question: Is there anyone else out there? In the early 1970s, NASA joined the hunt with its own program to search for extraterrestrial life, or SETI for short. When that was defunded by Congress, private efforts took hold. But just what have decades of SETI brought us? And how should we approach the search in those to come? For SETI’s supporters, finding other intelligent life in the cosmos is a fundamentally human endeavor. It probes our understanding of the cosmos, what it means to live and survive on Earth and beyond, and just where our species fits into the greater universe. But others warn that SETI is a distraction from other scientific endeavors that, at best, diverts critical resources and, at worst, will open a can of worms humanity isn’t ready to deal with. Just what would happen if we actually find other beings? Are we mature enough as a society to respond? In this episode, we ask the essential extraterrestrial question: to search or not to search? 

The two experts debating this topic are:

  • Jill Cornell Tarter is an American astronomer best known for her work on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Tarter is the former director of the Center for SETI Research, holding the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute.
  • Paul M. Sutter is a cosmologist and community outreach coordinator with the Department of Astronomy at Ohio State University. Sutter is also the chief scientist at the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio.

I expect most of those visiting this page already have a strong opinion on this topic, but it is worth listening to the debate among these two experts anyway. Enjoy.

Podcast: Astronomy in a Nutshell

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): “How to Terraform Venus (Quickly)” video. (Kurzgesagt)

In a recent Clear+Vivid podcast episode, Alan Alda interviewed Philipp Dettmer, who is the CEO of the online science channel Kurzgesagt (German for “in a nutshell”). Mr. Dettmer discussed his difficulties with school as a child, his eventual love of learning, and his desire to help others to learn.

I recommend you listen to his story on the podcast, but also explore the various videos on his Youtube site, including a number of them that deal with astronomy, such as:

It is science as well as scientific speculation, but it is all good for the brain.

Podcast/Book Review: The Mission: A True Story

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: NASA

A recent episode of the Astronomy Cast podcast recommended a number of books to read this summer, including David W. Brown’s book The Mission: A True Story. It highlights all the efforts to make the soon-to-be-launched Europa Clipper mission a reality. Below is the book blurb by Harper Collins:

In the spirit of Tom Wolfe and John McPhee, The Mission is an exuberant master class of creative nonfiction that reveals how a motley, determined few expanded the horizon of human achievement.

When scientists discovered the first ocean beyond Earth, they had two big questions: “Is it habitable?” and “How do we get there?” To answer the first, they had to solve the second, and so began a vivacious team’s twenty-year odyssey to mount a mission to Europa, the ocean moon of Jupiter.

Standing in their way: NASA, fanatically consumed with landing robots on Mars; the White House, which never saw a science budget it couldn’t cut; Congress, fixated on going to the moon or Mars—anywhere, really, to give astronauts something to do; rivals in academia, who wanted instead to go to Saturn; and even Jupiter itself, which guards Europa in a pulsing, rippling radi­ation belt—a halo of death whose conditions are like those that follow a detonated thermonuclear bomb.

The Mission is the Homeric, never-before-told story of modern space exploration, and a magnificent portrait of the inner lives of scientists who study the solar system’s mysterious outer planets. David W. Brown chronicles the remarkable saga of how Europa was won, and what it takes to get things done—both down here, and up there.

I think it is safe to say that every space mission goes through a gauntlet these days and is lucky to remain intact at the other end. The James Webb Space Telescope started in the 1990s and only saw the light of day (on a distant exoplanet) earlier this year. Not everyone may have the stomach for the sausage-making behind these missions, but you may want to read this tale if you are looking for modern-day drama in the halls of government and academia that can lead to something meaningful.

Credit: Harper Collins

Podcast: Scientists Discuss the JWST

Posted on by onespaceman2000

It is worth checking out the BBC’s Sky at Night podcast if you want to follow the stars or just listen to astronomers discussing the night sky. Two recent episodes in particular, both related to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), should be on your podcast list.

  • How James Webb Space Telescope Observes the Universe (broadcast on August 26, 2022): Dr Pamela Klaassen, an instrument scientist, reveals the science behind how JWST studies the cosmos, what its images show us, and the secrets it might uncover. She also discusses her work studying very large stars. Finally, the discussion covers the Square Kilometre Array Organization and how this brand new ground-based observatory will work in tandem with the JWST to unlock the secrets of the Universe.
  • Exploring Exoplanets with JWST (broadcast on August 22, 2022): Dr Hannah Wakeford from the University of Bristol is part of an international collaboration of exoplanet hunters looking to see how the JWST can reveal the secrets of worlds orbiting stars beyond our solar system. One exoplanet priority for the JWST discussed during the episode is WASP-39b, the results of which were recently shared with the public.

Podcast: Avoiding a Nuclear Winter

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Credit: wallpapersafari.com/

If you are looking for a heavy story, just listen into this week’s StarTalk podcast, “Nuclear Winter with Ann Druyan and Brian Toon.” You can hear all about the Future of Life award given to Carl Sagan and others for “reducing the risk of nuclear war by developing and popularizing the science of nuclear winter.” Yes, a great award for a bleak topic.

Ann Druyan (co-writer of the original Cosmos TV series, producer of the remade Cosmos, and Carl Sagan’s wife) and Brian Toon (Atmospheric Science Professor and one of the awardees) discuss the science that went into the nuclear winter idea back in the 1970s, as well as later briefings of the Vatican and Soviet government. Sadly, it appears the Russian’s were more open to the science than the Americans. Dr. Sagan and others battled with many leaders in the U.S. Government. Some things don’t change (or don’t change fast enough), so this battle within the U.S. Government continues. Of course, Putin is no Gorbachev, so who knows that he is thinking.

In fact, a 2017 paper by the Federation of American Scientists noted how Russia felt about the chance of nuclear war before today’s current events in Ukraine:

In other words, the United States has built and is building launch sites for nuclear missiles on the Russian border. This fact has been widely reported on Russian TV and has infuriated the Russian public. In June, Russian President Putin specifically warned that Russia would be forced to retaliate against this threat.

While Russian officials maintain that its actions are normal and routine, Russia now appears to be preparing for war. On October 5, 2016, Russia conducted a nation-wide civil defense drill that included 40 million of its people being directed to fallout shelters. Reuters reported two days later that Russia had moved its Iskander nuclear-capable missiles to Kaliningrad, which borders Poland.

Of course, our ability to survive as a civilization is a big part of the Drake Equation, which tells us the number of planets in the galaxy hosting intelligent life. So far, we are the only planet with intelligent life that we know about, and we cannot even agree whether launching a nuclear war will end our civilization. It is not a hopeful start to the quest for intelligent life.

Extra: Check out Mr. Toon’s TED Talk, I’ve Studied Nuclear War for 35 years – You Should Be Worried, for more on his concerns about nuclear proliferation. And if you are not scared enough, check out this article, “Even a Limited India-Pakistan Nuclear War Would Bring Global Famine, Says Study,” from the Columbia Climate School.