At Beauty In The Universe it has always been our desire to break new ground, do things in a new way and to take challenges head on. January is no exception as this month we are heading in to the year with several successful funding bids in place, new [laces to go to and especially, new cultures to reach. This year we attend our first Islamic school, a girl's school in Preston. This is a really exciting opportunity for us. Right from the start, when we first decided what we wanted to accomplish, reaching minorities was right up there. We even touched on this in one of our teaching videos, Clutching Stardust. FRom the first pitch we put to a school we insisted that what we are doing appeals to all cultures, races, genders, religions and so forth. To educate is all we care about and we never turn down an opportunity to do it.
We approach with sensitivity this great opportunity. It is as much a chance for us to learn as for the students at the school. The response we have experienced from the Islamic community as we have encountered it has been incredibly enthusiastic, as well it should be since that culture has a great heritage in astronomy. We look forward to delivering our service to this school and creating an even more inclusive company, full of passion for the thrill of astronomy, full of respect for it's adherents.
The primary motivation Erica and I decided on was that we love astronomy and we will do anything to teach any child to love this science, and to learn to apply it and explore the universe for themselves. The twentieth century space explorers were almost exclusively white, male westerners, or Russian. We hope that the world can embrace space exploration, and we dream of seeing all peoples work together to further the knowledge of mankind.
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Hunting ET
We are now heading in to the new year and there is a real buzz about the Internet, and it is all about finding extra-terrestrial life. NASA has a space probe called Kepler looking for extra-solar planets and the expectation of finding Earth-like worlds is getting pretty feverish. Below is an interesting video, detailing the findings of Kepler's first five discovered worlds:
If I had to bet on it then I think that if there is to be a discovery in the next few years of extra-terrestrial life then it will be Kepler that finds it. The most likely way, in my opinion, is through spectroscopy. It is possible to collect star light that shines through the atmosphere of a planet. This light will hold the signs we are looking for. When the light is split in to its spectrum (the colours of the rainbow) we observe absorption lines. These are black lines in the spectrum and they occur when the light has passed through a particular substance, so for example, the lines will appear at a certain point when the light has passed through oxygen, and different points for hydrogen. The practical upshot of this is that bu analysing these lines it is possible to detect what is present in the atmosphere of a planet. Things like methane, ozone, carbon dioxide are all produced by living things. This will not be definitive but might be a clue. What we really want to detect, however, is chlorophyll. Chlorophyll can only be produced by organic processes, meaning that its detection will be definitive. If we find chlorophyll then it's in the bag.
Keep up to date with Kepler. It is a very exciting mission. There has never been a better time to be an astronomer.
The hunt for chlorophyll is on. Read More!
If I had to bet on it then I think that if there is to be a discovery in the next few years of extra-terrestrial life then it will be Kepler that finds it. The most likely way, in my opinion, is through spectroscopy. It is possible to collect star light that shines through the atmosphere of a planet. This light will hold the signs we are looking for. When the light is split in to its spectrum (the colours of the rainbow) we observe absorption lines. These are black lines in the spectrum and they occur when the light has passed through a particular substance, so for example, the lines will appear at a certain point when the light has passed through oxygen, and different points for hydrogen. The practical upshot of this is that bu analysing these lines it is possible to detect what is present in the atmosphere of a planet. Things like methane, ozone, carbon dioxide are all produced by living things. This will not be definitive but might be a clue. What we really want to detect, however, is chlorophyll. Chlorophyll can only be produced by organic processes, meaning that its detection will be definitive. If we find chlorophyll then it's in the bag.
Keep up to date with Kepler. It is a very exciting mission. There has never been a better time to be an astronomer.
The hunt for chlorophyll is on. Read More!