HD 106906 B: The Avant-Garde of Planetary Formation

Theories about planetary formation seem to be full of a lot of black holes (pun intended). Sometimes it’s hard to sift the stardust in the lens to see the picture underneath. There are many insightful theories about how it happens (many excellent ones which we’ll talk about here in this entry today.) Just as there are many very bad ones, (also ones we’ll talk about today.)

Since the dawn of time, man has looked to the heavens for answers. In early days we feared the sight of Mars in the sky and revered the warmth of the sun as holy. We were simple people. So why’d we stop doing all that? Well the answer is science, and telescopes. With the creation of telescopes we eventually decided to put our ingenuity into space exploration. Once we learned how to put telescopes into space, well, that’s when the magic happened.

Perhaps the most famous of all these telescopes is the Hubble, which is still in use today. But one of the telescopes that we’re going to be discussing and focusing on primarily here is much more powerful than that. The Kepler Satellite is tasked with staring at one section of the universe for as long as it has power. That’s a daunting task, the expanse is huge, but what it has uncovered has many scientists throwing tantrums and crying over a life’s work wasted. But where some see complete failure, others see incredible promise.

We discussed Kepler 78 B earlier on in this blog. (You can follow the link to that article here) But now we’re going to talk about its latest discovery. A planet so massive that not only should it not exist according to current formation theories, but also should not be in its current orbit given its location. I’m going to fill you in on what I know about this neat little planet, and what it means to current theories in the scientific community.

(Fig. 1) Demonstrates the distance of HD 106906 B from its parent star

(Fig. 2) Artist’s Rendering of HD 106906 B

The “Star” of the Show

That’s an artist’s rendering of the planet HD 106906 B. Pretty nifty huh? The young astrologer, Vanessa Bailey who discovered it thought so too. See, the planet is 11 times the size of Jupiter, but that’s not what’s so incredible. Its parent star is located 650 AU (Astronomical Units which is the relative distance from the Earth to the sun) away. That’s 60 billion miles! That’s a long way when you think about it, considering Neptune, which is our most distant planet (since the unfair deportation of Pluto) is 30 AU away. That means this planet is most likely receiving no radiation from its star, but yet it’s still generating a ton of energy.

Aside from how it’s generating this energy (it’s a gas giant so there are many different ways it could) the other thing that perplexes us is how it formed. One theory is that when that particular system (The Crux system) formed it originally had two suns locked in a bitter competition with each other. Eventually, one of them was victorious, using up the vital elements it needed to form leaving HD with the scraps.

However it happened, our current understanding of how planets and star systems form isn’t leading us any closer to figuring this out. Following Nebular Hypothesis a planet couldn’t form that far away from its star. That’s kind of bad considering Nebular Hypothesis Theory has been around since the 1700’s. It’s also so widely accepted that it’s taught in schools. (Whoops…) But all scientific progress has to begin somewhere! Nebular Hypothesis may be wrong in this case, but as the old saying goes “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

The Big “Bow Chicka Wow Wow”

(Fig. 3) Timeline of the widely accepted “Big Bang Theory”

In order to fully understand the theories we’re going to talk about today one must understand what scientists believe set all this in motion. The Big Bang Theory is the center of it all. It basically subscribes to the ideal that in the beginning of time the universe essentially “imploded” on itself. This caused it to superheat, creating the primordial elements. Over time these gases bonded together causing electrical storms as the galaxies gradually cooled. This lightening superheated the gases, creating heavy bonds. From that point gravity took over and pulled these asteroids together creating the planets. Stars, giant fission reactions of gravity, electro-magnetism, and gases, and this is all irrefutable.

Except it isn’t irrefutable, but it is the single handedly the most widely accepted theory on why our little rock is here. (Second is Creationism I’d wager a guess) But from this theory came Nebular Hypothesis theory. In 1734, when Swedish cosmologist Emanuel Swedberg proposed that planets were the result of collapsing stars’ violent forces creating heavy elements he was basically laughed at.

Immanuel Kant refined this theory later, in 1755. Using Science and Mathematics he attempted to show how gravity affected the swirling gases, causing them to collapse over time and the forces create planets. It wasn’t until someone with a reputation in the Astronomical community stepped in and created a model showing how stars collapse and contract.

Enter Pierre-Simon Laplace. His protosolar nebulae model was widely received as the definitive answer throughout the 19^th century, but there were problems with it. Namely physics and mathematics related.

How did these small particles come together to form these giant planets? Why did some stars have planets around them and some not even so much as a dust belt? If planets are the result of a collapsing star then shouldn’t it stand to reason that all stars have planets? Not to mention where do all these heavy elements come from? Some take some extreme conditions to form, but yet they’re all here.

Other failed attempts at making this theory work were Thomas Chamberlin and Forest Moulton’s Planetesimal Theory, The Planetesimal theory basically says that the matter collides into each other forming balls of larger matter. The problem with this is how does dust collide? It’s too light for gravity to effect. There is also Woolfson’s Capture Theory, which claims tidal effects between our sun and a protostar caused the planets to form. The problem with this one is it requires special conditions and draws on the assumption our sun formed first and the planets formed later. Our current knowledge however tells us it all happened around the same time, making Woolfson’s theory the least likely.

The formation of HD 106906 B is believed to be attributed to a Binary Star system. Originally the universe had planned for there to be two stars there. However there were not enough elements available to double up and they began to form too close. Because of this only one star formed and the other burned out, unable to start the nuclear reaction in its core to light up the cosmos. This is just a theory, but it sure sounds like a darn good one. To read more about Binary Stars check out the Wikipedia page, here.  

However it happened we’re never going to know without looking into the sky. Let’s take a look at how Astronomers are mapping the stars, and what technology may lead them to the breakthroughs they need to answer one of the age old questions, “how did we get here?”

The Space Renaissance

(Fig.4) The Kepler Telescope under construction at NASA

Even though HD 106906 was discovered by a ground telescope (The Magellan) located in Chile, we’re going to talk about one that’s currently floating around in space right now staring boldly into the heavens. The Kepler Telescope was launched back in 2009 and since then has discovered a plethora of planets.

(Fig. 5) Breakdown of Kepler Satellite and it’s equipment

 Mercurien (Like Mercury), Sub-Terran (Like Mars), Terran (Earth-like) Even ones like Saturn and Jupiter sized ones. The environments found on these planets is as diverse as the human race itself, ranging from absolute zero to virtually barren magma ridden landscapes like Kepler 78 B even planets that scientists speculate are close enough to Earth to sustain life like ours. But how do these strange and unique solar systems and planets actually form?

Sadly we’ve been studying this for centuries and it seems we’re no closer to uncovering the truth. Thanks to the Kepler Telescope however, we are getting closer. Since 2009, NASA has reported over 2,000 exoplanets and over 2,000 stars have been discovered. As technology continues to evolve and we are able to push further into the stars, these systems, some young, some old, could lead us to the answers that have so long eluded us.

(Fig. 6) Confirmed results from Kepler Exploration

The Kepler telescope is named after 17^th century astronomer Johannes Kepler. While he wasn’t responsible for the discovery of how planets form, he did figure out how they move. Kepler is credited with the Laws of Planetary Motion. Not only is that important to modern day astronomy, it was also the basis of Newton’s laws of Universal Gravitation which states that every point mass in the universe attracts every other point mass with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. In other words, multiply the weight of the objects, that’s how much force you have. Then do the math for the distance between them. You got their movement.

Even though Einstein superseded Universal Gravitation with General Relativity it’s still used as a basis for explanation of gravitational forces. Relativity is used when extreme precision is required. But I digress. Back to Kepler.

There were three parts to his law of planetary motion:

1.    The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the sun at one of the two foci.

2.    A line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time.

3.    The square of the orbital period of a planet is proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit.

While the first two were published in 1609 it would be ten more years till observations led him to the discovery of his third law. Those are some pretty incredible discoveries given the technology he had to work with in those early days. It seems fitting to name our deep space stargazing telescope after the man.

The Kepler Probe Don’t Give A Schmidt

(Fig. 7) Palomar Observatory, California

So how do telescopes like the Kepler Satellite and the Magellan Observatory see into space so clearly? As centuries go by we have been improving on the telescope. That led us all the way to 1930, to a man named Bernhard Schmidt. His design would revolutionize the clarity of which we see the sky, one that almost 100 years later, is so tried and true we sent it up into the Kepler Probe in 2009.

“The Schmidt camera was invented by Estonian optician Bernhard Schmidt in 1930. Its optical components are an easy-to-make spherical primary mirror, and an aspherical correcting lens, known as a Schmidt Corrector Plate, located at the center of curvature of the primary mirror. The film or other detector is placed inside the camera, at the prime focus. The design is noted for allowing very fast focal ratios, while controlling coma and astigmatism.

Schmidt cameras have very strongly curved focal planes, thus requiring that the film, plate, or other detector be correspondingly curved. In some cases the detector is made curved; in others flat media is mechanically conformed to the shape of the focal plane through the use of retaining clips or bolts, or by the application of a vacuum. A field flattener, in its simplest form a planoconvex lens in front of the film plate or detector, is sometimes used. Since the corrector plate is at the center of curvature of the primary mirror in this design the tube length can be very long for a wide-field telescope. There are also the drawbacks of having the obstruction of the film holder or detector mounted at the focus half way up the tube assembly, a small amount of light is blocked and there is a loss in contrast in the image due to diffraction effects of the obstruction and its support structure.” – From Wikipedia

This new design changed the astronomy world forever, (obviously if we’re still building satellites that use it today!) As innovation and exploration continue to drive us forward into the world I’m excited to see what scientists come up next. I’ll be following HD 106906 B as well as Kepler 78 B and when more is known I’ll be sure to write more on it. Thanks for reading this guys!

(Fig. 8) The largest Schmidt telescope (2 m), located in Germany.

-Ryan Sanders

For further reading on any of the above mentioned materials you can follow the links below as always. Feel free to share this around on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, where you want to! J Happy learning!

-       Vannesa Bailey’s Scientific Paperon “HD 106906 b: A PLANETARY-MASS COMPANION OUTSIDE A MASSIVE DEBRIS DISK”

-       Tucson News article on HD 106906 B

-       Wiki entry on “Johannes Kepler”

-       Washington Post article on Kepler Satellite

-       Scientific American article on Kepler Extrasolar planet discoveries.

-       NASA’s website, page on Kepler Mission (lots of cool stuff there guys!)

Livin' Life to the Extremophile: Biodiversity (Part 4)

So, to quickly recap. In the last 3 days we have traveled several miles below to the Antarctic ice shelf to see what’s happening down there. We’ve visited the deep and mysterious cave systems of Romania and Mexico. We’ve even braved the icy cold depths of the Marianas Trench and stared through the looking glass at planets a billion miles away! What else is there to cover?

The wildlife of course.

You didn’t think I was just going to leave you hanging did you?! To wrap up our spotlight on Extremophiles and their unique habitats, it seems fitting that we spend some time talking about the locals. Here are some of the most bizarre creatures our planet has to offer, and what it means to the future of exploration.

(Fig. 1) The Olm, or Proteus. Note the lack of eyes and pigmentation

this is due to its habitat where there is almost no light

The Caves

What a strange looking creature right? That little guy picture above is called the Olm, or the Proteus, and like the American mudpuppy, it’s one of a kind. It is the only cave-dwelling Chordate that we are aware of at the time of this writing, and it’s not just his bizarre looks that set him apart from the rest.

Dubbed “Human Fish” in Slovenian by the local population this strange amphibian evolved in the caves below Slovenia for centuries. It’s noted in the 1860s by explorers but didn’t become a creature of study until most recently. It has three toes on its front feet and two on the back. Why? Reduction. See, when Mother Nature decides a creature no longer needs something to survive; it removes them in favor of something more necessary.

Like eyes for instance.

Because the Olm is primarily aquatic and lives in the perpetual blackness of underground cave systems the eyes have regressed over time, leaving the sockets covered in a layer of skin. Essentially the Proteus is blind but it still retains sensitivity to light. It has rudimentary lungs but these play second fiddle to the brightly colored red gills he sports like flowers on either side of his head. The reason these gills are so vibrant is because of the lack of pigmentation in the little guy’s skin. Because the oxygen rich blood is red in those areas, and the skin is practically transparent, you can see the bright coloration clearly.

But like a superhero this little guy sure can hear! Its other senses have strongly developed over time, making up for its lack of sight. The Olm can live for decades without food, sitting motionless on the floor of its watery home, but unlike other aquatic animals that exhibit this kind of behavior, the Olm can take off at blinding speeds at a moment’s notice whereas other creature’s out there that slow down their metabolic functions are more slow-moving.

So is this guy an Extremophile? I’d say so. While it doesn’t really live in battery acid water or null-oxygen environments, its ability to survive up to ten years on the lipids and sugars it manufactures in its liver I’d say put it there.

(Fig. 2) The glow-worms deadly web traps and the bioluminescent tail-

light of a glow-worm in a New Zealand cave

See that neat little light glowing there? Thought so. Ya, that’s the New Zealand Glow Worm, that crazy little guy sure is bright isn’t he? Bioluminescence, a process by which an organism exhibits light through production of a chemical in an organ, isn’t extremely uncommon in extremophiles. It makes sense when you think about it, most of these guys live in really dark environments, so it doesn’t hurt to have a lamp sometimes.

See those strings with what appear to be little beads of water accumulated on them? Those aren’t strings, per se. They’re actually traps! The glow worm is carnivorous. It traps other insects in the webs, like a spider’s actually, and then it sucks their internal organs out via chemicals that cause their prey to liquefy. Gnarly little fellas aren’t they? But it doesn’t stop there; there are more files on this extremophile.

See, the glow worm is a larval stage, and they’re kind of dumb. With their over-territorial nature and lack of distinction they will actually cannibalize each other if one roams into another’s territory. What’s even worse, when the fly hatches from the larval form, it will often follow the lights of its larval brothers, flying right into its own traps to be consumed. As I said, not very bright.

In its glowy worm stage of gestation the creature only has one goal. Eat and convert that food into proteins. Eventually, when it has consumed enough it will cocoon itself, much like a butterfly, that pupa eventually becomes the fly.

From the 31 unknown species they uncovered in Movile’s chemosynthesis based cave to the strange and bizarre blind fish the villagers of Villa Luz depend on every year there is peculiar life all around us. Next let’s see what they discovered when they ventured down into the depths of the Ocean.

The Vents

For the longest time scientists believed that the sun was the ultimate catalyst for life on Earth. After all, it powered the microbes and the plants via photosynthetic rays. This in turn allowed the plants to turn Carbon Dioxide into useful oxygen for us, in turn creating the very atmosphere we need to survive. The sun is pretty important, so it makes sense that we didn’t think life could exist without it.

This heliocentric view was nice, I mean, it wrapped everything up in a nice neat little ball for scientists everywhere, the problem? It was wrong. Yes, the sun is necessary for life on Earth to exist and without it we certainly wouldn’t be here but it’s not vital for all life. Life just needs energy, where it obtains that source of energy can be a testament to the true sustainability of life. What ALVIN discovered in the bottom of the Marianas Trench in the 70’s is still being heavily researched by scientists today, but what made this hardy ecosystem able to adapt to the extreme conditions found at the depths of the oceans?

(Fig. 3) Microbial Polyextremophile life around volcanic vents.

Marianas Trench

Piezophile, Thermophile, Extremophile, Polyextremophile, all these terms apply to this dense microbial mat covering hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the oceans. At the extreme depths of the trench the pressure is so high that if you were to try to swim down without a specially developed pressurized suit you would most assuredly be doomed to implode. Our bodies are not capable of producing the external pressure to survive at these depths, but these little guys pictured above, and many ichthyologic (fish) species can.

That’s what a Piezophile is. An organism capable of exerting the outward pressure necessary to not be crushed by forces pushing inward on it. But that’s not the only incredible feature of creatures able to live at these depths. The waters down there are usually very dark and cold, leading most predatory species to rely on other senses in order to feed. Also, as I stated earlier the microbes need some kind of energy to feed on as well. So what keeps those mats from drying up and dying out?

Tectonic plates and the core of planet to be exact. See, the bottom of the ocean is littered with what we call hydrothermal vents. These openings in the Earth basically spit out the superheated contents of the core, venting the pressure so our planet doesn’t explode. Naturally the contents have to very hot, but the pressure at these depths keep the water from reaching a vapor form (in other words, boiling point cannot be achieved) but the end result is a superheated area that can sustain the bacteria and other microbial organisms that have learned to adapt to it. The Piezo-Hydro-Chemolithautorophic-Thermophilic guys are so complex they are actually put into a category all their own.

The Polyextremophile, which is an organism exhibiting more than one quality of a standard extremophile. So you see now why these guys are still under such heavy study? Problems arise however when trying to remove these creatures from their native habitat. Changes in pressure, temperature, and chemical intakes cause specimens to rapidly decay leaving us to study them where they lay. But that’s not really such a bad thing, I mean, who doesn’t like a good swim?

Deep Waters

As we stated above the deep ocean is home to many strange species indeed, these areas that go miles below sea level where no light can reach are intensely cold and heavily pressurized. We used to think life couldn’t exist down there; here are some pictures so show just how wrong we were:

(Fig.4) Deep-sea Angler Fish

(Fig. 5) Deep-sea Angler Fish (Bioluminescent)

(Fig.6) The Mouthless Tube Worm

(Fig. 7) The Yeti Crab

So you see, in places like Lake Vostok we have discovered life (Cryophiles) and in the acidic waters of Yellowstone we have discovered entire ecosystems that we never thought could exist (Acidophiles). That is why it so important we explore every avenue for possible life. This is a growing field, every day we’re discovering more and more about these strange creatures that share our world.

That is what has made NASA so interested in all of this. If we can find life in these places, that survive off the methods they do when everything on our planet right now tells them they don’t even have to, imagine what we’ll find out in space where things have to evolve without the luxury of a lush atmosphere to fall back on evolutionarily. In the coming years the methods we use to cleanly extract and study these organisms will be vital to the coming mission on NASA’s and other space organizations rosters.

Are we going to find life as diverse on these other planets and moons as we do in the most unforgiving environments on our planet? I’m doubtful but I’d never rule it out. If life can evolve from a single-celled organism here then what’s to say it can’t there? The age of Anthropocentricism as at an end, now that we know what we should be looking for.

I don’t care who finds it, I just want it to be found. I firmly believe there is life out there in places like Io, Titan, and Europa. The key to finding it is locked away in these organisms right here that share this world with us. I’m just glad we’re finally opening the lock.

-Ryan Sanders

From “The Far Side” by the brilliant “Gary Larson”

Thank you all so much for reading this four part series I've put together. It took a lot of hard work and research to pull all of this together for you. I hope you've enjoyed it and come back in the future for more exploration into the wonderful world of science. Happy learning everyone!

-Sincerely,

              Ryan Sanders

The Planet That Should Not Be. Kelper 78b.

Kepler 78b: What The Hellscape?

        

        

       Anybody remember Pluto? The planet that well...used to be a planet. Talk about an identity crisis right? Well what about Kepler 78b? Scientist's are saying this Earth-like exoplanet shouldn't even exist! Sheesh, harsh...

       But they have good reason, in order for a planet like this to exist it would have to have formed within the star in the constellation of Cygnus itself. The other possibility is that it came in from another orbit and muscled it's way up to the star. Guess he needed to warm up by the fire huh? Scientists are scratching their heads, completely baffled by this mystery planet.

      

        So, I mentioned Earth-like right? Not another Earth itself as Kepler 78b is certainly not hospitable (not for life as we know it anyway) as the surface temperature reaches 2000 degrees celsius. (And not an air conditioner in sight!) That's plenty hot enough to melt anything we have on our humble little rock. So why is it so FREAKIN' SCORCHIN'?

       Kepler 78b orbits it's sign pretty close, astronomically speaking anyway, at relatively a million miles from it. To put that in perspective, since the Earth's orbit is elliptical we average about 93 million miles from our sun. (consequently 93 million miles is shortened to 1AU or astronomical unit for ease) So that 92 million miles makes a significant distance in a lot of areas. We have seasons, Kepler, likely does not. A year here, 365 right? Everyone knows that. One year there? 8.5 hours. Imagine tax season on a planet like that!

        Well thanks to the Kepler telescope data launched in 2009 and a team of astronomer's we finally get a chance to analyze this planet. Which is good, because it isn't going to last very long. Once again, astronomically speaking. In a few billion years Kepler 78b is going to break about from the intense conditions it undergoes. Guess they should've named the poor guy Icarus.

        So...if it's going to be around for a few billion years, then why is it such a big deal to study it now? To us that sounds like a really long time, but in order to effectively study objects and planets such as this requires proximity and this exoplanet lies around 400 lightyears from earth. How far is a lightyear? 5,878,499,810,000 miles (five.8 trillion). Multiply that by 400. (The Proclaimers eat your heart out)

        So let's put it all in perspective now. The Kepler telescope launched in 2009, but we're just discovering it in 2013. That's four years, and there's a ton of data to sift through. But hopefully scientists can get it all figured out for us. Luckily they intend to stick to it so in the near future we'll learn much more about this interesting hellscape in the sky. There are many articles throughout the internet if you're interested in knowing more about this planet and Wikipedia has some very accurate information condensed from what you'll find in those various articles. I encourage you to read more on this.

        With hundreds of new Earth-like worlds being discovered throughout the universe everyday Kepler 78b is just one of many examples of how confounding our universe can be. And who knows...maybe life as we know it will become life as we couldn't have imagined. guess we'll just have to wait and see.