Oh yeah… You read that right.
The Nazis.
Space medicine.
And the Circumstellar Habitable Zone.
What do all three of these things have in
common?
One brilliant German physiologist’s tarnished
reputation. His name was Hubertus Strughold, and he was truly a remarkable man.
Today at To Infinity and…In Theory we’re going to talk about this World War II
doctor of the Luftwaffe, Operation Paperclip (swear to God, actual name), the
beginnings of Space Medicine, and something else.
Oh yeah.
The Habitable Zone.
The Habitable Zone is where we live, Earth.
We’re just the right distance from our sun to meet all the requirements to
sustain life. But if extremophiles have taught us anything in recent years it’s
that the requirements for life may be a little more bendable then we initially
led ourselves to believe.
But the Habitable Zone isn’t just important
because of Earth, which would be narcissistic to say at best. Turns out, there
are billions of planets out there
that may meet the requirements to sustain life of some kind. Even rogue planets
may experience enough tidal heating to maintain an atmospheric pressure
suitable. Our entire way of thinking may have to shift in the search for life..
But before we get too far ahead of ourselves,
let’s strap on our combat boots and climb down into the trenches of WWII with
Hubertus Strughold.
The Führer of Space
Medicine
Here at To Infinity and…In Theory we like to
laugh, however…if Monty Python taught us anything it’s that Nazis just aren’t
that funny.
So, being that Nazis aren’t funny, you’re
probably wondering why I’m making jokes about Dr. Strughold. Well, let me
clarify this for you then. I’m making jokes because…drum roll please…
Yep, you guessed it. Hubertus Strughold
wasn’t a Nazi.
He was a high ranking medical officer for the
Luftwaffe however, which was the German Infantry. Basically, he just worked for
the Army…but I can totally see how
you’d get those two mixed up… (Kidding…sarcasm…actually can’t believe people
get those mixed up…). Several of his assistants and pupils had gone on to work
for the Nazi regime however, and before the start of the war Strughold had
correspondence with Joseph Goebbels, a high ranking SS officer.
But saying because he knew one psychopath
would be akin to saying that because you went to high school with Charles
Manson you’re going to grow up to be part of his celebrity killing cult.
Needless to say a brilliant man’s reputation
has been tarnished, and brilliant he was indeed. His research during World War
II propelled modern aeronautics medicine ahead by decades. I won’t go into the
details of the people performing the experimentation processes, but they
studied oxygen deprivation and hypothermia amongst other things.
At the end of the war Hubertus found himself
on the losing side in an appalling war. I firmly believe he had nothing to do
with the Nazi war machine or the abhorrent nature of the Nazis’ atrocities, but
that is just one man’s humbly earnest opinion. Needless to say however he had a
unique skill set, and Uncle Sam wasn’t one to overlook talent. Hubertus
Strughold found himself amongst 1,500 or so odd German doctors, scientists,
engineers, and technicians that were immigrated to the United States to work on
various projects through a program titled “Operation Paperclip”.
If you’ve seen the Shamwow infomercial you know, “The Germans build good stuff!”
Despite the fact the endorser on the advertisement strikes me as a strange
fellow and slightly daft he makes a good point. The Germans are well known for
building products that are…well, good. They make them to last, and keep great
records. Even as a doctor Hubertus was no slouch at sciences in general, which
made him an invaluable asset. Good thing they snagged him up in the draft too,
because he went on to achieve some truly great things.
He was the first to figure out what the
effects of space would be on a human being by overseeing the construction of
the Space Cabin Simulator and supervising the testing. He also designed the
pressure suit and life support systems used onboard the Apollo missions,
without Strughold, we’d have never beat the Russian’s to the moon!
Strughold was investigated extensively by the
Department of Justice, and since he was found clean every time, was allowed to
continue his work with NASA and the United States government. Hubertus was awarded
dual citizenship in the late 50’s and an award was established in his name in
1962. What was the award for you ask? Space medicine. He is known as the Father
of Space Medicine after all.
Anyone who advanced the field of space
medicine significantly was given the Hubertus Strughold award. It was presented
by the Aerospace Medical Association. Every year since 1963 the award has been
presented, and a prestigious one it is, but in 2013, due to his tepid past, the
Hubertus Strughold award was suspended. It still has not been confirmed as to
whether or not it will be brought back. Personally, I hope it will. It isn’t
fair to ruin someone’s reputation with slander
. But that didn’t stop him from making major contributions to our space
programs and to the medical field in general. I have no need to discuss what
happens to your body when it’s exposed to space; from oxygen deprivation to
genetic mutations the publication IFLScience.com
has a wonderfully written article all about it. You can read that here.
In short, they wouldn’t know all that if it wasn’t for Hubertus…and Nazis
unfortunately…but not a Nazi Hubertus!
Make sense?
Heaven to Betsy I hope so.
Anyway, it wasn’t just space medicine and alleged
war crimes that Hubertus showed a propensity for. He was also, (like almost every scientist who ever existed before
him) a bit of a philosopher. He wrote a treatise on physiology in space titled The Green and the Red Planet: A
Physiological Study of the Possibility of Life on Mars and in it used the
words “ecosphere” and referenced various “zones” in which life could possibly
propagate in relation to distance from a star.
While his arguments weren’t exactly grounded
in Astrobiological Science, he raised some good points. Which is why shortly after
he wrote it in 1953, an American Astronomer took strong interest in it, because
unlike Hubertus, he could apply the
missing puzzle pieces of the Science that Hubertus had overlooked.
He called it “Liquid Water Belt theory”, and
that’s what we’re going to talk about next.
“You Are ‘Here’”
In 1953, Harlow Shapley took Strughold’s
theory a step further by making it plausible. He proposed what was then called “Liquid
Belt Theory”. In his theory he surmises that given what we knew about the sun,
and what we knew about life on Earth and it’s necessity for water, that only
planets within a certain “range” of their star would be able to support liquid
water at its surface. Therefore, only these planets would be able to sustain
life. Sounds like wild conjecture right?
Except for the fact that Shapley was already well beyond qualified to answer these
questions. How was he qualified you ask? Well in 1920 he was able to correctly
postulate our position in the Milky Way Galaxy and our sun’s relation to it.
Long before the technology even existed
to correctly just “guess” that kind of thing. The man was a genius.
What was exceptional about him though is that
had one known Shapley in his youth, they never would have guessed his massive
intellect. He had dropped out of school in the 5th grade, and later,
when he applied to a high school, he and his brothers were denied as being “unprepared”.
Instead they attended a parochial school, received a diploma, and by 1910, when
Harlow was only twenty-five, he received his B.A. with high honors in
mathematics and physics.
Not bad for a grade school dropout, eh? A
year later he received his Masters and was recommended for the prestigious
fellowship offered by Princeton for his remarkable achievements. During his
fellowship he disproved the age old theory of Cepheid stars being binaries. It
would not be the last time Cepheid’s would be studied and revised however, but
his contributions to it were the most tremendous since 1784, when Edward Pigott
first proposed it.
So why were the ecosphere and the liquid belt
theory so important? Because they became the key components of our next
subject. The Circumstellar Habitable Zone.
Goldilocks and the Three
Suns
Ecosphere, Biosphere, Hydrosphere, call it
whatever you want, but at the end of the day, it’s the golden area of
opportunity for life to exist called the Habitable Zone. Colloquially called “The
Goldilocks Zone” by some researchers, this area of hospitality in the fundamentally
harsh regions of space has been tossed and turned by scientists for decades.
Certain stars burn at certain temperatures.
Red dwarf stars tend to be cooler than our medium sized yellow one. Blue stars
are thought to burn the hottest. Then you get into Orange, White, and Brown
dwarfs, and blah, blah, blah. There’s a dozen or so odd star types, but for our
purposes, we’re going to talk about suns that are actually life sustainable.
As you can see from the picture above the
areas that are red around each star are the hottest and are deemed inhospitable
for life to exist. But if extremophiles here on Earth have taught us anything
it’s that life can exist in the most unforgiving environments. (Remember our
four part spotlight on Extremophiles? Catch up here! Part
One, Part
Two, Part
Three, Part
Four)
So while these zones may not be able to
sustain human life as we know it, it could certainly maintain Methanotrophic bacteria,
such as the ones that thrive at the bottom of the Marianas trench, or maybe
some of the Cryophiles that survive in the depths of Lake Vostok beneath
Antarctica. Our understanding of “life as we know it” has shifted drastically
in the last decade.
But even cooler still are the planets that
can support our kind of life. Humans. Those are the ones that scientists are
most interested in. We should all be
interested in them too, because we’re quickly destroying our current one, and
we may be long overdue already for a reset button.
So where are some of these planets capable of
supporting life of some kind? Let’s go all Guardians of the Galaxy…
…and do a little exoplanetary exploration of
our own. Also, just as a quick disclaimer, the photos in the accompanying
sections of the exoplanets are just artists’ representations (like that amazing
concept art above!) and not photographs, still, enjoy!
HD 85512 b
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HD 85512 b finds itself nested in the Vela constellation
about 36 light-years from our planet. It’s a super-Earth, being that its mass
is almost four times bigger than our own. Through the High Accuracy Radial velocity
Planet Searcher (HARPS) program in Switzerland, HD 85512 b was discovered to be
flying within the habitable zone and this one could potentially contain liquid
water at its surface.
But this one isn’t the only potential
candidate for life support abilities. HD 85512 b so far is thought to be one of
best, but so isn’t the next one on our list.
Gliese 581 d
Unlike HD 85512 (The Sun of the planet we
just talked about) which is an Orange Dwarf, Gliese 581 d orbits a Red Dwarf.
According to scientists it would have a dark and murky atmosphere with twice
the gravity of Earth. Initially thought to have been tidally locked, this giant
with seven times the mass of our planet, has been rethought extensively. Now it’s
believed that Gliese 581 d has a dense Co2 atmosphere, meaning it could trap
heat well and maintain liquid water on the surface.
The drinkability of that water is
questionable and the distance is over twenty light-years from us making this a far
off candidate for the distant future. But what about the next one on our list?
Gliese 581 g (or is
it??)
Nothing will bring you to the verge of an existential
quandary faster than people questioning your existence, (or your status…I miss
Pluto…), but that’s exactly what’s happening to 581 g in the Gliese 581 orbit.
He orbits the habitable zone, has the potential to harbor liquid water at its
surface, maybe even be a better candidate than his brother, but there’s one
problem…
They don’t even know if he exists…
Poor Gliese 581 g. Unlike him, we’re certain
of the next one, discovered as a part of the Kepler program.
Kepler 186 f
If you thought that HD and Gliese were a long
distance off, you were sadly mistaken. Those systems are right around the
corner in comparison to the 490 light-years between us and Kepler 186 f.
Recently discovered this year back in April, it is only a mere 10% larger than
Earth and is the closest planet to Earth in size ever found in a habitable
zone.
This is a huge
deal. Not only does that mean Kepler 186 f can sustain life as we know it scientists are saying that
life could even thrive on its surface. Its system is set up a lot like ours as
well, with multiple planets too far away from or too close to their star to
sustain life. Unfortunately, its great distance means tremendous strides will
have to be made in telescoping technology in order for us to get a close up
glimpse of its surface.
Kepler 22 b
But if you thought Kepler 186 was a ways out
there, Kepler 22 b is here to tell you that’s just a skip across the pond. At a
whopping 600 light-years from us, this Earth 2.0 planet discovered in 2010 was
initially thought to be the end-all for the search. With an estimated surface
temperature of 72 degree F, Kepler 22 b is more than capable of sustaining
liquid water. However, given its distance, that’s probably all we’re really
going to know about him for a while.
HD 40307 g
Located a measly 44 light-years away, this
Super-Duper mega-sized Earth could hold seven of our little blue balls inside
of it. With a length of year slightly half that of ours and a distance of 40
million miles closer to its star, HD 40307 g finds himself right smack in the
habitable zone.
Because of its relative closeness to us, next
generation telescopes are thought to be able to peer at its surface. Perhaps
within a decade we may actually be able to catch a glimpse of life on another
planet.
Tau Ceti e
The last one on our list today is the
unconfirmed planet Tau Ceti e. The strangest thing about this planet is the
fact that it’s unconfirmed when it’s the closest one on our list at only 11
light-years from our sun. Should the confirmation come about however this could
prove gigantic to the scientific
community, because not only would the surface of the planet be close enough to
take snapshots of in a few years, but being in our own “cosmic backyard” could
mean Tau Ceti would become the target of future interstellar missions.
Take that Orson Scott Card. No more 3 millennium
long trips.
All jokes aside every planet on this list,
and many, many more just like them, could prove once and for all that we’re not
alone out there in the galaxy. Now the real question is…
Do they even want to meet us?
-
Ryan
Sanders
Thanks for reading!
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