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The time has come for my annual short Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

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Astronomers determine that two super-Earths are not as rocky as previously believed

Using observations from both the Hubble Space Telescope and the now retired Spitzer infrared space telescope, astronomers now think that two super-Earth-sized explanets are not as rocky as previously believed, and are in fact liquid worlds with as much as half their make-up comprised of water. From the press release:

Water wasn’t directly detected at Kepler-138 c and d, but by comparing the sizes and masses of the planets to models, astronomers conclude that a significant fraction of their volume – up to half of it – should be made of materials that are lighter than rock but heavier than hydrogen or helium (which constitute the bulk of gas giant planets like Jupiter). The most common of these candidate materials is water.

“We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that’s why we called them super-Earths,” explained Björn Benneke, study co-author and professor of astrophysics at the University of Montreal. “However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are quite different in nature and that a big fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorized by astronomers to exist for a long time.”

With volumes more than three times that of Earth and masses twice as big, planets c and d have much lower densities than Earth. This is surprising because most of the planets just slightly bigger than Earth that have been studied in detail so far all seemed to be rocky worlds like ours. The closest comparison, say researchers, would be some of the icy moons in the outer solar system that are also largely composed of water surrounding a rocky core.

This data simply underlines a basic point: The information we have of all exoplanets is sparse, practically nil. Any conclusions about their make-up is an educated guess, at best. Even now the conclusion that these are water worlds should be treated with great skepticism.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

8 comments

  • Doubting Thomas

    218 lightyears away. A 1/2 c generation ship could make it in about 100 years. A water world…..cool to explore.

    A guy can dream I guess.

  • David Ross

    Doubting Thomas: the further-out exoplanets which we can see (by transit) are good for guessing at exoplanets we can’t see, closer to us.
    Constraining their properties is good.
    Although I completely agree with RZ about us not knowing if these are water worlds. They could be enveloped in thick carbon-dioxide and some other sort of cloud, like Venus is; depending on how high the cloud deck. People used to think Cancri 55e was full carbon. We won’t know unless/until we catch a gas signature in the transit.

  • john hare

    Doubting Thomas. You reversed some numbers. 436 years at 0.5 c

  • Doubting Thomas

    John Hare – Oooopsss…thanks. Overcome by enthusiasm. Still excited.

    Thanks for the correction

  • Lee S

    Here’s a question for the more physics minded of you….
    If a probe to anywhere traveled at .5c , taking 400 years from our point of view, how long will it have traveled from the probes point of view?

  • There’s a handy chart here: https://www.fourmilab.ch/cship/timedial.html

    Curiously, at 0.5c, the observed difference between the frames of references are the same ratio as nautical miles, to Standard Imperial miles.

    It looks like you have to get deep into the nines (0.9999999 etc) to really notice the difference.

  • wayne

    Lee–
    definitely check out the link from Blair.
    Also check out the Lorentz Contraction page, for explanation of length-contraction.

    Blair-
    Great chart! Excellent website.
    I love this stuff, but I always have trouble visualizing exactly what is happening, this makes it easy….

  • Lee S

    Thanks Blair! ( And wayne!) , That chart is pretty eyebrow raising stuff!!
    It just makes more jam of my brain to see it all spread out like that…

    Someone, somewhere is having a good giggle at us mortals trying to work out the “why” behind all this!!

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