What?: July 2016

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Michael Strahan Tells Chelsea Handler He Doesn’t Miss ‘Live’ [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Where Is the Habitable Zone for M-Dwarf Stars? [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will look for planets around close, bright stars.

Credit: MIT

While we know that yellow dwarf stars like our sun are capable of supporting life, there’s another star type that is a prime hunting ground for potentially habitable exoplanets.

M-dwarf stars are extremely common in the universe and a typical one is relatively small and dim, making it easy for astronomers to detect a passing planet. If orbiting planets huddle close enough to an M-dwarf, in theory they could fall within the habitable zone where surface liquid water, and thus life, is possible.

Yet, an M-dwarf’s habitable zone is poorly understood. It is not clear how far away the planets need to be orbiting from the star for surface liquid water to be possible. Because planets in this range orbit so close to an M-dwarf they may be tidally locked, said Ravi Kumar Kopparapu, an assistant research scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. [How Habitable Zones for Alien Planets and Stars Work (Infographic)]

“They’re always facing the same side of the star, just like the moon does around the Earth,” he said.

This position could potentially stabilize the climate for life, but on the other hand, the side facing the star might be very hot while the side facing away is very cold.

Kopparapu said a better understanding of habitable zones around M-dwarfs needs to come quickly because of upcoming missions in exoplanet research. NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is scheduled to launch next year to observe more planets and to serve as a guidepost for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in 2018. James Webb can provide higher resolution data that can tell us about what kind of gases are present in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting an M-dwarf star. This data can bring out details such as a planet’s temperature, revealing the potential for the right conditions to exist for life.

A paper based on Kopparapu’s research, “The inner edge of the habitable zone for synchronously rotating planets around low-mass stars using general circulation models,” was recently published in The Astrophysical Journal.

The estimated habitable zones of A stars, G stars and M stars are compared in this diagram. More refinement is needed to better understand the size of these zones.

Credit: NASA

Refined climate model

Kopparapu previously came up with a one-dimensional climate model of habitable zones around all stars, including M-dwarfs. This model did not take into account tidal locking around the star, but instead found two types of habitability limits. The first is a moist greenhouse limit, where a planet that is close enough to a star would have water vapor dominated atmosphere rendering the planet uninhabitable due to high temperatures. The second limit is a runaway greenhouse effect, where the energy from the star is so intense (higher than the energy absorbed in the moist greenhouse limit) that it causes oceans to evaporate.

The new model, explained in the most recent paper, simulates a water-rich planet (roughly Earth’s size). Previous research using this same model found that the climate of such a planet would depend on atmospheric circulation, which in turn depends on the Coriolis force (created by the planet’s rotation). In slowly rotating planets near the inner edge of the habitable zone, the Coriolis force is weak, the clouds stay fairly stationary, and the planet has lower temperatures than predicted by one-dimensional models because the clouds reflect the light of the star. This results in the habitable zone being much closer to the star to take into account this cooling effect.

Kopparapu’s team was able to reproduce those results, but there was one key difference.

“Our habitable zones are a little farther away from the star than what they get from their model because the planets get warmer faster,” he said. “This means the width of the habitable zone around M-dwarf stars is not as wide as previously thought.”

Artist’s impression of a M-dwarf star surrounded by planets.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Kopparapu said his team took into account Kepler’s third law of motion, which is a fundamental part of physics and astronomy. The law, simply put, says the time it takes a planet to orbit its star is roughly proportional to the size of its orbit. The older study assumed a constant orbital period of 60 days at the inner edge of the habitable zone, but the orbital and rotational period did not match what Kepler’s law predicts.

More study is planned to refine the size of these habitable zones. Kopparapu has funding from NASA’s Habitable Worlds Grant. His proposal will update our understanding of how water vapor can absorb incoming radiation from the star. This can influence the warmth of a planet and further reduce the width of the habitable zone.

Funding sources for the work include the NASA Astrobiology Institute’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory, the NASA Planetary Atmospheres Program, the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, the National Science Foundation and Penn State Astrobiology Research Center.

This story was provided by Astrobiology Magazine, a web-based publication sponsored by the NASA astrobiology program. Follow Space.com @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+.

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Watch India’s First Sufi Rap Video, Released to Celebrate World Music Day [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

‘Star Trek’ Actor Brent Spiner Talks New Movie, Stephen Hawking in Q&A [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Brent Spiner (left) reprises his role as an eccentric scientist in “Independence Day: Resurgence.”

Brent Spiner is best known for playing Data, the sentient android in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” This summer, moviegoers can also see him reprise his role as an eccentric scientist in the new movie, “Independence Day: Resurgence,” a sequel to the 1996 blockbuster “Independence Day.”

We chatted with Spiner about the new movie, the 50th anniversary of “Star Trek,” his comedic icons, and his (unauthorized) nickname for Stephen Hawking.

Fans of “Star Trek,” or anyone who has seen interviews with Spiner, will know he absolutely drips with charm, but is also completely down to Earth and unpretentious. He seems to talk to everyone as if he’s chatting with an old friend, and this feeling partly arises because he’s constantly making jokes (see the bit below about there being starships on the movie set). It’s impossible to convey these qualities through print alone, but his story about Stephen Hawking is a great example of what kind of interviewee he is. [Earth’s New Battle Against Aliens: Photos from ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’]

Space.com: Is there anything you’re particularly excited about in this new movie that you’d like to share with fans?

Brent Spiner: Well, I’m particularly excited to see it, since I haven’t seen it. I’m expecting it’ll be fantastic. I just want to see what Roland (Emmerich, the director) did. Because it was a lot of fun being on the set, but you never really have a clue until you actually see it.

Space.com: When you are on the set there are alien props and starships and things, does it actually feel like you’re in a sci-fi setting or is it just like any movie set?

BS: Well, the starships were real, that wasn’t CGI (computer-generated imagery); we actually had many starships on the set, so it felt very real.

Space.com: [Laughing]

BS: You know what, being on a film set feels like being in a sci-fi movie always because it’s just so surreal. In this case there was a lot of blue screen stuff that we were working among and we had no idea what it was going to look like [in the movie], but that’s part of the fun of doing a movie like this, because it’s so much about imagination.

Brent Spiner (left) and Jeff Goldblum both reprised their roles from the 1996 movie “Independence Day” in the film’s sequel, “Independence Day: Resurgence,” due out June 24.

Credit: Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Invision for Twentieth Century Fox/AP Images

Space.com: As an actor, do you intentionally try to be associated with science fiction or is this just a coincidence that you seem to have stumbled into these two sci-fi franchises [“Star Trek” and “Independence Day”]?

BS: I think it is completely a coincidence. It’s nothing I ever dreamed I would be doing. Really, for me, I always thought I was going to be doing comedy. And in fact, I still think I am. Not in every case, but [with] these two franchises … in both cases I think I have sort of been comic relief. Having spent seven years on “Star Trek,” and then having done this film and the one before it, the characters both had the opportunity to grow, so they became kind of multidimensional and not just comic relief.

But in answer to your question specifically, no. I mean … no, I had no idea. I don’t even know how I wound up in it.

Space.com: Well, I’m happy to talk about the non-science fiction roles in your career, but I write for Space.com, so obviously our readers have a particular interest.

BS: Right, exactly. Well, let me just say this, because I think this might help: I think there’s a tradition in the history of films for character actors to wind up in genre things later in their careers, and so many of the guys I admired growing up, like Basil Rathbone and Peter Lorre and John Carradine, and really great character actors found their way into sci-fi and horror and things like that. Claude Rains. There’s a real tradition for it. And not that I compare myself to those guys and their skills, but I’m happy to kind of belong in that tradition.

Space.com: Yeah, I guess in “Independence Day” there was a comedic element to your character that made it work very well. Do you think, as you just described, there really needs to be comedy in these types of genres — that it adds something?

BS: Well, I think you need comedy in everything. In every genre. I mean, if you look at the great dramas, even, [there is] comedy. Even [Eugene] O’Neill, I mean “Long Day’s Journey [Into Night]” has laughs. It has to.

Space.com: OK, I know you’re an actor, but I have to ask you about something Stephen Hawking said.

BS: I call him “The Hawk” because I’ve worked with him.

Space.com: Really?!

BS: Yeah, he did an episode of “Star Trek” and I was the lucky actor among the cast who got to work with him. So I’ve always referred to him as The Hawk since then.

Space.com: He gave you his blessing to call him The Hawk?

BS: No, he knows nothing about it. Unless he’s read about it.

Space.com: [Laughing again]

BS: But he did have a good sense of humor so I suspect he’ll be all right with it.

Space.com: OK, so Stephen Hawking thinks there’s a good chance that if aliens come and find us it’s probably because they want to kill us. What’s your take on that?

BS: Well, my take is – I mean he is an astrophysicist, you know, and one of the great minds of the world, and so he formulates opinions about stuff like that. I don’t even think about stuff like that. I mean, how would I know; I’m just an actor, you know. I mean, I think that if there [are] extraterrestrials — [Hawking] thinks they’ll want to kill us, I think there’s a lot of actors among them who would want to be beloved by everyone and who would turn to the stage.

Space.com: Do you have a busy year with this being the 50^th anniversary of “Star Trek”?

BS: I’ve got a busy year primarily because I’m in a television show also for Fox, and it’s going to be on Cinemax on June 3, called “Outcast,” [based on the comic by] Robert Kirkman. Again, there I am again in this genre stuff.[Ed note: The show has a supernatural bent.] But it keeps calling me and I keep opening the door.

But let me just say one thing about “Trek” because I do owe it to it. There are people who are devoted to it and there are people who couldn’t be bothered with it, but I think anything that has been part of our culture for 50 years is worth having a look at. And I think you pretty much have to take it seriously at half a century. And [it’s still] going, because apparently they have a new show coming on CBS. So I think “Star Trek” is the great American epic, and may it live forever. And I’m also hoping that we make 10 more “Independence Day” movies in my lifetime.

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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What?

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Michael Strahan Tells Chelsea Handler He Doesn’t Miss ‘Live’ [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Where Is the Habitable Zone for M-Dwarf Stars? [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Refined climate model

Watch India’s First Sufi Rap Video, Released to Celebrate World Music Day [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

‘Star Trek’ Actor Brent Spiner Talks New Movie, Stephen Hawking in Q&A [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Mud, Music and Miles-Long Lines as Glastonbury Clashes With Brexit Referendum [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Game of Thrones Has a Lot at Stake in the Brexit Vote. Seriously. [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Pluto Has Ocean Beneath Its Surface? Scientists Think So | Video [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Friday, July 29, 2016

We Should All Aspire to Tweet Like Martha Stewart [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

No Wonder This Kid Got to Dance On Stage With Justin Bieber [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

New Game of Thrones Photos Tease an Epic Season 6 Finale [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Tim Tebow and Jameis Winston Visit Orlando Shooting Victim at Hospital [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Flume’s New Album Skin Might Be the Future of Electronic Music [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Adam Driver’s TED Talk Is Surprisingly Moving [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

J.R. Smith Is a National Treasure and the Cavaliers Championship Parade Is Proof [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Here’s Who the West Wing Cast Thinks President Bartlet Would Endorse in 2016 [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Watch Beyoncé and Serena Williams Dance In Official ‘Sorry’ Video [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Vinyl’s Cancellation Sheds Light on HBO’s Current Struggles [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Game of Thrones‘ Kit Harington Had to Face His Worst Fear While Filming ‘Battle of the Bastards’ [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Will Smith Knows Exactly How Bad Wild Wild West Was [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

DJ Idris Elba Just Dropped a New House Banger [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

60 Black Holes And 500 Stars ‘Mosh’ To Form Black Hole Binary | Simulatlon [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]