KIC 8462852 Analysis - you can participate

Tabby Boyajian has a new initiative related to the analysis of light coming from the star known as Boyajian's Star that I've blogged about quite a bit here and spoken about over at the Wow! Signal.

The new initiative is about making telescope images in various wavelength bands from the Las

One of the Las Cumbres Telescopes

Cumbres Observatory network available in a regular basis for community analysis. These images will be centered around Boyajian's Star.

Citizen scientists will crack open the images, analyze the variations in the star's brightness at different colors, and look for emerging trends. It's a great project for a science or math class, or anyone of any age or background interested in participating. All you need is a computer, an internet connection, and the willingness to learn. Help is available with every  step of the process.

The best way to get started is to go on over to the subreddit set up for this purpose, and ask your questions. Download and install AstroImageJ, grab the training images, follow the how-tos and other guidance we have published, and learn by doing. We are putting more information there almost daily, and we expect the first batch of images in about 3 weeks, weather permitting.

You will be participating in solving a scientific mystery. We don't know where the very fine dust is coming from that is causing the deep dips in brightness Boyajian's Star, and there is very likely other material involved that we haven't yet got much of a clue about.  The way these kinds of mysteries are typically solved is through lots of persistent and consistent effort by lots of people. Why not you?

Aliens, Perhaps, but Not the Aliens of the Gaps

Update (8 August 2016): Audio Interview with Ben Montet.

With the publication of Montet and Simon's arresting new preprint showing even more anomalous dimming behavior by Tabby's Star,  a lot of reasonable people are asking whether it's time to declare this stellar weirdness the work of an ET civilization, or whether it may be soon. While I am emotionally inclined to go this way, and intuitively sense that this may be the ultimate conclusion reached, I am not a believer. There is a fundamental error we still must avoid.

Light curve for KIC 8462852 from Montet and Simon

It is not crazy or deluded to think that this could be the work of ET. Not at all. We know that technological civilizations exist in our galaxy, we just don't know how many. It is easy to get into pointless arguments about whether there is just one, or the universe is swarming with creatures in some ways analogous to dexterous, talking monkeys like ourselves. These arguments are usually based upon probability guesses with very weak, or even non existent empirical support.

The truth is that nobody really knows how common ET civilizations are, or how long they flourish, and the so far null result of our (so far) very poorly funded SETI enterprise isn't much help in resolving it one way or the other, as has been argued by such persons as Jill Tarter for many years now.

Help catch Tabby's Star in the act - new kickstarter

Tabetha Boyajian and team have posted a kickstarter to buy telescope time to monitor KIC 8462852 photometrically around the world, 24 x7 using a network of telescopes. When a definite dip in brightness is detected, then hopefully the astronomical world will respond by swinging their more sensitive spectrographs and other detectors onto the star, allowing us some hope of really understanding what is going on around this very weird star.

This would compliment, not replace, the work that the AAVSO volunteers are doing.

I would hope you can see your way clear to donating to both efforts. If enough people show that this matters, it will happen, and maybe, just maybe, a new door will open and we'll see for the first time what is on the other side.

Searching for Bracewell Probes - part 2

In the first part, we talked about some of the variables that I think could control the observables of a Bracewell Probe.  This is essentially a first, crude move toward mapping our ignorance of these hypothetical machines.  We can't know what Bracewell probes are yet, or even if they exist at all, but perhaps we can constrain or at least make some reasonable assumptions about what they could be.

Review of "An Eerie Silence" by Paul Davies

I want my book reviews to be useful to you, the reader, who may not have read the book in question and are trying decide whether to spend your money and time to do so.  So, my purpose will not be to show you how cleverly I grok the text, but rather to lay out for you what your are likely to find interesting or helpful in the book and how much of your time will be invested.

For non-fiction books, you don't need to read every chapter, so I will break down the content of the book and try to help you decide if these are topics you are interested in.  Of course, I will only review a book I have read in its entirety.

I will also include interesting nuggets or quotes that struck me as particularly interesting.

The Synopsis

The Eerie Silence by Paul Davies

Paul Davies is a physicist and author who has been associated with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) much of his career.  He wrote this book inspired by a 2008 workshop he hosted to look for innovative ways to improve this search.

 

Who Should Read it?

Anyone interested in a scientific approach to the problems of searching for alien life in the cosmos. Only a general layperson's background in the sciences is required, although the background explanations in the book maybe too sketchy for some readers. If you want a more in-depth introduction to the science, I suggest reading David Grinspoon's "Lonely Planets", which takes the reader gently through basic science topics needed to understand the questions of alien intelligence.
Science Fiction writers should find a bounty of story premises here, as well.

 

Time investment

Modest. The book is not difficult and is reasonably well organized and written. Only 242 pages, which includes bibliography, end notes and index, and is divided into 10 chapters and an appendix.

 

Is it Worth Reading?

For me, the most interesting Chapters were 3, which discusses the fascinating concept of a shadow biosphere, and Chapters 5-8, which discuss recent thinking about how SETI can be improved and expanded, and the kinds of highly exotic phenomena we might encounter from highly advanced extraterrestrial civilizations if we search well enough and long enough. These chapters are rich in recent, provocative ideas.
Readers unfamiliar with SETI and astrobiology will find the entire book informative, although there are a number of other books and articles on the topic that would serve equally well or better.

 

Interesting Nuggets

Davies knew famed UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek, and even visited him at this home.
Davies is a member of the committee formulating what Earth's response "should" be (if any), should an alien signal be detected.

 

A Few Quotes

"Clearly, there could be a large number of alien probes in the solar system, and we would be completely unaware of them unless they signaled us."

Doubt is a Core Value

It is our responsibility as scientists, knowing the great progress and great value of a satisfactory philosophy of ignorance, the great progress that is the the fruit of freedom of thought, to proclaim the value of this freedom, to teach how doubt is not to be feared but welcomed and discussed, and to demand this freedom as our duty to all coming generations.

- - - Richard Feynman

Here is how things go wrong: beliefs hold the believer. The believer acts, thinks and perceives the world through his beliefs and in order to support them, and is cognitively and morally blinded and enslaved; unable to inquire outside a narrow, nonthreatening sphere, and willing to use any means whatever to propagate the One Truth.  Then belief exists for it's own sake, and it can escape all moral restraints, with terrible consequences that are only too well known.The problem is not so much the belief systems themselves, but with the banishment of the one great value: doubt.