Project Blue Book

Between 1952 and 1970 the US Air Force investigated over 12,000 reported sightings of UFOs. The program was code-named Project Blue Book. A new drama series on the History Channel is based loosely on the history and case-files of Project Blue Book. Loosely, because the cases are embellished with some dramatic details and also the idea of government cover-up and conspiracy is pushed.

In the first episode “The Fuller Dogfight”, Dr. Allen Hynek is recruited by the Air Force into their top-secret UFO investigation program, to investigate the case of a military pilot who survived a dogfight with an alien craft.

The astronomer Dr. A. Hynek was a consultant for Project Sign, a UFO investigation group established by the Air Force after the UFO phenomena became popular in 1947. In 1948 the project was replaced by Project Grudge and Hynek was not called back to consult. After a wave of UFOs sightings in 1952, the Air Force replaced Grudge with Project Blue Book and once again enlisted Hynek as a consultant. In 1953 it was concluded that UFOs did not pose a threat to the United States and Project Blue Book was closed in 1969. Hynek continued his work as UFO investigator, and published a series of books on the subject. Even if controversial in some aspects, he never labelled himself as true believer or just debunker, he is considered one of the fathers of modern ufology.

The title and pilot are based on the case of George Gorman, a 25 years old WWII veteran. On the night of October 1, 1948, on a cross-country flight with a P-51 Mustang, the sky appeared to be clear, when Gorman noticed a blinking light with no obvious form over his plane. For 20 minute he tried to catch the ball of light, but apparently, the UFO outmaneuvered him with higher speed. 

George Gorman's depictions of his UFO encounter, from the Project Blue Book archive.

Curiously also a Geiger-counter on board detected a high rate of radioactive radiation. The object was spotted also by other planes. However, the true facts of the case are less unexplained. The other pilots didn’t note any movements of the object, as reported by Gorman. The measured radioactivity can be explained by natural radiation, stronger in the upper atmospheric layers. No physical evidence or damage on the plane was ever found. As for the UFO, later investigations discovered that a weather balloon was released that night, and the wind at the time should have brought it right around where Gorman had his encounter. As Gorman was the only who allegedly noted the object/balloon move, it is likely that this was an optical effect, as he had no frame of reference in the empty sky. As he approached the object, it seemed to quickly vanish as the plane was maneuvering.

Astronomers spot real-life Tatooine

 The famous binary sunset on Tatooine, from the movie Star Wars (1977).

Researchers have spotted a super-Jupiter orbiting a star in a three-sun system 320 light-years from us. Preliminary data suggest that the gas giant - named HD 131399Ab - is about four times the mass of Jupiter and orbits the largest and brightest of the three stars (which has about 1.8 times the mass of our sun) once every 550 years or so. The other two suns in the system, smaller stars that orbit each other relatively tightly and quickly, lie somewhere between 45 billion and 60 billion kilometers away.

Measurements suggest that HD 131399Ab’s atmosphere contains water vapor and methane, and that the planet’s cloud tops are about 850°K (577°C). 

The movie Pitch Black (2000) actually features a multiple star system with three suns.

The Boogens (1981) - A Creature Feature Review

The Boogens is a B-monster movie from 1981 involving even geology (sort of…). After a terrible accident, the town of Silver City is forced to shut down all mining activities, but when the collapsed mine is re-opened years later by a construction team something terrible is released. The Boogens, weird, multi-tentacled, bloodsucking, bullet- and dynamite-proof turtles (yes, turtles!).

Unfortunately, it's a quite dull movie, following the "stalking monster" ("it's somewhere but you don't see it until the end of the movie") tradition made popular at the time by Alien, premiered just two years earlier. But Alien is, without doubt, the better movie beginning with the acting and ending with the special effects.

Whole New Worlds Made Of Sapphires and Rubies

Astronomers have found a new class of planets, abundant in the chemical compounds that make sapphires and rubies.

"Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires. All the crystalline forms that you cherish above all things" - from the episode “Cat's Paw”.

Earth is a planet composed mostly of iron. The inner core is believed to be an iron-nickel alloy and the mantle, making up one-third of Earth's volume, is composed of Bridgmanite, a magnesium-iron-silicate. Earth's crust contains iron, oxygen, magnesium and silicon, with traces of sulfur, nickel, calcium, and aluminum added to the mix. However, planets outside our solar system may display a very alien composition, depending on their origin.

The chemical composition of a planet depends on the interaction of two factors, the chemical composition of the dust and gas disk around the newborn star from which the planet forms and where in this protoplanetary disc the planet forms. Farther out in the disc, in the cooler zones, elements such as silicon, iron and magnesium will form grains and clumps. Gravity will pull together the pieces until enough mass is collected to form a planet. It is likely that the rocky planets in our solar system, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, formed this way. Close to the star the temperature is rising and lighter elements, like silicon, magnesium, aluminum and calcium, start condensing into the planetary building compounds. A planet composed mostly from such elements would have 10 to 20 percent lower densities than Earth.

Researchers from the Universities of Zurich in Switzerland and Cambridge in the United Kingdom discovered three large planets that may confirm this theoretical model. HD 219134 b, located just 21 light-years away, in the constellation of Cassiopeia, with an orbit of just 3 days; 55 Cancri e, 41 light-years away, with an orbit of just 18 hours; and WASP-47 e, located 870 light-years away, also with an 18-hour orbit. HD219134 b is a super-Earth with a mass almost five times that of Earth, yet its density is surprisingly low. The planet most likely does not have a massive core of iron but is rich in calcium and aluminum. The chemical composition would allow the existence of large quantities of aluminum oxides on the planet. On Earth, crystalline aluminum oxide forms the mineral corundum. If the aluminum oxide contains traces of iron, titanium, cobalt or chromium, it will form the noble varieties of the mineral corundum, gemstones like the blue sapphire, the red ruby and the pink-orange padparadscha.

The first image ever taken by humans of the whole Earth, probably photographed by William Anders. 

Geological TOS Review: Episode #5 - "The Enemy Within"

During a specimen-gathering mission on planet Alpha 177, a transporter malfunction creates an evil duplicate of Captain Kirk. Apparently, the transporter malfunction is caused by interference of the transporter technique with a magnetic, yellow ore found on the planet’s surface. The mineral is not identified in the episode but seems to possess some alien properties.

In many episodes, the crew of the Enterprise visits mining colonies or is on a mission to search for valuable minerals and crystals. There exists even a geological tricorder for prospecting resources, designed for analyzing rock samples and comparing them to the records memorized in the mineralogical database of the federation. By convention, the names of terrestrial minerals (a crystalline combination of one or various elements) end with the suffix "-ite", the denominations of elements with the suffix "- ium", "-um", "-on", "-gen" or "-ine". Unfortunately it seems that this nomenclature is not always applied with the necessary scientific accuracy in the 23th century. But to be fair, many of the minerals are unknown to the present day. And that's accurate, as there are indeed elements found only in stars and outer space, like Technetium, that don't form naturally on Earth.

Could such non-terrestrial elements form also extraterrestrial minerals? 

There are around 7,000 minerals known on Earth, but we still know little about other worlds in comparison. Over 300 minerals have been identified in meteorites. The number of minerals identified on planetary bodies is smaller and mainly detected by remote sensing or exploration with robots.  Around 130 minerals were discovered so far on Mars and 80 on the Earth's Moon. As some of those minerals were formed under conditions that don't exist on Earth, such as low gravity, or the complete absence of liquid water, many are indeed unknown in the Earth's environments.

A curious scientific blooper. In the episode part of the landing party is stranded on the planet, as the transporter doesn't work, and it is mentioned that the temperatures on the surface drop to -120°C during nighttime. Such temperatures would be only possible on a planet without an atmosphere, where temperatures can drop to -200°C. On Earth the coldest temperature ever measured was -90°C during the Antarctic winter.

Star Trek Fact Or Fiction: The Horta

In the 1967 episode "The Devil in the Dark" the Enterprise visits the mining colony on the planet Janus VI, or better, it is located inside in the planet, as the mine is a large underground facility. Soon the crew encounters an unknown creature. The episode later reveals that the alien life-form, named "Horta", comes from within the planet, where suitable conditions for life might exist, and feeds on rocks.

 "It is not life as we know or understand it!"

In October 2018 the discovery of cyanobacteria living 600 meters underground was announced by a research team from Spain, Germany and the United States. The rivers in the  Rio Tinto region in Spain is poisoned by iron and sulfur minerals, also a legacy of mining operations of the past. Because of its apparent inhospitality of life as we know it, this region is studied by astrobiologist, hoping here to understand how life adapts to harsh environments like found on other planets. In a 613-meter deep borehole, the researchers found cyanobacteria living in cracks and crevices of the rocks. Cyanobacteria are able to do photosynthesis, so it was believed that they need sunlight to survive. The cyanobacteria discovered in the borehole apparently feed on chemical reactions involving hydrogen gas, found in air pockets inside the rocks.

Viable cyanobacterial cells (red fluorescent signals) attached to rock fragments. Credit: Puente-Sánchez et al. 2018.

Living bacteria (not depending on sunlight)  were found in boreholes in 5,278 meters depth. Living underground has some advantages. Lifeforms on a planet without atmosphere are protected by the ground from harmful radiations. Even on Earth, as some research suggests, life for a long time existed in the underground. Much of the life that exists beneath the surface is of ancient origins. This realm is inhabited by bacteria, existing already 2 billion years ago. Most likely during most of life's history, for almost 1.5 billion years, organisms living beneath the Earth’s surface outweighed all other life on the planet combined. Exobiologist are especially interested in this observation, as it could vastly expand the habitable zones found in the universe. Even on superficially desolate planets some life could exist, it would just hard to spot it, as it would be hiding deep within the planet.

"They're eggs, aren't they?"

Star Trek Fact Or Fiction: Vulcan

Astronomers announced the discovery of an exoplanet with 8.47 times Earth's mass and twice Earth's radius in the 40 Eridani star system, distant 17 light-years from our Sun. In the Star Trek universe, the Eridani constellation is mentioned as the star system where the planet Vulcan is located, homeworld of Commander Spock.

The USS Enterprise in orbit of Vulcan, from Star Trek: The Original Series - Remastered.

In Star Tek – The Original Series the location of Vulcan was never identified. Vulcan is mentioned as planet various times in the first season, but only in the pilot of the second season, “Amok Time” aired September 15, 1967, it is visited by Commander Spock, Captain Kirk and chief medical officer McCoy. Vulcan is described as an Earth-sized world, mostly covered by deserts and mountains, with a red sky glowing above a barren landscape. 

As it orbits its sun on a very narrow orbit, surface temperatures are higher as on Earth. Also, the atmosphere is very thin, barely breathable, and non-Vulcans have a hard time adapting to the harsh environment. According to Star Trek lore, the desert-planet Vulcan orbits its sun together with the planet T´Khut, a geologically very active lava-planet.

In the movie Star Trek 2, released in 1982, the star 40 Eridani A is mentioned as Vulcan's sun. In 1991 Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, published a short article together with astrophysicists Baliunas, Donahue and Nassiopoulos, arguing that the constellation of Eridani would be the most fitting place for Vulcan. The real 40 Eridani system is a triple star system, with Eridani A as primary star accompanied by a red and a white dwarf star, named respectively Eridani B and Eridiani C. Only Eridani A is shining stable enough to host a hypothetical habitable planet. Eridani B emits too much dangerous radiation and Eridani C is prone to flares, sudden eruptions of energy and matter emitting lethal doses of X-rays. As Eridani A is smaller than our Sun, also the habitable zone, where a planet could exist with liquid water, is narrower. Unlike the fictional planet Vulcan, the real exoplanet seems to be a Super-Earth or a small gas giant. According to the published preliminary results the planet orbits its star in just 39 to 40 Earth days, along the inner limit of the habitable zone.