Tag Archives: exoplanets

It’s A Mighty Long Way to Proxima b

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It's a mighty long way to Proxima b

The above image was generated by the website Leonardo.ai, using information provided by ChatGPT. It might have some resemblance to the actual surface of the planet Proxima b, the closest known exoplanet.

It’s a mighty long way to Proxima b

Proxima b orbits the star Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf star. Astronomer Robert Innes (1861-1933) discovered Proxima Centauri in 1915. Proxima Centauri in turn orbits around a pair of stars, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B. Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the sun, 4.25 light-years away. Therefore, Proxima b will most likely remain the closest exoplanet to Earth for a very long time. Guillem Anglada-Escude and his associates discovered Proxima b in 2016. They used the Doppler spectroscopy technique, also known as the “wobble method.” Proxima b has a big enough gravitational tug on its parent star to affect the light that comes from Proxima Centauri.

What do people want to know about Proxima b?

I could say more about Proxima b, but I’m interested in what my fellow humans would like to know about Proxima b. The top question asked is “Can we live there?” As far as I can tell, the answer is “No.” Yes, Proxima b is within the so-called “habitable zone” of Proxima Centauri. The temperature is such that liquid water could exist on the surface. But the habitable zone doesn’t take other factors into account.

Bring lead spacesuits and plenty of sunscreen

Strong irradiation by ultraviolet radiation and X-rays from Proxima Centauri could be a problem. Proxima b receives about 10–60 times as much of this radiation especially X-rays, as Earth. What do we call the solar wind of Proxima Centauri? The Proximal wind? Stellar winds and coronal mass ejections are an even bigger threat to an atmosphere. The amount of stellar wind impacting Proxima Centauri b may amount to 4–80 times that impacting Earth. Proxima b may not have an atmosphere at all. But if we go there, we may need lead spacesuits and plenty of sunscreen. Or is it Proxima-Centauriscreen?

Hey buddy, how far is it to Proxima b?

I have mentioned that Proxima b is 4.25 light-years away. A light-year is 5.88 trillion miles. Therefore the distance to Proxima b is roughly 25 trillion miles. The fastest spacecraft so far is the Parker Solar Probe, which travels at 101 miles per second. If a spacecraft took off for Proxima b at 101 miles per second, it would take 247 billion seconds or so. There are 31,536,000 seconds in a year, which means it would take 7,844 years to get there.

Maybe there are other things we should work on

I feel the aspirations of people who hunger to travel to the stars. Some people long to be discoverers. Maybe we’re the ones being discovered. The New Message from God teaches what is currently a minority viewpoint on the subject of extraterrestrials.

1) Intelligent extraterrestrial life exists
2) Extraterrestrials are intervening in human affairs today
3) This extraterrestrial intervention is a threat to human freedom

Maybe there are other things we should work on. We have soils, waters and skies to cleanse. Perhaps we need to be more restorative of nature. We might need to cool the planet. How about working on building a united, sustainable and discreet human civilization?

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

What Do You Think? How Do You Feel?

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What do you think? How do you feel?

Sometimes I get tired of declaring what the New Message from God teaches about extraterrestrials. I’m going to try an alternate approach, and ask any reader what they think and how they feel regarding certain questions. I have asked these questions to many people over the past couple of years.

What do you think? How do you feel?

Question 1: Do you think there is intelligent life on other planets?

The vast majority of young adults answer “Yes” to this question, as if to say “Of course!” I’m not sure what has convinced them. It could be the explosion in exoplanet discovery, particularly in the past decade. It could also be an influence of popular culture. Older adults are more skeptical. If someone answers “Yes,” I ask the second question.

Question 2: Do you think that intelligent life from other planets is present in our world?

I find much less certainty in the responses to this question. But it is documented that many people have changed their minds on this subject from “No” to “Don’t Know/Not Sure” or “Yes,” and from “Don’t Know/Not Sure” to “Yes.” I believe many people were influenced by the UFO/UAP report of the US government in June of 2021. The US government admitted the existence of numerous objects they could neither identify nor intercept. If such objects exist, then the testimonies of alien abductees might be true. There are still many people who don’t know what to make of this. But if someone answers “Yes,” I ask the third question.

Question 3: Do you think that the intelligent life from other planets, that is present in our world, is here for the benefit of humanity?

A lot of people express bewilderment at the very question, much less have a well-thought-out answer. I sometimes feel that people answer “Yes” as a way of “whistling past the graveyard.” They say “Yes” because if the truth is “No,” humanity is in great peril. Sometimes people answer “Yes” because they know no evidence of belligerent activity. Perhaps they are unaware of the deactivation of nuclear missiles in 1967 associated with UFO sightings. Sometimes when someone says “Yes,” I ask “Why would they be?” There are people who wish to believe that extraterrestrials are spiritually advanced. But again, what evidence would support this?

What do you think? How do you feel? All I know is that there is an extraterrestrial intervention underway, it is not in our interests, and it must be exposed and resisted.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

I Dream The Far-Off Watchers Of The Skies

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I dream the far-off watchers of the skies
Path of Mercury transiting the Sun

The human discovery of exoplanets, planets orbiting a star other than our sun, is a relatively recent phenomenon. The first exoplanet to be discovered was in 1992. In 2002, an exoplanet was discovered by means of transit. A transit is a phenomenon when a celestial body passes directly between a larger body and an observer. Like Mercury passing in front of the Sun. It makes the Sun seem ever-so-slightly less bright. 3,372 exoplanets have been discovered in this way between 2002 and the present.

I dream the far-off watchers of the skies

Earth Transit Zone, projected on the celestial sphere

In 2021, two astronomers asked a question that stimulated my imagination. They asked, “What stars are in the right position to see the Earth transit the Sun?” These stars must be relatively close to the plane of the Earth’s orbit. They discovered 2,034 stars in what they called the Earth Transit Zone. 117 of them are within 100 light-years or less. 75 of them are close enough to receive radio waves from Earth.

“From the exoplanets’ point of view, we are the aliens”

Lisa Kaltenegger, associate professor of astronomy, Cornell University.

Lisa Kaltenegger and Jackie Faherty were not the first astronomers to contemplate the Earth Transit Zone. But they were the first to consider what stars might be moving into it, or out of it. My teachers never told me that the stars move relative to each other. But they’ve been doing it for a long, long time. The star known as Ross 128 used to be in the Earth Transit Zone, but left it 900 years ago. The star known as Teegarden’s Star will enter the Earth Transit Zone in 29 years.

I found this interesting because the astronomers considered the possibility that humanity is part of a greater community of intelligent life. This is something taught in great detail by the New Message from God.

I dream the far-off watchers of the skies. Suppose a star is in the Earth Transit Zone. If there is a planet orbiting that star, an astronomer on that planet could see the Earth. There’s nothing we could do about that. But we could stop sending probes into interstellar space. We could stop broadcasting everything about ourselves into space. We could be more discreet about our affairs.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

Forty Million People Changed Their Minds

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Now that’s something you don’t see every day. Who said forty million people changed their minds? Well, I did, but I base it on a report by the Marist Poll.

Forty million people changed their minds

Some of you may not be familiar with the Marist Poll. It has been in existence since 1978. The Marist Poll is associated with Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York in the United States. It regularly measures public opinion on various subjects at the local, state and national level. The final Marist Poll of the 2016 US Presidential election was very close to the actual result. No one in my world complains about the Marist Poll. Therefore, I am taking their report at face value.

Forty million people changed their minds. Who were the forty million people? Forty million American adults, roughly. The Marist Poll conducted a survey in May of 2005. They conducted the same survey in February of 2018. So the forty million Americans changed their minds over a time period of a little less than 13 years. What did they change their mind about? The existence of intelligent life on other planets.

Forty million people changed their minds

In May of 2005, 52% of respondents answered Yes to the question “Do you think there is intelligent life on other planets?” In February of 2018, 68% of respondents answered Yes to that question. Suppose that these polls are representative samples of the United States. I have no good reason to believe that they are not. 16% of 240 million American adults works out to about forty million.

Exoplanet Discoveries. Forty million people changed their minds

What made the forty million American adults change their minds? It could be a number of things. I believe the explosion in the discovery of exoplanets, planets circling a star other than our sun, has something to do with it. The Kepler Space Telescope, launched in 2009, has been a remarkable scientific success in the time period between the two polls.

The New Message from God teaches that humanity is emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. This is the first paragraph from the revelation “Preparing for the Greater Community,” received by Marshall Vian Summers in April of 2011.

“Humanity is preparing for the Greater Community. It does not know this yet, of course, but that is its stage of evolution, and everyone is involved. The fact that humanity is unprepared for the realities of contact with life in the universe is very apparent, but at a more unconscious level, people are anticipating this. And that is why it emerges in your movies, in your books, in human imagination. There is a seed of truth, an element of truth here.”

Forty million people changed their minds. I consider this remarkable event to be part of humanity’s preparation for the Greater Community.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

Quite A Few Worlds Were, But Are No More

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Adriaan van Maanen, discoverer of van Maanen's Star. Quite a few worlds were, but are no more

A nearby star made the news this week. The star in question is known as both Van Maanen 2 and van Maanen’s Star, in honor of its discoverer, Adriaan van Maanen. Van Maanen’s Star isn’t in the news for any current property. The star is in the news for its ancient history. Van Maanen 2 is also in the news for a place in the history of human science.

Quite a few worlds were, but are no more

It frequently happens that scientists discover things when they’re looking for something else. That was the case in 1917 when Adriaan van Maanen discovered a small, dim star. Van Maanen’s Star is a white dwarf, not much bigger than Earth. Stars like our sun become white dwarfs when they exhaust their nuclear fuel. There are white dwarfs which are closer to our sun, such as Sirius B and Procyon B, but Van Maanen 2 is the closest white dwarf to the sun that isn’t a companion to a larger star.

Van Maanen's Star is pretty close to the sun, as stars go. Quite a few worlds were, but are no more

Quite a few worlds were, but are no more. Analyzing the light from this star offered a mystery. Van Maanen’s star contained elements that no one expected, such as iron. Between 1917 and now, astronomers discovered about 40 other white dwarfs with similar properties. Where did these heavy elements come from? Astronomers now believe they come from planets that once orbited the star. When did these planets start to orbit this star? 4.1 billion years ago. For how long did they orbit this star? They orbited Van Maanen 2 for roughly 900 million years. What happened to these planets? They were destroyed when van Maanen’s Star became a red giant along the way to becoming a white dwarf. This is a predictable event in the life cycle of stars. I marvel to think Van Maanen 2 contains traces of the planets that orbited it 3.2 billion years ago.

Analysis of light from Van Maanen 2. Quite a few worlds were, but are no more.

Quite a few worlds were, but are no more. What does this mean to me? Astronomers discovered the first exoplanet, or planet orbiting a star other than the sun, in 1992. Between 1992 and now, astronomers have discovered 3,550 exoplanets. But I learned something I didn’t know. There are many stars with planets around them now. There may be a great many stars that had planets around them in the past, but have them no longer. For all we know, those planets might have supported intelligent life, like our world does.

Astronomer Ben Zuckerman. Quite a few worlds were, but are no more

Quite a few worlds were, but are no more. In 2014, astronomer Ben Zuckerman had a “Eureka moment,” a moment of inspiration. In this moment, he realized that the mystery that puzzled van Maanen was in fact the first evidence of exoplanets discovered by scientists. Humanity first intuited exoplanets in the 1500’s.. But humanity discovered evidence for their existence about 70 years earlier than previously believed. Ben Zuckerman stretched himself in time.

Quite a few worlds were, but are no more. This is more than a historical curiosity. The New Message from God teaches that humanity is emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. How shall we prepare? We have to start somewhere.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

Many New Planets Swim Into Our Ken

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Artist's conception of Kepler-444 system. Many new planets swim into our ken.

The poet John Keats had an experience of wonder when he read a translation of Homer by George Chapman. He cried out,

“Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;”

Many new planets swim into our ken

I mention this to share two items of space exploration news. The first item is the sixth anniversary of the launch of the Kepler space telescope. Many times scientists conduct experiments expecting to find certain things. Many times they fail to find what they had hoped for. But the Kepler mission has found what was looking for in abundance.

Many new planets swim into our ken. How many? Kepler has found 1,019 exoplanets, planets outside our solar system. By “found” I mean “found possibilities of exoplanets which were later confirmed by independent observation.” The above image shows an artist conception of 5 of those exoplanets who share the same star. In addition to this, Kepler has found possibilities of an additional 3,100 “candidates” which will either be confirmed or discarded in the future. The mission scientists believe that 90% of the candidates will be confirmed as exoplanets, although I don’t know how they know this.

Many new planets swim into our ken. Where does this figure of 1,019 exoplanets fit into the larger picture of exoplanet exploration? At this point, NASA reports a total of 1,827 confirmed planets. The first exoplanet was discovered in 1992. In other words, Kepler has discovered more planets in the past six years than all the efforts from 1992 to 2009. And that’s not counting the candidates. Even though crucial components of Kepler failed in May of 2013, I consider the Kepler mission to be a smashing, groundbreaking success.

Many new planets swim into our ken. How many of them are habitable? These scientists say “62, or around 3%, so far.” On the other hand, astronomer Charlie Lineweaver posited that the average number of habitable planets per star is 2, plus or minus 1. Since there are somewhere between 100 billion and 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, that’s quite a few habitable planets.

Many new planets swim into our ken. What does it all mean? I say it means that Giordano Bruno might have been on to something in the 1500’s when he envisioned intelligent life on then-unknown exoplanets. I also say it means that the New Message from God teaching about a greater community of intelligent life to be a little more plausible than it was before these news items appeared.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

Giordano Bruno, Prophet of the Greater Community

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Giordano Bruno, prophet of the Greater Community

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was many things in his full, eventful life. He displayed a talent for memory as a child. He was an ordained Catholic priest and a member of the Dominican order. He was considered a scientist of that time. His instrumentation was inadequate to prove or disprove his thought experiments. He expressed his scientific and philosophical arguments in the form of literary dialogues.

The part of his life I find mysterious is his ideas about the universe. Nicolas de Cusa had suggested a hundred years or so earlier that the sun is but another star. In the early 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus showed that the earth and the other planets revolved around the sun.

Giordano Bruno, prophet of the Greater Community

Giordano Bruno put together a number of ideas. Suppose the sun is but another star. Suppose there are planets around our sun. Why should there not be planets around other stars as well? Our planet has intelligent life on it. People believe that is a good thing. Why should there not be intelligent life on the many other planets revolving around the other stars? Why should that not be a good thing too?

Giordano Bruno envisioned what the New Message from God refers to as the Greater Community of Worlds. Sometimes it is just called the Greater Community. It is a universe swarming and teeming with intelligent life. I therefore call him the prophet of the Greater Community, someone who considered the idea quite a bit before its time.

Nicolas de Cusa would not be proven right by scientific observation until the early 19th century. The first exoplanet (planet outside our solar system) was discovered in 1992. Since that time, there has been an explosion in the amount of exoplanet research. Many new methods of exoplanet detection have been developed. Many new exoplanets have been confirmed.
multi_transits_many_full_0The NASA Kepler mission announced Wednesday (as in today, 26 February 2014) the discovery of 715 new planets. These newly-verified worlds orbit 305 stars, revealing multiple-planet systems much like our own solar system. This brings us up to a total of 1,690 planets around 1,023 stars. All I know is that somewhere, Giordano Bruno, prophet of the Greater Community, is smiling.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.