Trappist 1e

On my walk this morning I was thinking about all I know about Astronomy which includes some of the more popular exo-planets found within their star's Goldilocks zone, including Trappist 1e. It is a tidally locked planet about the same size and density of Earth with a gravity slightly less that is about 40 light years away. Little is known about the atmosphere, if even there is one, though it is known that it is not a Hydrogen heavy atmosphere as a spectroscopy reading did not find this to be; this leaves a higher chance it is a human friendly atmosphere.

It orbits the Trappist star which is an ultra-cool dwarf star and emits to 1e's sun-side only the barest amount of light, described as being between the light just after sunset, or a little brighter than a night with a visible full moon. It is not clear from what I have read about what we know about the star's radiation hitting 1e. Here on Earth we have an inherent electromagnetic field that protects us from harmful rays from our Sun, hopefully either the Trappist star as an ultra-cool dwarf emits very little radiation, and/or 1e has it's own electromagnetic field to protect it. We will assume going forward that the amount of radiation reaching 1e's surface matches what we get here.

What is also known, being in the Goldilocks zone is that liquid water can exist at the temperature of the planet, and it is presumed that there is already water on the surface. Having water on the surface would definitely make it amenable to human colonization.

During my walk I did not take into account that so little light reaches the surface; this would be cause for a perpetual seasonal affective disorder unless something was done to assist in providing the right quality of light in a diurnal pattern on the sun side of 1e. The dark side of 1e will be perpetually facing away from the Trappist sun and so on that side we can take advantage of the darkness for things like astronomy telescopes and other science or industry that could be done in colder temperatures.

Given this lower sun light reaching the surface also changes an idea I had on my walk. The idea was that the sun side would be much brighter and hotter and the dark side much cooler and, well, dark. There could be deeply buried infrastructure to pipe heat from the sun side to provide district heating to the dark side, and similarly, pipe cold from the dark side to the sun side to provide cooling; and perhaps it is the same system.

If it was hot and bright and arid on the sun side, it would only be the terminal line (the line around the circumference of the planet where the sunlight ends and the dark side begins) where we could live. My idea was to have a circum-planet train line about 10 degrees into the sun side of the planet that runs counter-clockwise and another circum-planet train line about 10 degrees into the dark side of the planet that runs clockwise with most of the population living within those 20 degrees of planetary surface. 

I had a bunch of other ideas, but with the low insolation it makes the sun side of 1e more hospitable across the sun side rather than just at the terminal line and with the low light, having photovoltaics may not work very well. It could be there is sufficient wind to provide that kind of energy; or if we can travel 40 light years, perhaps we have finally mastered fusion power.

Anyhow, I enjoy the idea of living on the terminal line with swimming pools and tropical beaches on the sun side and hockey arenas and ski hills on the dark side.

it isn't unlike

I was thinking of putting together some astrophysics flash cards so I can add to what I already know by heart.

How many km in an AU (149,597,870.7km)

How many Earth circumferences in an AU  (Earth circumference: 40075km, 3732.9 in an AU)

How many AU in a light year (63241.1 AU in LY)

How many light years in a parsec. (3.262 LY in parsec)

Actual definitions of AU, Light Year and Parsec (AU - astronomical unit, average distance between Earth and Sun; Light Year - the distance light travels in a year; Parsec - One parsec corresponds to the distance at which the mean radius of the earth's orbit subtends an angle of one second of arc.)

Best understood age of the universe, of our solar system (13.8 billion years, 4.5 billion years)

Closest stars and most visible ones including: Alpha, Beta and Proxima Centauri, Sirius, Arcturus, Vega, Deneb, Altair

The four Galilean moons of Jupiter and for each one a few characteristics of each. (Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto) 

The top goldilocks zoned exo-planets as known presently, like the Trappist system.

What is known about Black Holes and Super Massive Black Holes

What is known and not known about dark matter and dark energy.

Rate of expansion of the universe (67.5 km per second per megaparsec)

Earth diameter, moon diameter, distance of moon from Earth at perihelion and aphelion of moon around Earth and Earth around Sun.

Star types, including what is the star type of our sun and of the star list above.

image

Another test of my Google Pixel 7 Pro astrophotography without a tripod. Top photo the original, bottom a crop focused on the Orion constellation. Not too bad.

Sensationally moderate

On Thursday this past week I went to my regular blood donation place to do a plasma donation. I go roughly every two weeks and am getting to know the nurses and staff there. It takes time because they have their own varied schedules and so I don't always see the same people on my Thursday evening visits with them. My next scheduled donation is on December 22 and I plan on buying some chocolates to bring as a Christmas gift to the nurses and other staff there.

On Friday evening I went to book group; I hadn't gone in a few months. The book we read was 'At the Water's Edge' by Sara Gruen. I quite enjoyed reading the book, but with respect to discussion it did not generate much. In past book groups I had prepared questions that I thought of while reading and I forgot to do this for this book. I will try harder on the next book. It was nice to see all of my book group friends again, though there were three or four missing. Also, the only other guy in the group wasn't there, so I was the lone male.

On Saturday morning I met with Luke whom I met in our Discord Kurzgesagt group, I had to awaken early to catch the 6h56 211 bus to get to the Peel base of Mount Royal for 8am. I had published this event in the group but only Luke replied. We had a nice walk/talk, though it was about -10c and windy. He works in IT support at the MUHC and has an a-hole of a manager so his intention in 2023 is to look for another job. As we were leaving the mountain on our way back to the metro he asked me to join him for breakfast, and then offered again and that he would pay. I was torn as I had over eaten the previous night and wasn't at all hungry, but could see that this would be helpful to him. I still ended up refusing and perhaps this wasn't the best decision.

A few weeks ago, perhaps last month, my manager sent out a poll to ask which night would work for us to get together and that ended up being Saturday night (last night). Unfortunately not all of my team (10 of us) were available, however, seven us did show up. To get there was a long commute:

I took an earlier than was absolutely necessary 211 bus because I was going to unfamiliar places. I knew at Bonaventure station where the South Shore bus terminal was as I had passed it many times, but I had never ventured into it. It turns out there is a south and north bus terminal and the 45 bus I was to take was in the north one. The 45 bus is a terminal to terminal, going from Bonaventure to Panama and had departures every 10 minutes. I skipped one because the 132 bus I was to take was only departing Panama terminal some 35 minutes later. Fortunately at the Panama terminal there was a heated indoor area to wait. Also fortunately, if ever we were to do this again the REM will be open with an REM stop more or less adjacent to that restaurant.

I am already usually socially awkward outside of one-on-one interactions, but this event had the bonus of a language/cultural barrier, with four of us Francophone Quebecois, two of us Francophone Algerians and then me, the lone Anglo. As much as I had a difficult time with this, I wouldn't skip a subsequent equally difficult work event because our manager was one of the attendees and so through conversation I got to learn some things about our department and the future of it.

I found out that most likely sometime next year, we will be closing down our incoming phone line; our customers are already being advised that email communication will get higher priority and eventually the phone line will be close altogether, to match my employer's global support policy. We as tech support can always call a customer if the problem/question they have is complex; but the reverse will no longer be true. I am pretty pleased about this.

About having met my coworkers in person for the first time, I have determined that it is both a blessing and a curse that this job is 100% WFH. It is a blessing that I do not need to be put in that awkward cultural difference situation every hour of every day of every week by having to go to work, but a curse that by not doing that I don't have the opportunity to learn and get better at these situations.

The last thing about meeting my coworkers in person that I'll mention is that our team is made up all of men except for one pretty, charming, young (~26yo) woman who was present at this event. I feel safe to say, as it is doubtful she or anyone from my work would ever come to this blog, or this post, that having her present provided eye candy which made what otherwise was a somewhat dreadful experience slightly more palatable.

On the walk from the restaurant to the 90 bus that took me and only one other passenger from the Chevrier parking station into the city I caught my first view of the Orion constellation. I was happy to see it but did not try to photograph it as it was cold and windy and I know that for this kind of photo I would need a tripod to hold the mobile device steady.

Today is Sunday and I went to church this morning, as I do every Sunday morning. The best part of this experience for me is that for the half hour before mass begins, I am a greeter at the entrance of the church with another volunteer, and the two of us have become friends getting this weekly reliable interaction. The rest of the day for me is to be a lazy oaf and watch NFL.

Tomorrow is off of work for me, I'm taking my last vacation day of 2022. I've got an appointment at 11AM with Maria at Montreal Nuru Massage. I've been meeting with her once a month, missing one or two months, for a year now, so even though this is a transactional relationship, it has been nice for us to get to know each other. Following that I'm going to see the movie 'Devotion'.

To terminate this post, I've been watching a show on Disney+ called Limitless with Chris Hemsworth. One of the recent episodes I watched was all about fasting and that reminded me that I have done this in the past with moderate success. Doing this is all in the hopes that processes such as autophagy and ketosis take place within me, with the idea that these processes help to provide me a healthier longer life. So, after the Pulled Pork Poutine I had at 3 Brasseurs last night, I've decided to fast for some indeterminate amount of time. Chris (and a longevity doctor with him) did four days on the episode I watched. I'm not certain I'll go for four days, but at least 24 hours and probably more.

sailing by the sunset

Out walking a few nights ago I saw Jupiter, quite prominently and a little to the right of it, Saturn, somewhat less prominently.

Closer to the top of the sky where I was I saw the Summer Triangle, being Vega, Altair and Deneb even though it isn't summer any longer. The former two are close proximities to our Sun and are even roughly in our neighbourhood in terms of distance from us.

Deneb, on the other hand is very much further away, very much larger and very much brighter. From this far away, Deneb looks at about the same brightness of Altair and Vega, but wow, is it ever a monster.

Other notable stars in our sky include Sirius, Arcturus and our trusty tri star system Alpha Centauri who is closest to us. 

Alpha Centauri, as mentioned, is made up of three gravitationally bonded stars, the smallest of which is called Proxima Centauri. Proxima Centauri has two identified exo-planets, the closest one being in the goldilocks zone of habitability. Proxima Centauri orbits around the Alpha Centauri AB star pair in a very eccentric orbit, coming closest at potentially only 3400AU. I wonder what effect that would have on the livability of that goldilocks exo-planet.

When the clock strikes twelveteen

I am dreaming of moving to Glace Bay, NS. There are some houses there that are quite inexpensive; it is conceivable that with what I already have, I could live there with relative financial ease and reduce my working hours significantly. I am not an island, however, and have my children here who still need me. So I will continue to dream. It is possible that five and a half years from now I could conceivably make this change, but it would mean not seeing my children for long periods of time. Well, it gives me time to think about it.

Playing table tennis has been quite fun; in the church basement there is a large collection of clothing, books and other items for distribution to those in need. One of the books is the third book in a series of Physics education. This third book starts principally with relativity theory; something I hadn't learned about way back when I did physics. So, I've been arriving to play table tennis early so that I can read some of this book. I think I'll take it home.

Continuing on books, I've read a few articles about what have been the top books of 2020 and after having read some of the descriptions found some I'd be interested in reading. Out of curiosity I decided to check my local library to see what they have of these books and I was pleased to see they had many. I haven't made use of the library with any regularity since moving into this town ~10 years ago. Perhaps I will now. During this C19 time they accept book reservations on-line, and then when they get to it they will contact me to arrange a date to pick up the books. On that date, any time of day that the library is open for pickups, I can go, show my library card through the glass to a librarian. The librarian will then retrieve the books and place them between the interior and exterior doors of the library and that person will then return inside. Once inside, I can enter through the exterior doors to retrieve the books. On the website they recommend not handling the books for five days upon receipt. I will have to handle the books to carry them back to my apartment, so I don't know that I will adhere to this recommendation.

Getting back to reading that physics book and moving to Glace Bay and being semi-retired, an idea I had was to continue learning about physics and also building/creating experiments to show how closely I can match a mathematical model. Another idea I have had about moving to a house that I can easily afford is to get into astronomy and have a proper telescope that has tracking and camera installed and start taking measurements or studying a particular area of the sky; or seeing what specific community based research projects are out there that could benefit from an additional data point. 

This modified quarantine has allowed me to think and plan and dream about all sorts of things; the question becomes, how do I make any of this possible? Where do I begin? What can I do now that would help with these things when it comes time for me to be able to do them? Heh; these are more topics for me to think about.