ASTR-301 Lessons

Good evening students! We now turn to the search, by both Muggles and magical folk alike, for extraterrestrial intelligence.

The orbits of the Sun and planets in a geocentric solar system

Source: here 

Humanity has always had an inflated opinion of the Earth, even as they sought to understand the heavens.  Until 1543, most people believed in Ptolemy’s theory that the Sun, Moon, planets, and even the universe revolves around Earth.  There were a few exceptions – Aristarchus of Samos believed that the Earth and the other planets revolved around the Sun. His views were deemed impious by the Stoic philosopher Cleanthes, however, and were widely rejected in favour of Ptolemy’s model.  Nicolaus Copernicus was the man who changed minds and used his observations of the night sky to prove that the Sun was the centre of our solar system.  Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were then understood to be Earth’s fellow travellers around the Sun. 

Those five planets are easily visible to the naked eye, so they were known to the ancients.  Two others, Uranus and Neptune, were discovered centuries later through other means.  On March 13, 1781, while surveying the night sky, Herschel first noted in the constellation Gemini a faint object that moved slowly against the background stars over several nights. Initially believing it to be a comet, he later correctly identified it as a distant planet, which would be named Uranus. After this discovery, astronomers noticed that the planet was being pulled slightly out of its normal orbit. John Couch Adams of Britain and Urbain Jean Joseph Leverrier of France used mathematics to predict that the gravity from another planet beyond Uranus was affecting its orbit. They figured out not only where the planet was, but also how much mass it had according to their calculations. A young astronomer, Johann Gottfried Galle, decided to search for the predicted planet and observed Neptune for the first time in 1846, making it the first planet to be discovered through the use of mathematics.

We (or rather, Muggles) continued to build bigger telescopes and even attached them to computers in more recent years.  Computers are electronic devices that can do rapid calculations and can be programmed to solve problems that can be expressed in terms of numbers.  Muggle astronomers use them to register light and track movement over great distances and long periods of time much better than humans could do without them.  Some telescopes were also built to use radio waves (which we will describe in detail a little later) to “see” objects too distant for light to be detected.  In the 1960s, some scientists argued that there could be intelligent life on other planets that are advanced enough to send and receive radio communications.

 Organisations such as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI Institute) were established to explore, understand, and explain the possibility of otherworldly life. The SETI Institute exists to this day, though no signs of extraterrestrial life have been observed by radio waves or any other means.  Other scientists opted to take a different path: rather than looking for evidence of life directly, they believed that the best approach was to seek planets with the correct conditions to sustain life and then search for life on those planets.  

Nearby Neighbours?

The most well-known rumours throughout the course of human history about extraterrestrial life involve our solar system neighbour: Mars.  In 1877, the astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli observed Mars with his telescope and described the “canali” he saw there.  While he originally meant channels - paths that water creates as it flows - he is often mistranslated.  People believed that the “canali” he had observed were canals on Mars, implying that ancient beings had dug channels to move water from one place to another, possibly for the irrigation of crops.  Armed with this new evidence, many believed that Mars was indeed home to intelligent life, much like us.  Optical interference and difficulties in viewing the planet only fueled the speculation that there was indeed an entire civilization on the red planet.

The channels on Mars that some people thought were canals  

Source: here

One of the first experiments to detect intelligent life on Mars took place in 1924.  At the time, Mars was in the absolute closest place to Earth that it would be in for almost a century.  American citizens were prompted to take part in almost two days of “radio silence” turning off all terrestrial radio signals so that a clear signal might be received at the United States Naval Observatory.  Despite having a receiver attached to a dirigible three kilometers above the ground, with the United States Army’s best code breakers standing by, no conclusive discoveries were made.

A US Navy Dirigible

Source: here

Mars, the only other planet to hint at habitability in our solar system, has always fascinated us.  Despite the failure to find advanced civilizations on the planet, we have continued to search for water and for signs of life, such as primitive, single-celled organisms.  When observational astronomy was exhausted, robotic vehicles were sent to Mars. These vehicles are machines that could be controlled from Earth and filled with different instruments to take measurements and search for life.  Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity all successfully landed and carried out experiments on Mars.  While no conclusive evidence of life has been found, it has been established that there is indeed some water on the red planet, though it is all ice, and there isn’t enough of it to sustain life.  Undaunted, scientists are now pushing for more advanced missions to Mars with people, not machines, working and living on the planet.

Can you all hear me?

Light, the various colors we see and experience daily, are nothing more than waves.  The waves of light that we see fall on a very small part of a very long spectrum.  Some waves have a higher frequency; more of them are in a given amount of space, while others have a lower frequency.  Anything that emits or reflects light can also be reflecting other waves in the spectrum.  Radio waves have a much lower frequency than light waves, and are emitted by objects in space, as well as from manmade sources.  Here on Earth we translate those signals into sounds, allowing us to hear Celestina Warbeck’s latest comeback tour concert without having to spend all those Galleons.  Radio waves coming from celestial objects can be used to see an object too far away or too dim for a telescope to see.  The different frequencies of radio waves paint a picture with the right technology.

Radio receivers listening for possible signals from intelligent life  

Source: here

As we mentioned earlier, some people believed that other life forms could have access to radio technology, much like our own.  To that end, they built gigantic radio receivers, not only to look at stars and the universe, but also to listen for those signals that could be sent out by alien radio technology.

Can You All See Me?

The search for life doesn’t always have to be about life itself.  For a long time, we thought that we were a lot more unique here on Earth.  The fact that we were part of a solar system seemed to be a novelty; despite the sheer number of stars in our night sky, the eight planets in the solar system were the only ones we had ever seen.

The movement of the Earth’s atmosphere distorts incoming light; as a result, there is a limit to the distance and clarity that we can see objects from the ground.  This was felt most clearly when astronomers sought to detect the passage of planets in front of the stars they orbit, known as a transit.

The Kepler program, named for the astronomer Johannes Kepler who discovered the laws of planetary motion, involved launching satellite telescopes. These telescopes, located far beyond the atmospheric distortion of Earth, combined with computers have helped to discover hundreds of unknown planets throughout the universe.  The Kepler telescopes look for the slight dimming of distant stars caused by a planet’s transit in front of the star.  If the dimming happens at regular intervals, it’s a very good chance they’ve found a planet.

Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f compared to Venus and Earth

Source: here

Shoot for the Moon

Muggle astronomers are not the only ones searching for life amongst the stars. There are also several notable examples of magical attempts at space exploration with the goal of finding life outside of Earth.

In the early 1920s, students under the guidance of the astronomy faculty at Uagadou School of Magic in Africa designed and built an early form of a magical radio telescope.  Shaped like a massive funnel and attached to the second highest roof at the school, this telescope was hoped to gather celestial transmissions, amplifying them and allowing students to hear broadcasts made by other living beings in our near solar system.

Blueprint of the Uagadou Radio Gatherer

Source: Image drawn by Professor Marina Gagarina

The Uagadou Radio Gatherer (URG) failed to receive any signals of interest of note until the late 1950s, when it began picking up a very loud and mysterious beeping noise.  When experts from around the world failed to decode the noise, many believed that the enchantments placed on the URG had failed.  The telescope was dismantled, re-enchanted, and rebuilt in just over ten years’ time.  The URG came back online in the summer of 1969, just in time to receive a faint transmission: “…Stepman, one giant leap enshrined.”  It was determined by several experts that this was a sports commentary broadcast across the solar system from an advanced Martian civilization. From what experts could tell, this complicated and rather confusing sport involved jumping great distances with exact precision.  A further two months passed before anyone realised just how wrong they were, and the URG was put out of use, though it has never been taken down and remains a central fixture at Uagadou to this day.

Apollo 11 – “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Source: here

Land Among the Stars

Not all attempts at space exploration in the magical community were backed by reputable institutions. Some of the more infamous examples were attempted by rather ambitious individuals. A young wizard living in West Germany in 1974 was so inspired by the first Moon landing that he decided that he, too, would visit the Moon, hoping to find life there, which he thought might exist.  While Helmut Neumann did not have access to any Muggle rockets, he did have the Shooting Star racing broom he had used to great effect playing Quidditch at Durmstrang Institute.  He made his first attempt in the summer of 1975 wearing a second-hand suit of armour enchanted with various protective spells.  He made it to an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,096 metres) before he turned back, unable to breathe.

A replica of Helmus Neumann’s suit of armour

Source: here

Undaunted, he set about creating a spell to protect himself from suffocation. The result was the Bubble-Head Charm, which allows anyone using it to breathe clean air under harsh conditions by covering the head and face in a transparent bubble that filters oxygen from one’s surroundings.  To perform the charm, one must point their wand at their face and make two circles around the nose and mouth using the incantation Bulla Respirare (BOO-la res-PEE-rah-ray). 

Bubble-Head Charm

Source: here

After rigorous testing of his new spell, and with the sponsorship of the Nimbus Racing Company, Helmut Neumann made his second attempt in 1978.  Using the Bubble-Head Charm, he flew up to the top of Mount Everest in short hops on his broom and then flew as high as he could from there.  But after flying another 6,000 feet (1,829 metres) – to about 35,000 feet (10,668 metres) above sea level – his broom would go no higher, which is lucky for him because the Bubble-Head Charm wouldn’t have worked at a much higher altitude where there isn’t enough oxygen for the charm to collect.  It is unclear whether Helmut intended to make a third attempt: he was killed in a Death Eater attack in the winter of 1979 while defending a family of Muggles.

Space travel and exploration in the magical community has always been seen as somewhat eccentric.  Indeed many inventions have been created with the express purpose of avoiding costly experiments and long distances.  Today we have orreries, lunascopes, and telescopes, which allow us to see and experience space from the comfort of our homes.  That hasn’t stopped inventors like Helmut from reaching for the stars.  Sometimes, they say, it is important to change your perspective, even if it means leaving planet Earth.

That will be all for this week.  Don’t forget to complete your essay to hand in next week.  Remember that our next lesson will end with the final exam, so be sure to study all your notes in preparation!

Original lesson written by Professor Gagarina.