Happy New Year… 7518?

When the ball dropped in Times Square this year, you didn’t see 3…2…1 Happy New Year 5770 or 4343. You saw what much of the world expected to see; Happy New Year 2010. However, not everyone agrees on that number as calendars are human creations that often reflect events that are relevant to a specific group, rather than adhering to any universally accepted scientific phenomenon or some other objective criteria. So what year is it really?

Well, that depends on where you’re from and who you ask. First, we must examine some of the concepts of time that are held by different cultures. Not everyone perceives the passage of time as a one-way march with a distinct beginning and end. Some cultures view time as cyclical and repetitive; allowing long periods of time to come to a close and make way for new beginnings instead of ticking away in a linear fashion, growing ever larger as time goes by.

For instance, the Chinese calendar, from which the calendars of many Asian countries are derived, is based on a variety of criteria including lunar phases, solar declination, and astrological/zodiacal events. Furthermore, the Chinese calendar has not traditionally included an ongoing ordinal count beginning with a specific day in history; rather it employs a sexagenary stem-branch system that produces 60 different years in a cycle before starting anew, thus creating a cyclical system which provides us with designations like Year of the Earth Ox (2009) or Year of the Metal Tiger (2010). For the most part, modern China has adopted the Gregorian calendar that is widely used in the Western World, but in the past, the numerical value of a year was based on its position within an era, which was commonly a dynastic period. So you might end up with something like the tenth year of insert emperor/dynasty name here, in addition to the elemental and zodiacal stem-branch nomenclature.

It is this same cyclical perspective that is pervasive in the Mesoamerican calendar, and its ever-so-popular progeny the Mayan calendar, which is whipping the world into a frenzy in preparation for the coming of 2012. The Mayan calendar, like its Chinese counterpart, employs multiple layers of data which culminate in a complex matrix of information about both cultural historical events as well as astronomical events. Additionally, the calendar is intended to “run its course” and begin again in a new age. So fear not, the “end” of the Mayan calendar only signifies the end of this era, after which, a new era will begin.

The calendar most of the western world uses is the Gregorian calendar. Introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar with the division of months coinciding loosely with the phases of the Moon, but the dates for New Year coinciding with the solar year. For the purpose of communication, especially in business transactions, much of the world has adopted the use of the Gregorian calendar; although many places, like China, still utilize their traditional calendars as well, to track special events unique to their society.

Examinations of the methodology for recording the passage of time brings to mind, what has essentially become an adage… time is relative. The units of measurement used to express time are, ultimately, man-made devices; even if they are based on empirically quantifiable and observable phenomenon. So when you go to wish your friends a happy new year, be prepared to concede that it may not actually be 2010. Happy New Year everyone.

Nibiru

OK, so I waited more then a day for the second post... my apologies, but I had a good reason: out of the blue I received a phone call to have breakfast with a four time NASA astronaut. Needless to say, that changed my schedule 'a bit'. But OK, now part two... Nibiru

Have you ever heard that name? Nibiru is the mythical planet, that is supposedly on a collision course with Earth. Need a planet? Let's invent one!

In 1995, Zecharia Sitchin claimed to have re-translated Sumerian texts proving the existence of this planet, that for some strange reason everyone else just happened to have missed. And this planet (which of course has never been actually seen by anyone) is on a collision course with Earth. Another name for this planet is planet-X.

To show the amount of nonsense is involved here, is that we were all supposed to die due to this collision back in May of 2003, when they initially predicted the collision. But, oops, nothing happened, so they "moved it up a bit" to 2010, and now magically the date has been changed again, so now it will be in 2012. On December 21 of course.

So, we have to believe that this one guy and his followers are so enlightened that they understand something that no one else does, but then so stupid to miss the date-of-doom by 9 years, but then only to come around and now we have to accept the incredible precision of a December 21 prediction. And mind you, no one has actually seen this planet, and planets are big things. If we were to believe we are going to collide with a planet (or in some claims a red dwarf) in only 3 years, this means that the object should be pretty much in our solar system by now. But somehow we all, including the believers, are looking in the wrong direction??

Yeah sure.

Next post: Good Ol' Nostradamus

No, No and No

I have already been asked by several people for more information about the end-of-the-world in 2012, and the vehemency and accusatory tone of the questions are quite frankly rather shocking. How dare I not agree with their point of view?

On top of that, there is an enormous amount of misinformation that is actively being spread over the internet and other media, and folks that have less of a science and astronomy background might honestly be fearful. Either way, it is our task as a place of public education, to sort out the myths from the facts. The whole story is too long for one blog post, so let's start with the claims and over the coming days I will add posts that debunks each.

So... what is all the hullabaloo about? Well... it all starts with a calendar. As you know we have a calendar lasting 365 days, and this is based on how long it takes the Earth to complete one orbit around the Sun. However, other cultures have (or had) different calendars. In this case it comes to the calendar of the Mayan Culture.

This calendar is a true piece of mathematical art. It is based on a whole set of calendars, which are intertwined, creating a horrifically complex system lasting many thousands of years. You can read more at the wikipedia page about the calendar, and I think you will agree that this calendar is not something simple to understand.

As a matter of fact, the calendar is so complex that even today it is still in dispute of exactly when it started, and when it will "end". Anyway, the word "end" is exactly the hinge where all the problems come from. Does our calendar "end"? Well... in one way you can state that yes, it ends at December 31, and then rolls over to January 1st. But for some reason, in this case, probably because we're talking about Mayans, "end" has taken on a life by itself.

But let's keep to the facts... as far as we can tell the Mayan calendar does indeed roll over on December 21, 2012. Some scientists however, dispute the exact date and place it 200 years later, for this post, let's assume December 21 is the date.

So.. are there indications from the Mayans that they linked their calendar to a date-of-doom? No they didn't. Did the Mayans interpret the end date as "The End"? Nope, they saw it as the beginning of a new era, probably coinciding with a lot of Mayans starting new diets (OK I made that last bit up).

So, although there is nothing that leads us to believe December 21, 2012 is the date of doom, this has not stopped certain individuals to start piling things on top, resulting in a hodge-podge of claims and simply nonsense.

Tomorrow more...

Wow, right?

I hope the word "WOW" came to mind when you started to read this post. Looking nice eh?

Yes, after many months of work we finally were at a point to go live with our new website. The design, as created by NAKA media, was done for some time ago, but that was simply the start of a long process, because we wanted a whole bunch of new pages as well. Plus, we wanted to introduce a content management system for the site, so that staff without programming skills, would be able to make updates to the site. We specifically want to thank Anthony Plattsmier from Open Gadget for his enormous help on this front, because he donated many dozens of hours installing, debugging and other complex coding time to this website.

So, now you have an opportunity to read in much more detail what the Austin Planetarium is about, how you can help, and how this project is progressing. But wait, there is more, because as a matter of fact we're not done yet!

One thing we are still working on is our online store. Yesterday, just before going live, we discovered some bugs preventing a customer from actually paying for an item, so there is still some more work to do there, but hopefully within a week we should be done with that as well. Then there are some additional pages we would like to add, and then we want to start rewriting the AstroNews page.

But for now, we're a BIG step forward, and I hope that you are impressed with our efforts so far. Please let us know what you think!

We can do more things in a planetarium than "Showing Stars"

Yesterday I met Tammy Jarocki, who blogs about Art and Science here in Austin and I mentioned that it is my full intention to combine Art and Science in the Austin Planetarium. Most of the time I get blank stares because this is something new. So, I promised I would email her and my plan was to point her to a blog post on the subject... only to discover that I never blogged about it!

Actually, we did write about it, but only in our AstroNews pages some time ago. So... let's fix that right now. Be sure to watch (listen!!!) the amazing video at the bottom of this blog. And yes, it is completely safe to do this right at work.

---

Of course a planetarium is to show the night sky in its most perfect condition. But did you know that these days we can do MUCH more in a planetarium dome? Of course, it is very difficult to prove this to you because we do not have a planetarium, but we will do our best!

The first major revolution that changed the planetarium world was the advent of "full dome video". In the old days we used to have a star projector to project the stars, and then we added slide projectors to add images. At the planetarium in Amsterdam, where I worked for several years, we actually had dozens and dozens of slide projectors all working together, creating an image that covered the entire dome. That was very pretty, but does not even come close to what we can do these days!

Of course you have seen LCD projectors. They are used for presentations in class or any other venue where we need moving video on a large screen. Now imagine taking several much stronger LCD projectors, and somehow "stitch" the separate images together covering the entire dome. That is exactly what we do with full-dome video. The result is a "TV screen" that wraps above and around you. Using video, we can show anything! Not just astronomy - but Biology, Chemistry, or even Architecture!

But, actually, having full dome video really opens up an entirely new experience. For example, when I visited the planetarium in Kiel, Germany I was treated to an amazing music show, created by Jens Fisher. And you bet I did make sure to invite him over to play his show when the Austin Planetarium has been built (and he accepted). The other wonderful thing is I can show you the show right here. The video was shot using a camera in that planetarium (you can see the curvature of the screen), and Jens is sitting at the center creating the music. He is doing this all by himself, live, no recordings, no other musicians, just him. Enjoy!

Terra Firma

The Associated Press reported today that European astronomers have discovered, for the first time ever, a planet outside of our solar system that is not just “full of hot air.” Don’t get me wrong, it’s hot alright, with a surface temperature of 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit, it’s not exactly suitable for life as we know it; but it is solid. More than 300 planets have been discovered outside of our solar system, all of them gaseous balls; but this is the first time one has ever been proven to be as rock-solid as good ol’ Mother Earth. The planet, which was actually discovered earlier this year, has been dubbed Corot-7b and it closely circles a star only a stone’s throw away at a distance of approximately 500 light-years.

The discovery of Corot-7b’s firm physicality has brought great excitement to the scientific community, because of the implications it carries for the potential discovery of planets suitable for human habitation, as well as the possibility of finding extraterrestrial life. It is widely assumed that the beginnings of life anywhere would require some solid ground in which to gain footing, so this discovery strengthens the argument for the existence of life outside of our planet.

As we here at the Austin Planetarium continue our search for some solid ground to build our facility on, we will continue to keep the community updated on our progress and the astronomy and science news of the day. Let us know what you think about the search for extraterrestrial life by commenting on this blog. Stay tuned for more!

For more information on Corot-7b click here.

Raiders of the Lost...Shuttle?

Officials at NASA today announced that they have opened a registration process that allows educational institutions, museums, and other like-minded institutions to begin screening artifacts from the Space Shuttle program. NASA intends to allow organizations to display these artifacts at their facilities at no cost; except the cost of shipping and the special handling fees that will be necessary for the safe transport of these historical treasures. There will be eligibility guidelines that will be determined by NASA, but their intention is to “ensure broad access to potential shuttle artifacts.”

We here at the Austin Planetarium are very excited at the prospect of having some Space Shuttle artifacts available for display. One of the aspects of our vision for the Austin Planetarium includes the construction of a museum facility focusing on space science, as well as a technology center which will display the hardware that has been utilized in driving technology forward. The Space Shuttle program has been a tremendous asset to the scientific community and a great source of pride for Americans for almost 40 years, and what better way to pay homage than by making the hardware of the program available to the public for exhibition.

Needless to say, these types of artifacts would be perfect for display in our proposed facility. I sure hope there are some left by the time the planetarium is built; otherwise we may find ourselves stuck with the dregs of the program, and decommissioned zero gravity toilets , although important to the space program, just don’t carry the wow factor we hope to induce in our visitors. Thanks for the memories Shuttle Program!

For the full story, and more information on the screening of Space Shuttle artifacts, click here.