Image: NASA, ESA, P. Kalas, J. Graham, E. Chiang, E. Kite
(University of California, Berkeley), M. Clampin (NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center), M. Fitzgerald (Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory), and K. Stapelfeldt and J. Krist (NASA Jet Propulsion
Laboratory)

Exoplanets are planets in other solar systems. Though astronomers have detected over 300 exoplanets since 1995, we only have visible-light images of one of them. These photos of the planet Fomalhaut b, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, have just been published in Science magazine by UC Berkeley astronomer Paul Kalas. The exoplanet Fomalhaut b orbits the star Fomalhaut (pronounced "foam-a-lot"), and at 25 light years away is the closest exoplanet that we know of.

Up until now, astronomers could only detect exoplanets using indirect methods. To learn more about the star wobbles and dips in starlight that indicate other planets are out there, check out QUEST's radio story, Exoplanets, and QUEST's television story, Planet Hunters. These exoplanets are trillions of miles away, but the research happens close to home at the Lick Observatory near San Jose, and at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland.

Over the next few years, astronomers will likely detect additional exoplanets, and will learn much more about them. In 2009, NASA will launch the satellite telescope Kepler, which will be able to detect smallish Earth-sized planets. And in 2013, the James Webb Space Telescope will go into orbit. As stated in this press release, astronomer Paul Kalas hopes the James Webb Space Telescope will tell us whether there are other planets orbiting Fomalhaut – and whether those planets might be able to sustain life. Who knows – maybe on one of those planets, aliens are collecting snapshots of Earth.

Credit: California High Speed Rail Authority

Starting with California's state-wide propositions, we have Proposition 1A: Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act. The proposed train would zip from San Francisco to LA in a mere two and a half hours, if voters approve a $10 billion bond. QUEST did a TV story on the science and politics of the high-speed rail last year, and updated it in a web-only video for this year's election. Check out High-Speed Rail on the Ballot. And listen to QUEST's radio story, Fast Trains.

Next, Proposition 2: Standards For Confining Farm Animals. If passed, this proposition would require bigger crates for certain farm animals. It is mostly about animal cruelty, but has implications for human health – and California's egg industry. Listen to The California Report's coverage of the pros and cons of Proposition 2.

Proposition 7: Renewable Energy Generation, would require utilities to get 50% of their power from renewable sources. It sounds straightforward, but actually this one is controversial. Things are explained in this QUEST radio story, Big Solar on the Ballot.

Then we have Proposition 10: Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Renewable Energy, which combines funding for solar and wind energy research with consumer incentives to encourage the use of clean fuels. There is controversy, because the proposition gives extra bonus points to some alternative fuels, but not others. Check out the coverage by the California Report.

There are three measures across the Bay Area concerning open space: Measure WW in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, Measure P in Napa county and Measure T in Solano county. Listen to a discussion of these measures with the executive director of The Greenbelt Alliance, in this KQED Radio News story.

And in San Francisco, Proposition H lets voters decide whether the electric utilities should be publicly owned. This would give the city flexibility in terms of obtaining power from renewable energy sources, but it's hard to say how it would affect the price of electricity. Reporter Cy Musiker and Craig Miller, senior editor for KQED's Climate Watch series, debate Prop H in this segment from KQED Radio News.

Figure out your opinions on these science and environment issues – and check KQED's Election 2008 page, for additional election coverage. Then voice your opinions, with your vote, and your comments to this blog!

Magnets in the LHC. Photo copyright CERN

When protons smash together at velocities approaching the speed of light, tiny short-lived particles are produced. If we can see these particles and learn how they behave, we can answer some pretty important physics questions — like what, exactly, is mass? The Exploratorium has a great website that explains physics' Standard Model — what matter is made of, and how the different components of matter interact. In his op-ed piece in the New York Times, Columbia University physicist Brian Greene describes the particles that physicists are looking for: the Higgs boson, the supersymmetric particles, and the transdimensional particles. Is there really a fourth dimension? Or a fifth or sixth? We may soon find out.

The latest nickname for the LHC is "the why machine." That moniker originated on the physics blog Cosmic Variance. Hopefully this feat of engineering will explain why E=mc2. Or, say some, just open up a microscopic black hole that will swallow the entire universe. This is exceedingly unlikely, but, says the Telegraph, some scientists have still received death threats from folks concerned about the impending end of the universe.

These mysterious particles may or may not be linked to the end of the universe, but they were certainly abundant at the beginning, with the Big Bang. To learn more about the Big Bang and the evidence for its occurrence, check out QUEST's interview with Berkeley physicist George Smoot — he won the Nobel Prize for detecting and analyzing the Big Bang's leftover radiation.

Parts of the Large Hadron Collider were designed and constructed by scientists here in the Bay Area. Scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory designed the LHC’s distribution feed boxes, which connect electrical power to the focusing magnets. And scientist from the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center designed the ATLAS pixel detector, which, like a giant digital camera, records what happens after particles collide.

If you're more interested in pictures than particles, then check out National Geographic's photos of the LHC –- it is a beautiful machine.