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.

Forty years later, the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers is still going strong, boasting a web site replete with a monthly star chart, specific for San Francisco, a calendar of monthly amateur astronomy events, a helpful "cheat sheet" of astronomical facts and answers to questions that routinely come up if you set up a telescope on your neighborhood sidewalk, and where to go if you want to borrow, build or donate a telescope.

Another great resource for the budding SF amateur astronomer is the Randall Museum, which hosts star parties, lectures by amateur and professional astronomers and classes for making your own Dobsonian telescope from scratch. The free public lectures at the Randall Museum take place on the third Wednesday of each month, sponsored by the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers.

Since 1952, the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers have been an invaluable resource for stargazers to learn about the choicest observing sites throughout the Bay Area, monthly star parties and make contact with a community of like-minded folks. Be sure to also check out their astrophotography web page, where they have uploaded photos and even videos shot with their telescopes of galaxies, comets, moons, planets and nebulae.

If you can't get enough of amateur astronomy clubs in the Bay Area, check out the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the Astronomical Association of Northern California. The Astronomical Society of the Pacific, founded in the 19th century, has members from 70 countries and claims to be the largest astronomy society in the world. It also boasts educational outreach programs, such as Astronomy from the Ground Up, a National Science Foundation-funded program that helps informal science educators such as docents and volunteers by giving them the tools and training to more effectively communicate astronomy information to the public.

If you should need to buy equipment or talk with some very knowledgeable folks about the right telescope, accessories or CCD digital camera to begin your foray into astrophotography, check out Scope City, a retailer in San Francisco specializing in telescopes and binoculars.

Watch the "Amateur Astonomers" TV Story online, as well as find additional links and resources.


Sheraz Sadiq is an Associate Producer for QUEST on KQED Television.

Julien Guy: supernova cosmologist

I spent the last week at a conference in the Italian Alps with about 200 skier/cosmologists. Mornings were spent in the conference hall watching 15 or 25 minute presentations. Afternoons were for the slopes. Evenings were back in the conference hall.

The conference started with supernova talks – I was fourth on the list. Being in the field, I had heard most of the results that were presented in the other talks. Ditto the other attendees' perspectives on my talk. However, there were some new and very promising results from the Supernova Factory.

The supernova factory is a LBNL-based research group that focuses on "nearby supernovae". By nearby, I mean only a few hundred million light years away. These supernovae occur in galaxies that are distant enough to be free of the gravity of the Milky Way and our neighboring galaxies but close enough to observe with smaller telescopes.

The supernovae observed by the SN factory are very bright compared to the supernovae I observe with the Hubble Space Telescope. The supernovae are bright enough to make very precise measurements at each wavelength of the supernova spectrum. Just like my earlier post on spectroscopy, the supernova light is imaged after passing through a prism. These images provide very detailed information about the molecules and atoms that are present in the supernova explosion.

The spectroscopic observations also tell us how one supernova may differ from another. The small variations in type Ia supernovae have been a mystery for quite some time. If we can learn the causes of these variations, these supernovae could be come even more useful for measuring distances in space.

There are several models and theories to explain the differences, but none has been extensively tested. A large number of bright nearby supernovae is required to test these models. Hopefully, a project like the supernova factory will provide that sample. In this conference, they only showed a handful of supernovae. All but one of these supernovae was well-behaved, fitting our current models. The last one differed enormously from the others, but the detailed spectroscopic observations lent evidence as to why this may be the case. The data is still being examined, but I am encouraged by the progress necessary if supernovae are to be used to explain the cosmology of our universe.

The presentations over the next five days covered a very large range of topics. Some conference attendees presented ideas that had never occurred to me. One that I found very interesting was an experiment to model the orbital paths of stars around the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. For those patient enough to watch these stars for 15 years, it should be possible to measure the properties of gravity and the black hole itself by looking for deviations in the stars orbits from our current models.

While the talks were very interesting and well-attended, I can't help but comment on the other important side of this conference. That would of course be the skiing. The Europeans really have it right – they chose the site and the schedule with the perfect balance for leisure time. We were only ten miles from the tallest mountain in Europe, within site of the Matterhorn, had perfect snow all week, and had just enough time to enjoy it. I even had a chance to practice my amateur photography on the slopes. Now the next challenge will be to organize a conference in Tahiti!

Kyle S. Dawson is engaged in post-doctorate studies of distant supernovae and development of a proposed space-based telescope at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.