Andrew Fraknoi (The AstroProf)

Statue of Liberty Nebula

(Please reply with a quick "I got it" if you see this post, so others will be sent it too.) I only recently learned that there is a nebula (a glowing cloud of cosmic gas and dust) that (In long exposure photos) resembles the Statue of Liberty.

Its catalog number is NGC 3576. I am attaching a photo by talented amateur astronomer Logan Carpenter. Isn't the resemblance uncanny?

If you search the web, you can find nebulae that resemble a horsehead, an elephant trunk, a tarantula, a butterfly, a cat's eye, and many other animal figures. But this one is, in some ways, more complex and with finer structure visible.

Click on the image to make it bigger and please enjoy.

Sugar Found in Cosmic Cloud

(Please reply with a quick "I got it" if you see this post, so it can be forwarded to others.) Astronomers in Spain have found the molecule "erythrulose," one of the sugars found in raspberries and Kiwi fruit, in a cloud of gas and dust that lies in the direction of our galaxy's center. This is the first detection of a sugar molecule within the clouds of raw materials from which new stars and new planets form.

Just as different kinds of atoms leave their "fingerprints" in the light that comes from stars, so different kinds of molecules (like water, alcohol, or carbon monoxide) leave fingerprint in the infrared and radio waves that come from the vast clouds they are formed in. Fingerprints from all the ones I just mentioned have already been found, plus formaldehyde (embalming fluid) and dozens of others. This shows that the chemistry that led to life on Earth can begin outside the sheltering environment of a planet.

This all lends more weight to the idea that on Mars, where things were wetter and warmer billions of years ago, chemistry like we see in the cosmic clouds might have led to some kind of primitive life form. When Mars lost its air, and everything froze, some of those simple life forms could have been preserved in the frozen water, which we could one day land on Mars and defrost.

That's what I tried to depict in my short story, "I Swallowed a Martian," published a few years ago. If you have not read the story of a hapless colonist who drinks the water on Mars, you can find it free at: http://bit.ly/swallowedmartian

Our photo shows an image of the clouds in the direction of our galaxy's center as seen in infrared light.

Father's Day is Also the Summer Solstice

(Please reply with a quick "I got It" if you see this post, so others can be sent it too.) Sunday, June 21 is not only father's day, but also the summer solstice -- the longest daytime (and shortest nighttime) of the year, for the Northern Hemisphere. Two things to celebrate!

Few people know that the reason we have seasons -- that the length of daylight varies throughout the year -- is that billions of years ago, in the violent early days of our solar system, Earth got hit by a roving mini-planet. Like many accident victims, the Earth could not straighten out, and has orbited the Sun leaning to one side ever since. When our hemisphere leans into the Sun, we have the long days of summer; when our side leans out of the Sun, we have to contend with the short, cold days of winter. (Venus and Jupiter did not have this early experience, and they don't have seasons. Mars, like us, does.)

Here in San Francisco, Sunday's solstice will give us almost 15 hours of daylight. A lot of time to groan at dad jokes! But if you are a fan of the coming of summer, remember to give a thought of thanks to that ancient mini-planet and the accident it caused.

My Latest Sci-Fi Story on Far Future

(Please reply with a quick "I got it" if you see this post, so others can be sent it too.) My new science-fiction story, "Elegy," has just been published in Penumbric Magazine for June 2026. You can read it free at:
http://bit.ly/elegystory
It is in some ways my most "far-out" story, about love at a time in the distant future when even the stars have gone out, and the remaining life-forms are desperate for energy.

This is my (lucky) 13th published short story; the full list is at: http://bit.ly/sfbyfraknoi

Giving a Free Talk at SF State June 8

(Please reply with a quick "I got it" if you see this post, so others will be sent it too.) If you are RETIRED and live in or near San Francisco (or if you know someone like that), this may be of interest.

The OSHER Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at SF State is a great nonprofit organization that welcomes retired people for courses, programs, and community. They are moving to expanded headquarters in the Humanities building and having an open house June 8, from 12 to 3. As part of the festivities, I am giving an illustrated talk from 1 to 2 in Humanities 133 on "What Were the Atoms in Your Body Doing 8 Billion Years Ago and Why Should You Care?" (It's the story of cosmic evolution that made creatures as interesting as you possible.)

Pre-registration is required at: https://www.campusce.net/sfsu/course/course.aspx?C=1351&pc=132&mc=0&sc=0

Transportation instruction:https://olli.sfsu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/wayfinding_OLLI-SFSU.pdf

The talk is only in person, not Zoom. If you are not retired, perhaps pass this on to an older person you know. Thanks.

I Turned a UFO Interview Into a SETI Discussion

(Please reply with a quick "I got it" if you see this post, so others will be sent it too. Thanks.) I was asked by an earnest young podcast host to appear on a program that usually dwells on somewhat gullible views of UFO reports. After some negotiation, I managed to convince him to focus mainly on scientific efforts to identify the signatures of technology out there, and we had a nice hour-long chat. There's good information about the work of the nonprofit SETI Institute -- where I have been privileged to serve on the Board of Directors for more than 40 years.

You can judge for yourself how well we did keeping the discussion to science, now that it's posted on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11oSTgmqG0k

Let me know what you think.

WTUFO 7 likes. "Andrew Fraknoi ~ SETI Board Member, Astronomy Professor"

A Free Zoom Lecture On "Where Are All the Aliens?"

(Please respond with a quick "I got it" if you receive this post, so others can be sent it as well.) You are invited to a virtual event:

The Fermi Paradox: If the Universe is Teeming with Planets and Life, Where are All the Aliens?

An Illustrated, Nontechnical Talk by Astronomer Andrew Fraknoi

Tuesday, April 14 @ 7:00 - 8:30 PM EDT (4 – 5:30 PM Pacific time)
The John Marshall Memorial Lecture of the Amateur Astronomers Association of NYC [On Zoom]

Participation is limited. Please pre-register at:
https://aaa.org/event/aaa-april-lecture-the-fermi-paradox-where-are-all-the-aliens-2/

Astronomers have now discovered thousands of planets orbiting other stars, some of them located in zones where life might comfortably exist. If, as scientists now conclude, there may be billions of Earth-like planets out there, why have we not been visited by alien tourists? This is what the great physicist Enrico Fermi asked in the 1950s. Knowing more about the vast scales of space and time, we can now answer Fermi in a variety of imaginative ways and explain why evidence of intelligent life out there may be harder to find that we thought. (For more on the speaker, see: https://fraknoi.com )

My New Science Fiction Story Just Published

(Please respond with a quick "I got it" if you receive this post, so others will see it too. Thanks.) I am tickled to report that The Worlds Within magazine has just published my science-fiction story “Who Speaks for Earth.” It concerns a Congressional hearing about a future President, who had to bomb a radio telescope owned by a religious group that insisted (without consulting anyone else) on answering a SETI message Earth received.

You can see the story at: https://theworldswithin.net/who-speaks-for-earth/
You need to scroll downward from the pictorial title page.

The idea came to me during a discussion we had at the SETI Institute, where I am honored to be on the Board of Directors.

Hope you enjoy it,

P.S. By the way, this is my 12th published story. You can see links to all of them (many with themes drawn from astrobiology and searches for alien technology) at: http://bit.ly/sfbyfraknoi

Exposed Cranium Nebula Photo

(Please respond with a quick "I got it" if you receive this post, so others on this list can be sent it too.) NASA's James Webb Space Telescope people released a wonderfully intriguing image today. We are seeing the last gasps of a dying star, whose outer layers have been shed by the star as it nears the end of its life.

The star is roughly 5000 lightyears away, in the constellation of Vela (the sails) in the southern part of Earth's sky. Webb images are not taken in visible light, but in infra-red (heat rays) which allow us to see the cooler gas and dust coming off the star in far more detail. The field of view is about 3.5 lightyears across.

Astronomers were immediately struck by the resemblance to a look inside someone's head, hence the name of the nebula. The left image is taken in the near infrared (nearer to visible light) and the right one in the mid-infrared region of waves.

We don't yet know the mass of the star that is dying, and without that we don't know what the star's ultimate fate will be. (Massive stars will die by exploding, while less massive ones, like our own Sun, eventually just collapse under their own weight.) But both kinds of stars undergo a period of letting go their outer layers, the process we see in action here.

Happy Pluto Discovery Day; Eclipse March 3

(Please reply with a quick "I got it" if you get this post, so others will be sent it too.) Today, Feb. 18th, is the 96th anniversary of the discovery of Pluto by a 24-year old novice astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory. Some years ago, we asked Tombaugh to write up his personal recollection for the Astronomical Society of the Pacific; you can read it at http://bit.ly/tombaugh

And a quick Heads Up (pun intended)! In the early morning of March 3, there will be a total eclipse of the Moon visible from all of North America. It will be very democratic -- easy for everyone to see. The problem is that it comes in the middle of the night on a weekday, so that anyone who gets up to watch it will be very tired the next day. Full story, with timings for each time zone, is in an information sheet I put together at http://bit.ly/2026eclipse