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New Lick telescope will help us search for Earthlike neighbors
[April 22, 2009]

New Lick telescope will help us search for Earthlike neighbors


Apr 21, 2009 (San Jose Mercury News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- If E.T. has a home, Steve Vogt wants to find it.

This week, the planet-hunting scientist and his team of University of California-Santa Cruz astronomers are assembling a sensitive new telescope on the summit of Mount Hamilton that will search the skies for any galactic neighbors.

The long-awaited arrival of the Automated Planet Finder at Lick Observatory is a milestone in the search for a world that could sustain life. It brings us one step closer to answering the profound question: Are we alone? "To search for life, you've got to look among the stars," said Vogt, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC-Santa Cruz. "Is Earth common or are we a freak? That's the question we're trying to answer." On Tuesday, a giant crane lowered the gimbel, which holds the telescope's mirror, into a glistening white dome perched one hilltop east of the visitors center. The only other dedicated planet-searching telescope in the world is located in Switzerland, though other technologies are also in the hunt, including NASA's recently launched Kepler spacecraft.



Delivered in bits and pieces since March -- the precious cargo transported by truck up Mount Hamilton Road, an hour's drive from San Jose -- the instrument will be working by late June.

The project is led by veteran stargazer Vogt, and shared between scientists at UC-Santa Cruz and UC-Berkeley. Vogt's team is credited with finding 160 of the 350 planets outside our solar system. However, most of these have been giant gassy orbs that can't sustain life.


Until now, the team has been forced to borrow another Lick-based telescope, limiting observational time to only 10 to 20 nights a year. The new telescope will operate robotically every clear night, vastly expanding the search. It also has specially designed optics, enabling it to seek far smaller objects.

The new instrument, which cost $10 million, was funded by the Department of Defense. Originally scheduled to arrive in 2003, the astronomers have waited for its construction and delivery from a Tuscon telescope company. Its mirror glass, shaped like a parabola, was cast in Russia and was optically figured in Baltimore. The dome enclosure was fabricated in Australia. The spectrometer, which will analyze light, was constructed at shops at UC-Santa Cruz.

Staff astronomer Elinor Gates was delighted by the scope's assembly Tuesday. "Big telescopes don't come up the mountain every day. It's been a long wait. This is a good day." Although physically smaller than Lick's other telescopes, it is four times faster -- capable of gathering data more quickly and efficiently.

It will gather data on about 2,000 stars. Despite its power, the telescope doesn't actually see other planets -- they are dim specks next to the brilliance of their stars. Instead, it looks at planets' influence on the stars. The gravitational pull of orbiting planets creates stellar wobbling, seen as subtle shifts of visible light. By watching the same star night after night, for months, scientists can detect patterns of wobbling and establish proof of a planet. Ultimately, it will provide a map of stars that are likely to have planets similar to Earth.

The populations, masses and orbits of these discovered planets will be analyzed in a future project, to be launched in 2012.

The logic is this: If there is life in outer space, it needs someplace to live. But the universe is a big place to look for a single address.

In the search for life, much attention has been paid to the SETI search for communication from other planets, popularized in the movie "Contact." It will help, said Vogt, to narrow the search down to a neighborhood where the signal might beam from.

"Once we find an Earthlike place, then we can start listening, with a very intense focus," Vogt said.

Frank Drake, director of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe at SETI, welcomed the Automated Planet Finder's contribution to "one of the most profound activities in all of science." "Such discoveries require extensive observing time with precision instruments," Drake said. "The Automated Planet Finder will meet these requirements as never before, and in time reveal to us how common planets suitable for life are in the Milky Way." What scientists seek are any little rocky planets circling a star, much as the Earth circles the sun.

They want an orb that is cool enough to have liquid water. And it needs to live in what scientists dub "the Goldilocks zone," that's not too hot and not too cold. Finally, it should have a rocky surface where water could collect and serve as a cradle of life.

If you consider possibilities within the hundreds of billions of galaxies, said Vogt, our pale blue dot doesn't seem so special. Somewhere, perhaps, is a comfy place where creatures are busy crafting great literature, writing symphonies or watching "Alien Idol." Contact Lisa M. Krieger at [email protected] or 408-920-5565.

ON THE WEB For more information, go to: www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0XEvS_X9O8 and mthamilton.ucolick.org/hamcam.

To see more of the San Jose Mercury News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.mercurynews.com. Copyright (c) 2009, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

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