Friday, 21 October 2011

Our Future in Space ? panel at TAM 9 Bad Astronomy

In This summer 2011, in the JREF s TAM 9 meeting in Vegas, I moderated a panel talking about the way forward for space exploration. On that panel were some familiar faces: Bill Nye (the Science Guy), astronomers Neil Tyson and Pamela Gay, and theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss. All people have, ah, some experience speaking towards the public about matters spacey, and so i understood it might be an enjoyable panel to moderate.

I'd no idea. The recording from the panel has been manufactured available through the JREF, to help you view it on your own! I ve embedded it below. This is an hour or so lengthy, however i think you ll think it is absolutely worth your time and effort to look at completely through. Many people emerged in my experience later on and stated it had been the very best panel in the meeting, and among the best we ve ever endured at TAM! Like a participant, modesty prohibits me from saying more, however, who am I to disagree

It had been a rollicking discussion, and incredibly interesting. Neil is at rare form, and i believe my personal favorite moment was when Pamela was creating a point, and Neil leaped directly into give a viewpoint and Pamela organized a finger and "shusshed" him! It had been very funny, particularly when Neil got this, "OK, fine, you have me" expression on his face. Following the panel, Neil was signing books, and that i got Pamela to sit down lower alongside him and recreate as soon as:

Another person could capture it throughout the particular moment around the panel, too.

I actually do wish to discuss one factor. At about 44:00 minutes in, throughout attorney at law about dark energy and also the James Webb Space Telescope which in This summer had been in danger I stated that JWST would help characterize dark energy, permitting us comprehend it better. Lawrence then stated this wasn t true, which we have to be cautious about overhyping the capacity of JWST. I had been going to answer him when Neil leaped in, and that i made the decision to allow Lawrence s comment go as moderator I didn t wish to derail the flow from the conversation, and at that time thought it easier to let things move ahead.

However, I disagree somewhat using what Lawrence stated. Very distant supernovae are what were utilised to uncover dark energy to begin with, and JWST will have the ability to to obtain better findings of these than we're able to formerly. I believe a part of Lawrence s point was our findings have previously nailed lower a few of the qualities of dark energy pretty much, and exactly how JWST works won t add much as to the we know. I suspect that s mostly true, however if this involves really distant supernovae our findings get a little shaky. The greater we nail them lower, the greater we are able to say about the subject, and JWST could be able provide cleaner data from individuals distant overflowing stars.

Used to do state that JWST "would go a lengthy way" in assisting us understand dark energy, and searching back on which i most likely should ve phrased this because it simply having the ability to allow us to. Although it's a very effective observatory, JWST isn t enhanced for your kind of factor, therefore it most likely wouldn t have the ability to do just as much to improve our understanding of dark energy around, say, Hubble did. I'd add though any time we increase our capacity to see in a different way, we learn something totally new. This time is made both by Lawrence and Neil a minute later but you should be careful prior to the fact to not depend on the telescope showing us something we didn t know. It ll happen somewhat although not others, and that we can t know until we build the one thing and discover! So for the reason that way, To be sure with both Neil and Lawrence.

[UPDATE: Hmm, possibly I authored too early. Adam Riess, who just won the Nobel prize for his part within the discovery of dark energy, gave a talk lately where talks about how JWST might help characterize dark energy. The key part begins about 29 minutes in, and it is a little technical. Because of Jason Kalirai for that tip!]

I really loved this discussion for an additional reason: I love it when individuals can disagree on large issues and achieve this smartly with evidence to support their claims. There have been some things being produced by panelists which i agreed with, plus some I didn t. However I found myself considering space exploration diversely, seeing other perspectives. That always gives understanding of an problem, and whether you at long last accept the purpose or otherwise, you ll find yourself thinking better about this.

I d reason that s one of the leading advantages of skepticism.

Image credits: me Jamie Bernstein.

October 20th, 2011 12:26 PM Tags: Bill Nye, exploration, JWST, Lawrence Krauss, Neil Tyson, Pamela Gay, TAM 9
by Phil Plait in Astronomy, Awesome stuff, NASA, Bit of mind, Science, Skepticism, Space 23 comments Feed Trackback >



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