Fact versus fiction on the last frontier
Big Sky Astronomy Club founding member Mark Paulson is pictured alongside a massive telescope. Paulson is one of 30 members in the astronomy club, which meets monthly and hosts observation parties during the summer. (Brenda Ahearn/This Week in the Flathead)
Big Sky Astronomy Club member Mark Paulson examines the night sky through a telescope. (Brenda Ahearn/This Week in the Flathead)
The Horsehead is a dark nebula — a large cloud of dust and gas, from which new stars will eventually form, located in the constellation Orion. It is blocking the glow from the reddish gas cloud behind it. The Flame Nebula is an “emission nebulau,” which is, again, a cloud of gas and dust in which stars are now forming. The cloud glows with a reddish color (not unlike how the gas in a flourescent tube glows when an electrical current passes through it) due to the intense ultraviolet radiation of the hot young stars at its center. (Photo courtesy of Zac Dawson)
The Rosette Nebula is another star-forming region located in the constellation Monocerus. It glows red from the intense UV radiation from the hot, young stars that have formed near its center. This cluster of stars carries its own designation of NGC 2244. This nebula is estimated to contain enough gas and dust to create 10,000 stars the size of our Sun. Both the cluster and nebula are about 5,000 light years from Earth. (Photo courtesy of Zac Dawson)
M33 is a spiral galaxy, also known as the Triangulum Galaxy, from the constellation in which it can be found. It is located about 3 million light years from Earth and, under very dark, clear skies can be seen with the naked eye. M33, the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are the largest and most dominant members of a small cluster of about 60 gravitationally bound galaxies known as the Local Group of galaxies. (Photo courtesy of Zac Dawson)
This is another star-forming cloud of dust and gas located in the constellation Cepheus. The cloud glows with a bluish hue, because the light from its hot, young stars is being reflected by the gas and dust, rather than causing the gas itself to glow. (Photo courtesy of Zac Dawson)
It was after 10 p.m. when local astronomer Mark Paulson saw it — five illuminated disks, streaking across the sky past the maple tree in his yard.
In his 15-plus years behind a telescope, he’d seen some amazing sights — nebulae, the Milky Way and even Pluto — but nothing quite like this.
For Paulson, there was simply no other explanation for the phenomenon than a UFO.
“It gave me goosebumps because I had never seen anything like that ... They weren’t lights — it was like something was illuminated from underneath,” he recalled. “I thought they might have been geese illuminated by city lights below … but these were absolutely elliptical. They weren’t birds with wings.”
Paulson’s encounter begs the question: are we really alone?
Hollywood has taken the liberty to bring to life some of these otherworldly mysteries. These characters feature prominently in the Halloween costume landscape — aliens, astronauts and space franchise characters, such as Star Trek’s Spock or Star Wars’ C3PO.
There seems to be no question that us Earthly beings are fascinated with the possibility of life outside our atmosphere.
And as far as Paulson is concerned, the “last frontier” may be home to more than human life.
“I find it difficult to conceive that this little planet is the only life in the entire universe,” he said.
In 1961 astronomer Frank Drake came up with the Drake equation, which estimates the odds of encountering alien life by accounting for the rate at which stars are born, how many stars have planets surrounding them and how many of those planets live in what’s known as the habitable zone — close enough for liquid water to exist, but not far enough to freeze.
“With the data that we have, it’s fairly obvious that probably all stars have planets. If that’s the case, there’s 200 billion stars in our galaxy alone….and if all of them have planets, some of those are going to fall within that habitable zone,” Paulson said.
He said an estimated 40 billion planets exist in the habitable zone and 10-12 billion of those are within the size range necessary to sustain life. Too big, and the planet becomes a gaseous giant like Neptune or Uranus.
The Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo has actually observed a much smaller total of 52 potentially habitable planets, with the closest being 4.2 lightyears from Earth.
“With those kind of numbers, it’s hard to imagine that there’s not some sort of life out there, even if it’s microbial life — bacteria and lower forms of life ... but intelligent life may be rare,” Paulson said. “At this point it’s just a crapshoot whether there’s intelligent life. But I bet you there’s other life within our solar system.”
Paulson’s work in astronomy is more observation than alien-focused. As one of the founding members of the Big Sky Astronomy Club, Paulson works to expand the group’s profile and to educate the public about the wonders of astronomy.
He and a few others founded the group in 2000 after completing an adult education astronomy class at Flathead Valley Community College. Current membership hovers around 30, with participants as far off as Libby and Eureka.
“Just the observing part of it through our telescopes is awe-inspiring,” Paulson said. “There’s so much up there. The science behind it is the other fascinating thing for me.”
The group is perhaps best known for its summer star parties — observation gatherings held throughout the Flathead Valley a few times each summer that draw hundreds of locals and tourists alike for an evening of star gazing. The fall and winter seasons are slower times for the club, but they still convene monthly on the Friday nearest to the new moon. If they’re lucky enough to have a cloud-free sky, they’ll take the opportunity to do some observing as well.
Prospective members are welcome to attend the club’s next meeting at 7 p.m. Nov. 17 at the West Valley Fire Department, or visit the group’s website for more information at http://www.bigskyastroclub.org.
Reporter Mackenzie Reiss can be reached at 758-4433 or mreiss@dailyinterlake.com.