What Does Sunset On an Alien World Look Like?

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What Does Sunset On an Alien World Look Like?

Posted by Soulskill on Monday January 9, 2012 @08:12AM from the forgot-my-camera dept.

The Bad Astronomer writes "Using real data from Hubble Space Telescope of a planet orbiting another star, exoplanetary scientist Frédéric Pont created a lovely image of what sunset would look like from HD209458b, nicknamed Osiris, a planet 150 light years away. The Hubble data gave information on the atmospheric absorption of this hot Jupiter planet, and, coupled with models of how the atmosphere was layered, Pont was able to create a realistic looking sunset on the planet. The big surprise: the star looks green as it sets! Sodium absorption sucks out the red colors and blue is scattered away, leaving just the green hues to get through. It's a lovely application of hard scientific knowledge."

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And apparently... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-09 08:15 · Score: 5, Funny

...they get overloaded servers there too. :P
1. Re:And apparently... by Barryke · 2012-01-09 08:20 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Same here, http response 500.
  Coral cache: http://www.exoclimes.com.nyud.net/paper-outlines/the-sunset-on-hd-209458-b/
  
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  Hivemind harvest in progress..
2. Re:And apparently... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-09 08:26 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Actually, the link is working perfectly. The civilization that lives on HD209458b eventually surrounded their entire planet in orbiting solar panels for maximum clean power generation. The inside of the panels is an LCD screen that plays back a prerecorded video giving the illusion of a sun, moon and stars. However, despite all their technological advancement, the system isn't quite perfect yet, and every day at the exact moment the sun sets, the whole system crashes and kicks up an Internal Server Error until they reboot and you can see the moon. It's surprising the artist was able recreate is so faithfully.
3. Re:And apparently... by frisket · 2012-01-09 08:41 · Score: 2
  
  He was using a copyrighted version dowloaded from a pwned server. Expect the goons of Hollywood to issue him a DMCA takedown notice tomorrow.
Re:And conveniently enough by Ardeaem · 2012-01-09 08:16 · Score: 5, Insightful

it's located someplace that we're not going to be able to verify the results.
The laws of physics work the same way there that they do here...you don't actually have to go there to know how light will pass through the atmosphere...
Re:And conveniently enough by SJHillman · 2012-01-09 08:16 · Score: 2

For a while. Have a little faith, we'll get there some day. Or at least our distant descendants.
Only if... by stanlyb · 2012-01-09 08:17 · Score: 2

Only if these aliens use the same light spectrum as we do, and use the same photo standard as we do.....and if and only if they actually SEE with the same organs as we do.
1. Re:Only if... by gman003 · 2012-01-09 08:27 · Score: 2
  
  The question wasn't "what do aliens see on a sunset on their world?", but "what would we see on a sunset on an alien world?"
2. Re:Only if... by Victor_0x53h · 2012-01-09 08:27 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I see what you're going for there, but the image would be of "a sunset on an alien world", not "a sunset on an alien world as observed through the eyes of an alien". I know this is Slashdot and reading articles isn't kosher, but I thought it was ok to at least read the post's title.
Looks very familar by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-09 08:17 · Score: 5, Funny

It looks to me like the sunset has a striking resemblance to a 500 error.
Internal Server Error by nwf · 2012-01-09 08:30 · Score: 2

It looks like an Internal Server Error? I would have thought it would be more interesting than that. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

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I don't know, but it works for me.
Re:And conveniently enough by dave420 · 2012-01-09 08:35 · Score: 4, Interesting

We are talking about how a star (which we can clearly measure) interacts with an atmosphere (which, again, we can clearly measure). Nothing as small or dark as Pluto needs to be measured to figure out what the "sunset" looks like. Comparing the two is highly specious. Not being able to directly image a dark, tiny rock is a lot different to being able to detect the atmosphere of a planet and the output of a (relatively) very bright star.
I guess it's best to leave this stuff to the professionals ;)
Re:And conveniently enough by mehrotra.akash · 2012-01-09 08:45 · Score: 2

Unless vernor vinge was correct
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep
Re:And conveniently enough by Joce640k · 2012-01-09 08:47 · Score: 2

No one knows what Pluto looks like, but somehow we know what another planet looks like from hundres/thousands of lightyears away? Makes no sense to me.
If you'd bothered to look at the picture before posting you'd know there's no 'planet' in it.
You don't even have to read this one, just look at the picture.

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No sig today...
Re:And conveniently enough by Gr8Apes · 2012-01-09 08:53 · Score: 2

it's located someplace that we're not going to be able to verify the results.
The laws of physics work the same way there that they do here...you don't actually have to go there to know how light will pass through the atmosphere...
Not exactly... all I get are Server 500 errors. That's not what I pictured an alien sunset looking like.

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Re:And conveniently enough by Brain-Fu · 2012-01-09 08:56 · Score: 4, Informative

The laws of physics work the same way there that they do here
That is a metaphysical assumption of physics, not an observed fact. We won't know that for sure until we go there.
Of course...it is probably true.
Re:And conveniently enough by mcgrew · 2012-01-09 09:09 · Score: 3, Interesting

Indeed; they could easily figure out what a sunset would look like on one of Jupiter's moons by sending a probe. But the picture wouldn't look like what was predicted by computer model; I've never seen two sunsets that were exactly alike. Latitude, temperature, air pressure, etc -- there are too many variables. When I was stationed in Thailand in the Air Force I saw what I would have thought were breathtakingly beautiful sunsets at a certain time of year that contained all the colors there were, including green. You don't get sunsets like that this far north.

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Free Martian Whores!
Image? by Kozar_The_Malignant · 2012-01-09 09:46 · Score: 2

Sadly, the image seems to be obscured by smoke from the smoldering server.

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Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
I don't know. by PPH · 2012-01-09 09:47 · Score: 2

I've always been too in busy in the back seat of a car with some alien babe parked at the viewpoint when they happen.
- Captain Kirk

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Have gnu, will travel.
Re:And conveniently enough by gnapster · 2012-01-09 09:59 · Score: 2

Yeah, yeah, or look up the first one in a cache. The second link has the same pretty pictures as the first, but the first one is actually written by the guy who did the work.
Re:And conveniently enough by dkf · 2012-01-09 10:23 · Score: 2

The laws of physics work the same way there that they do here...
And your proof is ... ?
You can't draw any conclusions at all without that assumption. It's nearly as fundamental as assuming that there's an objective observable universe at all...

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"Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
Re:And conveniently enough by rk · 2012-01-09 11:07 · Score: 2

Seriously, learn a little about optics, spectroscopy, and remote sensing. Conceptually, what this guy did isn't even that hard to comprehend, though actually working the problem isn't easy at all. We certainly have ways of telling (within a confidence interval) what is going on. Is it perfect? Of course not, and I'm sure it would look different in reality. But I'd bet good money (sadly, neither you nor I will live to see ground truth) that it's fairly close.