Webb telescope may find life on other planets
Also, Johnson’s tows an electric wheelchair, city and county amend downtown hotel/convention center agreement
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Webb telescope may find life on other planets
The universe is full of mystery, but the recent deployment of the Webb Space Telescope might shed some light in the vast darkness of space. The Kokomo Early Risers Rotary Club recently had the opportunity to learn about the telescope from Greg McCauley, a retired NASA mission planner and analyst who worked on the Apollo 15-17 missions to the moon and was a member of the lunar launch team for Apollo 17.
McCauley, a Kokomo native, is excited about what new discoveries might be ahead following the telescope’s deployment. Already, the photographs it has sent back to Earth in its first few months offer remarkable details about the trillions of stars and galaxies that fill the night sky.
McCauley explained that NASA planned and constructed the Webb Space Telescope over the span of 26 years while its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, was still providing landmark discoveries.
It was originally planned for launch in 2007 with a 4-meter mirror and a cost of $500 million. The project grew, involving 1,200 scientists, technicians, and engineers, enlarging the mirror to 6.5 meters, and eventually costing $10 billion. It launched on Christmas Day 2021 and arrived at its destination 985,000 miles away in July 2022.
The telescope was designed to capture light from the earliest stars, study how galaxies and black holes are formed, study the life cycle of stars, study how planetary systems are formed, and study exoplanets and their atmospheres.
“It is absolutely fantastic,” said McCauley. “It is 100 times more powerful than Hubble and is the largest, most powerful space telescope ever created.”
The Rotarians listened intently as McCauley explained how Webb’s gold-coated beryllium mirrors capture infrared light to produce images in much greater detail than the Hubble, but it was his discussion of exoplanets and the possibility of life on other planets that had the speaker and his audience most excited.
“We’ve found that nearly every star has a planetary system,” said McCauley. “We’re looking for Earth 2.0. Well, the star Trappist-1 is super-interesting. This star is 41 light years from the sun and is estimated to be 7.1 billion years old, making it 3 billion years older than Earth. And there are seven planets in the habitable zone of Trappist-1.
“The planets were discovered in 2017, and as many as four of them are potentially hospitable to life. They are expected to have similar compositions to that of Earth. We need to look at that.”
The Webb Space Telescope did just that on July 28. While the results of what it found are not yet available, McCauley explained the information could redefine life as we know it. Using spectrometry, scientists can determine which elements are present in an exoplanet’s atmosphere.
“If we find oxygen levels above 25 percent, maybe we understand that there is biology on the planet’s surface,” said McCauiley. “These planets are 3 billion years older than Earth. So, if they followed the same process of the evolution of life, what could be happening on the surface? There are two things we are looking for.
“One is a bio-signature. The other is a techno-signature. A bio-signature could be high levels of oxygen or methane that might give away the idea that photosynthesis is happening on the surface. But a techno-signature is something different.
“As an example, chloro-fluoro-hydrocarbons are a part of our atmosphere. They have been for a long time. There is freon in our atmosphere, but it does not occur naturally. It is a manufactured product. If we find chloro-fluoro-hydrocarbons in the atmosphere of other planets, what would that tell us? There is industry taking place on the surface. Is that a possibility? Yeah, it’s a possibility. The secrets of our universe may be about to be revealed. I’m excited for what we might see. It could change everything for us.”
McCauley will speak again in Kokomo on April 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the Kokomo Howard County Public Library’s South Branch, 1755 E. Center Road. At that time, he will discuss everything that has been discovered by the Webb Space Telescope, hopefully including the results of the Trappist-1 study.
Johnson’s tows a chair
Johnson’s Towing has picked up a lot of cars and trucks over the years, but a motorized wheelchair? That might be a new one. The towing company volunteered last week to assist non-profit agency Project Access in disposing of its non-functioning wheelchair.
Project Access is an organization founded by area physicians who sought to serve uninsured and financially limited residents by providing low-cost to no-cost health care. Part of that service includes providing assistive devices, like motorized wheelchairs.
The non-profit had one such chair in its possession that no longer functioned. Weighing in at nearly 500 pounds, the wheelchair was nearly impossible to transport by traditional means. Enter Johnson’s Towing. The company’s wrecker arrived on the morning of Dec. 10 and loaded the wheelchair onto a flatbed for transport to Newlon Metals for recycling.
Project Access would like to thank Johnson’s Towing for its assistance.
Downtown hotel agreement gets amended
Kokomo’s downtown hotel and convention center doesn’t seem to be any closer to becoming a reality these days, but a recent adjustment to the proposed funding of the project may indicate movement ahead.
The Kokomo Common Council approved an amendment to the interlocal agreement between the city and Howard County government on Dec. 12 to support development of a hotel and conference center. But the vote wasn’t unanimous.
The resolution, according to Councilman Matt Grecu, does nothing to change local government’s interest in the project.
“This is really modifying an interlocal agreement that was entered into back in 2019 between the city and county,” said Grecu. “This is modifying the terms of how the county is conveying their portion of the funding. It doesn’t change the commitment on either side. It only changes the structure of how the funding is being provided.”
Grecu’s brief description wasn’t enough for council member Kara McKibben. She voted against the resolution, giving council president Ray Collins pause and forcing a roll call vote. McKibben opposed the measure due to the rushed nature of the legislation. It was not included in the council’s informational packet and was added to the council agenda the same day of the meeting.
“I voted no because I really don’t have any information about the hotel and convention center,” said McKibben. “I know it has been spoken about, but I wasn’t at the table for this. I’m not going to vote for something simply because it’s there.
“It was a late addition to the council packet today. I didn’t have time to read it. I don’t have enough information to vote in favor of it. I think a lot of things have changed since this started a long time ago.”
After the meeting, Howard County Commissioner Paul Wyman explained that the adjustment to the agreement involved the county’s intended use of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars to fund a portion of the county’s commitment to the hotel/convention center project. This reflects a similar intention on the part of the city, which committed $3 million in ARPA funds to the project in January.
The hotel and convention center have been in development limbo almost since they were announced in Summer 2018. By June 2019, the original developer, Dora Hotel Co., had bowed out of the project. Two other developers – MWA Kokomo and Envoy – were later attached, but the pandemic scuttled progress.
Dora Hospitality and Dora Hotel Co. re-attached to the project in January, according to Mayor Tyler Moore.
“We are at the table with the preferred developer,” said Moore. “Dora. They are the ones the city initially started the project with. The city worked its way through three or four additional developers until we were able to entice Mr. Dora back to the table “
Moore confirmed that the planned hotel still is projected to feature 120 rooms, and it will be connected to a 40,000 square-foot convention center along Superior Street between Main and Union streets. The Greater Kokomo Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) is expected to relocate to the new facility as well.
There is still no word concerning when project construction might begin.