NASA & Industrial Light & Magic Rep & SETI Rep to Announce Kepler Discovery at Media Briefing ?

reply to post by iforget


Yay! Disclosure is right around the corner!

reply to post by iforget


Just found mention of John Knoll in another, huge ATS thread.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

This post, authored by Pinke, explains his role on the panel perfectly;

John isn't just some VFX junkie. John Knoll and his brother, Thomas, have been involved in image analysis for over thirty years now. He has created and been involved in some of the staple image analysis and editing applications of our time - including photoshop. This is someone that understands all of these concepts on a mathematical and theoretical level which makes him perfect for dealing with actual image analysis, forensic, creative or otherwise. People like himself wrote the applications that allowed people like Russ to write the book on these subjects.

There is nothing unusual about persons with VFX credits working for astro photography organisations etc ... Nor is there anything unusual about persons with VFX credits working in forensic imaging and survey data areas. I doubt a defense lawyer is ever going to say 'oh, but your honor, she worked on Star Wars'.

So, case explained and closed!

Does anyone know if a SETI representative has been invited to one of these NASA press conferences before?

Considering what SETI do, that is the most interesting inclusion as far as I am concerned........looking quite forward to this one

reply to post by Beamish


except that to my knowledge Kepler does not actually image the exoplanets in themselves

Every avid Photoshop user will recognize Thomas Knoll as the lead developer of Photoshop (first name in the credits), began working with his brother John (an employee at ILM) while in college though an invitation to work on a Mac based grayscale imaging software, they called Display. In less than a year Photoshop was released.

They have a kepler list of unconfirmed planets, some of which are earth-like. They're (probably) going to talk about some confirmations and about the odds of life being there.

If they have some confirmed earth-like then there's lots of things to talk about.

reply to post by iforget


Not an image. They are able to tell the atmospheric composition, surface temp and whatnot. If it was earth like they would be able to tell.

I'm hoping this is how it starts. Finding a new M class planet is exactly what we need to jumpstart the economy again. A new space race, a new frontier and a new industry. New age of prosperity. IMO its the only thing at this point that will stop us from destroying ourselves.

Anyways SETI being there can only mean that a message was intercepted from an advanced species OR the newly found exoplanet will be subjected to transmissions of the most horrible music earth has to offer.

Originally posted by Argyll
Does anyone know if a SETI representative has been invited to one of these NASA press conferences before?
..............

That is a good question.

They've had many astrobiologists before. That doesn't mean that they discovered ET life in each of those cases. Rather, the astrobiologist is there to bring their background into the discussion. I tihnk that's the only reason they have the SETI person there. Plus, there might be something non-ET related that the SETI person knows about. Not sure what that would be though.

reply to post by jonnywhite


Its the combination of the Kepler team, seti, an astrobiologist and industrial light and magic thought that really raises eyebrows. If you wanted to have a press release about the possibility of a habitable exoplanet this would be the team to do it with.

Just sayin

I always get silly excited when NASA announces a press conference. I'm learning to be more cautious lol. SETI being there could be huge or it could be that they will simply be saying they will be listening specifically to the Kepler Planets. I believe SETI just started running again. The VFX artist being there, who knows, my guess maybe he is being brought in to help develop new software that will analyze images taken at great distance. My guess overall is that it will be an announcement of getting serious and hyper-focusing on the Kepler planets. Still, the little girl inside me is suppressing a squeel.

Laurance Doyle - SETI

Wiki

Laurance R. Doyle (born 1953) is a scientist who received his PhD from the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg. He has worked at the SETI Institute since 1987 where he is a principal investigator and astrophysicist. His main area of study has been the formation and detection of extrasolar planets,[1] but he has also worked on communications theory. In particular he has written on how patterns in animal communication relate to humans with an emphasis on cetaceans.

He grew up on a dairy farm in Cambria, California and therefore didn't have much access to information about stars. But by reading books at the local library, Doyle was able to develop his knowledge in astronomy, and eventually obtain his Bachelor's and Master's of Science degrees in astronomy from San Diego State University.

HIs first job was at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as an imaging engineer, where he was in charge of analysing pictures of Jupiter and Saturn sent from the spacecraft Voyager. He moved to Heidelberg, Germany, to help analyse images of Halley's Comet. He got his doctorate in Astrophysics at the University of Heidelberg.

In May 2005 he appeared on a National Geographic Channel Special titled Extraterrestrial. He is also both a Christian in science and a Christian Scientist.

Doyle is currently seeking to compare dolphin whistles and baby babble in an attempt to make predictions about extraterrestrial communications. He believes that by measuring the complexity of communications for different species on earth, we could get a good indication of how advanced an extraterrestrial signal is. His study determined that babies babble over 800 different sounds with the same amount of frequency as dolphins. As they grow older, those sounds decrease to around 50 and become more repetitious. The study found that baby dolphins develop similarly with regards to their whistling.

This guy has an interesting background that makes his presence at the meeting all that more confusing. Extra solar planets, theoretical communication. Could be a number of things, however im leaning towards an announcement of a planet in the goldilocks zone, or an update on Gilese 581.

I'm sure SETI people are more used to determining frequency data from noise in the field of radio astronomy and would be well versed to explain what they receive and how it's determined to be substantial. With support of the visual field of algorithms and wavelengths, it sounds like the team is there to translate complex conversions to the layman.

reply to post by Xcathdra


thank you for that curiouser and curiouser

Here is a link that talks a bit more about whats going on. There is apparently an information embargo until 11am on the 15th.

Source

EDIT - ehh maybe not more info. Just the story embargo part. Sorry.

Also, here is the link to NASA TV - Nasa TV

EDIT to ADD - He is attached to the Keplar program
SETI Profile - Dr. Laurance Doyle

Projects

Detection of Extrasolar Planets Around Eclipsing Binaries in the Kepler Field
NNX08AR15G

About 350 eclipsing binary stars may be found in the NASA Kepler Mission field of view (FOV). We have developed two methods for the discovery of planets around eclipsing binaries -- a matching filter to look at quasi-periodic transit features indicative of a planet in transit across the two moving stars in the background, and a second method using timing of the stellar eclipse minima themselves to see if the stars are being offset by giant planets farther out around a binary-planet barycenter. This last method does not require planetary orbits to be in the line-of-sight orbital plane, and non-detections mean that circum-binary planets of a certain minimum mass are not present. One must know the spectral type and luminosity class of the stars for a determination of the size of the planets (transiting) or their projected mass (eclipsing timing). We will use ground-based Stromvil photometry to spectrally classify each eclipsing binary star system, following this with the application of the Wilson-Devinny (WD) eclipsing binary code to determine the exact parameters of the star systems.

We have been guaranteed observing time on the 0.9-meter Crossley telescope at Lick Observatory for these observations. We will then apply a well tested matching filter program correlating light curves of the photometric data with generated models of planetary orbits and sizes in order to detect close-in transiting planets at a quantifiable confidence limit. Over a long term we shall then apply the WD code to see if any changes in binary eclipse epochs have shifted in a periodic way, indicative of larger-orbit circum-binary planets. We estimate that hundreds of additional planets may be discovered in the Kepler FOV in this way and that such circum-binary planets will be of significant interest to our understanding of planet formation processes in close binary star systems.

Educated guess - Habitable planets possibly found in a Binary Star System.

In my opinion it will be something to do with this announcement that was made on Monday the 12th.

I could be wrong though

reply to post by Argyll


I was thinking the same thing, but they are using 2 completely different systems (Keplar and Harps).

Unless maybe Kelpar was able to confirm something that Harps detected?

Personally I would like it to be a seperate discovery...

So if they announce a major find it would be logical to have ILM/photoshop guy there because there will be visuals done from the discovered data. I guess we'll see.

reply to post by Xcathdra


That is my thinking also........maybe kepler confirms or adds to the HARPS discovery.....like you, I hope it's something new though.

I'll take a suspicious signal from a likely Kepler body with a video presentation via ILM


dang it I was trying not to speculate

The press conference can be watched on NASA TV and online too: www.nasa.gov... It's scheduled to begin at about 2:00pm EDT (11:00am PDT) Tomorrow the 15th.

I also find the panel makeup curious. I recall SETI Institute reps. being present when it comes to discovering new forms of life (like the arsenic thriving bacteria), but I can't recall a conference where they were present when announcing a planet trove find. Maybe i am wrong, and I am sure there is a place to look up previous press conference archives...I just might do that. Nonetheless it does sound like they might have found something. But I am not holding my breath. We've heard the same story before where NASA hypes a press conference only to disappoint a lot of people. So I guess we will have to see. I for one will be watching.