What biological trait could make (certain members of) an insectoid species good at astronomy?
This is a science fiction intelligent alien biology question.
I'm imagining a race of large (around 2m in height) insect-like species on a distant planet who discovered astronomy VERY late in their technological advancement, in fact only after meeting aliens from another planet. This was because of the combination of several factors such as their compound eyes, the atmospheric composition of their planet, and their species biologically and culturally being more interested in what's below than above them in general. At the time of them first meeting aliens and discovering the existence of outer space, their technological level is slightly more advanced than present day humans of 21st century, with the exception of those fields dependent on the knowledge of astronomy and some fields being significantly more advanced, like biology.
Now, I'm entertaining an idea that upon being granted access to the knowledge in astronomy and astrophysics built up by the aliens, a few members of their race showed astonishing proficiency in those fields, rapidly becoming major contributors to the interstellar astronomy community, and that it's because of a particular biological trait shared by those individuals. What could this trait be?
A few points to consider:
- The very first astronomers of this race worked almost entirely on existing data on sheets and made significant scientific achievements from just that.
- Astronomy and astrophysics are complex fields of science with a lot of things going on, such as computation of orbit, understanding the composition of a planet's atmosphere, making sense of data and theorizing on what could explain it, etc. And then there are activities such as making observations, explaining existing data, discovering new physical laws and equations, etc. Our insectoids don't have to excel at everything astronomy, they just have to be good at a particular task that's very useful for astronomy. Bonus point if the task is helpful for explaining anomalous data.
- The trait in question doesn't have to be related to their vaguely insect-like biology, though traits that actual Earth-insects have and would be helpful for this species' astronomical studies would be very nce. But a purely intellectual trait wouldn't be interesting unless there's good reason to make it unique to this species. Also note that this trait doesn't have to be shared by all individuals.
- The interstellar community obviously have FTL, allowing them to directly visit some celestial bodies they want to observe.
- One idea I'm considering is that they have a hive mind and can essentially perform grid computing. But for now let's assume they're all their own individuals.
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1 answer
At least on Earth, astronomical instruments are extremely precise and sensitive compared to the innate biological abilities of an astronomer! Sure, I can look up at the sky and see that Betelgeuse is a bit dimmer than normal, but I can only guesstimate how drastic the fainting is. With a decent telescope, on the other hand, I can have measurements of its magnitude at the same wavelengths to a decimal place or two without too much effort. Particularly in a galactic society with faster-than-light travel, it seems that any observational task the insects could do well, machines could quickly be built to do better. Given how data-driven astronomy is, and how imprecise our senses are, it seems hard for this species to outdo telescopes and computers.
There's one big exception to the rule: initial back-of-the-envelope observations. Sometimes you don't necessarily need to know quantitative data about an astronomical object, just qualitative data. For instance, if I'm monitoring a star for a possible exoplanet transit, I might care only about whether or not there's a transit in a given dataset - other people can do detailed follow-up observations to determine the parameters of the exoplanet. So the one way these insects could contribute to observational astronomy would be if they had an ability to perform a variety of quick-and-dirty measurements.
Using that as a sort of recipe, here are some possibilities:
- Magnetoreception, the ability to sense a magnetic field. This could be useful for mapping magnetic fields throughout the galaxy (though the galactic magnetic field is quite weak).
- The ability to restrict vision to a particular band in the electromagnetic spectrum, as well as versatility in the range of wavelengths visible to the naked eye. It could be handy to be able to compare how an object looks at different wavelengths.
- The ability to determine a sample's composition. Freedomjail suggested mass spectrometers; I think the ability to view individual spectral lines when looking at a source would be even more useful. This would enable them to determine a star's spectral type just by looking at it.
All of these are only the starting points for astronomical observations. All they do is provide a little push towards obtaining more detailed data. But then again, sometimes all science needs is a little push in the right directions.
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