Scientists Discover Billions of Planets that Could Host Life

November 5, 2013 by John M. Guilfoil

Look out, planet Earth, NASA scientists have discovered billions of planets in the Milky Way galaxy that could potentially cater to living species.

These Earth-sized planets orbit around a host star in the minimal area that is neither too hot nor too cold to support life. With temperatures that provide the potential for liquid water, there are some 833 planets that mimic Earth in location and size. In total, scientists have discovered 3,538 planets that could host life. The closest of these planets might be only 12 light years away.

Just because a planet shares Earth-like characteristics does not mean that it has life, however. Geoffrey Marcy, who teaches astronomy at Berkeley says that, “some may have thick atmospheres, making it so hot at the surface that DNA-like molecules would not survive.” He also adds, “we don’t know what range of planet types and their environments are suitable for life.”

Scientists have discovered these planets in habitable zones thanks to the Kepler space telescope, which was launched in 2009. Unfortunately, NASA announced in August that the telescope has two broken wheels and can no longer complete its mission. Even with an expiration date that was shorter than expected, however, the telescope has still given scientists and amazing new view of the galaxy.

William Borucki, the principal science investigator for the telescope says, “the most exciting discoveries are going to come in the next few years as we analyze this data.” Scientists do not even yet realize the magnitude of this new information and what it means for the hunt for life on other planets.

If nothing else, this information helps future scientists narrow their focus when searching for potentially habitable planets. William Chaplin, who teaches astrophysics at the University of Birmingham says, “to study the stars, one truly explores the galaxy and our place within it. These are data we could only have dreamed of a few years ago.”

There is a long road ahead when it comes to the search for other planets with life, but the Kepler space telescope has allowed scientists to take a step in the right direction. Until then, Earth and its known ability to host life is still considered one in a billion.

Biggest Black Hole in the Universe

November 30, 2012 by

Galaxy NGC 1277 is a small compact, flat, disc-shaped galaxy containing the largest black hole ever found. CREDIT: NASA / ESA / Andrew C. Fabian / Remco C. E. van den Bosch (MPIA)

Nature.com reported a study in which scientists have identified the largest black hole ever found, in the universe as we know it. It is at the center of a small galaxy, about 250 million light-years from Earth, called NGC 1277. Pictured above in a photo taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, NGC 1277 is located in the constellation Perseus.

Typically most black holes weigh an average of 0.1% of the galaxy’s mass. The “over-massive” black hole inside the “compact lenticular” NGC 1277 galaxy has a mass that is 14% of the galaxy, or a mass equivalent to 17 billion suns.

Karl Gebhardt, who studied the Hubble’s NGC 1277 images based out of the University of Texas at Austin, said in a statement. “This is a really oddball galaxy. It’s almost all black hole.”

Remco van den Bosch, an astronomer at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, states there are five other similar galaxies near NGC 1277 that may possibly include more massive black holes.

NGC 1277 is a part of the nearby Perseus galaxy cluster. NGC1277 is the small galaxy in the center of this image. CREDIT: David W. Hogg, Michael Blanton, and the SDSS Collaboration

Earthshaking News from Mars

November 21, 2012 by

NASA’s Mars Rover, Curiosity, has been collecting soil samples on Mars. NASA is preparing an announcement about the results of the sample analysis that will rock both humanity and the science world on Earth. What is it, exactly? For the time being, no one is saying.

Mars Science Laboratory scientists, investigators, and project participants are not disclosing certain results yet. Not until routine established processes and procedures to vet the analysis are completed, will the release of the information then be authorized.

The Curiosity rover collects samples, then provides this input to SAM, an instrument on Curiosity. SAM is a miniature remote chemistry lab. Input Martian soil, rocks, or even the Mars atmosphere (air) to SAM, and it will tell you what the sample is made of. “We’re getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting,” quoting John Grotzinger, the principal investigator for the rover mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The science team at JPL receives SAM’s results and does further analysis. “This data is gonna be one for the history books. It’s looking really good,” he says. Not so fast say the scientists. Gas from Florida might have been stowed with Curiosity on the trip from Earth, and would corrupt the results.

During the interim wait, let’s speculate the results: the presence of methane gas indicates there was (or is?) life on Mars. What does life on Mars mean to us on Earth? Will we come to understand that there are pockets of life throughout the universe and how will it effect our cosmic perspective?

We can only benefit from better science. Perhaps understanding Mars will help lay to rest doubts about science on Earth, whether that be questions about evolution, environment, or climate change. The good news from Mars will even lift the stock market, astronomically, for at least a day or two before it comes back down to Earth.

October Surprise Hurricane Sandy 2012

October 26, 2012 by

Sandy stays offshore until she reaches Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey. Then she veers landward into the highly populated Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Regains of the United States, and mixes with two other winter fronts to become a Perfect Storm.

[UPDATE] Category 1 Hurricane Sandy is centered at sea off the southern US while heading North. She is predicted to turn left and land between the Chesapeake Bay, Southern New Jersey, and New York. There Sandy will combine forces with two winter weather fronts. Areas from the Carolinas to Canada, from Ohio to Maine, are in store for heavy rain or snow over much of the coming Halloween week. Hurricane Sandy earlier trounced Cuba, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, with winds over 100mph and causing the deaths of an estimated 43 people.

A Monster Storm

In the rush these days to give every phenomenon an internet meme, Hurricane Sandy, the late season superstorm of 2012, is being called “Frankenstorm”, “October Surprise”, and bigger than the “Perfect Storm” of 1991.

Three weather fronts are converging over the mid-Atlantic early next week in what meteorologists call an “atmospheric bomb”: 1 – Hurricane Sandy is bring warm wind and rain from the South with a massive tropical depression. 2 – From the Pacific is a second major storm front that has dropped temperatures and snow across western part the country. 3 – An Arctic blast comes from Greenland… There’s this Jet Stream, sandwiched between Sandy and the snow storm, which on TV simulations appears to function as an enabler to spin up the two storms into a super storm while traveling through the NorthEast.

The infamous original “Perfect Storm” of 1991 happened at Halloween off the coast of New England and Nova Scotia Canada. The Perfect Storm was born as the remnants of Hurricane Grace met with a cold Nor’easter storm. Hurricane Sandy, or Frankenstorm, is worse. Predictions are describing more extreme conditions for 2012’s Perfect Storm. Whereas the 1991 Perfect Storm was centered offshore in the Atlantic Ocean, with the continent escaping from its most extreme fury (the subject of the movie “The Perfect Storm”), but Sandy is poised to strike at the most densely populated section of the United States. She will reach land on the full moon, which will augment the high tide and storm surge.

Your Government Service Hard at Work

The NOAA National Weather Service, Hydrometeorological Prediction Center (HPC), predicts “dangerous hurricane/post-tropical cyclone Sandy is likely to spread high winds, heavy rains and interior heavy snows from the Carolinas and Central Appalachians northward into Canada.” The HPC report, valid through Friday, November 2, 2012, describes the models that predict the storm behavior:

“…SHOW PRESSURE SOLUTIONS WELL BEYOND WHAT HAS EVER BEEN OBSERVED NEAR THE NEW JERSEY/NEW YORK COAST (EVEN EXCEEDING THE 1938 LONG ISLAND EXPRESS HURRICANE) EARLY IN THE MEDIUM RANGE PERIOD.”

Sandy's rainfall prediction as of Friday 10/26/2012, through Wednesday 10/31. But, that's only halfway through the storm... stay tuned. — Sandy’s rainfall prediction as of Friday 10/26/2012, through Wednesday 10/31. But, that’s only halfway through the storm… stay tuned.

“…SHOW A VERY STRONG BIAS WITH TROPICAL CYCLONES GAINING LATITUDE AND/OR TRANSITIONING INTO NON-TROPICAL STORMS OVER THE PAST COUPLE YEARS… INCLUDING (BUT NOT EXCLUSIVE TO) LESLIE 2012…ISAAC 2012…DEBBY 2012 IN THE WESTERN SUBTROPICAL ATLANTIC IRENE 2011 AND IGOR 2010.”

The October Surprise

Surprise, the 2012 presidential campaign season is now closed! Everyday folks, who perhaps were growing weary to the constant partisan, quasi-water-torture-style reporting of pre-election coverage, now turn their attention to the weather and survival needs. So-called undecided voters, in Swing States, if they are really still undecided, might consider the candidates’ real world positions, policies, or plans to address global warming, to strengthen our economy with alternative energy approaches, and to manage emergencies such as hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes. These are good discussion topics for home when our electricity goes out (as mine does in every storm). Tomorrow, I will early vote. Then I’m ready for one week of no power and no shopping for food. And I hope you will be too. Be safe.

NASA videos – Time Lapse of Sandy in the Carribean

View of Sandy from the International Space Station

NASA Curiosity discovers evidence of water on Mars

September 29, 2012 by

NASA/JPL: Comparing Mars photos (left) with rock outcrops from ancient stream beds on Earth (right)

NASA’s Curiosity rover mission has found evidence a stream once ran vigorously across the area on Mars where the rover is driving. Scientists have long anticipated the possibility of water on Mars, and it was hoped that Curiosity would help to prove this. This evidence — images of rocks containing ancient stream bed gravels — is an historical scientific watershed.

NEW WORD: SOL

Mars Curiosity has entered a new word into our everyday vocabulary, “Sol”. Sol is a Martian Day. Just as the Earth day is the time it takes for one complete rotation of the Earth on its axis – 24 hours, a “Sol” is the time that Mars takes to rotate once, which is approximately 40 minutes longer than Earth’s day.

Curiosity landed on Mars on August 5, 2012. On Sol 26 and Sol 27, Curiosity sent from Mars a photo of a conglomerate rock sitting on the surface. The finding site lies between the north rim of Gale Crater and the base of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside the crater. The evidence of water comes from examining two outcrops, called “Hottah” and “Link.”

SCIENTIST SAYS “A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS”

Scientists are studying the images of stones, which could only be formed by the presence of water. This is a conglomerate rock made up of stream bed stones that are cemented together. The sizes and shapes of stones offer clues to the speed and distance of a long-ago stream’s flow.

“From the size of gravels it carried, we can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep,” said Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley. “Plenty of papers have been written about channels on Mars with many different hypotheses about the flows in them. This is the first time we’re actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars. This is a transition from speculation about the size of stream bed material to direct observation of it.”

In the photo, on the right, is an image of a rock 100 million years old found in central Utah. It was formed by river sediments, and the pebbly texture indicates that sand and gravel cemented into a larger conglomerate rock. Compare that to the similarities in the rock from Mars on the left of the photo. Other imagery sitting uphill from the finds shows an alluvial fan of material washed down from the rim, streaked by many apparent channels, which indicates once rushing water.

“Hottah looks like someone jack-hammered up a slab of city sidewalk, but it’s really a tilted block of an ancient streambed,” said Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

The gravels in conglomerates at both outcrops range in size from a grain of sand to a golf ball. Some are angular, but many are rounded. The rounded shape of some stones in the conglomerate indicates long-distance transport from above the crater rim. The abundance of channels in the alluvial fan between the rim and conglomerate suggests flows continued or repeated over a long time, not just once or for a few years.

“The shapes tell you they were transported and the sizes tell you they couldn’t be transported by wind. They were transported by water flow,” said Curiosity science co-investigator Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz.

As of this writing, chemical tests are yet to be performed. The science team may use Curiosity to learn the elemental composition of the material, which holds the conglomerate together, revealing more characteristics of the wet environment that formed these deposits. The stones in the conglomerate provide a sampling of stones washed from the crater rim, so the team may also examine several of them to learn about broader regional geology.

WAS THERE LIFE ON MARS?

The slope within the crater called “Glenelg” – an intentional palindrome to signify the coming and going of Curiosity – remains the rover’s main destination. The mission will continue to analyze conditions that are conducive to making life possible. Clay and sulfate minerals detected there from orbit can be good preservers of carbon-based organic chemicals that are potential ingredients for life.

Mars Science Laboratory researchers will use Curiosity’s 10 instruments over the two-year mission to investigate whether conditions in Gale Crater were ever favorable for microbial life.

A QUICK LOOK: Curiosity science team member Sanjeev Gupta explains how rounded pebbles spotted by the rover are convincing evidence of an ancient streambed on Mars [VIDEO].

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK: NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds Old Streambed on Mars – A Panel of Scientist discuss Q&As with the media [VIDEO]