A Super Discovery, 05.11.12

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has made another monumental discovery: a “super-Earth.”

Twice as big as Earth, the super-Earth is, for now, called 55 Cancri e, and is situated in the constellation Cancer, about 41 light years away. For the first time, scientists were able to actually measure the light emanating (reflected) from the planet itself, instead of measuring how much light it blocks as it transits in front of its star. Because of the low measure­ments that were taken, scientists guess that the planet is probably very dark most of the time. It appears to be tidally locked, though (one side is stuck facing its star), and that side appears to have temperatures in excess of 3,000 Fahrenheit. Just so we’re clear on how hot that is, most kinds of metal will be liquid at that temperature.

Based on their observations, scientists are saying the planet most likely has a rocky core and is covered with water. Be­cause of the extreme heat on the sunny side, however, the water is probably in a “supercritical” state, where it exists as both liquid and gas. NASA claims the atmosphere is covered with steam. Regardless, the atmosphere appears to be very thin, as it is doing such a poor job of blocking its sun’s heat.

Based on all observations made at this point, the planet cannot support life.

Read more from NASA.

Help wanted: Moon Mappers

Have you ever wanted to make a contribution to astronomy, but felt helpless because you did not have any good equipment for deep space observation? Not to fear! Moon Mappers needs your help.

An initiative by Cosmo Quest, the project is to attempt to map out at least 1,000,000 craters on the surface of the moon before May 5th.

Credit: Moon Mappers

Now, it may sound kind of silly to think of going about counting holes in the ground (even if it is on another world), but believe it or not, craters yield a lot of information when studied closely. More and more, scientists are discovering that craters are often sheltering harbors for ice and other frozen chemicals, which would otherwise melt and be evaporated if they were not hidden in shadow. Chemical samples from inside the craters also provide clues as to what sort of things have bombarded the moon in the past.

What’s more, Cosmo Quest has made it easy. They have managed to partner with NASA and obtain some high-resolution photos from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LROC), so all you have to do it properly mark out craters that appear to be about 1 meter in diameter on the photos. Sound simple? “There are literally millions of craters at that size,” says Dr. Pamela Gray, who is leading the Cosmo Quest project. This is so much more than a preschool counting exercise.

So, who’s up for adding some “lunar cartography” volunteer experience to their résumé?

Read more at Universe Today or Cosmo Quest’s Moon Mappers Project.

Snowing Microbes

Of all the places in our solar system (besides Earth) that are most likely to harbor life, none is better than Enceladus, Sat­urn’s sixth largest moon. Although extremely cold, it has been recording spouting geyser-like plumes of liquid water high into the air. Enceladus is one of only a few other places in our solar system with recorded geologic activity.

Although it is so very cold on Enceladus, that does not have researchers worried, because we have life here in our arctic oceans on Earth.

The lucky thing about the water being sprayed into the air also means that the probes that have been sent to Enceladus do not even need to land! All they have to do is fly through the spray to gather their samples and analyze the liquid. With the envi­ronment being so cold, however, all of the spray is probably being frozen into snow in the atmosphere. 
There are also concerns that perhaps the oceans are far too acidic to support life, but again, it may be possible for mi­crobes to survive in such conditions.

Microbes, are, in fact, what the researchers are looking for; millions of microscopic bacteria and other organisms that live just about everywhere here on Earth. As the water is likely being spurted from the oceans beneath the frozen surface of the planet, any life held within them would be blown up into the atmosphere in the geysers.

Read more from SPACE.com.

Life on Europa: a soda ocean? 03.02.12

Of all of the other places in our solar system, one of the most promising locations for extraterrestrial life has been Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. Completely covered with ice on the surface, researchers believe Europa harbors an ocean of liquid water at least 100 miles deep, which leads down to a rocky interior and a solid core of some type, most likely metal. Surface studies on the moon have yet to be conducted, however, so the re­searchers have no idea how thick the icy crust on the outside of the planet may be.

Credit: NASA.

While the possibility of an ocean of liquid water is more than enough to be excited about, some researchers are beginning to doubt whether or not life as we know it would be able to thrive on the chilling planet. What research has been done on the planet is beginning to lead the scientists to believe that whatever water is there would be highly contaminated by extremely acidic chemicals. There is some speculation that it is possible the acidity could be balanced out by more basal minerals at the ocean floor, but again, it is all speculation.

There are a few places on Earth where some microbes and other life forms thrive in highly acidic environments, but those areas are few and far between. So, the likelihood of life sur­viving on an entire planet like that? Very slim.

Without the bases and minerals at the ocean floor to balance out the pH, though, the researchers say the ocean would have moderately corrosive characteristics, “about the same as your average soft drink,” except it would be more along the lines of hydrogen peroxide than a cola. Swim time, anyone?

Information credit: SPACE.com.

Scientists re-thinking theories for life on Mars, 11.04.11

New interpretations of data from NASA and European orbiters are beginning to come together, suggesting that the possibility for life on Mars is not so strong on the surface, but much more promising for the subsurface directly underground.

This interpretation comes after researchers have discovered clay and certain types of minerals in the Martian subsurface. Clay can only be formed through the interaction of liquid water with rock, so finding clay under the surface suggests a much more consistent liquid presence than it does for the surface, which usually only has frozen ice in its craters and at its poles.

Image credit: Geology.com.

One of the minerals that they have discovered that supports their new theories is a rather icky-colored stone called prehnite. Prehnite can only form in areas where the temperature is over 400 degrees Fahrenheit, so the presence of prehnite and the abundant clay in the subsurface suggests the likelihood for strong hydrothermal (hot water) activity beneath the Martian surface.

That being the case, it is not so strange to think about the likelihood of finding life on Mars. Based on earth’s own geothermal and hydrothermal activity, scientists know it is possible for various kinds of life (usually bacteria and all manner of simple microbes) to live in their own environments, underground, away from the light of the sun.

So, is it time to chuck the rovers and reach for a shovel instead? Not necessarily. More research still needs to be done. There is also more than enough evidence left on the surface of Mars for astronomers to know there was liquid water there at times, and there is still plenty of ice left in some places, so the possibility for life is still there. The idea of finding bacteria on a planet puts the phrase “finding a needle in a haystack” to shame, though. Knowing where to look that is the hard part.

Credit: NASA.

And now, something a little different! 06.17.11

Star clusters fall into two main types: open clusters, which are fairly young, and globular clusters, which can be as old as the Milky Way itself. The older the cluster, the less elements heavier than hydrogen it contains. Open clusters tend to scatter and spread out over time.

So what’s the deal with open cluster NGC 6791? Out of the 2,000-some known clusters, it is different. At 13,000 light years away in the constellation Lyra, and with around 60,000 members, NGC 6791 has both old and new characteristics, the first of its kind. The large open star cluster is twice as enriched in heavy elements as our sun, which makes it about 8 billion years old, but has stars belonging to both types of clusters, red and very blue stars, and bright horizontal branch stars that are normally found in globular clusters.

     It’s an oddball that will keep the astronomers, like Imants Platais of Johns Hopkins University, busy for awhile.

Party stars and raining glitter, 05.31.11

Astronomers have recently analyzed some rather sparkly data from the Spitzer telescope. It seems HOPS-68, a star in the constellation Orion, is raining glitter. Yes, glitter.

Image credit: NASA/Tom Trower.

The star, it has been found, is actually raining small crystals of olivine, a mineral commonly found in periodots and green sand, particularly from Hawai’i, like these olivine samples pictured here.

The findings are puzzling, though. According to Tom Megeath of the University of Toledo in Ohio, a lead researcher in the case, “you need temperatures as hot as lava to make these crystals.” The problem, though, is that the cloud surrounding the proto-star is approximately 280 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, so it is impossible they could have formed in the star’s atmosphere in its current state. The prevailing theory is that the crystals formed when the star was hot and wild, and were swept out in solar winds and jets through the years. It seems they are still close enough to be affected by the star’s gravity, however. As time wore on and things began to settle down, the crystals began falling back down on the star, creating the glitter rain effect observed by astronomers.

The same theories surround the green haze created by olivine particles in the vicinity of comets because, well, they just might actually be great clumps of the stuff frozen together. According to Charles Poteet, the lead author on the project, it is probable that many of these crystals formed early on and were carried to the outer rim of the solar system as time wore on. Then, they eventually clumped together as they began to freeze, and consequently became the orbiting objects they are now, comets. That is how the theory goes, any way.

In any case, this star may be cold, but it sure knows how to party! Who needs a disco ball when you can have crystal rain?

Credit: NASA/JPL.

"Spinstars" may have helped seed the universe, 05.02.11

NGC 6522. Image credit: Anglo-Australian Observatory and David Malin. 

Astrophysicists have theorized a new type of star that they claim may have helped seed our galaxy with heavier elements. Called "spinstars," they are thought to have been super-massive stars that spun in excess of one million miles per hour.

Using data recently gathered from the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the European Southern Observatory in the mountains of Chile, astrophysicist Cristina Chiappini and her colleagues have gathered data from NGC 6522, a globular cluster, and theorized that the spinstars would explain the rapid and widespread dispersal of heavier elements in the universe. The layers of stars hardly ever mix together, but the extreme rotation speeds of a spinstar would cause the layers to overlap and blend a little, like a stellar emulsion, and spark nuclear reactions that would eventually cause the formation of heavy elements strontium and yttrium, rare elements that have been found at perplexingly high levels in older stars Chiappini studied.

For comparison, SPACE.com reminds us that our own star, the sun, rotates at only about 4,400 miles per hour--fast by any stretch of the imagination, but a snail's pace compared to the proposed spinstars.

It is a pity no spinstars have been found to date, either. They would probably look quite strange. The centrifugal force from rotating so quickly actually causes objects in space to flatten out in the center. Even our own sun is a little chubby in the middle because of its rotation speed.

Altair. Image credit: SPACE.com.

Take this star, Altair, for example, a star that spins a good deal faster than our sun. As fast as Altair spins, an actual spinstar would probably look even more obscured, like a football, or maybe even just a rounded disc with a lump in the center.

Chiappini says she and her team have already reserved more research time to use the VLT, gather more data and, hopefully, evidence to help test their theories.

Credit: SPACE.com.

Meet O/OREOS, NASA's first nanosatellite, 03.09.11

NASA has put a loaf of bread in orbit around earth. Wait, no. Scratch that; they have put a satellite the size of a loaf of bread in orbit. Let us introduce you to NASA’s newest baby: a nanosatellite, O/OREOS. Isn’t it cute?

Image credit: NASA/Dominic Hart.

Weighing in at around 12 pounds and orbiting at approximately 400 miles above earth, O/OREOS (Organism/Organic Exposure to Orbital Stresses) is the first successful nanosatellite to reach orbit. What’s more, it is the first propellant-less mechanism NASA has used to conduct experiments. It went up in a USAF Minotaur IV rocket as part of the 4-stage payload, and was set in orbit on November 19 of last year. When it is finished with all of its experiments (in about, oh…25 years or so) it will just burn up in Earth’s atmosphere as it falls back towards land. It just drifts round and round the Earth’s orbit, from the Arctic all the way to the Antarctic Circle. It launched from the Kodiak Launch Complex on Kodiak Island, Alaska, too, so it’s got a good start on that north-south downward spiral.


This little loaf of bread—sorry, satellite—is special, too, because it is the first successful attempt by NASA to have two completely independent experiments running simultaneously in the same instrument. What sort of experiments, you ask? Biological and chemical ones. This nifty little satellite’s purpose, according to NASA, is “to answer astrobiology’s fundamental questions about the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe.” Big goals for such a tiny little tool.


What’s more, Santa Clara University has invited the public to help them collect data from O/OREOS. If you are an experienced operator with a HAM radio, you can visit this link, http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/ooreos/main, and get all the information you need to tune in to O/OREOS’ data stream.


Credit: NASA.

A Roving update, 01.18.11

Almost one month ago, the Mars Rover Odyssey set a new working lifespan record on the red planet. Having landed in 2001, Odyssey set a new record on December 22, 2010 as the longest-serving spacecraft on Mars. It surpassed the previous record set by the Mars Global Surveyor, another NASA spacecraft that orbited Mars for almost a decade, ending in 2006.


Odyssey has been highly valued by NASA, as it is utilized to create the most detailed maps that have ever been made of Mars. Evidence collected by Odyssey prompted the Phoenix Lander mission in 2008, which confirmed the presence of frozen water just beneath the Martian surface, theorized by hydrogen readings gleaned from Odyssey. Odyssey has also been used to gather data that will assist NASA with planning a manned mission to Mars in the future.


 Odyssey is certainly not the only star of the show, though. Recent findings by the previously mentioned Phoenix Lander have caused some astronomers to breathe a huge sigh of relief, thirty years in the waiting. Soil tests made in 2008 by Phoenix have not only cleared up a supposed chemical waste disposal oversight, but have also confirmed the presence of organics in the Martian soil. In 1976, NASA’s Viking Mars Landers reported the presence of chloromethane and dichloromethane, a story Thronateeska reported on in its September 10, 2010 issue of the Word from the Wetherbee. The situation arose through the discovery of two chemicals—chloromethane and dichloromethane—classified as organics, which were previously thought to be contaminates when they were found in Martian soil. The Phoenix Lander is causing scientists to reexamine the discovery of these two chemicals through the consideration of another chemical—perchlorate—that has been found to destroy the evidence of the two organics. By heating the perchlorate, it becomes a strong oxidant and destroys the other chemicals, which means NASA could have had evidence of life over 30 years ago but missed it.


This is especially good news for present and future rovers that will be sent to the red planet. Take, for example, NASA’s Mars Opportunity. It is gleaning preliminary information about the mineral deposits around it before it even has to conduct any experiments on its own, a huge time-saving device. How, you ask? It is actually having information relayed to it from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is making use of a mineral-mapping instrument know as the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM). The CRISM, riding 150 miles above Mars on board the Reconnaissance Orbiter, is able to analyze the ground surface of Mars and send back detailed information to the rover regarding specific mineral deposits. Every known element has its own frequency on the light spectrum, and the CRISM analyzes the light spectrum it “sees” to let Opportunity know where to start digging before it even has to move. Therefore, Opportunity is not aimlessly roaming about, conducting experiments that are more likely to glean promising results. It is almost like CRISM is telling Opportunity when it is “getting warmer” as it approaches specific mineral deposits. According to NASA, CRISM is able, despite its great height from Mars, to provide Opportunity with mineral maps as small as a tennis court.


 Advances like this will take further leaps and bounds when Curiosity, the next Mars rover, is launched later this year. Curiosity is equipped with the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument, a device which, believe it or not, zaps rocks with lasers. Like something out of a science fiction movie, Curiosity will go roaming about Mars conducting much of its research by shooting the rocks around it with a pin-head sized laser beam, the point being that the resulting “pouf” of dust will emit the minerals inherent in the soil, and its light spectrum can be captured and analyzed. A much faster method than digging and baking sample upon sample of soil, the ChemCam is capable of detecting 6,144 different wavelengths of ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light, and all from a laser the size of a cigar, which “drills” a hole with megawatts of energy per square millimeter in just a few nanoseconds, also providing much faster and wide-ranging results. Curiosity will be able to “shoot” its laser at samples up to 23 feet away, and will further enable the rover to make better “decisions” about where it should go dig by providing it with a more detailed chemical overview of the soil types surrounding it. The ChemCam is pictured below, undergoing a laboratory test.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL.

Credit: NASANews, NASA JPL.

Astrobiologists find alternate chemistry for life...on Earth, 12.02.10

Astrobiologists participating in a NASA funded study at Mono Lake in California have discovered that a strain of bacteria is capable of not only thriving on, but actually altering its genetic makeup to include arsenic. Arsenic is an element that is extremely poisonous to most forms of life on Earth, and chemically behaves in a similar manner to phosphorous, a crucial element to all cells’ “energy-carrying molecule,” and also in creating cell membranes. Arsenic, on the other hand, tends to disrupt metabolic pathways.


“The definition of life has just expanded,” said NASA’s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, Ed Weiler. According to Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a NASA Astrobiology Research Fellow in residence in California, scientists were previously aware of some microbes that could breathe arsenic. Substituting arsenic into its genetic makeup, however, is something completely new and changes everything scientists thought they knew about DNA.


The star of the show is strain GFAJ-1, from the common family of bacteria Gammaproteobacteria. The bacteria was collected from mud samples in the lake and cultivated in laboratory tests. First the bacteria were fed using a mixture of elements that was low on phosphorous and high in arsenic. The mixture was changed to completely leave out the phosphorous and substitute even higher levels of arsenic, and the scientists discovered the bacteria actually began incorporating the arsenic into its DNA in place of the phosphorous. NASA said the results of the study were published in this week’s edition of Science Express.


The image on the left is of the GFAJ-1 grown first in the phosphorous mixture. The second image is of the bacteria once arsenic had been completely substituted into the slurry. Thronateeska Museum Guide and staff astronomer Jim Friese says “this expansion of the definition of life goes hand in hand with all the different and strange worlds we are finding out there [in space].” Scientists are now realizing that different chemistry really does not automatically mean there is no life there.

Image credit: NASA.

Image credit: NASA.

Credit: NASA.

Alien planet provides clues to Earth's future? 11.26.10

Astronomers have recently discovered a planet that they strongly feel is from a galaxy not our own. Orbiting the star HIP 13044, the planet may provide clues as to what our own sun may have in store for Earth, 5 billion years from now, that is.

An artist's impression of HIP 13044. Image credit: SPACE.com.

This situation is unique because the planet is orbiting around a star that has an unexpected chemistry. This, along with the star’s proximity to other similar objects has led astronomers to believe that it is from the Helmi Stream, a nearby dwarf galaxy that our own Milky Way supposedly attracted and swallowed up. The planet is about “25 percent more massive than Jupiter” and is located approximately 2,000 light years away in the constellation Fornax.

Using a European Southern Observatory in Chile, the astronomers have determined that the chemistry of the star and its alien planet is drastically different from the normal patterns of solar system development. Simply put, because so large of a planet is orbiting around such a chemically different star, astronomers are having to rethink their theories regarding planetary formation around stars. Because the star is at such an advanced age and astronomers can track its changes, they are also hoping to glean data that may provide insight into the relationship between stars and their orbiting planets, which may in turn reveal what our sun has in store for our solar system as it (the sun) grows with age.


“This is very exciting,” said study co-author Rainer Klement of the Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie (MPIA) in Heidelberg, Germany. For the first time, astronomers can finally study stars and planets from another galaxy because of the absorption of the Helmi Stream.


Credit: SPACE.com.

Planet's lack of odor could rewrite chemistry, 09.17.10

The rules of chemistry are being reevaluated. Scientists at the University of Central Florida recently published the results of a study that report a planet with chemistry that is leaving scientists puzzled because it is missing one of the most common and plentiful compounds found on gas giants: methane. On Earth, methane—a particularly odorous compound—is perceived as evidence of life, but on alien planets it is merely common chemistry.


The planet in question is Giant Planet GJ 436b, 33 light years away in the constellation Leo. The planet is about the size of Neptune and has an atmosphere mostly composed of carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas. According to scientists Kevin Stevenson and Joseph Harrington, both of UCF, these discoveries of the planet’s chemistry were made by analyzing the planet’s spectrum, a technology that takes advantage of each chemical compound’s unique frequency on the light spectrum.


The scientists have several theories for where the methane on the planet, if any at all, may be going. They have postulated that either it is being broken down by intense UV radiation from the planet’s star, or that it is being carried away by strong vertical winds. One other theory they have is that the planet may have an alien chemistry. According to the researchers, this planet could be the first evidence that chemistry does not always follow the same ‘rules’ as it does in our own solar system. If this is the case, most of what scientists think they know about chemistry could be radically altered.


““GJ 436b is telling us something important,” says Harrington: “We’re not in Kansas anymore.””


Credit: NASA Science, Dr. Tony Phillips, Dauna Coulter, and Science@NASA.

Martian soil reexamined for possible life-supporting compounds, 09.10.10

What was previously thought to be a contaminate is now being viewed by NASA scientists as a new way to search for evidence of life on Mars. Scientists are reexamining results from the 1970s Viking missions against data collected in 2008 from the Phoenix Mars Lander, and are questioning whether to re-think their methods of searching for life on other planets.


The situation arose through the discovery of two chemicals—chloromethane and dichloromethane—classified as organics, which were previously thought to be contaminates when they were found in Martian soil. The Phoenix Lander is causing scientists to reexamine the discovery of these two chemicals through the consideration of another chemical—perchlorate—that has been found to destroy the evidence of the two organics. By heating the perchlorate, it becomes a strong oxidant and destroys the other chemicals, which means NASA could have had evidence of life over 30 years ago but missed it.


Further study will be conducted in 2012 with the launch of the Curiosity Rover. Curiosity will rove all over the planet and conduct soil sample tests, checking for organics and using different methods of analysis. Its alternative methods of analysis will help determine whether data from previous missions was destroyed through the testing methods that were conducted.


“This doesn’t say anything about the question of whether or not life has existed on Mars, but it could make a big difference in how we look for evidence to answer that question,” said NASA researcher Chris McKay.