SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: October 2001
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& science news > space & science news: October 2001
Rumble in the tundra: the Tunguska event
revisited
(Oct. 30, 2001)
Something happened on June 30, 1908, over Siberia that felled or stripped
hundreds of square kilometers of forest, burned reindeer to death,
and sent the tents of nomads flying through the air. Eye-witnesses
reported seeing a brilliant ball hurtling across the sky. All kinds
of theories have been put forward to explain the Tunguska
event, including that an alien spaceship had crash-landed or the
Earth had been struck by a mini black hole or a chunk of antimatter.
Most serious speculation, though, has centered around two possibilities.
Either the intruder was an asteroid or a comet. Until recently, the
latter seemed more likely because of the absence of a crater. But
now a team of Italian researchers believe that an asteroid was to
blame – a low-density asteroid that exploded in the atmosphere
and sent only a powerful shock wave to the ground. For more on this
cosmic detective story, go here
(BBC news). |
SETI's greatest nightmare: the Fermi Paradox
(Oct. 26, 2001)
"If they [intelligent extraterrestrials]
exist, where are they?" mused physicist Enrico Fermi back in the formative
days of SETI. It's become known as the Fermi Paradox. To paraphrase
it: If other intelligent beings inhabit the Galaxy, why isn't their
presence obvious to us? Surely by now, they should have colonized
the entire Milky Way system-including our own Solar System? To explore
the ramifications of the Paradox, begin in my own Astrobiology A-Z
here and then follow
through the various links. Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute has
started a series of articles addressing the Fermi Paradox at the extremely
good space.com website. The first of his articles can be seen here.
Like myself, being a "pro-lifer" in the et field, he will be presenting
reasons why there may be intelligence yet we have failed so far to
detect it. Linked to the Fermi question, these days, is the "Rare
Earth Hypothesis", presented most forcefully by Donald Brownlee and
Peter Ward in their 2000 book Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon
in the Universe. I specifically rebut their argument in Chapter
6 of my own book, Life Everywhere: the Maverick Science of Astrobiology.
Interestingly, Amazon books are now selling the two as a discounted
set. You can read the thoughts of Brownlee, Ward, and Gonzalez on
the so-called galactic habitable zone in the article "Refuges for
Life in a Hostile Universe," in the October 2001 issue of Scientific
American, starting p. 60. In the end, of course, the question
will be resolved by observation, not by dialogue, which is why the
on-going efforts of SETI programs, extrasolar planet detection programs,
and planetary probes equipped to detect organic materials or biological
signatures are so crucial. |
2001: A Mars Odyssey
(Oct. 23, 2001)
The latest NASA Mars probe – 2001 Mars Odyssey – is scheduled
to enter orbit around the Red Planet on October 24 after a 200-day,
460-million-km journey. Its goals include a survey of the planet's
surface with a particular view to identifying any warm and wet regions
on which future landing missions could set down. If the orbital insertion
is successful, Odyssey will utilize the Martian atmosphere over the
coming weeks to reduce its initial 19-hour elliptical orbit into a
shorter, 2-hour circular orbit of approximately 400 km altitude. The
probe carries several instruments to map the chemical and mineralogical
makeup of Mars, including a gamma-ray spectrometer that includes a
neutron spectrometer and a high-energy neutron detector, a thermal-emission
imaging system, and a Martian radiation environment experiment.
For more, go here. |
Eight new worlds
(Oct. 16, 2001)
The discovery has been announced of eight new extrasolar planets,
ranging in mass from 0.8 to 10 times the mass of Jupiter, with orbital
periods of six days to six years, and ranging 0.7 to 3 times the Earth-Sun
distance from their parent stars. This brings the current total of
known planets outside the Solar System to 74. Most significantly this
latest batch of findings emphasizes the recent trend toward planetary
systems that more closely resemble our own, with Jupiter-sized worlds
in wider, near-circular orbits. There seems every reason to suppose
this trend will continue as searches become more sensitive and run
over longer periods of time. The discovery was made by an international
team using the Keck telescope in Hawaii, the Anglo-Australian Telescope
(AAT) in New South Wales and the Lick telescope in California. For
more, go here
(BBC) and here
(Spaceflight Now). |
Titan Study Group – interested scientists
wanted
(Oct. 12, 2001)
An international group of scientists with varied backgrounds has recently
begun collaborating, via e-mail, on questions relating to organic
chemistry and possible prebiological chemistry or even biology on
Titan. Other scientists who may be interested are cordially invited
to join. There is a particular need for additional expertise in primitive
hydrocarbon chemistry and also in atmospherics. Current participants
in the Titan Study Group, which is being organized by Dr. Dirk Schulze-Makuch
at the Dept. of Geological Sciences, University of Texas, El Paso
include: Gustav Arrhenius, Scripps Institute of Oceanography/NASA;
John Bang, University of Texas at El Paso; Penny Boston, University
of New Mexico; David Darling, Science Writer/Minnesota; Christian
de Duve, C. de Duve Inst. of Cellular Pathology, Belgium; Huade Guan,
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology; Victor Gusev, Russian
Academy of Sciences; Jim Ferris, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
New York; Remy Hennet, SSP&A, Maryland; Jimmy Hincapie, University
of Texas at El Paso; Louis Irwin, University of Texas at El Paso;
Tom Kieft, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology; Vladimir
Kompanichenko, Russian Academy of Sciences; Antonio Lazcano, University
National Autonoma Mexico; Anthonie Muller, postdoctoral researcher;
Matthew Pruis, NorthWest Research Associates; Bart Rzonca, Cracow
Technical University, Poland; Dirk Schulze-Makuch, University of Texas
at El Paso. |
Vinyl alcohol molecules found in space
(Oct. 6, 2001)
A new molecular species has been discovered in interstellar space,
in a molecular cloud near the Galactic Center known as Sag B2 (see
photograph), by scientists using the 12-Meter Telescope of the National
Radio Astronomy Observatory at Kitt Peak. It is vinyl alcohol, C2H4O
– an important intermediate compound in many organic reactions
on Earth. This is another significant piece in the puzzle of understanding
how biochemical building blocks are assembled in space, and perhaps
how life managed to start so quickly here on Earth. It certainly strengthens
the cosmic link between the synthesis of organics between the stars
and protobiological developments on newborn planets.
For more, go here. |
The bugs that eat the world
(Oct. 1, 2001)
Scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have found
evidence that one of the most pervasive and important life-forms on
Earth consists of rock-eating microbes beneath the seafloor. Wherever
they looked in samples of volcanic rocks from under the Atlantic and
the Pacific, the researchers saw microscopic worm-like tracks made
by organism that have altered the very chemistry of the rock, enabling
it to exchange chemicals and minerals with seawater when they come
into contact. The process influences global chemical interactions,
such as the carbon cycle which plays a crucial role in the Earth's
climate. Prior to this analysis, most scientists believed that the
process of volcanic rock changing from one state to another was a
purely chemical-physical process. Now, it seems biology is involved.
If true, the tiny microbes have an importance out of all proportion
to their size. Some scientists (Cornell's Tom Gold vociferous among
them) think that most life on Earth, in terms of the quantity of organic
matter, may not live on or near the surface of our world, but be in
the form of microbes in rock in the Earth's crust. Certainly, the
discovery and exploration of the "deep biosphere" has been one of
the highlights of science in the past decade. Presently, no one knows
how deep this biosphere goes, but there are some hints in the new
data. The number of worm-like tracks in the rocks diminishes with
depth; at 300 metres below the sea floor, they become much rarer.
Although it is difficult to draw conclusions from samples returned
from only a few sites, the research team believes it may have plumbed
the depth of the biosphere – where life has hit rock bottom,
so to speak. The research is published in Geochemistry, Geophysics,
Geosystems, an online journal.
For more, go here. |
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