SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: March 2002
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& science news > space & science news: March 2002
| Astrobiology and ... the
octopus |
Mar 28, 2002 |
| Amino acids ubiquitous in
space, studies suggest |
Mar 27, 2002 |
| Star travel: Fact, fiction,
or friction |
Mar 23, 2002 |
| Magnetities in ALH84001:
Biogenicity debate continues |
Mar 17, 2002 |
| Mystery spots deserve closer
look |
Mar 13, 2002 |
| Planets may have formed in the
cosmic dawn |
Mar 8, 2002 |
| Odyssey find sends Mars life
hopes soaring |
Mar 3, 2002 |
Astrobiology and ... the octopus
(Mar. 28, 2002)
The world's biggest known octopus has just turned up in a New Zealand
freezer. It was recognized as such by marine biologist Steve O'Shea
of New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research
(NIWA) who was sorting through the specimens-mostly squid-in his laboratory's
deep-freeze. O'Shea estimates that, when alive, the animal would have
measured at least four meters in length and weighed 75 kilograms.
That's about double the size of any previously seen Haliphron atlanticus
– the species to which O'Shea has provisionally assigned the
creature. It was recovered in October 2001 in 920 meters of water
south east of the Chatham Islands, by a research vessel. Adding to
the mystery, no H. atlanticus has ever previously been caught
in the South Pacific.
This follows close-on the heels of another spectacular cephalopod
discovery – a brand new species of squid (go here
for this story). And it further emphasizes the fact that Earth's oceans
still hide many secrets, of interest to biologists and astrobiologists
alike. Cephalopods
are particularly fascinating when it comes to speculating what life
might be like on other worlds and, especially, what other forms intelligence
may take.
Follow this link
for more on cephalopod intelligence. Go here
to find out more about the work of NIWA. |
Amino acids ubiquitous in space, studies
suggest
(Mar. 27, 2002)
The results of two different studies, reported in this week's Nature,
support the growing belief that some of the building blocks of life
are routinely manufactured in space and then delivered to the surface
of newborn worlds. By simulating the interaction between high-energy
ultraviolet from hot, young stars and interstellar ice grains at around
minus 258 degrees Celsius (15 degrees above absolute zero) researchers
in the US and Germany have demonstrated the production of a variety
of amino acids under conditions like those found in star-forming clouds.
The two groups, led by Max Bernstein of the Seti Institute and Uwe
Meierhenrich of Bremen University, started out with simple molecules,
such as carbon monoxide and ammonia, and were able to generate a cocktail
of amino acids, including glycine, alanine, serine and proline. The
experiments differed in the amount of water in the initial mixture.
Interestingly, the water-deficient mixture resulted in a richer brew
of amino acids.
For more, go here. |
Star travel: Fact, fiction, or friction?
(Mar. 23, 2002)
Will we ever reach the stars and be able to search for extraterrestrial
life beyond the solar system in person, or at least via robot probes?
You can come up to speed, as it were, on some historical and more
recent attempts to answer this question by referring to some of the
entries in the Astrobiology A-Z, including those on interstellar
travel, the Orion
Project, the British Interplanetary Society's Project
Daedalus, and the intriguing Alcubierre
warp drive. For a skeptical view on the prospects of star-travel,
see Sid Deutsch's entertaining article here.
In a sense, we have already launched four "starships" in the form
of Voyagers 1 and 2, and Pioneers 10 and 11, but these will be long
defunct before they ever come within a couple of light years of another
star. A follow-on and much faster mission to penetrate the fringes
of interstellar space has already been proposed by JPL, though in
the current fiscal climate it seems unlikely that the Interstellar
Probe will be launched any time soon. More ambitious still are
the ideas being discussed by NASA's Breakthrough
Propulsion Physics project and Penn State's antimatter
propulsion group. The idea of literally sailing to the stars is
described in this NASA
news story. Some of the psychological and societal problems of
long-duration interstellar travel are dealt with by NASA's Geoffery
A. Landis and others here
(space.com). Happy trekking! |
Magnetites in ALH84001: Biogenicity debate
continues
(Mar. 17, 2002)
The earliest seafloor hydrothermal vents – supposedly more than
three billion years old – may be nothing more than deposits
from underground springs active in the last few thousand years. That
is the claim of two US geologists who carried out a new analysis of
rocks from South Africa which were previously dated to the Archaean
period – when life first began to diversify. The findings could
have important implications for our understanding of the early Earth
and the microbial life forms that lived there. But one authority on
the geology of the Barberton greenstone belt - where the rocks are
found – launched a vigorous defence of evidence that they contain
ancient hydrothermal vents.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Mystery Martian spots deserve closer look
(Mar. 13, 2002)
Earlier this year, three Hungarian researchers claimed that dark spots
which appear near the south pole of Mars in early spring, may be patches
of vegetation. For the earlier report on this, go here.
The idea remains unsubstantiated but scientists at a meeting at ESTEC,
the European Space Agency's technical center in the Netherlands, agreed
that the features are interesting enough to warrant closer inspection
by the Agency's Mars
Express probe. Mars Express is due to enter orbit around the Red
Planet in late 2003 and release the Beagle
lander.
For more, go here
(ESA). |
Planets may have formed in the cosmic
dawn
(Mar. 8, 2002)
Planet-building demands heavy elements-elements like carbon, silicon,
and oxygen-that only form in the interior of massive stars. But individual
atoms and molecules alone are not enough. The accretion process that
leads to terrestrial-type worlds and to the rocky-metallic cores of
gas giants also requires the presence of dust grains to act as seeds
for initial growth. This fact suggested that planets might not be
possible in the early universe because the kind of large, bright,
hot stars presumed to have existed then were not thought to be good
dust providers; it seemed that their harsh radiation would have broken
into atoms any dust they produced before it could escape into interstellar
space. However, Anthony Moffat at the University of Montreal, Sergey
Marchenko at Western Kentucky University, and their colleagues, have
now presented evidence that dust grains can indeed escape from the
vicinity of hot, massive stars. They studied the region around a 14,000-light-year-distant
star in its youth, known as WR 112 – the "WR" standing for "Wolf-Rayet"
– which has a stellar companion. Strong winds of atoms and charged
particles stream out from both stars, and where the opposing streams
collide, they are compressed and create dust. Because the stars orbit
each other, the dust is sprayed into space in a spiral pattern, like
water from a rotating garden sprinkler. The observations made with
the Gemini North Telescope, on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, reveal carbon
dust out to about 100 times the distance of Pluto from our Sun-far
enough away to escape the system without being destroyed. The research
is reported in Astrophysical Journal Letters. |
Odyssey find sends Mars life hopes soaring
(Mar. 3, 2002)
Early science results from Mars Odyssey indicate the presence of massive
fields of ice on the Red Planet. The speed and extent of the discovery
have stunned scientists who had only just directed the probe's instruments
toward the Martian surface. The data they have received is the strongest
indication yet that the planet once harboured life, and may still
support it today. "The signal we're getting is loud and clear. We're
not just looking at surface frost. There's lots of ice on Mars," said
project scientist Stephen Saunders. Odyssey is designed to conduct
the first chemical analysis of the entire Martian surface. Launched
on April 7, 2001, it reached Mars in October and has been slowly maneuvering
itself into a low orbit since then. Last week, scientists turned on
their instruments and began surveying the planet. Within hours they
were rewarded with a mass of data, including strong evidence of water.
Such early results are unprecedented in a mission of this nature.
"We have a whopping signal," said Arizona University's William Boynton
who directs the probe's water-detectors. "It blew us away." Odyssey
uses three different devices to determine the chemical constituents
of Martian soil. The planet's surface is bombarded by cosmic rays,
and each chemical constituent of its soil emits a high-energy subatomic
particle when struck by such radiation. Each chemical produces a particle
of a particular type and energy, and this acts as a signature for
its presence. All three water-detectors on Odyssey have observed substantial
amounts of water in the Martian soil. "The fact we see a clear signature
of ice from three different instruments makes the conclusion that
there are significant amounts... a sound one," said Boynton. For more,
go here (space.com). Visit the Mars Odyssey website at JPL here. |
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