A Thousand Probable Alien Planets so Far...

This artist's illustration represents the variety of planets being detected by NASA's Kepler spacecraft. Scientists now say that one in six stars hosts an Earth-size planet.Credit: C. Pulliam & D. Aguilar (CfA) View full size image

Just two decades after discovering the first world beyond our solar system, astronomers are closing in on alien planet No. 1,000.

Four of the five main databases that catalog the discoveries of exoplanets  now list more than 900 confirmed alien worlds, and two of them peg the tally at 986 as of today (Sept. 26). So the 1,000th exoplanet may be announced in a matter of days or weeks, depending on which list you prefer.

That's a lot of progress since 1992, when researchers detected two planets orbiting a rotating neutron star, or pulsar, about 1,000 light-years from Earth. Confirmation of the first alien world circling a "normal" star like our sun did not come until 1995.

Water found on mars!

By now, we probably all know that there was once significant quantities of water on the Martian surface and, although the red planet is bone dry by terrestrial standards, water persists as ice just below the surface to this day.

Now, according to a series of new papers published in the journal Science, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity has found that the Mars topsoil is laced with surprisingly high quantities of the wet stuff.

VIDEO: Mars Rover Digs Up Water-Rich Soil!

Curiosity landed inside Gale Crater near the planet’s equator on Aug. 6, 2012, with the explicit mission to seek out habitable environments for life, past and present. Using a sophisticated suite of instrumentation, the rover is gradually piecing together the geological and habitable history of its small corner of Mars.

During science operations at the geologically interesting location called “Rocknest,” Curiosity scooped a sample of fine regolith (pictured top) and dumped it into its on-board chemical laboratory on Sol 71 (Oct. 17, 2012). After analyzing the very first scoop of material from a wind-blown ripple in the soil, it appears that Curiosity’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) had detected something quite profound.

“One of the most exciting results from this very first solid sample ingested by Curiosity is the high percentage of water in the soil,” said Laurie Leshin, Dean of Science at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, N.Y., and lead author of one of the studies focusing on SAM analysis of Mars ‘fines.’

“About 2 percent of the soil on the surface of Mars is made up of water, which is a great resource, and interesting scientifically.”

Scoop, Sieve, Cook

Once scooped out of the ground by the rover’s robotic arm-mounted scoop (called the Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis, or, simply, CHIMRA), a small amount of the powder was sieved and dropped into SAM where it was heated to 835 degrees Celsius (1,535 degrees Fahrenheit). SAM then used its gas chromotograph, mass spectrometer and tunable laser spectrometer to identify the chemicals contained within the sample and the ratios of the different isotopes of elements contained within.

NEWS: Water Discovery is Good News for Mars Colonists

When heated, the instrument detected the abundance of water plus significant quantities of carbon dioxide, oxygen and sulfur compounds, according to the researchers. Carbonate materials — compounds that form in the presence of water — were also identified.

The experiment confirmed the presence of oxygen- and chlorine-containing compounds — likely chlorates or perchlorates. Originally discovered by NASA’s 2008 Phoenix Mars Lander (and likely detected by NASA’s Viking landers in 1976), perchlorates were found in the soil of high-latitude arctic regions. This indicates that perchlorates occur globally over Mars.

Though highly toxic to human biology, some microbes are known to use the oxidizing chemical for energy. This finding intensified the debate over whether hypothetical microbes on Mars could metabolize perchlorates in a similar way.

Unraveling Mars’ Chemical History

“This work not only demonstrates that SAM is working beautifully on Mars, but also shows how SAM fits into Curiosity’s powerful and comprehensive suite of scientific instruments,” said Paul Mahaffy, principal investigator for SAM at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Md. “By combining analyses of water and other volatiles from SAM with mineralogical, chemical, and geological data from Curiosity’s other instruments, we have the most comprehensive information ever obtained on Martian surface fines. These data greatly advance our understanding of surface processes and the action of water on Mars.”

Analysis of the isotope ratios in the Rocknest fines revealed very similar ratios to the gases sampled in the atmosphere by Curiosity, indicating that surface material interacts heavily with the atmosphere.“This is the first solid sample that we’ve analyzed with the instruments on Curiosity,” said Leshin. “It’s the very first scoop of stuff that’s been fed into the analytical suite. Although this is only the beginning of the story, what we’ve learned is substantial.”

“The isotopic ratios, including hydrogen-to-deuterium ratios and carbon isotopes, tend to support the idea that as the dust is moving around the planet, it’s reacting with some of the gases from the atmosphere,” said Leshin.

“Mars has kind of a global layer, a layer of surface soil that has been mixed and distributed by frequent dust storms. So a scoop of this stuff is basically a microscopic Mars rock collection,” she said. “If you mix many grains of it together, you probably have an accurate picture of typical Martian crust. By learning about it in any one place, you’re learning about the entire planet.”

Organics?

Another key target for SAM is organic compounds and, although the instrument appears to have detected some evidence of organic chemistry in this first soil sample, the detection is likely Earth-bound contamination. Besides, organic chemistry existing so close to the surface in a wind-blown sample isn’t thought to be likely.

PHOTOS: Mars Through Curiosity’s Powerful MAHLI Camera

“We find that organics are not likely preserved in surface soils, which are exposed to harsh radiation and oxidants,” said Leshin. “We didn’t necessarily expect to find organic molecules in the surface fines, and this supports Curiosity’s strategy of drilling into rocks to continue the search for organic compounds. Finding samples with a better chance of organic preservation is key.”

The discovery of this surprising amount of water presents an interesting twist in our odyssey of Martian discovery, a fact not lost on the SAM researchers.

“We now know there should be abundant, easily accessible water on Mars,” she added. “When we send people, they could scoop up the soil anywhere on the surface, heat it just a bit, and obtain water.

New way to Study Evolution o.O

World largest tortoise

World largest tortoise found in amazon river. Its age around 529 years old / height-59 feet/ weight-800 pounds OR 362.87 kg incredible…Amazing

these type of large size tortoise alway found in amazon river, and most the tortoise are found in (Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and so on) the Adults often reach 1 m in length, the tortoise Females have wide flattened shells, are larger and more numerous than the males tortoise, the Adult tortoise Arraus feed entirely on plant food

The nesting habits this species are similar to those of their sea turtles. just like sea turtles they gather meet in huge numbers so they can travel to suitable nesting areas. The females tortoise lay their eggs on sandbanks that are exposed where there is only dry season but there are relatively few such sites. The females timing is to come out on the sandbanks at night time to lay their eggs and go back to the sea, which can number anywhere from 90 to 100 soft-shelled eggs. and they then return to their feeding grounds which they belong to. The young when hatched are around 5 cm long dart directly for the water, but they emerge to the attentions of many predators so they can only about five percent ever reach the adult feeding grounds. this it is an endangered species and is protected in some country and areas.

Bion Mission Update:

Russian and US scientists, who took part in biological experiments on board Russia’s Bion-M1 satellite in spring, have called on respective space authorities to ensure the continuation of research under this project. Russia launched the Bion-1M satellite, its first biological research satellite since 2007, on a 30-day mission on April 19 to conduct biology, physiology and biotechnology research in orbit. The aim of the study was to help pave the way for future interplanetary flights including Mars missions.

The scientists said in a statement posted on the project’s official blog Saturday that the Bion experiments produced unique results that “will make a significant contribution to the field of space biology.”

“The participants of the Bion project appeal to all government agencies and organizations involved in space programs to offer active support and ensure further research initiated by the mission accomplished during the flight of this [Bion-M1] satellite,” the statement said.

Bion-M1 carried eight Mongolian gerbils, 45 mice, 15 geckos, slugs and snails and containers with various microorganisms and plants.

Most of the satellite’s “space passengers” failed to survive the flight due to technical faults in the spacecraft. The flight proved fatal for all the eight Mongolian gerbils, 39 out of 45 mice, and its cichlid fish. The geckos, slugs and snails were among the lucky survivors.

The scientists, however, deemed the mission successful as it had provided them for the first time with data describing the impact of zero gravity on blood vessels in the brain, on the spinal cord and inner ear, as well as on gene expression.

They insist that this kind of research is better suited for unmanned spacecraft as experiments with animals on board the orbital station have too many restrictions.

Credit: RIA Novosti

Comet Impacts and Origin of Life: (credits:centauri-dreams.org)

It was back in 2010 that Nir Goldman (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) first predicted that the impact of a comet on the early Earth could produce potential life-building compounds like amino acids. Goldman was using computer simulations to make the call, studying molecular dynamics under the conditions of such impacts. He found that the shock of impact itself should produce amino acids and other prebiotic compounds, regardless of conditions on the planet. It was intriguing work because it suggested that impacts in the outer system (think Enceladus, for example) could produce enough energy to create the shock synthesis of prebiotics there.

Now Goldman, working with collaborators from Imperial College London and the University of Kent, has gone beyond the simulations to test the process in the laboratory. By firing a projectile into a mixture comparable to the material found on a comet — water, ammonia, methanol and carbon dioxide — the team was able to produce several different kinds of amino acids including D- and L-alanine and the non-protein amino acids α-aminoisobutyric acid and isovaline as well as their precursors. The high-speed gun, located at the University of Kent, propels steel projectiles at 7.15 kilometers per second into the target mixture. Says Goldman:

“These results confirm our earlier predictions of impact synthesis of prebiotic material, where the impact itself can yield life-building compounds. Our work provides a realistic additional synthetic production pathway for the components of proteins in our Solar System, expanding the inventory of locations where life could potentially originate.”

Planetary impacts from comets were surely widespread in the early Solar System, and we now know that they could produce prebiotic molecules and thus play a role in the development of life. What Goldman’s team has demonstrated is that the shock of impact itself is enough to produce the energy needed for the synthesis of complex organic compounds from the comet’s ices. It is possible that this process began life’s course on Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment, the era between 4.1 and 3.8 billion years ago when collisions were rife in the inner system.

Image: Comets contain compounds such as water, ammonia, methanol and carbon dioxide that could have supplied the raw materials that, upon impact with the early Earth, would have yielded an abundant supply of energy to produce amino acids and jump-start life. Credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The same building blocks can be produced by the impact of a rocky meteorite into an object with an icy surface, making the icy moons of outer gas giants an interesting environment for astrobiology. Mark Price (Imperial College London) notes how much still needs to be understood:

“This process demonstrates a very simple mechanism whereby we can go from a mix of simple molecules, such as water and carbon-dioxide ice, to a more complicated molecule, such as an amino acid. This is the first step towards life. The next step is to work out how to go from an amino acid to even more complex molecules such as proteins.”

 

News Alert: 2

Discovered in 2009 by the MEarth Project, this alien world is about 2.7 times Earth’s diameter and is almost 7 times as massive. It is located 42 light years away in the constellation Ophiuchus.

Dr Michitoshi Yoshida of Hiroshima University and his colleagues used the Suprime-Cam and the FOCAS optical camera aboard the Subaru Telescope to look for the Rayleigh scattering feature in the atmosphere of Gliese 1214b.

The new observations, reported in the Astrophysical Journal (arXiv.org), showed that the exoplanet’s atmosphere does not display strong Rayleigh scattering.

According to the astronomers, this finding implies that Gliese 1214b has a water-rich or a hydrogen-dominated atmosphere with extensive clouds.

Although they did not completely discount the possibility of a hydrogen-dominated atmosphere, the new results combined with findings from previous research suggest that Gliese 1214b is likely to have a water-rich atmosphere.

Dr Yoshida’ team now plans to conduct follow-up observations in the near future to reinforce their conclusion.

Look what I found

This site on the origin of life on Earth is visually quite captivating. What's interesting, though, is the fact that, as reflected even on other sites, scientists seem relatively comfortable with the variety of possible situations that led to the appearance of the first cells, while the appearance of multi-cellularity just boggles everyone's minds. One of the most common explanations given for the existence of multi-celled organisms is that they evolved as a result of symbiotic relationships between types of cells that were already in existence. When it comes to providing details regarding the mechanism that led from symbiosis to full-fledged multi-cellularity, though, the data come up somewhat short. Once multi-cellularity appears, scientists breathe a sigh of relief and once again feel comfortable speculating on mechanisms and processes, invoking natural selection and other safety blankets. But that HUGE gap between the first cells and structurally complex organisms sticks out like a sore thumb and will have to be addressed sooner or later. Thanks to http://astrobiologyblog.blogspot.in/

Study on Theory of Panspermia

It sounds like science fiction, but the theory of panspermia, in which life can naturally transfer between planets, is considered a serious hypothesis by planetary scientists. The suggestion that life did not originate on Earth but came from elsewhere in the universe (for instance, Mars), is one possible variant of panspermia. Planets and moons were heavily bombarded by meteorites when the solar system was young, throwing lots of material back into space. Meteorites made of Mars rock are occasionally found on Earth to this day, so it is quite plausible that simple life forms like yeasts or bacteria could have been carried on them.

Yet serious questions remain for supporters of this theory. Would even the hardiest life forms be able to survive an impact which ejects the rock into space? Could they live through the freezing temperatures and deadly radiation of space? And could they enter the atmosphere and hit the surface of the Earth without being killed?

New research presented at the European Planetary Science Congress at UCL aims to answer the final question, of whether entry and impact is survivable for simple organisms. Using frozen samples of Nannochloropsis oculata, a type of single-celled ocean-dwelling algae, Dina Pasini (University of Kent) set out to test the conditions which early life would have had to survive if it did indeed travel through space.

Using a two-stage light gas gun, which can accelerate objects up to very high speeds, Pasini fired frozen pellets of Nannochloropsis into water and tested the samples to see if any had survived.

"As you might expect, increasing the speed of impact does increase the proportion of algae that die," Pasini explains, "but even at 6.93 kilometers per second, a small proportion survived. This sort of impact velocity would be what you would expect if a meteorite hit a planet similar to the Earth."

As well as surviving freezing and impacts, like those experienced when rocks are ejected from planets or hit them, there are good reasons to think that the other problems faced by panspermia are not insurmountable either. Ice and rocks can provide protection against radiation, especially if the organism is deeply embedded inside. What is more, heating caused by entry into the atmosphere is unlikely to heat anything more than a thin layer around the outside of rocks, forming what is known as a 'fusion crust.'

This research suggests that panspermia, while certainly not proven, is not impossible either.

"Our research raises several questions," Pasini says. "If we find life on another planet, will it be truly alien or will it be related to us? And if so, did it spawn us or did we spawn it? We cannot answer these questions just now, but the questions are not as farfetched as one might assume."

News Alert:1

So Voyager 1 has left our solar system.  Kind of, depending on how you look at it.  There were lots of stories in the news about how NASA officially announced that Voyager 1 has left our solar system, but the actual announcement is that the probe has crossed what is known as the heliopause.  

The Sun gives off more than just light and heat.  It also gives off a stream of charged particles.  Most of these are electrons and protons (ionized hydrogen), and they stream away from the Sun to produce what is known as the solar wind.  The solar wind interacts with the magnetic field of the sun, and together they create a kind of diffuse bubble of charged particles around the sun known as the heliosphere.  This heliosphere prevents any interstellar charged particles from reaching us, as well as shielding us from some cosmic rays.

Eventually the stream of the solar wind slows down enough that the interstellar wind can push back, which creates a boundary known as the heliopause.  Beyond the heliopause, the interstellar wind dominates.  Beyond the heliopause is interstellar space.  

Declarations that Voyager 1 has left the solar system have appeared off and on the past couple of years because the heliopause is not a hard line.  Depending on solar activity it can vary a bit.  Then there is the limitations of Voyager’s sensors.  The probe is 36 years old, and most of its detectors are no longer operational.  It’s transmission power is only about 23 watts, which is about the power of a refrigerator light bulb.  

The probe still has two antennae that can detect magnetic fields.  By observing the oscillations of magnetic fields, you can also get a handle on the density of ionized particles around Voyager 1, since the frequency of oscillations depends on the density of the plasma.  In a recent paper (http://goo.gl/0agnyI) it was shown that the density of electrons around Voyager has increased by a factor of 40 recently.  This is exactly what was expected as Voyager leaves the tenuous outer region of the heliosphere to enter the region of interstellar space.

If you define the limits of the heliosphere as the edge of our solar system, then Voyager has indeed achieved this task.  But as you can see in the image below (http://goo.gl/Y6WR03), this isn’t what is commonly thought of as the edge of the solar system.  For one, Voyager is still under the influence of the Sun’s gravity.  There are lots of objects that orbit the Sun at a distance much greater than Voyager.  For example, the orbit of Sedna (a 1,000 km wide trans-Neptunian object) takes it more than 900 AU from the Sun.  In comparison, Voyager 1 is about 125 AU from the Sun.  So it hasn’t really left the solar system at all.  If you consider the outer edge of the Oort cloud to be the limit of our solar system, then Voyager 1 is just getting started.

So while you could say Elvis has left the building, he hasn’t yet left town.

It takes Time to 'Really' Understand

Understanding something that you read or came across somewhere, is good. Here, what I mean by 'Really Understanding' is that, it'll get into your mind in the best way possible that every possible detail will be covered and when your mind raises questions, you can come up with answers that might leave you surprised.
When it comes to 'Really Understanding', the person who comes to my mind is Stephen Hawking.
By reading his Theories on Time Travel, I should say, I went sleepless that night. All I could think of was the concept of Time travel, every possible question to be answered, answered in a way that one would not rethink again. It really made me wonder how easy it was for that gifted mind, to think and also explain it in such simple words. For people who don't know about it , here it goes.
According to him, and as we all know, it takes nearly 8 minutes for the light from our sun to reach earth. In a similar way the pictures of stars and galaxies that we see now are actually the light which has reached earth now but were let out several years ago. So he thinks that, we're able to look at the past of a star or a galaxy. He adds, in case we have a ship that can travel at light speed or probably more, when we set to reach a target star which is far away; by the time we reach there we'd be seeing the present state of the star. If we can then somehow interpret the data faster than the light rays to the present day on earth, we actually might have achieved peeking through the future of the star (the light from the future would take several years to reach earth and also by the time it reaches here, several more years would have passed already). He thinks, this might be a way to travel through time.
And I should also say, I was going through his book 'A brief history of time travel' in which he has explained the origin of universe- the instance 'time' started and the 'big bang theory'. He has summarized the various controversy of the theories put forth for the explaining the origin of the universe and also the hypothetical way to go along each and every theory that was put forth.

 His understanding about Black holes is a whole other thing that we'll discuss later. 

Me being skeptical

I'm was not aware of The X Files when it was screened first on the Television. Guess my parents didn't even own a TV then. I got this first seed of idea from the movie 'Aliens' by James Cameron ( Of course I didn't know who he was at that time). I didn't even understand the movie properly, but what I could interpret was that people who go to space will be exposed to aliens, and they're everywhere. Yeah, it's crazy. Then I have no idea what happened with me, I was so much sure that aliens are out there. It was the movie Independence day that had me thinking. How would it be? If I'm able to study a life form that just came in from outer space. Now here I'm, almost gonna become a Genetic Engineer.
I do believe in God, but I do not go with any religion. It's just made by a set of rules put forth by people who wants to rule the others. As far as I've seen, take this topic and most of the religious people just blindly go against it. Sometimes they wouldn't even know what they're talking about. I mean, all the different bed time stories we came across, myths, religious stories, they may not be even real. If you consider the case that its all true, then what if 'We' are the aliens that crashed into the earth during the period of Dinosaurs and eventually evolved into modern human beings. That may be true. I'm not stating a fact, I'm just considering the probability of life beyond the limits of the earth. We're not that blessed, are we? Wanting to enjoy the
nature, given by God, all by ourselves. That's something much more than Greed, being on a place, smaller than a speck of dust in the vast, wide and immeasurable Universe.

Believe in Aliens heh?

Just asking, whether you believe in Alien lifeforms. Not necessarily be intelligent, super hot, funny, weird, grumpy, psychic or whatever random thought that comes to our mind; but the idea that they're alive, somewhere in this whole wide Universe that we have around us, means something to me. I may not even believe in god. Yeah, trust me, there are times when we fail to notice so many wonderful things going on around us just because some thoughts hold our mind onto a place where we don't have the possibility of a clear perception.But life form elsewhere, come on, one can't easily say that they aren't interested in such a thing. Here in this blog, I'll be posting about my ideas about the probability of life elsewhere in the universe and also the various interesting articles, theories or whatever that made me think.