Kentucky Space

"Potentially habitable exoplanet found." What's next?

Given the pace of discovery using Earth and spaceborne observatories, it's not too much of a stretch to assume that sooner or later a planet orbiting its parent star in the "habitable" zone, a region where liquid water is likely to exist, will be found. So let's assume that a planet has been found in this "Goldilocks" zone. How would we go about inspecting that planet to determine if there is, in fact, life present? What's next? Paul Gilster explains.

Wayne

Our ever-changing solar system

While the number of planets orbiting other stars stands at 373, it's easy to forget that the estimate of the number of significant bodies in our own solar system is constantly changing. Thought to be covered in water ice, Haumea is the fourth largest dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, following Eris, Pluto and Makemake. And in the just last ten years many more trans-Neptunian objects with a diameter of at least 500 km have been added to the catalog, according to Paul Gilster at Centauri Dreams. That total now numbers seventy.

Wayne

Kentucky Space, Space

Video: Triton flyby

The video below is a simulated fly-by of Neptune's moon Triton produced from imagery returned by Voyager 2 just over 20 years ago. Believed to be a Kuiper Belt object, high internal heat is believed to be responsible for the moon's young surface. New Horizons detected Triton last October from a much greater distance.

Wayne

Kentucky Space, Neptune, New Horizons, Robotics, Triton

Cometary debris contained building blocks of life

Evidence collected from the comet Wild2 in 2004 backs the "life is common' school of thought, according to Centauri Dreams.

Wayne

Kentucky Space, Space

Titan-like life: Would we know it if we saw it?

Sure, water ice and liquid water may have been confirmed on the surface of Mars. And microbial life has been resurrected from a million year old dirt nap on Earth. But given the distance from its parent star and the presence of an active hydrology of liquid methane and ethane, Titan might be the best place to find brand new kinds of life. Key question: Given our complete lack of understanding of such life, would we know it if we encountered it?

Wayne

Kentucky Space, Saturn, Titan

What surprises await?

One of my favorite bloggers, the "bad astronmer" Phil Plait, is hosts a Discover panel on the big questions of universe. Here is part two - "what surprises might be lurking out there?" - of that panel. As astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter explains near the end, a theory about everything would truly be unexpected.

Wayne

Space

Astrobiology on Earth

Paul Gilster follows up on a story I first saw at MSNBC describing how microbial life can make the iciest and most inhospitable places home. Project SLIce (Signatures of Life in Ice) studies how organic material might behave on other worlds by studying here it on Earth - and it's yielded some useful information.

An early SLIce result, described at the Goldschmidt2009 geochemistry meeting in Davos last week: The best place to look for microorganisms in ice is in the layers close to the surface. That’s good to know, because a planetary rover is going to be able to sample such environments much more readily than those several meters beneath. Also helpful is the team’s discovery that cleaning the rover’s sample scoop is harder than it looks, leaving dead micro-organisms on it even after it had apparently been sterilized. New procedures have resolved the problem, ensuring we don’t inadvertently ‘discover’ Earth organisms that have found their way along for the ride.

Wayne

"Briny Breath of Enceladus"

Salt in Saturn's E ring and evidence in the form of spectacular geysers on the moon itself suggests that Enceladus could have an underground ocean. The video below also contains some of the best photographic stills of the moon from Cassini's imaging team, CICLOPS. Have a look.

Wayne

TED Video: Could Enceladus harbor life?

In a very brief return engagement, planetary scientist Carolyn Porco tells the audience at this year's TED that the particular heated chemistry of the Saturn moon Enceladus could be an indication that the the small moon with the big geology could harbor life.

Wayne

Undersea world for Enceladus?

New research suggests that the ice volcanoes on Enceladus may "be rooted in an underground sea, a finding that raises the prospect for microbial life," according to MSNBC.   

Wayne

Enceladus image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute