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New Study Outlines ‘Water World’ Theory of Life’s Origins

By Guest PostApril 17, 2014Scienceabby arvanitidis, black smokers, cellular structure, earth, electrical energy, food growing system, forschungsprojek, Galaxy, hydroponics, hypothesis, kenji yamaguchi, kirgisistan, laurie barge, life, lost city, Mexico, mitochondria, molybdenum, moos, naryn syr darya, nelly horst, nir ohad, origin, ralf reski, sea floor, seema chandrasekharan, team bell1, technical interview, technical job

Life took root more than four billion years ago on our nascent Earth, a wetter and harsher place than now, bathed in sizzling ultraviolet rays. What started out as simple cells ultimately transformed into slime molds, frogs, elephants, humans and the rest of our planet’s living kingdoms. How did it all begin?

A new study from researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and the Icy Worlds team at NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, based at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., describes how electrical energy naturally produced at the sea floor might have given rise to life. While the scientists had already proposed this hypothesis — called “submarine alkaline hydrothermal emergence of life” — the new report assembles decades of field, laboratory and theoretical research into a grand, unified picture. (more…)

Exoplanet study finds ‘super-Earths’ likely have oceans and continents

By Guest PostJanuary 15, 2014Scienceastronomy, continents, dorian abbot, earth, exoplanet study, Galaxy, geological timescale, geophysicist, geophysics, habitable zone, interior, massive terrestrial planets, Milky Way, new model, nicolas b cowan, oceans, proportional to gravity, solar system, super earths, thermostat, university of chicago, water, water cycle

Massive terrestrial planets, called “super-Earths,” are known to be common in Earth’s galaxy, the Milky Way. Now a Northwestern University astrophysicist and a University of Chicago geophysicist report the odds of these planets having an Earth-like climate are much greater than previously thought.

Nicolas B. Cowan and Dorian Abbot’s new model challenges the conventional wisdom, which says super-Earths actually would be very unlike Earth—each would be a waterworld, with its surface completely covered in water. They conclude that most tectonically active super-Earths—regardless of mass—store most of their water in the mantle and will have both oceans and exposed continents, enabling a stable climate such as Earth’s. (more…)

NASA’s Kepler Provides Insights on Enigmatic Planets

By Guest PostJanuary 7, 2014Sciencedoppler data, earth, exoplanet systems, Galaxy, gaseous, geoff marcy, gravitational tug, ji wei xie, kepler, kepler spacecraft, NASA, neptune, orbiting planet, rocky, solar system, transit timing variations, ttv, university of california, university of toronto

More than three-quarters of the planet candidates discovered by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft have sizes ranging from that of Earth to that of Neptune, which is nearly four times as big as Earth. Such planets dominate the galactic census but are not represented in our own solar system. Astronomers don’t know how they form or if they are made of rock, water or gas.

The Kepler team today reports on four years of ground-based follow-up observations targeting Kepler’s exoplanet systems at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington. These observations confirm the numerous Kepler discoveries are indeed planets and yield mass measurements of these enigmatic worlds that vary between Earth and Neptune in size. (more…)

The Era of Neutrino Astronomy has Begun

By Guest PostNovember 30, 2013Scienceactive galactic nuclei, antarctic ice, askaryan radio array, astronomy, astrophysicists, black holes, cosmic neutrinos, data collection, era, extraterrestrial neutrinos, francis halzen, Galaxy, gamma ray, gregory sullivan, high energy particles, ice, icecube neutrino observatory, kara hoffman, magnetic fields, massless particles, mysterious phenomena, neutrino astronomy, neutrino detector, new age, nsf, origin and cause, solar system, south pole, statistically significant signal, stream to earth, telescope, teraelectronvolts, tev, university of maryland, vladimir papitashvili

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Astrophysicists using a telescope embedded in Antarctic ice have succeeded in a quest to detect and record the mysterious phenomena known as cosmic neutrinos – nearly massless particles that stream to Earth at the speed of light from outside our solar system, striking the surface in a burst of energy that can be as powerful as a baseball pitcher’s fastball. Next, they hope to build on the early success of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory to detect the source of these high-energy particles, said Physics Professor Gregory Sullivan, who led the University of Maryland’s 12-person team of contributors to the IceCube Collaboration.

“The era of neutrino astronomy has begun,” Sullivan said as the IceCube Collaboration announced the observation of 28 very high-energy particle events that constitute the first solid evidence for astrophysical neutrinos from cosmic sources. (more…)

Could a Milky Way Supernova Be Visible from Earth in Next 50 Years?

By Guest PostNovember 17, 2013Scienceamerican neutrino expert, astronomer, christopher kochanek, computer model, detectors for neutrinos, egads, element gadolinium, galactic supernova, Galaxy, gravitational waves, infrared radiation, Japan, john beacom, mark vagins, milky way supernova, nuclear reactors, ohio state university, ohioans, scott adams, super k, super kamiokande, ultra pure water, visible from earth

Advances in cameras, new strategies for detection make it possible

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Astronomers at The Ohio State University have calculated the odds that, sometime during the next 50 years, a supernova occurring in our home galaxy will be visible from Earth.

The good news: they’ve calculated the odds to be nearly 100 percent that such a supernova would be visible to telescopes in the form of infrared radiation. (more…)

Astronomers find evidence of hungry young exoplanets

By Guest PostMay 22, 2013Scienceasteroids, astronomer, complex, disk material, distorted formation, evidence, Galaxy, hungry young exoplanets, mystery, planetary childhood, planets, stefan kraus, the mechanics, university of exeter, v1247 orionis, weird

While astronomers now know that exoplanets are exceedingly common in the galaxy, the mechanics by which they are formed aren’t well understood. Planetary childhood remains a mystery.

Young stars start out with a massive disk of gas and dust that over time, astronomers think, either diffuses away or coalesces into planets and asteroids.

“The speculation is that as planets form they clear out a region of gas and dust around them, forming a telltale ‘gap’ in the disk”, said Stefan Kraus, from Physics and Astronomy at the University of Exeter. (more…)

Galaxy’s Ring of Fire

By Guest PostMay 19, 2013Scienceastronomers, Galaxy, gas, johnny cash, messier 94, NASA, optical illusion, ring of fire, spiral arms, spitzer space telescope, star formation, starburst ring

Johnny Cash may have preferred this galaxy’s burning ring of fire to the one he sang about falling into in his popular song. The “starburst ring” seen at center in red and yellow hues is not the product of love, as in the song, but is instead a frenetic region of star formation.

The galaxy, a spiral beauty called Messier 94, is located about 17 million light-years away. In this image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, infrared light is represented in different colors, with blue having the shortest wavelengths and red, the longest. (more…)

Endangered Lemurs’ Genomes Sequenced

By Guest PostMarch 31, 2013Natureaakrosh ratan, african agriculturalists, anthropologist, aquarium, aye aye populations, aye ayes, biologist, dna samples, ecological niche, edward louis, endangered lemur, european descent, forest habitats, fragmentation, Galaxy, genetically distinct, genome, george perry, henry doorly zoo, human dna sequence, human genetic diversity, loss, Madagascar, madagascar biodiversity, national science foundation, omaha, open source, oscar bedoya reina, penn state university, population, regions of madagascar, richard burhans, sequence, simon malcomber, software, southeast asian, stephan schuster, type of lemur, webb miller, woodpecker

Three populations of aye-ayes on Madagascar studied

For the first time, the complete genomes of three populations of aye-ayes–a type of lemur–have been sequenced and analyzed.

The results of the genome-sequence analyses are published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). (more…)

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