Alien life existed, NASA scientist claims - Technology & Science Multiple filaments and sheaths embedded in this meteorite could point to extraterrestrial life, says NASA scienist Richard Hoover. (Richard Hoover/The Journal of Cosmology) A NASA scientist says he has found fossilized evidence of alien life in the remains of a meteorite, which if confirmed would bolster the theory that life is not restricted to Earth. The claim that several types of meteorites contain fossils of microscopic creatures similar to cyanobacteria — also known blue-green algae — that originated beyond Earth has predictably created a stir, and 100 experts have been invited to review the research. Astrobiologist Richard Hoover, who works at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., made the claim in a study published online late Friday in the peer-reviewed publication, The Journal of Cosmology . The journal's editor-in-chief, Rudy Schild, says Hoover is a highly respected scientist with a prestigious record of accomplishment at NASA.
The 6 Most Mind-Blowing Things Ever Discovered in Space It's actually really easy to think of space as boring. The planets in our own solar system all seem to be empty rocks or balls of gas, and you find a whole lot of nothing before you get to the next star. Meanwhile, Hollywood's most creative minds can't get past populating the place with planets that look a whole lot like Earth (and specifically, parts of California) featuring monsters, rapey aliens or Muppets. But real space is far, far stranger. You just have to know where to look to find things like ... #6. Science fiction writers have this annoying thing they do where they can only think of like five different types of planets. But scientists have studied almost 700 real planets outside the solar system, and some of them are downright gaudy. Via Inewp.comIt's a wedding gem worthy of Jesus or the Sultan of Dubai. How Is This Even Possible? Via Spaceflightnow.comWhat a dick! Carbon is just a shitload of heat and pressure away from becoming a diamond. Photos.com"Yeah, that's cute. #5. #4.
How Hydrogen May Expand the Search for Alien Life – National Geographic News Watch When people talk about finding life among the stars, it’s often a fairy tale that comes to mind. That’s because we on Earth really hope to find a planet like ours in what’s called the Goldilocks zone—a region not too close and not too far from the star, but at just the right distance to support liquid water on a planet’s surface. On Earth, water is arguably the most important ingredient for life, so it makes sense that we tend to think of it as a necessary criterion for habitable planets. Still [as is often the case in cutting-edge science] there’s always the chance that we’re wrong, and looking for life *exactly* as we know it may be limiting the search. In a new paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, planetary scientists Raymond Pierrehumbert and Eric Gaidos describe how life might evolve on a world outside the traditional habitable zone, thanks to a thick hydrogen atmosphere creating an unusual version of the planet-warming greenhouse effect.
The 2011 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition winners Amateur astronomer Damian Peach has become the first British entrant to win the title of Astronomy Photographer of the Year, beating hundreds of photographers from around the globe in the 2011 competition. As well as securing the £1,500 top prize, his image takes pride of place in the exhibition of winning photographs opening at the Royal Observatory Greenwich on 9 September 2011. Competition for the 2011 prize was fierce with more pictures received than ever before; over 700 entries from all around the world. For more information see www.nmm.ac.uk/visit/exhibitions/astronomy-photographer-of-the-year/ Above: OUR SOLAR SYSTEM category winner and Overall Winner: Jupiter with Io and Ganymede, September 2010 by Damian Peach (UK). Jupiter depicted along with two of its 64 known moons, Io and Ganymede, showing the surface of the gas giant streaked with colourful bands and dotted with huge oval storms; detail is also visible on the two moons. Picture: Damian Peach
Want to Fly Around the Moon? Commercial Spaceship Gets Another Seat Room for one more? Virginia-based Space Adventures announced Thursday that it will add another seat to a Soyuz spacecraft that will take space tourists into low-Earth orbit by 2015. Working with Rocket Space Corporation Energia, Space Adventures will add a second habitation module to the Soyuz TMA lunar complex, which will take those with (a lot) of extra cash around the moon. "Space Adventures will once again grace the pages of aerospace history, when the first private circumlunar mission launches. About that price. Space Adventures has flown seven spaceflight participants on eight missions to the ISS. Space Adventures estimates that by 2020, about 140 people will have been launched into orbital space. "The next 10 years will be critical for the commercial spaceflight industry with new vehicles and destinations coming online," said Eric Anderson, Space Adventures chairman. Another company exploring commercial space flight is Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.
Graphene in space could hold clues to development of life on Earth An artist's concept of graphene, buckyballs and C70 superimposed on an image of the Helix planetary nebula (Image: IAC/NASA/NOAO/ESA/STScI/NRAO) Human beings may have only discovered how to create the one-atom-thick sheets of carbon atoms known as graphene in 2004 but it appears the universe could have been churning out the stuff since much earlier than that. While not conclusive proof its existence in space, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has identified the signature of graphene in two small galaxies outside our own. If confirmed, it would be the first-ever cosmic detection of the material and could hold clues to how carbon-based life forms such as ourselves developed. The infrared-sensing Spitzer telescope identified signs of graphene in planetary nebulae - the material shed by dying stars - within the Magellanic Clouds galaxies that orbit our Milky Way galaxy. Spitzer first definitively detected the presence of both buckyballs and C70 in space in July 2010. Source: NASA.
Ten things you don’t know about black holes Well, they’re black, and they’re like bottomless holes. What would you call them? -Me, when a friend asked me why they’re named what they are Ah, black holes. The ultimate shiver-inducer of the cosmos, out-jawing sharks, out-ooking spiders, out-scaring… um, something scary. But then, that’s why I’m here. So below I present ten facts about black holes — the third in my series of Ten Things You Don’t Know (the first was on the Milky Way; the second about the Earth). 1) It’s not their mass, it’s their size that makes them so strong. OK, first, a really quick primer on black holes. The most common way for a black hole to form is in the core of a massive star. As the core collapses, its gravity increases. The region around the black hole itself where the escape velocity equals the speed of light is called the event horizon. OK, so now you know what one is, and how they form. So there you go. 2) They’re not infinitely small. So OK, they’re small, but how small are they? 3) They’re spheres. Hmmm.
Double eclipse: Moment Moon AND International Space Station cross face of Sun By Daily Mail Reporter Updated: 20:58 GMT, 5 January 2011 Britons were only offered a clouded view of yesterday's partial solar eclipse owing to our typically dreary weather. But one lucky skywatcher in south-west Asia managed to catch a doubly striking glimpse of the natural phenomenon. After some careful calculations, photographer Thierry Legault decided to travel to just outside Oman's capital city of Muscat, where he knew he could catch both the Moon and the International Space Station briefly crossing the Sun. Photographer Thierry Legault captured both the Moon and the International Space Station (circled) crossing the face of the Sun His margin of error was miniscule since the space station sped across the face of our solar system's star in less than a second. However, Mr Legault's 1/5000th second exposure managed to perfectly capture Earth's two largest satellites against the glowing yellow backdrop.
New kind of planet discovered The planets in our solar system get along with each other pretty well. But sometimes when multiple planets orbit the same star, there’s a confrontation – that is, the gravity of one planet interferes with another’s. In this way, smaller ones can get kicked out, left to float in the dark without a star to go around. These “lonely planets” represent an entirely new category of planets, and are perhaps more numerous in our galaxy than stars, scientists report Wednesday in the journal Nature. "It gives us a good clue about how planet formation works. Bennett and colleagues discovered 10 such planets, each probably the size of Jupiter, in a survey called the Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics, which used a 5.9-foot telescope in New Zealand to scan our galaxy, the Milky Way. These planets are likely gaseous, and would not be hospitable to life. Here’s how they may have formed: Generally speaking, a planet is born when a gas cloud around a star collapses into a disc shape.
Interactive 3D model of Solar System Planets and Night Sky Scientists discover most accurate clocks in the universe Time in space has always been an elusive issue for scientists who have long struggled to find a constant standard. But a new discovery may help us understand time as never before. Space.com reports that scientists are now using pulsars — rapidly spinning stars that pulse over time — to tell the universe’s time. A pulsar is a rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation. It seems that these super heavy lighthouses of the universe are also predictable and steady in their actions. Why is constant time in the universe important? Further, experts hope that this new clock can help solve at least one space mystery. For further reading: Pulsing stars may be most accurate clocks in the universe
Existence: Why is the universe just right for us? - space - 29 July 2011 Read more: "Existence special: Cosmic mysteries, human questions" IT HAS been called the Goldilocks paradox. If the strong nuclear force which glues atomic nuclei together were only a few per cent stronger than it is, stars like the sun would exhaust their hydrogen fuel in less than a second. Our sun would have exploded long ago and there would be no life on Earth. If the weak nuclear force were a few per cent weaker, the heavy elements that make up most of our world wouldn't be here, and neither would you. If gravity were a little weaker than it is, it would never have been able to crush the core of the sun sufficiently to ignite the nuclear reactions that create sunlight; a little stronger and, again, the sun would have burned all of its fuel billions of years ago. Such ...