Koppernigk

A Kickstart for starters

" How did life on Earth begin? One hypothesis is that terrestrial life began when organics were delivered from outer space during the early heavy bombardment phase of Earth's development. We know that several meteorites, such as Murchison, have amino acids with properties similar to those seen in biological amino acids, the building blocks of life.

Fukue and Tamura from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan conducted research on the properties of light in a massive star-forming region, the BN/KL nebula of the Orion Nebula, and have investigated a process that may have played a role in the development of life on Earth.

The origin of what is technically called "biomolecular A Kickstarthomochirality" is a longstanding mystery and an important one to solve because it characterizes most life-forms on Earth. Chirality refers to the handedness of an image or phenomenon that is not identical to the mirror image of its counterpart, much as the right and left hands are similar in structure but are opposites, thus not the same. ..." (Astronomy)

Cost cutting aliens?

"For 50 years, humans have scanned the skies with radio telescopes for distant electronic signals indicating the existence of intelligent alien life. The search -- centered at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. -- has tapped into our collective fascination with the concept that we may not be alone in the universe.

But the effort has so far proved fruitless, and the scientific community driving the SETI project has begun questioning its methodology, which entails listening to specific nearby stars for unusual blips or bleeps. Is there a better approach?

UC Irvine astrophysicist Gregory Benford and his twin, James -- a fellow physicist specializing in high-powered microwave technology -- believe there is, and their ideas are garnering attention.

In two studies appearing in the June issue of the journal Astrobiology, the Benford brothers, along with James' son Dominic, a NASA scientist, examine the perspective of a civilization sending signals into space -- or, as Gregory Benford puts it, "the point of view of the guys paying the bill."

"Our grandfather used to say, 'Talk is cheap, but whiskey costs money,'" the physics professor says. "Whatever the life form, evolution selects for economy of resources. Broadcasting is expensive, and transmitting signals across light-years would require considerable resources."

Assuming that an alien civilization would strive to optimize costs, limit waste and make its signaling technology more efficient, the Benfords propose that these signals would not be continuously blasted out in all directions but rather would be pulsed, narrowly directed and broadband in the 1-to-10-gigahertz range.

"This approach is more like Twitter and less like War and Peace, " says James Benford, founder and president of Microwave Sciences Inc. in Lafayette, Calif. ..." (ScienceDaily)

The caption says "Astrophysicist Gregory Benford -- standing before the UCI Observatory" But that's no observatory. The caption should have read: "Astrophysicist Gregory Benford and R2-D2 standing in a corn field". And the credits should read: "photo by 3CPO"

Either life - ummmm - or no life at all

"Two new papers based on data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft scrutinize the complex chemical activity on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan. While non-biological chemistry offers one possible explanation, some scientists believe these chemical signatures bolster the argument for a primitive, exotic form of life or precursor to life on Titan's surface. According to one theory put forth by astrobiologists, the signatures fulfill two important conditions necessary for a hypothesized "methane-based life." ..." (ScienceDaily)

E.T. still hiding - for how long?

"Scientists haven't found E.T. just yet, but they may be pinning down the best places and ways to look for alien life during future space missions, NASA researchers said Wednesday.

Experts on the search for extraterrestrial life spoke to reporters from the Astrobiology Science Conference near Houston to celebrate 50 years of astrobiology research.

Scientists there said they are still eager to find life elsewhere in the universe despite the firestorm this week kicked off by famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who suggested that perhaps humans shouldn't be so eager to find aliens since there's a chance they would want to colonize Earth or strip it for resources.

"We're interested and prepared to discover any form of life," said Mary Voytek, astrobiology senior scientist at NASA Headquarters, during the teleconference.

The lure of new missions

Cornell University planetary scientist Steve Squyres, principal investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover project, said NASA scientists were currently considering a list of 28 future science missions that could help discover signs of extraterrestrial life.

"Astrobiology and the search for life is really central to what we should be doing next in the exploration of the solar system," Squyres said.

He mentioned a host of possible robotic missions, including visits to Mercury, Mars, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and even distant outer solar system flybys. In particular, the Saturnian moons Titan – with its lakes of methane and ethane – and Enceladus, with its plumes of water vapor, seem like possibly habitable sites.

Squyres also said NASA is considering an ambitious three-part mission to Mars that would return samples of rock back to Earth for scientists here to study in person.

This mission "might reveal a great deal about whether Mars once harbored life," he said. ... "(SPACE.com)

Deep Throat: follow the perchlorate

"Two critical puzzle pieces for life on Mars, separated by 32 years of conjecture and thousands of miles of terrain, are coming together to yield new clues for a "Genesis 2.0" on the Red Planet.

The evidence is tied together by one thread: Perchlorate.

Perchlorate is a highly oxidized chlorate and is commonly used as a powerful rocket fuel. Perchlorate is so rich in oxygen it could also fuel Martian metabolisms. It is also a strong antifreeze that could be used by alien microorganism to combat low temperatures on Mars.

To everyone's surprise NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander -- our first extraterrestrial visitor to Mars' north polar regions -- found perchlorate in soil samples analyzed in 2008. What's more, the anomalous results from biology experiments conducted by the NASA Viking landers in 1976 may be explained by perchlorate in the Martian soil.

"This oxidizer may be at the root of an exotic Martian biology," says astrobiologist Chris McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center. "It is the most important astrobiology discovery on Mars since the Viking experiments. It will cause us to rethink everything we knew about Mars chemistry because everything we thought we knew is wrong. Perchlorate is my favorite molecule for Mars biology." ... " (Discovery)

Make it so

"Don't muck around in the affairs of planets that are less technologically advanced than yours. Despite how often it gets ignored, Star Trek's Prime Directive is a pretty nice attempt to take a universe brimming with life and figure out how to interact with it in an ethical way.

Unfortunately, the Prime Directive isn't terribly nuanced.

How do we relate to alien life that's as, or more, advanced than us? What if alien life is bacteria—do we still have to leave its home planet alone? How do we explore the galaxy without spreading—or picking up—any deadly diseases? The Prime Directive can't really help you here. That's why scientists from NASA and the SETI Institute are boldly going where no bureaucracies (real or fictional) have gone before—drawing up the safety protocols we Earthlings will use as we explore new worlds, and the social and ethical guidelines we'll turn to if we ever do find life on other planets.

It's all part of NASA's Office of Planetary Protection. Home of the Planetary Protection Officer, surely the most awesome job title in the sciences, the OPP has been around since 1967, before the Apollo landings on the Moon and the concept has been around since before NASA was even founded. Originally, the goal was to keep today's science from screwing up the science of tomorrow.... "(BoingBoing)

Shrimps in space

This is a nice reminder for people looking for alien life: you ain't seen nothing yet. And it will be certainly more weird than you expected. Even on Earth the surprises keep coming in.

What's a shrimp doing under the South pole ice? Read more here. And the movie is great. This goes under "extraterrestrial life", no doubt about that.

How long will we be around, really?

"The good news, the Milky Way could be abundant in intelligent life forms. The bad news, we may never hear from them.

At last week's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Diego, California's top SETI scientists were asked how long will it be before we receive an interstellar greeting from an extraterrestrial civilization. Their estimates range from "minus 10 years" (it should have happened by now!) to 250 years into the future.

The most balanced guess in my opinion came from Seth Shostak: 25 years. This is based on the fact that the number of stars being reached in SETI optical and radio searches is growing exponentially with improved telescopes, signal processing, and detection strategies. This means that within the next two years as many stars will have been surveyed as have been in the past 50 years since the birth of modern SETI observations.

The SETI exponential slope can't steeply rise indefinitely. Statistically, your chances for success happen near the top of the slope, when it begins to flatten out. "If we don't have a detection by the year 2035 then something is wrong with our fundamental assumptions," says Shostak. ..." (Discovery)

Calling ET

"In 2008, NASA beamed the Beatles song "Across the Universe" into deep space, sending a message of peace to any extraterrestrial who happens to be in the region of Polaris, also called the North Star, in 2439.

"Amazing! Well done, NASA!" Paul McCartney said. "Send my love to the aliens."

Who could argue with such a well-meaning, positive initiative?

Quite a few, actually. ..." (Yahoo/AFP)

Genital sounds in space (really)

"The human race first deliberately advertised its existence on the outer panels of space probes, some of which were engraved with codes and images containing information about itself. These immediately prompted arguments about how much we should give away about ourselves.

However, if we really want to break the ice with our cosmic neighbours, it will probably be by sending messages that travel at the speed of light, not at the speed of a Pioneer probe.

A lot of effort has gone into some of the messages, with some researchers even developing an artificial language called Lincos – which so far has not been used in any actual messages.

As part of our special feature marking the 50th anniversary of the search for extraterrestrial life, we round up humanity's radio messages to the stars. ..." (New Scientist Space)

2010, still no space odyssey

"The year 2010 has arrived, but humans have yet to travel out to the gas giants of our solar system as portrayed by Arthur C. Clarke in his book "2010: Odyssey Two" — much less unearth alien artifacts on the moon.

Clarke was more than just a science fiction legend — he was a physicist, and in 1945, the same year he sold his first story, he was the first to propose the concept of geostationary telecommunications satellite networks, more than a decade before the first orbital rocket flight. He died in 2008 at age 90.

Clarke's book "2010" debuted in 1982 as a sequel to his iconic work "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Now, 28 years later, the real 2010 leaves much to be desired. Let's see how far we have to go before reaching Clarke's vision of our present: ..." (SPACE.com)

How long before we find life elsewhere? Place your bets

Years ago we wondered if our Sun was the only star with planets around it. Today we know hundreds of planets around other stars. How long will it be before we find life on one or more of them? I'd say 10 years. Bet is on.

Planet Quest - list of exoplanets

An ex-parrot or just fast asleep?

"Using more advanced analytical instruments now available, a Johnson Space Center research team has reexamined the 1996 finding that a meteorite contains strong evidence that life may have existed on ancient Mars.

The new research focused on investigating alternate proposals for the creation of materials thought to be signs of ancient life found in the meteorite. The new study argues that ancient life remains the most plausible explanation for the materials and structures found in the meteorite.

In 1996, a group of scientists led by David McKay, Everett Gibson and Kathie Thomas-Keprta of NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston published an article in Science announcing the discovery of biogenic evidence in the ALH84001 meteorite. A newly published paper revisits that original hypothesis with new analyses..." (Mars Daily)

Eyes in the dark, one moon circles

Eyes in the dark, one moon circles

Hellooooooh...

"Alien beings on faraway planets may not have noticed, but it’s been 35 years since human beings made the first deliberate effort to send them a message.

In 1974, astronomers Carl Sagan and Frank Drake, both working at Cornell University, used the world’s biggest and most powerful radio telescope to transmit a one-of-a-kind three-minute message. It consisted of 1,679 bits — ones and zeroes — and was cleverly designed to produce a simple image revealing something about humans’ size and shape, our solar system, the dish that sent the message, and even the biochemistry of our bodies..." (MIT News)

Water, water everywhere

"When NASA announced last month the finding of water ice in several impact craters on Mars, and either water or hydroxyl widely dispersed on the moon's surface, the solar system became a little more familiar because it seemed a tad more hospitable to life as we know it on Earth.

But is that because the rest of the cosmos has much in common with Earth or vice versa? Water, the unique molecule that cradles and nurtures life here, is apparently common and perhaps abundant in the solar system. Observational evidence suggests that water as a solid, liquid or gas is present at the poles of Mercury, within the thick clouds of Venus, on Mars, inside asteroids and comets, and on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Scientists also have speculated that Jupiter's moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto have vast subsurface oceans of liquid water. They have also detected through spectroscopy water frost on Pluto's moon, Charon. Of course, scientists have known that H2O also seems to be ubiquitous beyond the solar system. They've detected it in one form or another in interstellar gas and even in such unlikely places as the atmospheres of stars. Perhaps it shouldn't be such a revelation. After all, hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, followed by helium and oxygen..." (SciAm)

Under the ice sheet

"A robot sub being tested now in Antarctica might someday be used to find signs of life on other worlds. For example, Jupiter’s moon Europa might harbor life swimming in an ocean covered by ice.

EarthSky spoke to Peter Doran of the University of Illinois at Chicago. He’s principal investigator of the ENDURANCE project, whose robotic submarine will seek organic molecules beneath ice-covered Lake Bonney in Antarctica starting in late 2008. We asked Professor Doran what life on Europa might be like..." (EarthSky)

How to detect ET from quite a distance

"Astronomers using the Science and Technology Facilities Council's (STFC) William Herschel Telescope (WHT) on La Palma have confirmed an effective way to search the atmospheres of planets for signs of life, vastly improving our chances of finding alien life outside our solar system.

The team from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) used the WHT and the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) to gather information about the chemical composition of the Earth's atmosphere from sunlight that has passed through it. The research is published in Nature.

When a planet passes in front of its parent star, part of the starlight passes through the planet's atmosphere and contains information about the constituents of the atmosphere, providing vital information about the planet itself.

This is called a transmission spectrum and even though astronomers can't use exactly the same method to look at the Earth's atmosphere, they were able to gain a spectrum of our planet by observing light reflected from the Moon towards the Earth during a lunar eclipse. This is the first time the transmission spectrum of the Earth has been measured.

The spectrum not only contained signs of life but these signs were unmistakably strong. It also contained unexpected molecular bands and the signature of the earth ionosphere. ..." (SpaceDaily)

Chiral molecules and SETI

"Visiting aliens may be the stuff of legend, but if a scientific team working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is right, we may be able to find extraterrestrial life even before it leaves its home planet-by looking for left- (or right-) handed light.

The technique the team has developed* for detecting life elsewhere in the universe will not spot aliens directly. Rather, it could allow spaceborne instruments to see a telltale sign that life may have influenced a landscape: a preponderance of molecules that have a certain "chirality," or handedness...." (SpaceDaily)

Please, no life on Mars

"Life on Mars! H.G. Wells got a good story out of the idea, and while the Martian life of Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs and (more recently) Robert A. Heinlein and S.M. Stirling is exciting, it is also fictional. Still, many people hope that we’ll find some sort of life on Mars for real, and that would be exciting, too—even though theselife forms probably wouldn’t look much like Burroughs’s "Princess of Mars," Dejah Thoris.

But I hope we don’t find any life there at all. I hope that Mars is as dead as a doornail. Even deader, since most doornails, in fact, harbor bacterial life. Dead as the moon, then. .."(Popular Mechanics)