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Post by MartinT on Sept 8, 2020 13:39:43 GMT
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 8, 2020 13:49:35 GMT
Thanks, Martin.
Amazing aren't they?... and mind numbingly violent, for the most part!
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Post by MartinT on Sept 8, 2020 17:04:35 GMT
That's the thing - they are the outcome of stupendous events.
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Post by user211 on Sept 13, 2020 0:37:05 GMT
CMEs are some cause for real concern.
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Post by MartinT on Sept 13, 2020 8:43:05 GMT
Wiping out all our data and systems with the largest EMP ever known would be disastrous enough. Disabling all our electronic devices (and cars, trains etc.) would make COVID lockdown look like a child's game. Then the loss of the Ozone layer would finish us off.
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 14, 2020 15:27:05 GMT
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 14, 2020 15:40:56 GMT
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 14, 2020 17:09:45 GMT
Associate Professor Alan Duffy, an astronomer from Swinburne University and the lead scientist of The Royal Institution of Australia, said: "This is one of the most exciting signs of the possible presence of life beyond Earth I have ever seen, and certainly from the most surprising location I could imagine.
"Our twin planet Venus is a hellish world. While the surface is hot enough to melt lead, the temperature drops as you go higher into the clouds, becoming Earth-like in both temperature and pressure by an altitude of 50km, exactly where the phosphine was found.
"While the temperature is benign the clouds contain sulfuric acid which should break down the phosphine, so something is forming it anew, and as phosphine is associated with life on Earth it is tempting to think it could be life on Venus.
"But before we can become more confident about that we have to rule out all possible other non-biological means of producing it."
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Post by MartinT on Sept 14, 2020 19:00:33 GMT
I was watching it on the news.
Of all the inhospitable places... incredible!
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 14, 2020 19:22:10 GMT
If it turns out to be true, and it's not an unknown exotic non-biological process making the phosphine, the implications are hard to overestimate.
Life would seem likely to be abundant throughout the universe.
One thing can be unique, but two things imply a multitude.
I wonder if the phosphine signature from an exoplanet could be detectable?
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Post by MartinT on Sept 14, 2020 19:27:34 GMT
I wonder if the phosphine signature from an exoplanet could be detectable? The way they've detected it on Venus, there's every chance. |
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 14, 2020 20:13:19 GMT
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 14, 2020 20:54:34 GMT
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Post by user211 on Sept 15, 2020 11:37:43 GMT
Stuff gets about in space. We have meteorites of Martian origin here on earth.
I'd be blinking amazed if previous asteroid collisions with Earth hadn't blasted some life from this planet off elsewhere.
That being the case though then why the Fermi paradox?
Curious stuff.
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 15, 2020 14:37:28 GMT
Yes, there's always the panspermia idea.
Asteroid collisions spraying rock and associated microorganisms around the place.
Maybe an asteroid collision with Venus sprayed some Venusian bugs in Earth's direction and started life off here.
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 16, 2020 2:58:13 GMT
Interesting. This independent study from 2019 by MIT scientists puts forward the detection of phosphine in planetary atmospheres as "a sure fire sign of extra terrestrial life". phys.org/news/2019-12-smelly-poisonous-molecule-sure-fire-extraterrestrial.html'Sousa-Silva and her colleagues are assembling a database of fingerprints for molecules that could be potential biosignatures. The team has amassed more than 16,000 candidates, including phosphine. The vast majority of these molecules have yet to be fully characterized, and if scientists were to spot any of them in an exoplanet's atmosphere, they still wouldn't know whether the molecules were a sign of life or something else. But with Sousa-Silva's new paper, scientists can be confident in the interpretation of at least one molecule: phosphine. The paper's main conclusion is that, if phosphine is detected in a nearby, rocky planet, that planet must be harboring life of some kind." |
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 24, 2020 5:44:22 GMT
This is a bit astonishing. The first planet directly-ish observed (probably) in another galaxy. It's a Saturn sized planet orbiting and regularly occluding a binary star X-ray source in M51, the Whirlpool galaxy. Possibly. arxiv.org/abs/2009.08987#:~:text=M51%2DULS%2D1b%20has%20a,1%2C%20is%20young%20and%20massive. |
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Post by Dave on Sept 24, 2020 9:39:39 GMT
"Life finds a way." 🙃
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Post by MartinT on Sept 24, 2020 12:16:59 GMT
The first planet directly-ish observed . . . in another galaxy I'm having trouble comprehending this. How?!!! |
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 24, 2020 12:32:07 GMT
Check out the link.  The planet is orbiting a powerful X-ray source, and the plane of the orbit makes the planet partially occult it on each go-round. You can get a lot of information from the details of the occultation. Previously this technique has only been used in the optical band. X-ray sources are rarer and more powerful, so they are easier to isolate and can be seen from a lot further away. Now that the technique is established, expect to see reports of similar planets from a lot further away than this one! |
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