Smoking Gun: Next-Gen Telescope Could Find ET Civilizations Through Their Pollution

Caption: NASA engineer Ernie Wright looks on as the first six flight ready James Webb Space Telescope's primary mirror segments are prepped to begin final cryogenic testing at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Credit: NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham. Caption text copyright NASA.

So far, the search for extraterrestrial civilizations has focused on looking for electromagnetic radiation from target star systems, such as the by-products of internal communications or artificial lighting, including street lights.

However, a new paper published by the Astrophysical Journal entitled Detecting industrial pollution in the atmospheres of Earth-like exoplanets has thrown another idea into the mix: what if we searched for pollutants instead?

Henry Lin and his co-authors argue that anthropogenic pollution could be used as a biosignature for intelligent extraterrestrial life. Oxygen has long been regarded as an indicator of life, but why not go a step further and search for indicators of industrial activity? The main reason is that so far, this has been impossible.

But perhaps not for long.

In 2018, the James Webb Space Telescope will be launched to the great excitement of the international astronomical community. The Webb, a collaborative project by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and currently under development at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, will be the number one space observatory of the next decade, the go-to infra-red telescope that will serve astronomers around the world. What's crucial about the Webb, with regards to the paper by Lin et al., is that it will be capable of detecting CFCs in the atmospheres of distant worlds.

How to isolate an extrasolar planet's spectrum. Source: NASA JPL/Caltech

Key targets will include Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting white dwarfs, not only because they are likely to have long-lived habitable zones, but also because the contrast between the atmospheric transmission spectrum and the backdrop of space will be most conducive to the detection of pollutants. The easiest CFCs to detect, according to the study, will be tetrafluoromethane and trichlorofluoromethane, two molecules that are produced by advanced industrial processes. By targeting white dwarfs, stars that are smaller than our Sun, any Earth-sized planets transiting them will produce a larger imprint in the star's spectrum, which would aid the detection of pollutants.

This process could, in time, be advanced to include Sun-sized stars. In the meantime, however, the search for common-or-garden methane, and other organic species, in the atmospheres of extrasolar planets continues to give indications that life, simple or advanced, may well thrive in the universe.

SETI Press Release: New Meteor Shower "Just A Memory" Of What Once Was There

Frame-by-frame development of a Camelopardalid on 2014 May 24 at 01h58m08s UT. Original recording by Peter C. Slansky; compilation by Jim Albers and Peter Jenniskens.

SETI Press Release: Tuesday, July 22 2014 - 2:00 pm, PDT

MOUNTAIN VIEW – The weak display of last month’s Camelopardalids meteor shower, the result of the close passage of comet 209P/LINEAR, may have disappointed backyard observers, but this never-before-seen shower now has scientists excited. An analysis of airborne and ground-based observations published in the latest issue of the Journal of the International Meteor Organization finds that this comet's dust was unusually fragile, and had fallen apart into undersized meteors that were largely invisible.

“Some mechanism was at work that efficiently fragmented the larger meteoroids,” says Peter Jenniskens, a meteor astronomer with the SETI Institute. Ten years ago, Jenniskens, together with colleague Esko Lyytinen, first predicted that a new shower would appear on May 24.

On that evening, Jenniskens’ research team took to the skies in a Beechcraft King Air 90 aircraft, a flight sponsored by the SETI Institute, and in little over two hours detected 21 Camelopardalids, predominantly faint meteors.

“Our best meteor was no more luminous than the star Vega”, says Jenniskens, “but it gave us a clue as to why there were few bright ones: It was so fragile that the meteoroid suddenly dispersed into a cloud of dust at the end of its trajectory."

Similar behavior was displayed during the 1933 and 1946 Draconid meteor storms, a consequence of close encounters with comet 21P/Giacobinni-Zinner. That comet was hyper-active, and Jenniskens suspects that the ejected dust grains were still embedded with ice. The larger grains would have been destroyed when the grains warmed up and the ice was lost.

Comet 209P/Linear, however, was a weakly active comet, not known for ejecting ice-laden dust.

“We are not sure yet what destroyed the larger meteoroids in this case,” Jenniskens says. “The meteoroids may have simply been too frail to survive ejection, or the larger meteoroids could have been lost in the many years since they were ejected.”

One explanation for the lack of large meteoroids is that they failed to survive the harsh conditions of space. The cometary dust encountered by Earth during May was more than a century old.

“We may have been just a few centuries late in catching a good show,” says Jenniskens. “The shower we saw was just a faint memory of what once was there.”




Peter Jenniskens
SETI Institute
E-mail: petrus.m.jenniskens@nasa.govTel: +1 650-810-0216

Seth Shostak, media contact
SETI Institute
E-mail: seth@seti.orgTel: +1 650-960-4530

David Black, President, CEO
SETI Institute
E-mail: dblack@seti.orgTel: +1 650 960-4510




All text copyright SETI 2014

New Map of Mars is the Most Accurate Ever Created

New global geologic map of Mars. Source: USGS

A Martian bill of rights is currently in the making (see a previous AstrobioWire post on extraterrestrial governments); now the U.S. Geological Survey has teamed up with NASA to create the most thoroughly researched map of the surface of the Red Planet in existence. The map, when downloaded, looks like this:

The surface of Mars is older than previously thought. Source: USGS

Dr. Kenneth Tanaka, USGS scientist and head of the Mars mapping project, had this to say about the project:

"Spacecraft exploration of Mars over the past couple decades has greatly improved our understanding of what geologic materials, events and processes shaped its surface. The new geologic map brings this research together into a holistic context that helps to illuminate key relationships in space and time, providing information to generate and test new hypotheses."

Rotating Globe of Mars Geology. Source: USGS

But this isn't the first amazingly accurate space map that the USGS have created for NASA. Did you know you can also download USGS maps of the Jovian moons Ganymede and Io? In a press release issued earlier this month, the USGS stated:

"The production of planetary cartographic products has been a focal point of research at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center since its inception in the early 1960s. USGS began producing planetary maps in support of the Apollo Moon landings, and continues to help establish a framework for integrating and comparing past and future studies of extraterrestrial surfaces. In many cases, these planetary geologic maps show that, despite the many differences between bodies in our solar system, there are many notable similarities that link the evolution and fate of our planetary system together."

All of these maps are free to download and will be of enormous interest to space enthusiasts. Just follow the links within the text above, or visit the USGS website here.

The new map is part of a growing interest in the fourth rock. After all, Mars is an Earth-sized planet within our Sun's habitable zone. It makes sense that we now have the beginnings of an off-world constitution, as well as a usable map for our closest neighbor. Perhaps it's only a matter of time before we start terraforming the planet for our own uses. As NASA planetary scientist Chris McKay told National Geographic, all you would have to do is "warm it up and throw some seeds."

Don't Cry For Me, Arthropoda: Study Finds Spiders Have Complex Characters

"Phidippus pius eyes" by Opoterser. Via Wikimedia Commons

Individual spiders have character and personality, according to a paper published by the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The paper, titled Individual personalities shape task differentiation in a social spider, gives details of a study into role allocation in spider societies.

It was previously assumed that individuals in social spider communities contributed homogeneously, with all tasks, such as prey capture and colony defence, being performed equally by members.

The study focused on Stegodyphus sarasinorum, a permanently social spider occurring in India and some surrounding countries. Led by Lena Grinsted of Aarhus University in Denmark, over 600 spiders were marked and observed, with tests singling out boldness and aggression. Variances in response showed that individuals were suited to particular roles.

Stegodyphus sarasinorum spiders, marked for identification. Courtesy of Lena Grinsted

Individuals in the test group were highly related and of approximately the same age: the only variable was apparently their personality. The study suggests that task allocation is the result of character traits in individual spiders; personality does not appear to be shaped by random selection of task performance, therefore.

Character and personality are often attributed only to humans, higher order mammals, and birds. Now it appears that arthropods also have more complex behavioral traits than had previously been considered.

Animal behavior is a popular topic in ecology at the moment. Studies of the kind conducted by Grinsted and her colleagues are leading to a new understanding of task performance in natural group settings, with personality assays becoming a useful tool for individual behavior prediction.

For readers interested in animal behavior, Yale University offer a free, open online course which can be found here.

Jupiter's Oceanic Moon Almost Certainly Has Life: NASA Plans Mission

 

Artist's concept of the surface of Europa. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

With NASA issuing an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for instruments and equipment to be carried on a mission to Europa, the possibility of discovering extraterrestrial life is getting closer than ever. Around 20 proposals will be chosen in 2015 and will recieve funding for development. Successful proposals may be carried by an orbiting spacecraft, such as the conceptual Europa Clipper, which would perform a series of flybys of Jupiter's famous moon.

Ideas for proposals include:

• Radar capable of penetrating the surface ice and assessing its thickness,
• Infrared spectrometers for ascertaining the makeup of Europa's surface, 
• Topographic cameras capable of high-resolution imaging of geographical features,
• Ion and neutral mass spectrometers for analyzing Europa's atmosphere.

Referring to Europa as an oceanic Jovian moon, NASA's AO will entice engineers and researchers from around the world keen to be attached to the search for life beyond Earth.

 Concept art for the proposed Europa Clipper. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

While other efforts concentrate on finding exoplanets suitable for life, a mission to Europa will assess our own solar system as a host for multiple life sources. In addition to the new AO, NASA previously released a Request for Information (RFI) to the science and engineering community, with much the same requirements as listed in the AO.

There was a wider scope to the RFI, as it also included proposals for the spacecraft itself, and stated that the moon's magnetosphere and interaction with the immediate space environment would also be studied, with the caveat that intense radiation levels must be factored in to proposed designs.

In a 2013 paper led by Kevin Hand at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it was shown that hydrogen peroxide is abundant on Europa. Given that there is believed to be an ocean under the frozen surface of the moon, the hydrogen peroxide may mix with the water, which would yield oxygen. This could be a source of energy for any life, such as chemosynthetic microorganisms, that may exist there.

Since it is looking increasingly likely that life on Earth began at hydrothermal vents at the bottom of oceans, hitting targets such as Europa would be the quickest way to discover whether life may indeed thrive in the universe. Given that NASA is proposing to invest a significant amount of money and effort in a mission to Europa (rather than another target, such as Enceladus) suggests that there is a extremely strong case for life existing there.

Tigers of the Highlands: The Race to Conserve the Scottish Wildcat

The Scottish Wildcat, Felis silvestris. Source: The Wildcat Haven

 

Facing extinction in their native Highlands, the Scottish wildcat, Britain's largest predatory mammal, has been given a 250 square-mile haven.

The Wildcat Haven has been funded by sponsors across the world and is part of a collaborative effort; in addition to the dedication of the site at Ardnamurchan, on Scotland's west coast, hybridisation with domestic cats in the area has been halted by a feral cat catch-and-release program, in which cats of domestic stock are neutered, and local pet owners have been encouraged to neuter their cats.

The Scottish Wildcat Association criticised the Scottish Natural Heritage's six-year plan to save the wildcat, asserting that it would lead to non-genetically pure wildcats. The SWA believes that the project, led by the University of Chester's Dr Paul O'Donoghue, constitutes the Scottish wildcat's best hope of survival in its natural environment.

With perhaps less than ten genetically pure wildcats on the site, the Wildcat Haven hopes to expand to 800 square miles, with in-situ breeding free from hybridisation and feline disease.

You can read more about this unique conservation project on the Wildcat Haven's website.

NASA Press Release: NASA Spacecraft Observes Further Evidence of Dry Ice Gullies on Mars

A new gully formed in Terra Silenum, Mars, between 2010 (left) and 2013 (right). Taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Press Release 2014-226

July 10, 2014

Repeated high-resolution observations made by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) indicate the gullies on Mars' surface are primarily formed by the seasonal freezing of carbon dioxide, not liquid water.

The first reports of formative gullies on Mars in 2000 generated excitement and headlines because they suggested the presence of liquid water on the Red Planet, the eroding action of which forms gullies here on Earth. Mars has water vapor and plenty of frozen water, but the presence of liquid water on the neighboring planet, a necessity for all known life, has not been confirmed. This latest report about gullies has been posted online by the journal Icarus.

"As recently as five years ago, I thought the gullies on Mars indicated activity of liquid water," said lead author Colin Dundas of the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. "We were able to get many more observations, and as we started to see more activity and pin down the timing of gully formation and change, we saw that the activity occurs in winter."

Dundas and collaborators used the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on MRO to examine gullies at 356 sites on Mars, beginning in 2006. Thirty-eight of the sites showed active gully formation, such as new channel segments and increased deposits at the downhill end of some gullies.
Using dated before-and-after images, researchers determined the timing of this activity coincided with seasonal carbon-dioxide frost and temperatures that would not have allowed for liquid water.

Frozen carbon dioxide, commonly called dry ice, does not exist naturally on Earth, but is plentiful on Mars. It has been linked to active processes on Mars such as carbon dioxide gas geysers and lines on sand dunes plowed by blocks of dry ice. One mechanism by which carbon-dioxide frost might drive gully flows is by gas that is sublimating from the frost providing lubrication for dry material to flow. Another may be slides due to the accumulating weight of seasonal frost buildup on steep slopes.

The findings in this latest report suggest all of the fresh-appearing gullies seen on Mars can be attributed to processes currently underway, whereas earlier hypotheses suggested they formed thousands to millions of years ago when climate conditions were possibly conducive to liquid water on Mars.

Dundas's co-authors on the new report are Serina Diniega of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

"Much of the information we have about gully formation, and other active processes, comes from the longevity of MRO and other orbiters," said Diniega. "This allows us to make repeated observations of sites to examine surface changes over time."

Although the findings about gullies point to processes that do not involve liquid water, possible action by liquid water on Mars has been reported in the past year in other findings from the HiRISE team. Those observations were of a smaller type of surface-flow feature.

An upcoming special issue of Icarus will include multiple reports about active processes on Mars, including smaller flows that are strong indications of the presence of liquid water on Mars today.

"I like that Mars can still surprise us," Dundas said. "Martian gullies are fascinating features that allow us to investigate a process we just don't see on Earth."

HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project is managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

For more information about HiRISE, visit: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu
Additional information about MRO is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro
For recent findings suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/1q1VRLS

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
818-354-6278
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

J.D. Harrington
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-5241
j.d.harrignton@nasa.gov

2014-226

All text copyright NASA

Better Than Earth: Are We Overlooking Superhabitable Worlds?

Photosynthesis on a lush exoplanet. Source: Doug Cummings, Caltech

Astrobiologists have been using Earth as a benchmark for habitability, for the obvious reason that it is so far the only place where life has been observed. But what if our planet is in fact not as habitable as it could be? There may be worlds out there that are in fact more habitable than Earth. Heller and Armstrong in their paper Superhabitable Worlds argue that other planets or moons may have ecosystems more benign to life than our home planet.

Published in the Astrobiology journal, the paper by René Heller and John Armstrong, of Canada's McMaster University and Weber State University respectively, conclude that K dwarfs are the most likely parent stars for superhabitable worlds, after considering a range of physical effects. Such worlds will be older and more massive than Earth, for one thing. Alpha Centauri B is a favorite parent star of the paper's authors. A K dwarf believed to host an Earth-sized planet, Alpha Centauri B belongs to the Sun's closest stellar system.

Age, then, is one of the main considerations for a world's superhabitable status. Why would a planet or moon older than Earth be more friendly towards life? Because, Heller and Armstrong argue, older worlds will have had longer to evolve more biodiverse environments, creating ecosystems that harbor conditions more conducive to life.

For an extrasolar planet to be habiltable, it would have to be free from excessive tidal heating; too much ice would also render a world inhospitable to extraterrestrial life. Terms such as 'habitable zone' (HZ) may be too vague, the authors state, since worlds with the HZ may not be habitable, and worlds that are habitable need not be within the HZ.

Astronomers and astrobiologists alike will be keen to see the images sent back from the James Webb Space Telescope, a joint project by NASA, ESA, and CSA due to launch 2018. Among other objectives, the JWST will gather images and data relating to planetary systems and the origins of life.

Hellbenders, Snot Otters, and Devil Dogs: North America's Disappearing Salamanders

Cryptobranchus alleganiensis. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Hellbenders, snot otters and devil dogs: these colorful names all belong to the hellbender salamander, a giant North American amphibian.

The hellbender is fast disappearing from its native North American ecosystems, where it acts as a bioindicator of water quality in the rocky, fast-moving water bodies it inhabits. Present in 16 states, the hellbender is now struggling to survive as siltation and pollution put pressure on these fragile habitats.

Divided into two subspecies, the eastern hellbenders, C. a. alleganiensis, and Ozark hellbenders, C. a. bishopi, it is the eastern hellbender that is currently attracting the most attention. This is largely thanks to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is investigating the eastern hellbender in order to assess whether it should be given endangered status.

So far, the smoking gun for the decline of the eastern hellbender is human activity. Contamination of water sources, damming of previously fast-flowing rivers, and siltation caused by run-off from development sites are all putting a squeeze on the eastern hellbender. Siltation is of particular concern, since the hellbender breathes through its skin; this is impeded by fine silt in the water, making oxygen uptake difficult. There could be other factors at play, too: temperature and dissolved oxygen must be constant, and prey items must be present in ample numbers; changes in any of these can cause environmental stress in amphibians.

A Pennsylvanian hellbender. Source: George Grall, National Geographic

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has already declared the Ozark hellbender an endangered species. After a 75% drop in numbers, the Ozark hellbender received protected status in 2011. The Ozark Hellbender Working Group has been involved with the conservation of this strictly aquatic subspecies of salamander since the early Naughties, and have a number of species regeneration and habitat restoration projects underway. The St. Louis Zoo is also involved in a project with the Missouri Department of Conservation raising juvenile salamanders in captivity.

Hellbenders can grow up to two feet long, and have a long lifespan, up to 30 years in the wild. The latter is a reason for their decline going unnoticed up until now, since habitat surveys were still recording their presence. However, populations currently being monitored mainly consist of mature individuals, with little or no regeneration taking place.

The National Geographic has more information on the hellbenders' range, efforts to conserve them, and other information and media here.

Extraterrestrial Governments? We Have Already Started Building One...

Artist's impression of a space colony. Source: NASA Ames Research Center

The second International Extraterrestrial Liberty Conference met in South London on the 12th to 13th June this year to discuss the political and economic considerations required for the first extraterrestrial government. Its focus was on the freedom of citizens within a space colony, most likely one on Mars. Scientists and political philosophers studied the constitutions of the United States, as well as those of Japan, Iceland, and Mongolia.

With space exploration becoming the estate of private companies as well as state organizations, a bill of rights for future Martian colonists will soon be a necessity. Several enterprises are aiming to put a permanent human colony on Mars, including NASA, Mars One (within the next ten years), and SpaceX.

The US Constitution could be a a good model to start from. But living in space will have new challenges to any document beginning "We, the people of Mars..." Astrobiologist Charles Cockell, organiser of the conference, had this to say:

“If somebody gets control of oxygen, they could very well have control over the whole population and could threaten dire consequences in return for extraordinary levels of power.”

No matter the differences between the US and the small, isolated population of the first extraterrestrial colony, the emphasis on liberty is paramount, and any consortium drafting the blueprint for a Martian government would do well to check out the US Constitution, one of the most comprehensive of modern constitutions designed to safeguard the freedom of its citizens.

Ancient Proto-Spider Brought Back To Life Using 3D Modeling

Arachnid modeling. Source: University of Manchester

A recent study published by the Paleontological Society describes a new 3D modeling process called Blender. To illustrate its use, Russell Garwood from the University of Manchester and Jason Dunlop from the Natural History Museum in Berlin imaged a trigonotarbid, an early arachnid and one of the first terrestrial predators, using well-preserved fossil evidence prepared in the 1920s and sourced from Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Garwood and Dunlop describe in their paper, The walking dead: blender as a tool for paleontologists with a case study on extinct arachnids, how they reconstructed the gait of a trigonotarbid, spider-like creatures from a few millimeters to a few centimeters in length. "The trigonotarbid is an alternating tetrapod, meaning there are four feet on the ground at any one time," Dr Garwood told BBC News.

The study also unearthed clues about how trigonotarbids ate; prey was digested pre-orally, in keeping with most arachnids' eating habits, with a digestive enzyme being added to prey items before ingestion. Trigonotarbids did not have spinnerets, and so had to hunt their prey rather than catch them in webs, an evolutionary advantage held by modern spiders.

Newly Described Dragon-Like Seabird Had a 24 Foot Wingspan

Pelagornis sandersi. Source: Liz Bradford

Discovered over 30 years ago during the construction of an airport, the bones of a gigantic seabird have only recently led to the description of a species new to science, Pelagornis sandersi. With a conservative wingspan of ~ 6.4 metres, P. sandersi belonged to an ancient family of birds that had tooth-like projections in their beaks, and was an expert glider, according to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. The paper, Flight performance of the largest volant bird, details a bird that truly dwarfed any species living today, over twice the size of the royal albatross.

California condor (left) and royal albatross (right) in P. sandersi's shadow. Source: Liz Bradford

Gliding for long distances would have been P. sandersi's stock in trade; it's biggest limitation would have been getting airborne in the first place. "I think they just waited on the beach for a strong wind to carry them aloft," study author Daniel Ksepka  told the National Geographic.

The largest bird species known to science is 6 million-year-old South American condor Argentavis magnificens. With a 7 metre wingspan, A. magnificens, AKA, the Giant Teratorn, is now in direct competition with P. sandersi for the title of Most Terrifyingly Massive Bird Ever.

Official NASA eBook: Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication

Source: NASA

From archaeology to anthropology, this collection of essays addresses the challenges humanity will face when communicating with an extraterrestrial civilization in the event that we make contact with one. Covering topics as apparently diverse as the culture of the ancient Mayans to radio transmission deciphering, these essays are written by archaeologists, anthropologists, and ethnologists, adding fresh perspectives to the fast-growing scientific discipline of astrobiology.

Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication is free to download direct from NASA.

Ancient Proteins Show That Evolution Can Take Hairpin Turns

Cortisol molecule. Source: Wikimedia Commons

This article is also available on AstrobioWire, where it was first published.

By resurrecting ancient protein molecules, geneticist Joe Thornton at the University of Chicago has concluded from studies of an early precursor to the protein responsible for the stress response, the Glucocorticoid Receptor (GR), that modern GR could only have developed in one way.

This essentially means that mammalian biology could have turned out very differently. In terms of evolution, such an improbable developmental quirk would suggest that life arising elsewhere might be very different from that on Earth.

many of our body’s systems work as they do because of very unlikely chance events that happened in our deep evolutionary past - See more at: http://www.astrobio.net/news-brief/resurrected-proteins-alternate-histories-sure-path-modernity-physiology/#sthash.DnUSrw3b.dpuf

many of our body’s systems work as they do because of very unlikely chance events that happened in our deep evolutionary past - See more at: http://www.astrobio.net/news-brief/resurrected-proteins-alternate-histories-sure-path-modernity-physiology/#sthash.DnUSrw3b.dpuf

many of our body’s systems work as they do because of very unlikely chance events that happened in our deep evolutionary past - See more at: http://www.astrobio.net/news-brief/resurrected-proteins-alternate-histories-sure-path-modernity-physiology/#sthash.DnUSrw3b.dpuf

"Many of our body's systems work as they do because of very unlikely chance events that happened in our deep evolutionary past," Joe Thornton told Astrobiology Magazine.

You can read the full article here.

Space Exploration May Well Be Necessary For Human Survival

The now-retired Space Shuttle Endeavour. Source: NASA

This was my first article on space exploration, originally published by Yahoo under the title "Time to Move? Why Space Exploration May Be Necessary for Human Survival".

Our world is more fragile than we like to think. Ecosystems, the atmosphere, and the relative geological calm upon which we rely for our continued existence as a species, are phenomena that did not always exist, and will almost certainly cease to exist at some point in the future. The threats to our existence are many, and they can be divided into human-created (anthropogenic) sources, and natural sources. There are also scenarios in which natural side-effects can be caused by anthropogenic causes, most notably climate change.

Let's take a look at the anthropogenic threats first of all. The most obvious of these is arguably climate change, with nuclear war a very close second. The misuse of biotechnology is another distinct threat, with biologically engineered weapons being a realistic worry.

Any one of these anthropogenic scenarios could spell doom for us: global warming could lead to catastrophic loss of biodiversity, a breakdown of the food-producing services of worldwide ecosystems, and an increase in communicable diseases. A nuclear war could destroy the planet's habitable atmosphere and block out the light from the sun, while unleashing deadly radiation. A bio-weapon could be released in the form of a pandemic disease, with devastation comparable to that caused by the medieval Black Death.

Natural threats are just as serious, if not more so, since some of them have a near-100% certainty of occurrence. For example, one day the Sun will expand to the extent that human life, if it still exists on Earth at that time, will be completely eradicated. Of course, that won't be for about 2 to 5 billion years in the future, but the fact remains that it will almost certainly happen. Also, one day the Earth will almost certainly be hit by an asteroid so colossal that it will destroy life on Earth as we know it, and it will therefore have the capability of destroying human civilization, if it still exists. It could happen in a million years. Or it could happen in ten, or less. Such events occur on average every 500,000 years. Smaller near-earth objects are tracked by NASA every day. A major asteroid collision isn't a 'maybe', it's an 'eventually'.

But it doesn't take a dying star or a wayward rock to put a stop to human endeavour. Loss of ecological services, such as pollination performed by bees, or nitrogen-fixing by certain plants, could lead to entire ecosystems crashing, disrupting the balance of gases in the atmosphere and even causing crop failure. A rise in temperature of only a few degrees could lead to the loss of large areas of agricultural land, causing not only drought and famine, but potentially war and the destabilisation of the global economy. A massive volcanic eruption would have some of the same effects as a nuclear war, causing widespread crop failure and weather disruption. All of these are near-future possibilities.

Earth's currently habitable state is fragile and precarious. Humanity is at significant risk of extinction so long as it has only one home. Space exploration could provide a way out of this dangerous position. Besides benefits such as the expansion of scientific knowledge, the unification of nations through shared space programs, and the acquisition of new sources of natural minerals and fuels, the colonization of space will reduce the risk of extinction by ensuring that populations exist elsewhere in space, should a catastrophe ever occur.

But we had better act fast. If we were to deplete Earth's natural resources before we found new sources, our species would be stranded on this planet with no means of further exploration. As resources are already limited, space exploration should be one of humankind's top priorities, alongside achieving food security and stabilising population growth. After all, its benefits won't just enhance life on Earth, they could save it.

NASA Press Release: Ocean on Saturn Moon Could be as Salty as the Dead Sea

Glimpsing Saturn through Titan's haze. Source: NASA

RELEASE 14-185


Scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Cassini mission have firm evidence the ocean inside Saturn's largest moon, Titan, might be as salty as the Earth's Dead Sea.

The new results come from a study of gravity and topography data collected during Cassini's repeated flybys of Titan during the past 10 years. Using the Cassini data, researchers presented a model structure for Titan, resulting in an improved understanding of the structure of the moon's outer ice shell. The findings are published in this week’s edition of the journal Icarus.

"Titan continues to prove itself as an endlessly fascinating world, and with our long-lived Cassini spacecraft, we’re unlocking new mysteries as fast as we solve old ones," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, who was not involved in the study.

Additional findings support previous indications the moon's icy shell is rigid and in the process of freezing solid. Researchers found that a relatively high density was required for Titan's ocean in order to explain the gravity data. This indicates the ocean is probably an extremely salty brine of water mixed with dissolved salts likely composed of sulfur, sodium and potassium. The density indicated for this brine would give the ocean a salt content roughly equal to the saltiest bodies of water on Earth.

"This is an extremely salty ocean by Earth standards," said the paper's lead author, Giuseppe Mitri of the University of Nantes in France. "Knowing this may change the way we view this ocean as a possible abode for present-day life, but conditions might have been very different there in the past."

Cassini data also indicate the thickness of Titan's ice crust varies slightly from place to place. The researchers said this can best be explained if the moon's outer shell is stiff, as would be the case if the ocean were slowly crystalizing, and turning to ice. Otherwise, the moon's shape would tend to even itself out over time, like warm candle wax. This freezing process would have important implications for the habitability of Titan's ocean, as it would limit the ability of materials to exchange between the surface and the ocean.

A further consequence of a rigid ice shell, according to the study, is any outgassing of methane into Titan's atmosphere must happen at scattered "hot spots" -- like the hot spot on Earth that gave rise to the Hawaiian Island chain. Titan's methane does not appear to result from convection or plate tectonics recycling its ice shell.

How methane gets into the moon's atmosphere has long been of great interest to researchers, as molecules of this gas are broken apart by sunlight on short geological timescales. Titan's present atmosphere contains about five percent methane. This means some process, thought to be geological in nature, must be replenishing the gas. The study indicates that whatever process is responsible, the restoration of Titan's methane is localized and intermittent.

"Our work suggests looking for signs of methane outgassing will be difficult with Cassini, and may require a future mission that can find localized methane sources," said Jonathan Lunine, a scientist on the Cassini mission at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and one of the paper's co-authors. "As on Mars, this is a challenging task."

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about Cassini, visit

http://www.nasa.gov/cassini
and
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

-end-





Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-354-1726
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

Preston Dyches
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-7013
preston.dyches@jpl.nasa.gov

All text copyright NASA 2014

SETI Press Release: Field Tests in Mojave Desert Get Us One Step Closer Towards Manned Asteroid Missions

 Pascal Lee (SETI Institute and Mars Institute) (right) and Sgt Andre Pearson (U.S. Army, NTC) conduct “small body” geological sampling in simulated spacesuits while anchored and tethered on a steep boulder slope at Asteroid Hill, National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California. 15 April 2013. Source: NASA

Press Release, Mountain View, California, 14 May 2013. A team of researchers from the SETI Institute, the Mars Institute, NASA Ames Research Center, and the space robotics company Honeybee Robotics, has successfully completed a first series of field tests aimed at investigating how humans will explore and work on Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and eventually the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos.

From 13 to 15 April 2013, field experiments were conducted at the U.S. Army’s National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California, to evaluate geotechnical methods and systems that will enable humans to be productive explorers in the low gravity environment of small rocky bodies. Sub-kilometer sized NEAs, Phobos, and Deimos are among destinations currently considered by NASA for future human missions into Deep Space.

“Human missions to Near-Earth Asteroids and to the moons of Mars present us with the exciting challenge of exploring planetary bodies with extremely low gravity” says Pascal Lee, planetary scientist at the SETI Institute and leader of the field test. “The goal of our field test was to learn how to characterize the physical properties of small body surfaces, and to test ideas that might enable humans to more productively explore these low-gravity worlds.”

The Mojave field test included three investigations: 1) a study of whether conventional field tools commonly used to characterize the mechanical properties of soils on Earth are suitable for small bodies; 2) an evaluation of how different anchoring systems might allow robotic spacecraft and astronauts to remain bound to a low gravity body; 3) a study of how astronauts might conduct geological sampling on a small body while using anchors and tethers.“It’s important to analyze and understand how conventional civil engineering methods and systems perform in natural settings on Earth before adapting them to the exploration of small bodies” explains Kris Zacny, Director of planetary exploration robotics at Honeybee Robotics in Pasadena, California. Honeybee Robotics is the company that developed the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, and the Sample Manipulation System (SMS) and Dust Removal Tool (DRT) on NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, Curiosity.

The Mojave field test was carried out on a small rocky hill at the NTC with many exposed blocks of weathered granite called tors. The site, now named “Asteroid Hill”, is reminiscent of the blocky surface of Near-Earth Asteroid (25143) Itokawa, which was explored in 2005 by Japan’s Hayabusa robotic spacecraft. “While neither the composition of the rocks nor the gravity at Asteroid Hill are similar to what they are on NEAs, the relevance of the site resides in the similarity in terrain texture (gravel and block abundance and sizes), topography, and scale between Asteroid Hill and Itokawa” notes Lee.

“This is an interesting analog site for planning future NASA robotic and human asteroid exploration, as it not only resembles the surface of the only sub-kilometer NEA explored by spacecraft to date, Itokawa, but it is well supported logistically by the U.S. Army’s National Training Center” said Terry Fong, Director of the Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames Research Center.

The Mojave field test builds on an existing partnership between NASA and the U.S. Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin. The latter is home to NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking station. “The National Training Center’s participation in this field test with NASA represents another positive development in our Joint Interagency Intergovernmental and Multinational (JIIM) partnership. It allows NTC to showcase it’s soldiers, the NTC community, and NTC’s vast training resources” said Cyle Fena, Deputy G3 at the NTC.

The Mojave Field Test will be featured as part of an upcoming television documentary filmed by First Canyon Media, Inc, titled Mission Asteroid. Produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Mission Asteroid is expected to air in North America in Fall 2013.

For more information, please visit www.seti.org and www.marsinstitute.info or contact:

Ms. Karen Randall
SETI Institute, Public Affairs Office Email: krandall@seti.org
Tel: +1 650 960 4537

Mr. Pascal Lee
Mars Institute
E-mail: pascal.lee@marsinstitute.net




All text copyright SETI and Mars Institute 2014

Knowing The Age of a Star Will Help Determine its Planets' Habitability

X-Class Solar Flare. Source: NASA

In about 4 or 5 billion years, the Sun will become a red giant, its atmosphere bloated, Earth's surface rendered uninhabitable. But life will have ceased to exist on Earth a lot sooner than this. Runaway heating will cause massive climate change effects. It is possible that with this increased influx of energy, the resulting storms may make it very difficult for life to survive, with ferocious winds sandblasting the Earth, while other regions bake in unbearable heat. If human civilizations still exist on Earth, they may have migrated towards the polar regions to survive the increased temperatures.

Liquid water may be a necessity for life in purely astrobiological terms, but a storm-lashed, sunbaked world would be hellish. The presence of water is a good starting point, but the age of a planet's parent star must also be factored in when ascertaining the habitability of newly discovered worlds.

Ancient Proteins Show That Evolution Can Take Hairpin Turns

Cortisol molecule. Source: Wikimedia Commons

By resurrecting ancient protein molecules, geneticist Joe Thornton at the University of Chicago has concluded from studies of an early precursor to the protein responsible for the stress response, the Glucocorticoid Receptor (GR), that modern GR could only have developed in one way.

This essentially means that mammalian biology could have turned out very differently. In terms of evolution, such an improbable developmental quirk would suggest that life arising elsewhere might be very different from that on Earth.

many of our body’s systems work as they do because of very unlikely chance events that happened in our deep evolutionary past - See more at: http://www.astrobio.net/news-brief/resurrected-proteins-alternate-histories-sure-path-modernity-physiology/#sthash.DnUSrw3b.dpuf

many of our body’s systems work as they do because of very unlikely chance events that happened in our deep evolutionary past - See more at: http://www.astrobio.net/news-brief/resurrected-proteins-alternate-histories-sure-path-modernity-physiology/#sthash.DnUSrw3b.dpuf

many of our body’s systems work as they do because of very unlikely chance events that happened in our deep evolutionary past - See more at: http://www.astrobio.net/news-brief/resurrected-proteins-alternate-histories-sure-path-modernity-physiology/#sthash.DnUSrw3b.dpuf

"Many of our body's systems work as they do because of very unlikely chance events that happened in our deep evolutionary past," Joe Thornton told Astrobiology Magazine.

You can read the full article here.

many of our body’s systems work as they do because of very unlikely chance events that happened in our deep evolutionary past - See more at: http://www.astrobio.net/news-brief/resurrected-proteins-alternate-histories-sure-path-modernity-physiology/#sthash.DnUSrw3b.dpuf

Life Among the Stars: Why We Can Be 100% Sure That Intelligent Life Exists in Space

 Galaxy-IC-3418. Source: NASA

This was my first astrobiology article, originally published on Yahoo; it gives a very basic overview of the subject of astrobiology, the possibility of extraterrestrial contact, and the idea that human life may not be entirely of this planet.

Can intelligent life arise in the cosmos? The existence of human beings is living proof that it can. So that’s the title of this article covered. But does life exist elsewhere in space? The scientific community has come round to the idea that it almost certainly does. Astronomers from SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) recently told the United States Congress that we would be able to prove within the next 20 years that alien life exists.

The scientific pursuit for knowledge of life in the universe is called astrobiology. Still think alien life equals flying saucers and little green men? Well, astrobiology is a very real, and very active, branch of scientific enquiry. Institutes of research such as NASA Ames and SETI have focused on some key aspects of astrobiology, including the search for extrasolar planets, the study of extremophiles (organisms that thrive in extreme conditions), and the conditions required for life to appear in the first place.

You may think that Earth is unique in having life, but there may be other places even within our own solar system where life may exist, such as Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, with is thought to have an ocean of water under its frozen surface. There is clear evidence that Mars once had water flowing on its surface, so even our closest neighbor may have harbored at least primitive life in its past – and perhaps it still does.

Beyond our solar system, other planets similar to Earth may also have been the birthplace of living organisms. Planets such as the newly discovered Kapteyn b are likely to have at least some of the conditions necessary for life. Interestingly, Kapteyn b is also relatively close to us – only 13 light years away – meaning that we may have a chance of visiting it... once we make the breakthroughs in physics required to master interstellar travel, that is.

Given the age of the universe and the likelihood that there are countless places suitable for life to arise, it is possible that some of these have developed intelligence. Of these, some may have organized themselves into civilizations, developed technology, and even mastered space flight. Other worlds, much older than our own, would have had more time to develop, and may possess knowledge and technology far in advance of our own.

What would happen if we actually made contact with an extraterrestrial civilization? Given the likelihood of their existence, and the possibility that some of them may be capable of advanced space travel, a visit from another race is plausible, if unlikely. What implications for civilization would a meeting of our cultures hold? Even knowing that they exist, via direct obervation, or through radio or other communications, would have a profound effect on our society. Religious beliefs, political ideology, scientific knowledge, even the way in which people go about their daily lives – everything would be affected in ways that are difficult to predict. In short, it would be the single most important shift in human perspective ever.

That’s assuming ETs don’t just destroy us outright: a visiting envoy may unwittingly carry diseases to which we would have no immunity; or worse: they may actively seek to eradicate us. A highly advanced race may view us as dangerous, backwards and barbaric, and they’d have a point. Or they may be after our resources, what’s left of them. At the very least, the Earth would certainly be of scientific interest to a visiting race. Physicist Stephen Hawkins has warned against making our position known, since extraterrestrial races may not have our best interests at heart.

But what are our best interests, anyway? After all, it could be advantageous for Earth to be part of a consortium of civilizations, provided they let us in. To be able to share scientific knowledge, to learn and make use of new discoveries, and to understand incredible new cultures, would broaden humanity’s horizons in ways our ancestors could never have imagined.

Never before have we been so close to finding extraterrestrial life. But what if the distinction between terrestrial and extraterrestrial life isn't quite that straightforward? The theory of panspermia describes the ability of microorganisms to propagate suitable habitats in space, surviving the harsh vacuum between worlds, by travelling on meteorites and other space debris. Is it possible that some of the bacteria and viruses on Earth were actually brought here by meteorites? Considering that part of human DNA actually comes from viruses  it may be possible that human beings are at least partially extraterrestrial in origin. But even without extraterrestrial virus DNA, the idea that we are not entirely of this Earth is a practical certainty: NASA scientists have found some of the amino acidsnecessary for life on comets, confirming that some of the components of life came to Earth from space. The line between terrestrial and extraterrestrial is being continually blurred; Earth biology is truly a blend of astronomical sources.

We are close to discovering that life exists elsewhere. As soon as scientists find even the first bacterium in space, we will have to accept that we may not be alone, and that one day we may take our place in a far wider community than we had previously imagined.