Exoplanets, Extremophiles and Earth2

NASA have announced the discovery of 1,284 Earth-like planets by their Kepler mission.
This news was almost an anti-climax, as there had been quite a buzz in the online world , with many predicting an imminent announcement confirming the existence of - gasp - aliens ; which is becoming almost a cliché itself, when any NASA announcement is expected.
I've also noticed the change in the tone.

Artist depiction of possible Earth2   NASA

This revelation seems to reinforce the idea that there is a second Earth out there, so moving away from the 'discovery' of alien life in whatever form it takes, we are now, apparently, seeking a mirror image or close match to our own world.
Surely this belittles the excitement of the potential for aquatic life in one of the many hidden seas in our own solar system - Enceladus, Europa, Ganymede, Ceres, all of which are candidates .
Did we decide that alien squid - jellyfish types were not good enough ?
Are we intent on refining the search to define extraterrestrial life as EXACTLY how we want it ?
In which case, what are we looking for in an alternative Earth ?
A planet which conveys the idyllic rural bliss of a painting by Turner ?

Tivoli     William Turner                          collection of the Tate

A world unsullied by the Industrial Revolution, where man, beast and nature work in harmony ?
Or a world where society has developed to an extent, with trade routes enabling the use of fine spices and foods, yet slave labour has not been introduced ?
In other words, do we seek a utopia where we never 'fell from grace' ?

I worry that the imposed view of an idyllic Earth2 can only ever fall short of our inflated hopes.
The phrase 'barking up the wrong tree' comes to mind
Also ' ...be careful what you wish for '.

I think that I am reading too much into the announcement itself - after all, the search for Earth - like worlds is the remit of Kepler, searching for Exoplanets in the ' Goldilocks' zone of other stars, and applying the chemical criteria which we know to be fruitful for life.
The discovery of 1,284 such candidates does not mean that we won't continue to examine our own solar system for signs of life - it just seems that we have almost resigned ourselves to knowing that, beyond the possibility of extremophiles or alien jellyfish, and long dead civilisations on Mars, there isn't really much potential here.
The grim ' reality' we face is the Terraforming of Mars, with all the unglamourous work that entails.
 

Oxygen has been detected on Mars

Speaking of Mars -
There was a smaller announcement of the discovery of oxygen in the upper atmosphere of Mars, but that was quickly cast aside - after all, oxygen on Mars may be beneficial for the imminent colonising and Terraforming, but it is hardly 'news' - we learned some time ago that there was once fresh water on Mars, and oxygen is a common factor in the structure of water.

Meanwhile back on Earth...
Apparently the molten interior of our world is far livelier than previously thought.
This leads to an ever-changing yo-yo of a surface.
Personally, I don't see any difference  thanks to this new revelation, but then - hey, I only live here, and my experience is not on a geological timescale.
In other news, here is a link to a global map in real-time of wind direction !
You're Welcome !

Until next time !

Power drains, Blue Mars and Boiling Rivers

 
Hello, everyone. My apologies for delay in this post, but my Google has been playing up.
Terrible thing, I know, but such is modern life.
If I didn't know better, I'd say that dark forces were at work ; after all, my microblog with its puny readership of two people and a bored translator in the Steppes must surely be inching closer to world domination .
The blog itself has been ' playing up ' , as I received a comment on the last post, and my attempts to respond were deleted mid-air, it seems.
So, in lieu of a response, this post shall be my reply to the comment.

A damaged magnet in LHC 2008

Even the Large Hadron Collider, the worlds largest and most expensive physics experiment is vulnerable.
The Large Hadron Collider uses a lot of electricity - 13 trillion electrovolts, following its recent upgrade.
This puts it on a par with the nearby city of Geneva.
Part of the immense power load is drawn from France , as well as Switzerland.
The French side of things is overseen by EDF, who impose strict conditions (including the fact that the LHC cannot function for certain days of the year ).
A lot of the power is used to maintain a constant temperature inside the collider, that is equal to deep space  (-271.25°c ).
this ensures that there is no danger of meltdown.
Well, that's the theory.
My last post told of animal intervention, where weasels, birds and raccoons had scuppered the world of science.
Even a multi-billion dollar enterprise like the LHC is vulnerable to 'Acts Of God' - or at least the Natural World.

I try not to be too topical on this blog, as it could be weeks, months or even years after the event that people read of it, but a rare occurence is due tomorrow, May 9th 2016 , with the transit of Mercury across the sun.
Like the passing of a comet, the transit of a planet across the sun is considered symbolic.
The transit of Mercury is apparently good for catching up with correspondence, communications, etc.

In other news from Mars, we hear that the water flows we see may be boiling - and parts of the planet are blue, as opposed to red !

Nilae Fossae is a blue area of Mars  

Also, staying with the martian thing, NASA have announced the discovery of oxygen in small amounts on Mars.
Haven't we been here before ?
Personally, I can't get very excited - the problem is that most of the atmosphere on Mars has gone, evaporated into the ether, millenia ago - so how does this find affect the present situation ?
I suppose it lends weight to any proposed Terraforming initiative, so the recent Space X landings and proposed 'Red Dragon' mission , would seem to contribute to this ever-increasing excitement as Earth2 becomes an almost tangible prospect.
.

Animal Saboteurs from the Future, Red Dragon on Mars, and Storms in Space

Weasel

Marten

The humbling effect of nature reaches us through this weeks news that the multi-billion dollar Large Hadron Collider was recently taken down and rendered inoperable .
Terrorist action ?
No, apparently a weasel chewed through an electrical cable.
I say apparently , as it is yet to be determined whether the culprit is indeed a weasel, or a marten.
Either way, given the frazzled nature of the poor interlopers remains, it may never be conclusively proven.
It seems that incursions by wildlife are an occupational hazard for particle accelerators like the LHC.
In 2009, a bird dropped a 'piece of baguette' onto an electrical substation above ground, causing a dangerous heat surge in sector 81.

Also, a report dating from way back in 2006 tells of a ' co-ordinated attack' (May 30th entry) by raccoons on the Fermilab accelerator in the USA .

Fermilab, Illinois

It could be argued that the animal kingdom is determined to undermine these experiments - two physicists have actually proposed a theory that the animals are time travelling saboteurs, I kid you not - read this link to TIME magazine !
It's odd how something so bizarre as the ongoing search for theoretical particles renders the most outlandish ideas as somehow - normal .
Anyway, my attempts to further research the unusual animal interventions at Particle Accelerators led to a world of conspiracy, with wayward physicists and exploding magnets.
Then I took a deep breath and stepped back from the abyss...

Footnote
It appears that the creature involved was a beech marten , although whether it was a time- travelling saboteur determined to prevent the Earth from certain apocalypse by misguided physicists remains unknown .
As of 29/04/16 it will be a week until the LHC is back in action.


MEANWHILE, UP IN SPACE...

Space X have announced their intention to land a ' Red Dragon' craft on Mars in 2018, a feat which, if accomplished , will provide a major boost to the idea of colonising space.
Their recent successful launches and recovery of first stage Falcon rockets prove that where there is a will, there is a way - and NASA will be watching closely  (and no doubt with a tinge of jealousy) at the progress of the mission.


FURTHER OUT...

Neptune - roughly the size of Hat-P-11B

A previously unexplained radio signal from space now has an explanation - using complex algorithms, scientists have discovered that the signals from a large, icy exoplanet some 122 light years away were infact triggered by an immense storm estimated to be five hundred times bigger than anything on Earth.
So they now have an answer for strange signals from space - " Oh, that's nothing special -  it's raining on Hat - P - 11B "
So even in deep space, we can talk about the weather...

Cloud Cities, Dinosaurs & When Black Holes Align...

Visual of particle collsion in LHC

A theory currently doing the rounds holds that the Large Hadron Collider, in its newly turbo - charged state could be responsible for the rash of earthquakes we're experiencing lately.
I suppose it makes a change from the doom laden prophecies of gates to hell or black holes, but personally I think it's an attempt to sensationalise - as if human suffering and death wasn't enough, an unnatural explanation has to be found for tectonic activity.
Surely the logical ending of this assertion is the awakening of  Godzilla or some other  creature from the very bowels of our world ?
Anyway, I digress, but fingers are being pointed at the LHC .
Meanwhile, Cern have released 300 Terabytes of data from recent tests by the LHC for the use of any citizen scientist out there with a large storage capacity...

Another idea for consideration is the assertion that human ribs started as shark gills, which is almost certainly a theme in tales by H P Lovecraft .
Staying with the theme of the sea, a recent piece by Maddie Stone tells us a tale of Cold War paranoia, and the CIA attempting to salvage secret Russian technologies.
It's an intriguing piece, and the link is here .

Researchers are heading out for a sample.

New thinking tells us that the dinosaurs, rather than being wiped out enmasse by a comet, infact died out gradually, over millions of years, with the comet  merely serving as a full stop.
In fairness, this sounds more plausible - although I'm surprised there is not any clear evidence in the fossil record.
New evidence may be forthcoming with the imminent sample which is being taken from the Chicxulub crater ...........

Meanwhile, up on Venus...

The Venusian surface as captured by Venera 13. The probe lasted 2 hours...

We have avoided space in this post, but here's a little footnote.
There seems to be a ' buzz' around Venus at present - I'm not sure why,
Perhaps we're just jaded with all the Mars exploration.
After all , Matt Damon growing potatoes in a barren landscape may be close to reality, but it's not the exotic alien world stuff we hanker for; so there is talk of establishing cloud cities above Venus, thus avoiding the inconvenience of the molten temperatures on the surface (460°celsius), and the sulphur fumes in the air.
Anyway, wishful thinking aside, the real news is from old readings from the  ESA craft Venus Express* which discovered that Venus was colder at the Poles than we'd imagined, with temperatures dropping to - 157°c, much colder than anywhere on Earth .

Moving  further out towards Titan, it has been verified that it contains a lake of methane, with possible wetlands around its shoreline.
Covering over a million kilometres , with a depth up to 160 metres, and a slew of organic materials, it would certainly be a place to examine more closely - don't forget that the sea , known as  Ligeia Mare, is only one of three...

In the distant Kuiper Belt, it has been observed that the second largest dwarf planet Makemake has a little moon of its own, ( known as MK2 ) with a diameter of 100 miles.

Saturns moon Titan has a lake of pure methane    

Further out there...

The discovery in deep space of a series of supermassive black holes in the centre of disparate galaxies which appear to be aligned has caused uproar , defying the odds of being a random occurence, and hinting at a far larger ' structure' to the known universe.
For me this is fantastical territory, leading as it does to the nature of filaments in space , as though part of some immense neural network...just a step away from the question of intelligent design.
At present, it's still a theory until further experiments, but even so, the galaxies in question are hundreds of millions of light years apart, yet seem to follow a pattern.

Will we ever see the true nature of the scaffolding that supports the universe ?
Currently having its mirrors uncovered, our James Webb Space Telescope will see further than ever before, taking us tantalisingly close to the ' Big Bang' - well, only a few hundred million years after the event.
On that note, I take my leave -

Computer simulation of filaments and voids

*The Venus Express is now no more, but outlived its expected 500 days of  Venus monitoring , and continued exploration for a further eight years.

The Wandering World , The Galaxy From Nowhere, and Other Oddities

Statue of Yuri Gagarin erected near Admiralty Arch, London

On the anniversary (12th April 1961) of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becoming the first man in space, we had an announcement from Stephen Hawking ,Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg (?) of project  'Breakthrough Starshot ,' an expedition to nearby star system Alpha Centauri, which will use a light sail, a powerful laser, and photons of sunlight to attain incredible speed - 20 % the speed of light, no less - taking a tiny microchip to its destination in a mere 20 years - a long journey to us, but a mere blip in cosmic terms (using conventional fuels would take 30 thousand years).
Momentous news, and just the kind of far - sighted thinking we need right now to escape our own earth-bound political struggles.

Breakthrough Starshot will boldly go...

The media is pushing the angle that it's the biggest attempt to discover aliens, ever.*
Well, I suppose it sells copy .
To be honest, the hyperbole would have you believe that the mere presence of our tiny solar sail would induce aliens to rush to appear on camera, take a selfie, etc.
The assertion that a tiny camera on a tiny sail is our most elaborate attempt to contact extraterrestrials is laughable.
I would point them to the wealth of online information, but it's not my job to educate lazy journos...

Mistakes mean we're only human, after all - for instance - they just discovered  a galaxy next to our own.
Researchers in the University of Cambridge discovered the galaxy , ( known as Crater 2 ) during recent observations.
A galaxy which has been there since forever.
The defence is that it is a very dim galaxy.
And you know how tricky it is to spot something that is quite dark.
Especially in the dark.
So we completely missed it until just now.
Oops

IN OTHER NEWS...

Hybrid star/ worlds...

A university in Canada (Western Ontario) , have discovered an orphan world  - a brown dwarf, no less- with the name 2MASS , for short (possible rapper delusions) , wandering around in our neighbourhood.
It is a relatively youthful world, too, at a mere 200 million years old compared to our own 4 billion.


In a first, the Saturn system explorer Huygens - Cassini has detected cosmic particles from beyond our own solar system,
Cassini also analysed the particles revealing a mixture of minerals, rather than the expected ice.

In other maybe news, it seems the Large Hadron Collider may have discovered a new particle.
Hopeful at best, we must await further testing and won't have final word until this summer - but it would be a first , and could involve further advances in some new fields, so fingers crossed

*A more sober observation regarding potential first contact from Neil DeGrasse Tyson says that initial contact would probably involve a mathematical exchange, perhaps a solution to a simple abstract problem, before we get down to discussing cosmic matters.

Notes From Anthropocene Man - The Gates of Hell, Falcon 9, and Supermassive Black Holes

STOP PRESS!

As this micro blog goes to press, Space X made history today by launching the Falcon 9 rocket to restock the ISS and then landing the first stage booster with pinpoint accuracy on a barge / 'droneship' in the Atlantic !
History is made !
Meantime, the Dragon craft is docking with the ISS to replenish supplies , and deliver an inflatable extension !

The West Coast  droneship used for the landing

It is a piece of history now, and surely the first step in a new, commercial, space race.

The image below appeared on my FB feed as a timely reminder that we see everything from a human scale, but in the grand scheme of things, we really are miniscule. Further feelings of insignificance came with the announcement of the discovery of a supermassive black hole in an otherwise empty corner of the universe.
The very phrase ' empty corner of the universe' is surely a euphemism...

Endeavour leaves Earth for the final time.          Pic NASA

I find it tempting to laugh at the ludicrous terminology - 'Supermassive', not just ' large' .
'Supermassive' black hole applies to anything over the size of ten billion* suns.
This one is the size of seventeen billion suns, so it's quite big, then.
but not the biggest.
This led me to wonder how they classify black holes , but I confess I'm none the wiser ...apparently the naming convention is ' primordial, stellar and supermassive' .
If you want to ponder, the link is here.

If you just want to see some great images from our solar system , the link is here, with thanks to The Atlantic.com

The giant listening 'ears' of SETI are being redirected.
The latest thinking is that intelligent life, should it exist, is more likely to be found in the habitable, or 'goldilocks' zones of planets in a tight orbit around red dwarf suns.
This information was gathered by the Keppler mission, and given that three quarters of the stars in our own Milky Way are red dwarf stars, that makes them much more practical (i.e. closer to home).
I laughed when I read the phrase 'They are the dim bulbs of the universe'.
This made me sit up, though - why so many red dwarf stars  in our galaxy ?
Are we a dying galaxy ?
Anyway, I hope the revised SETI search produces results - although I prefer another theory which states that our reliance on radio waves as a communication carrier might itself be at fault.

I also hold the belief that advanced alien civilisations might be hiding rather than attempting to communicate.
Who can blame them ?

MEANWHILE , BACK ON  EARTH...

Apparently the new, more energised world of the Large Hadron Collider leaves us open to dangerous possibilities .
Even Pope Francis has spoken out, saying " Scientists risk opening the gates to hell ".
If you ask me (or any old gamer) it sounds like a script for Doom .

In which science unleashes the hordes of hell...    

Either way, there's no denying that with increased power available, the world of the LHC is necessarily getting stranger.
Which makes me wonder -
Is there a global strangeness index ?
Personally, I reckon the world is a lot stranger than it was , but my Googling of the term ' Global Weirdness' only turned up a slew of Climate Change info, which is a frightening reality , but not 'weird '.

IN OTHER NEWS...

NVIDIA are developing supercomputers capable of intricate 'Deep Learn' style Artificial Intelligence.
The aim of this is to develop a system which approaches problems from a variety of angles, much as we humans do.
I only hope the resultant Artificial Intelligence doesn't decide to wipe us out and reboot...which brings us to the title of this post .

Apparently we are living in the Anthropocene era, when our impact on the Earth is unavoidably altering it - and not for the better.
As well as the obvious Climate Change, the search for rare earth elements is a potential eco-disaster.
These rare substances are essential components in smartphones and all things tech,, but do not exist in sufficient quantities to mine , except on the sea - bed.
The caveat is that wholesale destruction of fragile marine ecosystems is necessary to procure enough of them.
Of course, it's possible that many asteroids contain abundant 'rare-Earth' minerals - which, along with todays successful landing by Space-X, tells us that the new 'Space Race' is on - hopefully without the political edge...






* NASA claim that anything over 4 million suns is supermassive 

Vanishing Satellites, Planetary Collisions and Nitrogen Lakes

News just in tells us that there has been a collision on Jupiter, probably involving a stray asteroid.
In a move that laughs in the face of improbability, it has been documented by not one, but two amateur astronomers - which conjures a strange image of dedicated, lonely skywatchers !
More to the point, it's bizarre that it should even be noticeable from Earth.
Let's look at the maths for a moment.
At it's closest point to Earth, Jupiter is approximately 628 million miles away.
The object which collided with the gas giant is estimated as a few hundred feet in diameter, so not exactly big.
Yet here is the footage.

Hitomi launch 17 Feb 2016            pic ©JAXA

It's great that amateur astronomers are on the case, because even professionals can mess up -  Japan have just lost their brand new orbiting telescope, barely weeks after launch.
In a blow to JAXA , the satellite named Hitomi, has broken up and is now beyond recovery.
It was designed to examine large and powerful events, such as supernovae and black holes, but the joint Japanese / NASA mission is no more.
It remains a mystery as to what exactly occured, but the 273 million dollar telescope is now so much space debris.
STOP PRESS: The satellite Hitomi has suddenly re-appeared, it has shed some debris, and is in a spin / freefall. 
Due to the uncertainty of this development, I'm not going to delete the previous article yet.
Awaiting further developments as of 30 March 2016.
Exciting !
Thank you !

The controversial (well, he is responsible for the downgrading of Pluto) , Mike Brown @plutokiller, has found another Kuiper belt object whose unusual movements corroborate his planet nine theory - note I said theory - his evidence has not yet been peer reviewed, so it's still early days - although he's probably getting lots of love from the Conspiracy / New Age Niburu contingent.
Cynical, me ?

Frozen nitrogen lake on Pluto       pic NASA/ JPL / Caltech

In other news, hawk - eyed photo scrutinisers (is there no actual name for this increasingly relevant pastime ?) have discovered a small ( 20 miles wide !) frozen lake on Pluto.
Don't book that sailing holiday just yet - it's a nitrogen lake, and without a sun to defrost the Nitrogen - on the other hand there appears to be warmth emanating from inside Pluto , hence the new geological areas, so, despite its position out on the edge of our solar system , Pluto is anything but cold and lifeless.
In a moment of serendipity, I learned today that -169°c is the temperature at which nitrogen liquifies, and nitrogen is the liquid in which proponents (clients?) of Cryonics are preserved.
How this impacts on the news from Pluto, I'm not sure, but there's probably a dystopian sci - fi in there, somewhere...

One place not to go kite flying (or probably even using light sails to harness photons as propulsion) , is the newly discovered supermassive black hole with winds of up to 200 million mph .
That's fast - infact, it's a significant percentage of the speed of light - imagine the ability to 'slingshot' a spacecraft , using the thrust to boost travel speed...

Just to boost those feelings of cosmic insignificance, our Milky Way galaxy ( of which we are a dot on the outer edge) , is part of the Laniakea Supercluster of 100,000 galaxies.

And on that note of cosmic insignificance, I say, cheerio - till next time !