Showing posts with label Discovery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Discovery. Show all posts

Thursday, September 22, 2022

Extraterrestrial Water Discovered Inside Winchcombe Meteorite

Winchcombe Meteorite

     A meteorite that fell in the UK the year before contained extraterrestrial water, a discovery that is the first of its kind.

It is also believed that the Winchcombe meteorite, which fell into a Gloucestershire town's driveway in February of last year,
By Rich Co
www.natureworldnews.com
9-17-22
may contain information about the origin of the planet's vast oceans.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Plumes on Europa, a Target for Alien Life

Plumes on Europa, a Target for Alien Life

     Europa, a moon of Jupiter thought to harbor a warm, saltwater ocean sloshing beneath a thick, icy crust, has long been considered one of the best spots in the solar system to look for alien beings.
by Sarah Kaplan
The Washington Post
5-14-18

Now, citing data collected by NASA's Galileo probe more than two decades ago, scientists report that giant jets of water are spouting more than 100 miles off that moon's surface. The study, published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy, adds to the mounting evidence that Europa is spewing its contents into space.

If the existence of the plumes is confirmed and they are linked to Europa's ocean, they could provide a tantalizingly straightforward way to sample the moon in search of signs of life....

Monday, August 07, 2017

Finding Proof of Space Aliens, What Happens Next?

Finding Proof of Space Aliens, What Happens Next?

Protocols for responding to the discovery of extraterrestrial
intelligence have been created, but they might not be followed.

     First came the suggestion that an “alien megastructure” had been observed around KIC 8462852, a.k.a. Tabby’s Star. Months later, people were talking about a signal seen by a Russian telescope that some thought was transmitted from the environs of a stellar cousin of
By Seth Shostak
NBC News
8-1-17
the sun. And not long after that, the Cyclopean Arecibo antenna in Puerto Rico reported weird signals that seemed to come from the dwarf star Ross 128, a scant 11 light-years away.

[...]

These three claims purporting to show the existence of aliens haven’t panned out. But what happens if some future claim does? What preparations are in place to deal with the discovery of a radio signal or a laser flash that would prove beyond doubt that we have cosmic compeers? Does the government have a plan? Does anyone?

[...]

... Back in 1989, when a now-defunct NASA program to search for extraterrestrial intelligence was gaining steam, protocols were drafted to spell out best practices in case the search proved successful. These were later updated and streamlined by the International Academy of Astronautics SETI Permanent Committee. (Click here to see the revised protocols.)

Monday, July 10, 2017

Oxygen Producing Comet Found in Deep Space

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Rosetta Navigation Camera Image of Comet 67P
The finding shows that oxygen can be generated in space without the need for life, and could influence how researchers search for signs of life on exoplanets.

     In 2015, scientists announced the detection molecular oxygen at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which was studied by the Rosetta spacecraft. It was the “biggest surprise of the mission,” they said — a discovery that could change our understanding of how the solar system formed.
By Nancy Atkinson
Seeker.com
5-10-17

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Sorry, UFO Fans – NASA Says No Aliens ... Yet

Sorry, UFO Fans – NASA Says No Aliens ... Yet
Conspiracy theorists believe that NASA has been in cahoots with the little green men for decades – and yesterday the wilder parts of the internet went (even more) nuts.

     A video supposedly posted by hacktivist collective Anonymous claimed NASA was ‘on the brink’ of revealing contact with aliens.

But NASA has stepped in to say that they’re not going to be doing a press conference with the little green men any time soon.
By Rob WaughRob Waugh
Metro.co.uk
6-27-17

Dr Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator, NASA Science Mission Directorate, said, ‘Contrary to some reports, there’s no pending announcement from NASA regarding extraterrestrial life.’

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

'Evidence of Alien Life' To Be Released By NASA? | VIDEO

'Evidence of Alien Life' To Be Released By NASA?

     HUMANS are about to discover alien life, Nasa believes – according to the latest video from hacktivist group Anonymous.

The hackers published YouTube clip which claims a Nasa scientist
By Laura Burnip
The Sun
6-25-17
made the announcement at the last meeting of the US Science, Space and Technology committee.

It comes after Nasa’s Kepler space observatory discovered 219 “potential new worlds” in other solar systems.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Lifeforms Possible On Newly Discovered Planets, Says Michio Kaku | VIDEO

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Artist's Conception of TRAPPIST-1 Planetary System

     NASA announced the discovery of seven Earth-sized planets around a star about 40 light years away from Earth. All seven could have water, which is key to life like ours, and three of them fall in the habitable zone.
CBS News
2-23-17
Michio Kaku, CBS News science and futurist contributor and physics professor at the City University of New York, joins "CBS This Morning" with more on this new discovery.

Friday, February 24, 2017

Alien Life? NASA Announces 7 Earth-Size, Habitable-Zone Planets Around Single Star


Alien Life? NASA Announces 7 Earth-Size, Habitable-Zone Planets Around Single Star
This illustration shows the possible surface of TRAPPIST-1f, one of the newly discovered planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system. Scientists using the Spitzer Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes have discovered that there are seven Earth-size planets in the system.

     NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star. Three of these planets are firmly located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water.
By NASA
2-22-17

The discovery sets a new record for greatest number of habitable-zone planets found around a single star outside our solar system. All of these seven planets could have liquid water – key to life as we know it – under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with the three in the habitable zone.

“This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “Answering the question ‘are we alone’ is a top science priority and finding so many planets like these for the first time in the habitable zone is a remarkable step forward toward that goal.”

Seven Earth-sized planets have been observed by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope around a tiny, nearby, ultra-cool dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1. Three of these planets are firmly in the habitable zone. Credits: NASA

At about 40 light-years (235 trillion miles) from Earth, the system of planets is relatively close to us, in the constellation Aquarius. Because they are located outside of our solar system, these planets are scientifically known as exoplanets.

This exoplanet system is called TRAPPIST-1, named for The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile. In May 2016, researchers using TRAPPIST announced they had discovered three planets in the system. Assisted by several ground-based telescopes, including the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, Spitzer confirmed the existence of two of these planets and discovered five additional ones, increasing the number of known planets in the system to seven.

The new results were published Wednesday in the journal Nature, and announced at a news briefing at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Using Spitzer data, the team precisely measured the sizes of the seven planets and developed first estimates of the masses of six of them, allowing their density to be estimated.

Based on their densities, all of the TRAPPIST-1 planets are likely to be rocky. Further observations will not only help determine whether they are rich in water, but also possibly reveal whether any could have liquid water on their surfaces. The mass of the seventh and farthest exoplanet has not yet been estimated – scientists believe it could be an icy, "snowball-like" world, but further observations are needed.

"The seven wonders of TRAPPIST-1 are the first Earth-size planets that have been found orbiting this kind of star," said Michael Gillon, lead author of the paper and the principal investigator of the TRAPPIST exoplanet survey at the University of Liege, Belgium. "It is also the best target yet for studying the atmospheres of potentially habitable, Earth-size worlds."

TRAPPIST-1 planets
This artist's concept shows what each of the TRAPPIST-1 planets may look like, based on available data about their sizes, masses and orbital distances.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In contrast to our sun, the TRAPPIST-1 star – classified as an ultra-cool dwarf – is so cool that liquid water could survive on planets orbiting very close to it, closer than is possible on planets in our solar system. All seven of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary orbits are closer to their host star than Mercury is to our sun. The planets also are very close to each other. If a person was standing on one of the planet’s surface, they could gaze up and potentially see geological features or clouds of neighboring worlds, which would sometimes appear larger than the moon in Earth's sky.

The planets may also be tidally locked to their star, which means the same side of the planet is always facing the star, therefore each side is either perpetual day or night. This could mean they have weather patterns totally unlike those on Earth, such as strong winds blowing from the day side to the night side, and extreme temperature changes.

Spitzer, an infrared telescope that trails Earth as it orbits the sun, was well-suited for studying TRAPPIST-1 because the star glows brightest in infrared light, whose wavelengths are longer than the eye can see. In the fall of 2016, Spitzer observed TRAPPIST-1 nearly continuously for 500 hours. Spitzer is uniquely positioned in its orbit to observe enough crossing – transits – of the planets in front of the host star to reveal the complex architecture of the system. Engineers optimized Spitzer’s ability to observe transiting planets during Spitzer’s “warm mission,” which began after the spacecraft’s coolant ran out as planned after the first five years of operations.

"This is the most exciting result I have seen in the 14 years of Spitzer operations," said Sean Carey, manager of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California. "Spitzer will follow up in the fall to further refine our understanding of these planets so that the James Webb Space Telescope can follow up. More observations of the system are sure to reveal more secrets.”

Following up on the Spitzer discovery, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has initiated the screening of four of the planets, including the three inside the habitable zone. These observations aim at assessing the presence of puffy, hydrogen-dominated atmospheres, typical for gaseous worlds like Neptune, around these planets.

This 360-degree panorama depicts the surface of a newly detected planet, TRAPPIST 1-d, part of a seven planet system some 40 light years away. Explore this artist’s rendering of an alien world by moving the view using your mouse or your mobile device. Credits: NASA

In May 2016, the Hubble team observed the two innermost planets, and found no evidence for such puffy atmospheres. This strengthened the case that the planets closest to the star are rocky in nature.

"The TRAPPIST-1 system provides one of the best opportunities in the next decade to study the atmospheres around Earth-size planets," said Nikole Lewis, co-leader of the Hubble study and astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope also is studying the TRAPPIST-1 system, making measurements of the star's minuscule changes in brightness due to transiting planets. Operating as the K2 mission, the spacecraft's observations will allow astronomers to refine the properties of the known planets, as well as search for additional planets in the system. The K2 observations conclude in early March and will be made available on the public archive.

Spitzer, Hubble, and Kepler will help astronomers plan for follow-up studies using NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, launching in 2018. With much greater sensitivity, Webb will be able to detect the chemical fingerprints of water, methane, oxygen, ozone, and other components of a planet's atmosphere. Webb also will analyze planets' temperatures and surface pressures – key factors in assessing their habitability.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center, at Caltech, in Pasadena, California. Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at Caltech/IPAC. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

Friday, February 10, 2017

New Star Trek Series Has Begun Filming (Video)


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New Star Trek Series Has Begun Filming

     After 12 years off the air, Star Trek will finally soar back onto our screens in Discovery, a new show that will stream exclusively on CBS All Access — and on #Netflix for international viewers. So far, the news has been rather difficult to follow, with #StarTrekDiscovery being pushed
By Eleanor Tremeer
moviepilot.com
2-8-17
back twice already, and precious little plot details available so far. And yet, there's a lot we can glean from tiny hints buried in the numerous press releases, so here's your ultimate guide to Star Trek: Discovery!

Continue Reading ►





The musical theme for Star Trek: Discovery's opening credits may have been revealed via Twitter.


See Also:

'Star Trek' Tech Here and Now

‘Star Trek’ Creator Gene Roddenberry’s Lost Data Recovered

Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy Has Died at 83




REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE


Saturday, December 17, 2016

Is There Alien Life on Dwarf Planet, Ceres?

Is There Alien Life on Dwarf Planet, Ceres?

     SCIENTISTS have discovered an abundance of water ice on the dwarf planet Ceres, suggesting it could potentially be home to alien life.
By Sean Martin
The Daily Express
12-16-16

The tiny sub-planet, which is found in the asteroid belt situated between Mars and Jupiter, has been found to have water ice on its crust, which points to more beneath the surface.

The study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, shows that Ceres is 10 per cent water ice – which could point to the dwarf planet either currently being habitable, or was once habitable, experts say.

The discovery makes it one of many extraterrestrial bodies that has, or has had, water on it, including Mars, Saturn’s moons Europa and Enceladus, Jupiter’s moon Ganymede and another dwarf planet in Pluto.

Most scientists agree that the location of the water on the sub-planet massively increases the chances of finding life.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Signature of Past Life on Mars?

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Signature of Past Life on Mars

Home Plate opaline silica (left) occurs in nodular masses with digitate structures that resemble those at El Tatio (right). Credit: ASU/Ruff & Farmer

      During its wheeled treks on the Red Planet, NASA's Spirit rover may have encountered a potential signature of past life on Mars, report scientists at Arizona State University (ASU).
Leonard David
Space.com
11-22-16

To help make their case, the researchers have contrasted Spirit's study of "Home Plate" — a plateau of layered rocks that the robot explored during the early part of its third year on Mars — with features found within active hot spring/geyser discharge channels at a site in northern Chile called El Tatio.

The work has resulted in a provocative paper: "Silica deposits on Mars with features resembling hot spring biosignatures at El Tatio in Chile." ...

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

'Surprising Activity' On Europa Revealed By NASA | VIDEO

'Surprising Activity' On Europa Revealed By NASA
On Monday, after teasing about an announcement concerning "surprising activity" on Jupiter's moon Europa, NASA revealed new evidence from the ice-covered satellite.

     Look, we told you it wasn't going to be aliens.

On Monday, after teasing about an announcement concerning "surprising activity" on Jupiter's moon Europa, NASA revealed new evidence for water geysers shooting from the ice-covered satellite. ...
By Rachel Feltman
The Washington POst
9-27-16
Plumes would be exciting because they'd probably be signs of geological activity under the ocean surface, which would mean a source of energy for potential life-forms under the alien sea. ...

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

First-Ever Binary Alien Planets Found?

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First-Ever Binary Alien Planets Found?

      Astronomers may have found the first binary planets ever observed beyond our solar system.

The two objects straddle the dividing line between gas giants and odd
Nola Taylor Redd
Space.com
9-20-16
"failed stars" known as brown dwarfs in terms of mass, researchers said. The newfound bodies are also similar to each other in size and age.

"They're probably brother and sister," Daniella Gagliuffi told Space.com. Gagliuffi, a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego, found the objects amid a cloud of stars about 65 light-years from Earth. ...

Saturday, August 27, 2016

New Discovery of 'Dark Matter' Galaxy

New Discovery of 'Dark Matter' Galaxy

     Astronomers have discovered a galaxy as big as the Milky Way that consists almost entirely of dark matter, a mysterious and invisible substance that scientists have been trying to figure out for decades. Only one-hundredth of one percent of the galaxy is ordinary, visible
Hanneke Weitering
SPACE.com
8-26-16
matter like stars and planets. The other 99.99 percent of the stuff in this galaxy can't be seen.

No one really knows what dark matter is made of, but scientists believe it exists because they can see the effects of its gravity on other things in space. Whatever it may be, about 80 percent of the mass in the universe is dark matter. ...

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Earth-Like Planet Found in Nearby Star System?

Earth-Like Planet Found in Nearby Star System?

     (Phys.org)—An Earth-like planet may be lurking in a star system located just 16 light years away, according to a new research. The star, named Gliese 832, was recently investigated by a team of astronomers searching for additional exoplanets that may be residing between the two currently known alien worlds in this system. A paper detailing the finding was published online on Apr. 15 in the arXiv journal.
By Tomasz Nowakowski
phys.org
4-19-16

Gliese 832 is a red dwarf and has just under half the mass and radius of our sun. The star is orbited by a giant Jupiter-like exoplanet designated Gliese 832b and by a super-Earth mass planet Gliese 832c. The gas giant, with a mass of 0.64 Jupiter masses, is orbiting the star at a distance of 3.53 AU, while the other planet is potentially a rocky world, around five times more massive than the Earth, residing very close its host star—about 0.16 AU.

Now, a team of astronomers, led by Suman Satyal of the University of Texas at Arlington, has reanalyzed the available data on this nearby planetary system hoping to find more extrasolar worlds that may be located in a vast space between the two known planets. [...]

Newly Discovered Galaxy Spotted Orbiting the Milky Way

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Newly Discovered Galaxy Spotted Orbiting the Milky Way

     The galaxy’s empire has a new colony. Astronomers have detected a dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way whose span stretches farther than nearly all other Milky Way satellites. It may belong to a small group of galaxies that is falling into our own.
By Ken Croswell
www.newscientist.com
4-14-16

[...]

Now, Gabriel Torrealba at the University of Cambridge and his colleagues have found a new galaxy about 380,000 light years away in the constellation Crater. “It’s the fourth largest satellite of the Milky Way,” Torrealba says.

Named the Crater 2 dwarf, the new galaxy is not apparent to human eyes, though individual stars within the galaxy are visible. The team were only able to find it this January by using a computer to look for over-densities of stars in data from images taken by a telescope in Chile.


Thursday, April 14, 2016

Marine Robot Finds Monster at Loch Ness

Marine Robot Finds Monster at Loch Ness

     A new underwater sonar-imaging investigation into Loch Ness has uncovered the remains of a monster.

Led by Kongsberg Maritime and supported by The Loch Ness Project and VisitScotland, the mission using Munin, a state-of-the-art intelligent marine robot, has revealed new information about the elusive 230 metres deep loch, uncovering areas underwater that have never been reached before.
By www.strathspey-herald.co.uk
4-13-16

Within the findings, 180m down on the loch bed, Operation Groundtruth has uncovered a recognisable creature. However, although it is the shape of Nessie – it is not the remains of the monster that has mystified the world for 80 years but more one that has inhabited the loch for over half that time and is a star of the silver screen.

The finding is in fact that of a 30-foot Loch Ness Monster model from the 1970 film, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, directed by Billy Wilder and starring Robert Stephens and Christopher Lee. [...]

Thursday, April 07, 2016

Is Mysterious 'Planet Nine' Tugging on NASA Probe?

Is Mysterious 'Planet Nine' Tugging on NASA Probe?

     Astronomers are homing in on the whereabouts of a hidden giant planet in our solar system, and could discover the unseen beast in roughly a year
By Shannon Hall
ScientificAmerican
4-5-16

The hunt is on to find “Planet Nine”—a large undiscovered world, perhaps 10 times as massive as Earth and four times its size—that scientists think could be lurking in the outer solar system. After Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown, two planetary scientists from the California Institute of Technology, presented evidence for its existence this January, other teams have searched for further proof by analyzing archived images and proposing new observations to find it with the world’s largest telescopes.

Just this month, evidence from the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn helped close in on the missing planet. Many experts suspect that within as little as a year someone will spot the unseen world, which would be a monumental discovery that changes the way we view our solar system and our place in the cosmos. “Evidence is mounting that something unusual is out there [...]

Wednesday, February 03, 2016

New Hint of Alien Life On Mars

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Silica Formations On Mars

By Sarah Scoles
smithsonian.com
2-1-16


Unusual silica formations spotted by a NASA rover look
a lot like structures formed by microbes around geysers on Earth

     The hunt for signs of life on Mars has been on for decades, and so far scientists have found only barren dirt and rocks. Now a pair of astronomers thinks that strangely shaped minerals inside a Martian crater could be the clue everyone has been waiting for.

In 2008, scientists announced that NASA’s Spirit rover had discovered deposits of a mineral called opaline silica inside Mars's Gusev crater. That on its own is not as noteworthy as the silica’s shape: Its outer layers are covered in tiny nodules that look like heads of cauliflower sprouting from the red dirt.

No one knows for sure how those shapes—affectionately called “micro-digitate silica protrusions”—formed. But based on recent discoveries in a Chilean desert, Steven Ruff and Jack Farmer, both of Arizona State University in Tempe, think the silica might have been sculpted by microbes. At a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December, they made the case that these weird minerals might be our best targets for identifying evidence of past life on Mars. [...]

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Planet Nine: What Would It Mean?

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Planet Nine: What Would It Mean?

By Seth Shostak
The Huffington Post
1-21-16

      It could be the first new planet discovered in the last 170 years -- or at least the last 85, if you're one of those stubborn folk who still insist on calling Pluto a planet.

Two Caltech astronomers, Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin, have noticed some weird behavior in the outer solar system they think is caused by an unseen world orbiting roughly 500 times farther from the Sun than Earth does.

The evidence consists of a strange alignment of some so-called Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) -- ice-bound orbs that are cousins of Pluto. These oversized hailstones are strewn throughout the dim and distant nether regions of our solar system. Their discovery almost a decade ago led to Pluto's loss of membership in the pantheon of planets. [...]