To celebrate, astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md. pointed Hubble’s eye at this pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 273. Just beautiful.
Posts Tagged ‘NASA’
“Noah’s Ark” via Meteorite?
If true–and not a case of contamination or mistaken identity–this could be big:
Dr. Richard B. Hoover, an astrobiologist with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, has traveled to remote areas in Antarctica, Siberia, and Alaska, amongst others, for over ten years now, collecting and studying meteorites. He gave FoxNews.com early access to the out-of-this-world research, published late Friday evening in the March edition of the Journal of Cosmology. In it, Hoover describes the latest findings in his study of an extremely rare class of meteorites, called CI1 carbonaceous chondrites — only nine such meteorites are known to exist on Earth.
Though it may be hard to swallow, Hoover is convinced that his findings reveal fossil evidence of bacterial life within such meteorites, the remains of living organisms from their parent bodies — comets, moons and other astral bodies. By extension, the findings suggest we are not alone in the universe, he said.
For now I’ll say I’m intrigued, but also somewhat skeptical–at least until we learn more. What do readers think?
[Update: Phil's got a great post up on the possibility of fossilized microscopic life forms.]
What Would Agatha Christie Say?
By now you’ve likely heard about the bacterium discovered in California’s Mono Lake:
The study, published in the journal Science, demonstrates that one of the most notorious poisons on Earth can also be the very stuff of life for some creatures.
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“Life is mostly composed of the elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and phosphorus,” the researchers write in Science.
These six elements make up the nucleic acids — the A, C, T and G of DNA — as well as proteins and lipids. But there is no reason in theory why other elements should not be used. It is just that science never found anything alive that used them.
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.. it does suggest that astrobiologists looking for life on other planets do not need to look only for planets with the same balance of elements as Earth has.
“Our findings are a reminder that life-as-we-know-it could be much more flexible than we generally assume or can imagine,” said Wolfe-Simon.
Exactly!
Vote for the Webby Science Award
In January, I told you about a terrific new website from the National Academies called What You Need to Know About Energy. It describes the ways we use energy, where it comes from, and how energy efficiency and alternative sources can figure into our energy future. The following month I also shared the link for NASA’s new Global Climate Change site designed to explain how warming impacts our world. Apparently, I’m not the only one who noticed these are fantastic resources…
What You Need To Know About Energy and Global Climate Change have both been nominated in the 14th Annual Webby Awards for ‘best science website’ and I encourage readers to go vote! Scroll waaaaay down to the bottom of the page to find ‘science’ (what gives?), and choose your favorite site working to communicate science.
Our Warming World
A new website by NASA features videos, images, and articles about climate change. A Warming World has been designed to help all of us understand what warming means and how it impacts our world. Here’s a sample:
Each year, scientists at NASA’S Goddard Institute for Space Studies analyze global temperature data. The past year, 2009, tied as the second warmest year since global instrumental temperature records began 130 years ago. Worldwide, the mean temperature was 0.57°C (1.03°F) warmer than the 1951-1980 base period. And January 2000 to December 2009 came out as the warmest decade on record.
The Moon Is A Not-So-Harsh Mistress
Water on the moon… Just wow!
According to NASA, this discovery may ‘hold the key to the history and evolution of the solar system‘ if the water is billions of years old. Potential sources include molecular clouds, solar winds, comets, or even somehow activity within the moon itself. There’s already discussion about the potential for development of a lunar space station. Phil’s got the details.
