Science and the Origins of Life ...

[Zuma]

Spreading life throughout the universe

Panspermia hypothesis proposes that life travels between stars and planets, surviving the effects of interstellar journeys and finally settling down on a planetary surface, beginning new evolutionary processes. The microorganisms can be transported to random destinations by asteroids, comets or meteoroids or distributed intentionally by some intelligent alien civilization. But with Earth as the only example of a life-bearing planet, the essential question is: If panspermia really occurs, how could we detect it?

http://phys.org/news/2015-10-life-u...e=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu

 

[Zuma]

What Are the Odds of an Alien Megastructure Blocking Light From a Distant Star?

A strange star located 1,500 light-years from Earth is exhibiting strange flickering behavior that’s leading some scientists to speculate that an alien megastructure is blocking the light. But what would such a structure be exactly and how likely is it that the Kepler space telescope has actually spotted one?

What Are the Odds of an Alien Megastructure Blocking Light From a Distant Star?

 

[Zuma]

 

[Zuma]

Lovejoy Comet Producing Alcohol and Sugar In The Trek Across Space

“We found that comet Lovejoy was releasing as much alcohol as in at least 500 bottles of wine every second during its peak activity,” said Nicolas Biver of the Paris Observatory, France, lead author of a paper on the discovery published Oct. 23 inScience Advances. The team found 21 different organic molecules in gas from the comet, including ethyl alcohol and glycolaldehyde, a simple sugar.

In July, the European Space Agency reported that the Philae lander from its Rosetta spacecraft in orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko detected 16 organic compounds as it descended toward and then bounced across the comet’s surface. According to the agency, some of the compounds detected play key roles in the creation of amino acids, nucleobases, and sugars from simpler “building-block” molecules.

Astronomers think comets preserve material from the ancient cloud of gas and dust that formed the solar system. Exploding stars (supernovae) and the winds from red giant stars near the end of their lives produce vast clouds of gas and dust. Solar systems are born when shock waves from stellar winds and other nearby supernovae compress and concentrate a cloud of ejected stellar material until dense clumps of that cloud begin to collapse under their own gravity, forming a new generation of stars and planets.

These clouds contain countless dust grains. Carbon dioxide, water, and other gases form a layer of frost on the surface of these grains, just as frost forms on car windows during cold, humid nights. Radiation in space powers chemical reactions in this frost layer to produce complex organic molecules. The icy grains become incorporated into comets and asteroids, some of which impact young planets like ancient Earth, delivering the organic molecules contained within them.

Lovejoy Comet Producing Alcohol and Sugar in the Trek Across Space

 

[Zuma]

Spacecraft Diving Deep Into Saturn's Moon Erupting Water Jet

On Wednesday, Cassini will storm through a jet of water vapor and frozen particles erupting from the south pole of Enceladus, one of Saturn's many moons. The spacecraft will zoom within 30 miles of the pole, providing the best sampling yet of its underground ocean.

Cassini will be traveling 19,000 mph, so it should take just an instant to penetrate the plume.

A global liquid ocean is believed to exist beneath the frozen crust of 300-mile-wide Enceladus. Wednesday's dive will be the deepest one yet through the continuous plumes, making the enterprise a bit riskier than usual.

Spacecraft diving deep into Saturn moon's erupting water jet

 

[Zuma]

Scientists experimentally optimize operation of first wall-less Hall thruster prototype

Hall thrusters are electric rocket engines using a super high speed (on the order of 45,000 mph) stream of plasma to push spacecraft forward. Their operating principle relies on the creation of a low-pressure quasi-neutral plasma discharge in a crossed magnetic and electric field configuration. The propellant gas, typically xenon, is ionized by electrons trapped in the magnetic field.

http://phys.org/news/2015-10-scientists-experimentally-optimize-wall-less-hall.html

 

[Zuma]

Discovery of oxygen in Comet 67P's atmosphere

The comet has been bombarded for 4.6 billion years, though, by high-energy cosmic radiation particles. These particles can split water, resulting in the formation of oxygen, hydrogen, and ozone, among other substances. These particles only penetrate a few meters into the surface, however.

According to the researchers, is that the oxygen originated early, before the formation of the solar system. Specifically, high-energy particles struck grains of ice in the cold and dense birthplaces of stars, the so-called dark nebulae, and split water into oxygen and hydrogen. The oxygen was then not further “processed” in the early solar system. The oxygen measurements show that at least a significant part of the comet’s material is older than our solar system and has a composition typical of dark nebulae, from which solar nebulae and later planetary systems originate.

Surprising discovery of oxygen in Comet 67P's atmosphere | Astronomy.com

 

[Zuma]

Scientists demonstrate new semiconductor material for solar cell technology

Researchers focussed on the compound zinc tin nitride (ZnSnN2) which has been recently synthesized by research groups around the world, using zinc and tin – metals which are readily available through mature recycling facilities – rather than expensive and rare metals.

Working with the compound, they discovered an innovative tuning process which means it could provide a possible replacement for semiconductor material currently used in solar cells.

http://phys.org/news/2015-10-scientists-semiconductor-material-solar-cell.html

 

[Zuma]

Mystery bright spots could be first glimpse of another universe

The curtain at the edge of the universe may be rippling, hinting that there’s more backstage. Data from the European Space Agency’s Planck telescope could be giving us our first glimpse of another universe, with different physics, bumping up against our own.

That’s the tentative conclusion of an analysis by Ranga-Ram Chary, a researcher at Planck’s US data centre in California. Armed with Planck’s painstaking map of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) – light lingering from the hot, soupy state of the early universe – Chary revealed an eerie glow that could be due to matter from a neighboring universe leaking into ours.

Mystery bright spots could be first glimpse of another universe

 

[Zuma]

The bizarre reactor that might save nuclear fusion

If you’ve heard of fusion energy, you’ve probably heard of tokamaks. These doughnut-shaped devices are meant to cage ionized gases called plasmas in magnetic fields while heating them to the outlandish temperatures needed for hydrogen nuclei to fuse. Tokamaks are the workhorses of fusion—solid, symmetrical, and relatively straightforward to engineer—but progress with them has been plodding.

Now, tokamaks’ rebellious cousin is stepping out of the shadows. In a gleaming research lab in Germany’s northeastern corner, researchers are preparing to switch on a fusion device called a stellarator, the largest ever built.

Feature: The bizarre reactor that might save nuclear fusion

 

[Zuma]

EmDrive the future of space travel? New Nasa Eagleworks tests hint at breakthrough in interstellar flight

Researchers at Nasa's Eagleworks Laboratories say that they are still discovering signals of thrust which cannot be explained in their latest tests of the highly controversial electromagnetic space propulsion technology EmDrive.

The EmDrive is the invention of British scientist Roger Shawyer, who proposed in 1999 that based on the theory of special relativity, electricity converted into microwaves and fired within a closed cone-shaped cavity causes the microwave particles to exert more force on the flat surface at the large end of the cone (i.e. there is less combined particle momentum at the narrow end due to a reduction in group particle velocity), thereby generating thrust.

EmDrive the future of space travel? New Nasa Eagleworks tests hint at breakthrough in interstellar flight

 

[Zuma]

Physicists measure force that makes antimatter stick together

Peering at the debris from particle collisions that recreate the conditions of the very early universe, scientists have for the first time measured the force of interaction between pairs of antiprotons. Like the force that holds ordinary protons together within the nuclei of atoms, the force between antiprotons is attractive and strong. The experiments were conducted at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility for nuclear physics research at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory.

http://phys.org/news/2015-11-physic...e=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu

 

[Zuma]

NASA tests a rocket engine that could fuel up on other planets

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that we're all very worried about here on Earth. But up in space? That's a whole different ballgame. Unlike liquid hydrogen, which is the fuel of choice for today's rockets, methane is more stable, can be stored safely at higher temperatures, and is denser, so more of it can be stored in smaller containers. NASA has been developing engine components that can work with both liquid-hydrogen and methane-based fuels for the past decade, and some of the 3-D printed components are now going through the crucible of testing. The hope is that future space explorers will be able to manufacture methane from gases already in the atmosphere of different planets, including Mars. They hope that instead of having to bring fuel for the return trip to Mars, they could power a lander into Martian orbit using fuel manufactured on Mars.

Watch NASA Test A Rocket Engine That Could Fuel Up On Other Planets

 

[Zuma]

Making Sense of String Theory

 

[Zuma]

Is The Universe A Hologram?

 

[Zuma]

Risky fusion power study pays off by bringing plasma close to reactor walls

The first major fusion collaboration between Chinese and US research teams has released a surprising finding on the future of magnetic confinement fusion: by lowering the distance between the plasma and the wall of the chamber that contains it, they can actually make the system more stable.

Risky fusion power study pays off by bringing plasma close to reactor walls | ExtremeTech

 

[Zuma]

The Double Slit Experiment

 

[Zuma]

SLAC theorist explains quantum gravity

One version of quantum gravity is provided by string theory, but we're looking for other possibilities. Gravity is quite different from the other forces, for which we already have quantum theories.

First of all, gravity is extremely weak – on the order of a million billion billion billion times weaker than the weak force. In fact, the only reason why we notice gravity at all is because we feel the combined pull of a huge amount of particles in the Earth.

Gravity is also different because massive objects always attract each other. In contrast, the strong force is only attractive on very short distances, and the electromagnetic force can be either attractive or repellent.

Finally, the graviton fundamentally differs from all the other known force carriers in a particle property known as spin. It has twice the spin of the other force carriers.

http://phys.org/news/2015-11-slac-theorist-quantum-gravity.html

 

[Zuma]

What is the Shape of the Universe?

If you could somehow manage to step outside of the universe, what would it look like? Scientists have struggled with this question, taking several different measurements in order to determine the geometry of the cosmos and whether or not it will come to an end. How do they measure the shape of the universe? And what have they found?

What is the Shape of the Universe?

 

[Zuma]

Will Our Descendants Survive the Destruction of the Universe?

The Universe, like the organisms that reside within it, is a mortal entity. Born in the Big Bang, it will eventually meet its fate through an equally cataclysmic process, whether it be in the form of a Big Rip, a Big Crunch, or an eternal deep freeze. Regardless, all life as we know it will be extinguished.

Unless, of course, our highly advanced offspring can find a way to escape the confines of the cosmos—or more radically, change the rules of the cosmological game.

Will Our Descendants Survive the Destruction of the Universe?