Exoplanets

After SpaceX’s “loss of mission.” But are we missing something here? Aldrin, lunar module pilot for Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing mission here: True, the ripple effects from SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster going boom in the Florida skies are many. But the take-home message given the NASA-private sector bond is one of striving for reliability, safety, but also affordability. Joining me in this view is my longtime friend, Norm Augustine, retired Chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin. “Successes in commercial space transportation are not only important in their own right, they also free NASA to do that which it does best … namely, push the very frontiers of space and knowledge.” So let’s press ahead beyond a failure to future Read More ›

Just ran across this interesting article. I don’t put too much stock into computer simulations of things that are still poorly understood. Indeed, there are plenty of open questions about whether even the basic mechanics of planet formation are understood. But this caught my eye: For planets to be habitable, they must orbit stars within the ‘habitable zone’ where it is not too hot or too cold Yes, we know that, but this next part is less often discussed: In addition, recent studies on habitability of planets suggest that the water-land ratio must be similar to the Earth. That is, the water mass fraction should not be far from that of the Earth’s (~0.01wt%): planets with too much water (> Read More ›

Here. “As a new TIME book explains, a cosmos with trillions of planets does not guarantee more than one with life.” You think that’s bad news? Here’s worse: You are not alone. That other guy is God. 😉 How Do We Grapple with the Idea that ET Might Not Be Out There? This closes our religion news coverage for the week.

Long suspected: SA’s Hubble Space Telescope has the best evidence yet for an underground saltwater ocean on Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon. The subterranean ocean is thought to have more water than all the water on Earth’s surface. Identifying liquid water is crucial in the search for habitable worlds beyond Earth and for the search for life, as we know it. “This discovery marks a significant milestone, highlighting what only Hubble can accomplish,” said John Grunsfeld, assistant administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. “In its 25 years in orbit, Hubble has made many scientific discoveries in our own solar system. A deep ocean under the icy crust of Ganymede opens up further exciting possibilities for life Read More ›

The most common explanation for the formation of planet Earth is that it formed by gravitational collapse from a cloud of particles (gas, ice, dust) swirling around the Sun.  Specifically, the idea is that small planetesimals form as the various particles clump together (perhaps initially by cohesion, then by gravity), eventually growing into planets.  Known as the “accretion hypothesis,” this is the standard model of planet formation, not just for Earth, but for nearly all planets.* Significant debate continues regarding the formation of the Moon, but the most widely-held hypothesis is that the Moon formed in a similar way via accretion of impact material produced by a violent collision between a Mars-sized object and the Earth. For purposes of the Read More ›