Pluto May Host an Ocean

The dwarf planet's interior could contain a vast pool of liquid 120 miles beneath the surface.

Freezing, distant Pluto seems an odd place to look for oceanfront real estate, but if a new computer model is correct, the dwarf planet harbors a sizeable pool of liquids beneath its thick icy shell.

Scientists suspect Pluto holds a rocky core spiked with radioactive materials that are slowly breaking down, releasing enough heat in the process to melt ice and keep it liquid. The temperature on Pluto's surface is about -375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Considering Pluto's size and composition, just 100 parts per billion of radioactive potassium would be enough to maintain an ocean 60 to 105 miles in depth 120 miles beneath the surface, says planetary scientist Guillaume Robuchon, with the University of California at Santa Cruz.

"These simulations suggest that Pluto likely possesses an ocean at the present day," Robuchon wrote in a synopsis of his research presented last week at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco. 

Pluto has an icy exterior, but inside, the decay of radioactive potassium may have melted an ocean of liquid.

The idea of an ocean on Pluto may not remain theoretical for long. NASA's New Horizon's space probe is more than halfway through a 10-year journey to Pluto. After traveling more than 3 billion miles, it is scheduled to fly past Pluto and its moons in July 2015.

Scientists don't know what they'll find -- no space probe has ever visited Pluto, which is about 39 times farther from the sun than Earth.

"We are going to an entirely new type of world. Everything is interesting. It's like the first mission to Mars," New Horizons lead scientist Alan Stern, with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., told Discovery News.

"Clearly if we see geysers like (Saturn's moon) Enceladus, it would be easy to determine that there is subsurface water venting up," Stern said. "It would be a huge discovery."

In addition to surface features, such as cracking in the ice or smooth lava-like flows, scientists will look at Pluto's poles for clues about the shape of its interior. For an ocean to exist, Pluto likely would need to have distinct layers of rock and ice.

"Pluto's shape should reflect its construction," planetary scientist Bil McKinnon, with Washington University in St. Louis, told Discovery News.

Other clues may come from telltale chemicals escaping from Pluto's atmosphere, the result of geyser-like eruptions spewing particles.

"It's certainly possible that a body the size of Pluto could have an ocean," McKinnon said.

Source: http://news.discovery.com

Author: radhite  Category: astronomy,discovery,feature,ocean,planets,Pluto

The dwarf planet's interior could contain a vast pool of liquid 120 miles beneath the surface.

Freezing, distant Pluto seems an odd place to look for oceanfront real estate, but if a new computer model is correct, the dwarf planet harbors a sizeable pool of liquids beneath its thick icy shell.

Scientists suspect Pluto holds a rocky core spiked with radioactive materials that are slowly breaking down, releasing enough heat in the process to melt ice and keep it liquid. The temperature on Pluto's surface is about -375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Considering Pluto's size and composition, just 100 parts per billion of radioactive potassium would be enough to maintain an ocean 60 to 105 miles in depth 120 miles beneath the surface, says planetary scientist Guillaume Robuchon, with the University of California at Santa Cruz.

"These simulations suggest that Pluto likely possesses an ocean at the present day," Robuchon wrote in a synopsis of his research presented last week at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco. 

Pluto has an icy exterior, but inside, the decay of radioactive potassium may have melted an ocean of liquid.

The idea of an ocean on Pluto may not remain theoretical for long. NASA's New Horizon's space probe is more than halfway through a 10-year journey to Pluto. After traveling more than 3 billion miles, it is scheduled to fly past Pluto and its moons in July 2015.

Scientists don't know what they'll find -- no space probe has ever visited Pluto, which is about 39 times farther from the sun than Earth.

"We are going to an entirely new type of world. Everything is interesting. It's like the first mission to Mars," New Horizons lead scientist Alan Stern, with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., told Discovery News.

"Clearly if we see geysers like (Saturn's moon) Enceladus, it would be easy to determine that there is subsurface water venting up," Stern said. "It would be a huge discovery."

In addition to surface features, such as cracking in the ice or smooth lava-like flows, scientists will look at Pluto's poles for clues about the shape of its interior. For an ocean to exist, Pluto likely would need to have distinct layers of rock and ice.

"Pluto's shape should reflect its construction," planetary scientist Bil McKinnon, with Washington University in St. Louis, told Discovery News.

Other clues may come from telltale chemicals escaping from Pluto's atmosphere, the result of geyser-like eruptions spewing particles.

"It's certainly possible that a body the size of Pluto could have an ocean," McKinnon said.

Source: http://news.discovery.com

Read More

NASA Finds Amino Acids on Impossible Meteorite, Improves Chances E.T. Exists

Amino acids have been found in remote space bodies before--including a carbon-rich meteor--and lend support to the idea that life on Earth was "seeded" by chemicals rained down from space on our young planet.

But a new discovery of amino acids inside a meteorite where they really shouldn't belong is a major find, possibly more significant in terms of finding extra-terrestrial life than NASA's recent revelations about arsenic-based life found in Mono lake here on Earth.

The meteorite crashed into the Sudanese desert, but came from Asteroid 2008 TC3. It contains minerals that strongly suggest it was formed in a violent collision between two asteroids, which probably raised the temperature of the rock to way over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit for a long period, erasing any life-like chemistry that the asteroids may have had beforehand.

But when the meteorite samples were analyzed 19 different amino acids were found in its make-up, in tiny amounts, and the possibility that they are Earthly contaminants has been ruled out.

This means that there may be a new, alternative, method for making amino acids in space. Previously it was thought liquid water and cooler temperatures were needed, but now it's suggested that amino acids could be made under very hot conditions when space-collisions result in a mix of temperatures and chemistry.

In its way, this discovery is every bit as significant as Felisa Wolfe-Simon's arsenic-based bacteria are. NASA used this discovery to imply that alien life could exist in places where we hadn't thought possible before, which massively boosts the chances that E.T. is out there, somewhere.

But the theory that comets can seed planets with the chemicals necessary to make life just got a huge boost from this new asteroid-meteorite find, which implies amino acids may be far more ubiquitous than previously thought. Plus this new find is much less controversial than the arsenic bacteria, which is currently embroiled in a global debate about the validity of the science.

The take-away is that life may be found in more places in the universe than we'd ever thought it could be--including in places in our own solar system.

Source :
www.fastcompany.com

Author: radhite  Category: aminoacids,astronomy,feature,meteorite,nasa

Amino acids have been found in remote space bodies before--including a carbon-rich meteor--and lend support to the idea that life on Earth was "seeded" by chemicals rained down from space on our young planet.

But a new discovery of amino acids inside a meteorite where they really shouldn't belong is a major find, possibly more significant in terms of finding extra-terrestrial life than NASA's recent revelations about arsenic-based life found in Mono lake here on Earth.

The meteorite crashed into the Sudanese desert, but came from Asteroid 2008 TC3. It contains minerals that strongly suggest it was formed in a violent collision between two asteroids, which probably raised the temperature of the rock to way over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit for a long period, erasing any life-like chemistry that the asteroids may have had beforehand.

But when the meteorite samples were analyzed 19 different amino acids were found in its make-up, in tiny amounts, and the possibility that they are Earthly contaminants has been ruled out.

This means that there may be a new, alternative, method for making amino acids in space. Previously it was thought liquid water and cooler temperatures were needed, but now it's suggested that amino acids could be made under very hot conditions when space-collisions result in a mix of temperatures and chemistry.

In its way, this discovery is every bit as significant as Felisa Wolfe-Simon's arsenic-based bacteria are. NASA used this discovery to imply that alien life could exist in places where we hadn't thought possible before, which massively boosts the chances that E.T. is out there, somewhere.

But the theory that comets can seed planets with the chemicals necessary to make life just got a huge boost from this new asteroid-meteorite find, which implies amino acids may be far more ubiquitous than previously thought. Plus this new find is much less controversial than the arsenic bacteria, which is currently embroiled in a global debate about the validity of the science.

The take-away is that life may be found in more places in the universe than we'd ever thought it could be--including in places in our own solar system.

Source :
www.fastcompany.com

Read More