Astronomical sightings thread

[UnkNuk]

Life in the cosmos: JWST hints at lower number of habitable planets

 

For the second time, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has looked for and failed to find a thick atmosphere on an exoplanet in on one of the most exciting planetary systems known. Astronomers report today that there is probably no tantalizing atmosphere on the planet TRAPPIST-1 c, just as they reported months ago for its neighbour TRAPPIST-1 b.

 

There is still a chance that some of the five other planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system might have thick atmospheres containing geologically and biologically interesting compounds such as carbon dioxide, methane or oxygen. But the two planets studied so far seem to be without, or almost without, an atmosphere.

 

Because planets of this type are common around many stars, “that would definitely reduce the amount of planets which might be habitable”, says Sebastian Zieba, an exoplanet researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. He and his colleagues describe the finding in Nature.

 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01983-1?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

[UnkNuk]

Europe's space telescope to target universe's dark mysteries

 

Europe's Euclid space telescope is scheduled to blast off Saturday on the first-ever mission aiming to shed light on two of the universe's greatest mysteries: dark energy and dark matter.

 

https://phys.org/news/2023-06-europe-space-telescope-universe-dark.html

[Ilunga]

On 6/21/2023 at 4:40 AM, UnkNuk said:

Life in the cosmos: JWST hints at lower number of habitable planets

 

For the second time, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has looked for and failed to find a thick atmosphere on an exoplanet in on one of the most exciting planetary systems known. Astronomers report today that there is probably no tantalizing atmosphere on the planet TRAPPIST-1 c, just as they reported months ago for its neighbour TRAPPIST-1 b.

 

There is still a chance that some of the five other planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system might have thick atmospheres containing geologically and biologically interesting compounds such as carbon dioxide, methane or oxygen. But the two planets studied so far seem to be without, or almost without, an atmosphere.

 

Because planets of this type are common around many stars, “that would definitely reduce the amount of planets which might be habitable”, says Sebastian Zieba, an exoplanet researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. He and his colleagues describe the finding in Nature.

 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01983-1?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

I find it typically arrogant of our species to assume that life, if it exists is carbon based or even remotely similar to human life.

 

Some prominent scientists, Hawking and Sagan in particular have state their could be potentially other forms of life. 

 

https://futurism.com/life-on-gas-giants

 

Silicon based life ?

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/silicon-based-life-may-be-more-just-science-fiction-n748266

 

 

 

[wiseupsucker]

I think it is certainly possible that other life out there exists - no matter how it may manifest. What I think is distinctly not probable is the idea they have visited our planet.

[RUPERTKBD]

They're slowly filling in the missing variables in the Drake Equation and the trend seems to suggest that planets with an earth-like technology are more rare than originally believed.

 

That being said, two of those variables that have been more or less confirmed: The number of stars in the Milky way that have at least one planet orbiting it and the number of those planets within the so-called "habitable zone". Those numbers are approximately 1 and 0.2 respectively. This means that on average, there is one planet orbiting every star in the galaxy and one of every five of these planets lies within the habitable zone.

 

With approximately 200 billion stars in the Milky Way, this suggests 40 million exoplanets that are in the "Goldilocks Zone". Of course there are many other factors that need to be taken into account before we can say that a planet is potentially cable of life as we know it. (A magnetic field to protect against solar radiation, an atmosphere, etc.) The 40 Million figure is just a starting point.

 

We also have to take into consideration the fact that a planet may be harboring life, but that life is still in a primordial state, as was earth 4 billion years ago.

 

People point to SETI and wonder why, after all these years we haven't picked up any kind of extraterrestrial signal, but we have to remember how little of the sky we've actually been able to scan for these signals. With the addition of the JWT to the mix, we should be able to increase those numbers in the coming decades.

 

I've stated before that I believe unequivocally that there is life out there. There are just too many planets and too many galaxies for earth to be the only place with a technological civilization. The reason we haven't found clear evidence of this IMO, is because of the sheer size of the universe. (About 80 billion light years across, last I checked)

 

To put that into perspective, there are about a dozen star systems within 10 light years of ours. That means a radio signal from any of these star systems would take between 4 and 10 years to reach earth. That doesn't sound too bad, but you also have to take into account that statistically, only 2 of these systems will have a planet within the habitable zone and if a radio signal was broadcast from either, we would require a clear line of sight between it and the earth. That means the planet could not be on the far side of it's star and SETI would have to be looking in that direction, at that time.

 

Now, extrapolate that into the 200,000,000 possible targets out there. (remember, we don't know which of the stars in the galaxy are among the 40,000,000 in the Goldilocks Zone) You can see how truly this is the proverbial "needle in a haystack" search.

Edited July 1, 2023 by RUPERTKBD

[bishopshodan]

Why a Harvard professor thinks he may have found fragments of an alien spacecraft at the bottom of the Pacific

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/harvard-avi-loeb-alien-spacecraft-pacific-b2367699.html

 

'...He believes the tiny objects, about half a millimetre in size, are most likely made from a steel-titanium alloy that is much stronger than the iron found in regular meteors.

Further testing was now required, but Prof Loeb believes they either have interstellar origins, or have been made by an advanced extraterrestrial civilization.

Prof Loeb chaired Harvard’s astronomy department from 2011 to 2020 and now leads the university’s Galileo Project, which is establishing open-sourced observatories across the world to search for signs of UFOs and interstellar objects...'

[bishopshodan]

16 hours ago, Ilunga said:

I find it typically arrogant of our species to assume that life, if it exists is carbon based or even remotely similar to human life.

Agreed.

We have no idea how 'reality' works nevermind 'life'.

Physics is often scratching it's head...dark matter, dimensions, gravity, quantum mechanics, etc..?

Aliens could be made up of x, and from x, and use x to travel, live for x long, 

 

Time for me to once again post my favourite comedy bit ( from a radio show)

https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/thinkingMeat.html

 

They're Made out of Meat

Some of the best lines..

 

"...They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take too long. Do you have any idea the life span of meat?..."

"...They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact"

"...Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotation ago, wants to be friendly again..."

[Playoff Beered]

Two-faced star with helium and hydrogen sides baffles astronomers

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jul/19/two-faced-star-with-helium-and-hydrogen-sides-baffles-astronomers-janus

[UnkNuk]

Europe turns its new $1.5 billion space telescope on, and happily it works

 

Nearly one month after launching into space, a European telescope has begun taking its first images and data of the Universe. And to the delight of scientists at the European Space Agency, everything seems to be working rather well.

 

As part of the months-long commissioning phase, both the telescope's visual and infrared-light cameras have started snapping photos of the cosmos. Scientists who helped develop these cameras—VIS for visible light, and NISP for Near Infrared Spectrograph and Photometer—say the new instruments work superbly.

 

"We are very pleased that the commissioning phase of Euclid is progressing well," Alessandra Roy, Euclid project manager at the German Space Agency at DLR, said. "The spacecraft will soon reach its final position at a distance of 1.5 million kilometers from Earth and begin scientific observations."

 

https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/07/europe-turns-its-new-1-5-billion-space-telescope-on-and-happily-it-works/

[RUPERTKBD]

Another setback for the Russkies....

 

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/russias-moon-mission-falters-after-problem-entering-pre-landing-orbit-2023-08-20/

 

Quote

 

Russia's first moon mission in 47 years failed when its Luna-25 space craft spun out of control and crashed into the moon after a problem preparing for pre-landing orbit, underscoring the post-Soviet decline of a once mighty space programme.

Russia's state space corporation, Roskosmos, said it had lost contact with the craft at 11:57 GMT on Saturday after a problem as the craft was shunted into pre-landing orbit. A soft landing had been planned for Monday.

"The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon," Roskosmos said in a statement.

It said a special inter-departmental commission had been formed to investigate the reasons behind the loss of the Luna-25 craft, whose mission had raised hopes in Moscow that Russia was returning to the big power moon race.

The failure underscored the decline of Russia's space power since the glory days of Cold War competition when Moscow was the first to launch a satellite to orbit the Earth - Sputnik 1, in 1957 - and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to travel into space in 1961.

 

Wow....those Ukrainian drones have some serious range....