Lifeboat Foundation

Can planets form under extreme conditions, such as high levels of ultraviolet radiation? This is something a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters hopes to find out as a team of international researchers used data obtained from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) as part of the eXtreme Ultraviolet Environments (XUE) JWST program to study the formation and evolution of young planetary systems. This particular study, known as XUE 1, focuses on the star cluster Pismis 24, with the team identifying some key ingredients for life as we know it.

Artist rendition of a protoplanetary disk where planets are forming around a young star. (Credit: ESO/L. Calçada)

“We find that the inner disk around XUE 1 is remarkably similar to those in nearby star-forming regions,” said Dr. Rens Waters, who is a professor of astrophysics at Radboud University in the Netherlands and a co-author on the study. “We’ve detected water and other molecules like carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen cyanide, and acetylene. However, the emission found was weaker than some models predicted. This might imply a small outer disk radius.”

WATCH: TESS, NASA’s new exoplanet hunter, launches on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket

A pair of planet-hunting satellites — NASA’s TESS and the European Space Agency’s CHEOPS— teamed up for the observations.

None of the planets in perfect synchrony are within the star’s so-called habitable zone, which means little if any likelihood of life, at least as we know it.

What is the weather like on water-rich exoplanets? This is something a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to shed light on as a team of researchers conducted laboratory experiments to simulate how hazy skies might form on such exoplanets throughout the cosmos. Haze changes the way light reacts to various gases within a planet’s atmosphere, which alters what astronomers detect, as well. This study comes as the number of potential water-rich exoplanets continues to grow and holds the potential to help scientists better understand the conditions necessary for the formation and evolution of water-rich exoplanets, including how life might form and evolve on them, whether on their surfaces or in their atmospheres.

Artist illustration of water-rich exoplanets comprised of hazy atmospheres, which was the focus of this study. (Credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa/Johns Hopkins University)

“The big picture is whether there is life outside the solar system, but trying to answer that kind of question requires really detailed modeling of all different types, specifically in planets with lots of water,” said Dr. Sarah Hörst, who is an associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Johns Hopkins University and a co-author on the study. “This has been a huge challenge because we just don’t have the lab work to do that, so we are trying to use these new lab techniques to get more out of the data that we’re taking in with all these big fancy telescopes.”

Scientists from the Planetary Science Institute have uncovered evidence of potential salt glaciers on Mercury, opening a new frontier in astrobiology by revealing a volatile environment that might echo habitability conditions found in Earth’s extreme locales.

“Our finding complements other recent research showing that Pluto has nitrogen glaciers, implying that the glaciation phenomenon extends from the hottest to the coldest confines within our solar system. These locations are of pivotal importance because they identify volatile-rich exposures throughout the vastness of multiple planetary landscapes,” said Alexis Rodriguez, lead author of the paper “Mercury’s Hidden Past: Revealing a Volatile-Dominated Layer through Glacier-like Features and Chaotic Terrains” that appears in the Planetary Science Journal.

PSI scientists Deborah Domingue, Bryan Travis, Jeffrey S. Kargel, Oleg Abramov, John Weirich, Nicholas Castle and Frank Chuang are co-authors of the paper.

Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) have a long history of service in space exploration. Since the first was tested in space in 1961, RTGs have gone on to be used by 31 NASA missions, including the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Packages (ALSEPs) delivered by the Apollo astronauts to the lunar surface. RTGs have also powered the Viking 1 and 2 missions to Mars, the Ulysses mission to the Sun, Galileo mission to Jupiter, and the Pioneer, Voyager, and New Horizons missions to the outer Solar System – which are currently in (or well on their way to) interstellar space.

In recent years, RTGs have allowed the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers to continue the search for evidence of past (and maybe present) life on Mars. In the coming years, these nuclear batteries will power more astrobiology missions, like the Dragonfly mission that will explore Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. In recent years, there has been concern that NASA was running low on Plutonium-238, the key component for RTGs. Luckily, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently delivered a large shipment of plutonium oxide, putting it on track to realize its goal of regular production of the radioisotopic material.

Continue reading “NASA is Getting the Plutonium it Needs for Future Missions” »

Max’s Scavengers Reign is making waves in the science-fiction world for brilliantly conceptualizing and constructing an alien ecosystem that feels truly out of this world. Since its October 19 streaming premiere, we’ve been presented with a 12-episode run that places an exceptionally strong emphasis on the series’ setting in a way that makes the environment a more compelling character than the actual characters themselves. Scavengers Reign is a visually stunning and surreal take on humanity’s relationship with nature, and die-hard sci-fi fans can’t get enough of it.

YouTube creator NerdWriter1 posted a short breakdown of the series and grapples with the other-worldliness that Scavengers Reign presents. He likens the series’ emphasis on the environment to Werner Herzog’s documentary Burden of Dreams, in which Herzog suggests that nature is indifferent to humanity. In other words, nature has its own agenda, and the idea of harmony between humanity and nature is something that doesn’t necessarily exist when you consider how punishing an unfamiliar ecosystem can be to humans who are trying to traverse the vast landscapes full of unknown flora, fauna, and critters who rule the land.

Continue reading “The Incredible Sci-Fi Series You Need To Be Watching Feels Truly Alien” »

Drawing on his decades-long mission to formulate the world in computational terms, Stephen Wolfram delivers a profound vision of computation and its role in the future of AI. Amid a debut of mesmerizing visuals depicting the underlying structure of the universe, he provides a sweeping survey of his life’s work, offering a new perspective on the applications — and consequences — of AI powered by computational language.

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In a new interview, perpetually provocative Harvard astronomer and alien hunter Avi Loeb posited both that super-human aliens could be building “baby universes” in labs and that his haters are just “jealous.”

When discussing his work and theories in a chat with Fox News, Loeb showed his tendency toward imaginative, deeply speculative theories of extraterrestrial life.

Continue reading “Harvard Professor Says Godlike Aliens May Be Creating Universes in Labs” »

An exploration of whether aliens are out there, what kind of extraterrestrial life is most likely to exist, and how we’re looking for it.