I know we don't know the extent to which life can survive in extreme environments but Venus' surface is like 900 degrees.
Right. But those are in water. We don't really have a dry land analog on Earth to compare, I suppose. Venus' surface pressure is also like being 3,000 feet deep in the ocean. If there's life on a planet with that sort of surface temperature and pressure, there should be life everywhere.
From reddit Additionally: the gas detected is phosphine, which we have tried at length to produce through non-biotic processes that could feasibly occur naturally on a rocky planet without life and came up blank, leading us to conclude that it is a compelling biosignature not far behind free oxygen in terms of strength of evidence that life exists on that planet. For one, it breaks down pretty soon on exposure to UV light, so there must be an active source continually producing it high up in the atmosphere somehow. For two, it's been discovered concentrated within what we would call the habitable zone of Venus's atmosphere - that is to say, Earthlike temperatures and pressures. Not quite habitable for us, considering that the atmosphere is full of sulfuric acid at these altitudes! This discovery is very exciting. Either we've discovered legitimate alien life on Venus of some kind, or we've discovered some fancy new chemistry that we were unaware of.
Who says it's on the surface? Also wonder if it could be trapped from former life before the planet was 800 degrees
Summary from ^ Phosphine has been detected, starting back in 17. Two completely independent observations can conclude that it almost is a positive detection of phosphine. If there was a living colony of living microorganisms on Venus, they would be floating around in the atmosphere traveling from the north and south poles. While it is a small discovery of phosphine, it is there as shown by the reaction between UV light and phosphine recorded during the two separate observations. The suspected organisms on Venus are producing the phosphine at 10% what is seen on Earth at 20 parts per billion. Potential sources have been ruled out, such as rocks under the surface to volcanic activity creating the phosphine, as they would produce phosphine at a billion to quadrillion magnitude smaller than what is being detected. The last two possibilities is: either a completely new understanding of how phosphine are created has been discovered or it is being created from organisms in the clouds of Venus. The phosphine is being discovered in the clouds of Venus where the temperature is not too cold and not too hot (the temperate zone), the only possible place it could survive in the clouds. They're not claiming life on Venus, rather they are claiming confirmed phosphine on Venus, which is a step on confirming life outside of Earth. Venus could have harbored life millions of years ago only to be wiped out due to extreme conditions. Life could have potentially migrated to life in the cloud of Venus. The team believes that Venus is higher on the list of potential places that could harbor life, and that future missions should keep Venus in mind for the search for life outside of Earth. AMA on Twitter and Reddit tomorrow
I think phosphine has a really short half life, so there wouldn't be any residual gas from life that existed eons ago.
I will undoubtedly watch, but anyone who has read the book knows that there is no way this will be a completely faithful re-telling if its a Disney production.
It was originally developed by National Geographic with Appian Way Productions and Warner. It just recently transitioned to Disney, so maybe it will be more like the book.
Voyager 1 crossed 14 Billion miles from Earth this evening! That's far in the small scheme of things, and not far at all in the big. A light year is 6 trillion miles. Voyager 1, traveling at 10 miles (17km) per second for 43 years, has gone only 0.002 LY. https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/ I implore you to have a quick look at their tracking website and interactive map they created.
I read that there won't really be any interstellar collisions because space is fucking huge. We're just gonna pass through each other.
Imo the international community really needs to make a rule that any satellites put up need a de-orbiting plan.
Made me research it some and found this Foam 'spider webs' from tiny satellites could help clean up space junk A little foam-spewing spacecraft could make a big dent in the space-junk problem in the coming years. The Russian startup StartRocket is developing a "Foam Debris Catcher," a small, autonomous satellite that would snag and de-orbit space debris using sticky polymer foam. A growing problem Artist's illustration of StartRocket's planned Foam Debris Catcher extruding junk-snagging foam. (Image credit: StartRocket) Earth orbit is cluttered with about 129 million pieces of debris, 34,000 of which are at least 4 inches (10 centimeters) wide, according to European Space Agency estimates. These objects are hurtling through space at tremendous speeds — 17,500 mph (28,200 km/h) in low-Earth orbit, for example — so even the tiny shards could seriously damage a satellite or spacecraft. And the space-junk threat is rising, experts say, because we're putting a lot more stuff into orbit than we used to — and the numbers are poised to go through the roof. Humanity has launched fewer than 10,000 satellites since the dawn of the space age in 1957. But SpaceX has secured permission to loft 12,000 craft just for its Starlink internet-satellite constellation and has applied for approval to launch up to 30,000 more. A crowded orbital environment increases the risk of collisions. And just a few smashups involving satellites — be they operational or defunct — could spawn enormous new swarms of debris, potentially instigating a nightmare collision cascade known as the Kessler Syndrome. If we don't take action soon, Sitnikov said, "we will be in jail. We will be in a prison made by debris." StartRocket wants the barrel-shaped Foam Debris Catcher to help keep us out of jail. The 110-lb. (50 kilograms) satellite would extrude lattices of foam when it gets close to debris clouds, trapping lots of junk. Atmospheric drag would then work on the encased debris, sending it down to its death in Earth's atmosphere. StartRocket isn't alone in developing debris-mitigation tech. For example, some groups are working on systems that would harpoon space junk or snare it using net-launching guns. And others have devised friction-increasing "drag sails" that satellites could deploy near the ends of their lives, ensuring speedy destruction. StartRocket has made progress on the foam but still needs to finalize the formula, said project leader Aleksei Fedorov, a chemical engineer. Nailing down the formula and testing it here on Earth is the first big milestone for the company to meet, Sitnikov and Fedorov said. The second milestone, targeted for 2022, is the launch of a cubesat that will extrude a test sample in Earth orbit, to make sure that the foam behaves as planned in the space environment. If that goes well, StartRocket will work toward lofting its first functional Foam Debris Catcher, potentially as early as 2023. Development work in these early stages has been supported by Kaspersky, a Russian cybersecurity company owned by billionaire Eugene Kaspersky. "The solution being developed by StartRocket is an interesting example of how technology is changing and can be used to reduce space debris," Andrew Winton, vice president of marketing at Kaspersky, said in a statement. "We will watch the company's development and product progression with great interest and look forward to supporting the cause in the coming years." But StartRocket — which made news in 2018 for a controversial plan, now on hold, to create advertisements in space using formation-flying satellites — is also looking to the masses to help fund the space-junk project going forward. “We believe in the people — we're going to ask people to give us money," Sitnikov told Forbes. "It's like Greenpeace — maybe we'll be the second Greenpeace!" The sticky-foam tech could also find uses far beyond Earth orbit, if everything goes according to plan. For example, Fedorov and Sitnikov envision the stuff, or something like it, eventually being employed as a cheap and efficient building material on Mars. A barrel could be sent to the Martian surface instead of huge metallic habitats. The barrel would expel a big half-sphere of foam, and "astronauts can use just a knife to make the building, the habitat," Sitnikov said.
OSIRIS-REx TAGs Surface of Asteroid Bennu Captured on Oct. 20, 2020 during the OSIRIS-REx mission’s Touch-And-Go (TAG) sample collection event, this series of images shows the SamCam imager’s field of view as the NASA spacecraft approaches and touches down on asteroid Bennu’s surface, over 200 million miles (321 million km) away from Earth. The sampling event brought the spacecraft all the way down to sample site Nightingale, touching down within three feet (one meter) of the targeted location. The team on Earth received confirmation at 6:08 p.m. EDT that successful touchdown occurred. Preliminary data show the one-foot-wide (0.3-meter-wide) sampling head touched Bennu’s surface for approximately 6 seconds, after which the spacecraft performed a back-away burn. Captured on Oct. 20, during the OSIRIS-REx mission’s Touch-And-Go (TAG) sample collection event, this series of 82 images shows the SamCam imager’s field of view as the NASA spacecraft approaches and touches down on asteroid Bennu’s surface. The sampling event brought the spacecraft all the way down to sample site Nightingale, and the team on Earth received confirmation of successful touchdown at 6:08 p.m. EDT. Preliminary data show the sampling head touched Bennu’s surface for approximately 6 seconds, after which the spacecraft performed a back-away burn. Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona The TAGSAM is designed to catch the agitated surface material, and the mission team will assess the amount of material collected through various spacecraft activities. After touchdown, the spacecraft fired its thrusters to back away from Bennu. As expected, this maneuver also disturbed the Nightingale site, and loose debris is visible near the end of the image sequence. Preliminary telemetry shows the spacecraft remains in good health. The spacecraft was traveling at 0.2 mph (10 cm/sec) when it contacted sample site Nightingale and then backed away at 0.9 mph (40 cm/sec). These images were captured over approximately a five-minute period. The imaging sequence begins at about 82 feet (25 meters) above the surface, and runs through the back-away maneuver, with the last image in the sequence taken at approximately 43 feet (13 meters) in altitude – about 35 seconds after backing away. The sequence was created using 82 SamCam images, with 1.25 seconds between frames. For context, the images are oriented with Bennu’s west at the top.
Just as awesome as the one a few months ago. Will always laugh at the return of the rocket last time, and how they lost video until the exact second it landed. What a coincidence.