Exoplanets and Astrobiology

[badger2]

The communications-satellite problem will affect state-of-the-art astronomy, such as the Rubin Observatory:

Vera C. Rubin Observatory

Vera C. Rubin Observatory - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

(Scroll to 'Possible Impact of Satellite Constellations')
'....The objective is to keep the satellite below the 7th magnitude, to avoid saturating the detectors. This limits the problem to only the trail of the satellite and not the whole image.'

 

[badger2]

There will likely be advertising and online sales, launched from Cape Canaveral:

2021 Nov 1 Amazon's Project Kuiper
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/in...ovider-for-prototype-satellites&tag=ff0d01-20

 

[badger2]

We'll attempt the URL once more, because it's an interesting study for psychology in the way Amazon has worded this advertisement for the commercialization of space, in direct competition with Musk.

Amazon Project Kuiper
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/in...ovider-for-prototype-satellites&tag=ff0d01-20

 

[badger2]

The URL will function if typed in the spacebar, though the USMB prisoner cannot see the complete URL that we typed. This is the pathology we are pointing out. Also note the difference in other languages (German, Dutch, French) that describe Project Kuiper for the dates: English Wiki only goes up to 2020, while others take the discourse into the year, 2029.

 

[badger2]

Further analysis of the pathology leads to the fascism of a moderator of this sky pollution topic, whereby the mod, once tasting castration blood, goes for the second group of prisoners (on the same day [italics]), both times sending the prisoners to the left and the cyberspace gas chambers:

2022 Feb 4 Pollution Thread #1

Satellite pollution and the wrecking of the night sky - Page 2 - Light Pollution - Cloudy Nights

Page 2 of 2 - Satellite pollution and the wrecking of the night sky - posted in Light Pollution: And maybe as I have mentioned several times, the number of dim, pin point sats that I see on most viewing sessions, but not all, can be counted on one hand. That incl. one 4 sat train about a year...

www.cloudynights.com

2022 Feb 4 Pollution Thread #2

Starlink - the pros raise yellow flags -again - Page 2 - Light Pollution - Cloudy Nights

Page 2 of 2 - Starlink - the pros raise yellow flags -again - posted in Light Pollution: This discussion is about Starlink however it seems there is competition in the works called Kuiper which perhaps may deserve its own topic, however I listed it here having the same effect. It seems that SL...

www.cloudynights.com

 

[badger2]

HJ Deeg works and teaches on the GTC telescope, which has recently helped to study repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) from a possible neutron star in the galaxy NGC 3252 in Laniakea. Here are photos of the telescope and one can scroll down to the FRB report:

GTC News
www.gtc.iac.es/news/posts.php#post_2021_4

Laniakea

Solar System Exploration Research Institute (SSERVI) - SSERVI

SSERVI advances lunar and planetary science through cross-disciplinary research and collaborations, providing technical analyses for NASA programs and missions.

sservi.nasa.gov

 

[badger2]

Astrobiology: Extremophiles and Caveat Emptor

Readers should not be surprised if Mary Ann Liebert publishers are working on investing in their own (a la Amazon) rocket-launched satellite. Here are two of Liebert's reports accompanied by a $51 paywall:

(2022 Feb) France: Extremophiles

Relevance of Earth-Bound Extremophiles in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life - PubMed

The recent discovery of extrasolar Earth-like planets that orbit in their habitable zone of their system, and the latest clues of the presence of liquid water in the subsurface of Mars and in the subglacial ocean of Jupiter's and Saturn's moons, has reopened debates about habitability and limits...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

(2022 Jan) Australia: Chondritic Meteorites

Preservation of Terrestrial Microorganisms and Organics Within Alteration Products of Chondritic Meteorites from the Nullarbor Plain, Australia - PubMed

Meteorites that fall to Earth quickly become contaminated with terrestrial microorganisms. These meteorites are out of chemical equilibrium in the environments where they fall, and equilibration promotes formation of low-temperature alteration minerals that can entomb contaminant microorganisms...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

'....entombed fungal hyphae....'

Microorganisms in meteorites are a fascinating trajectory that we will further develop in this thread, because chondrites, as will be shown, also link to immune responses implicit for future space travel.

 

[badger2]

This is one of the best preliminary Webb videos, informative and visually interesting:

2022 Feb 8 Webb Telescope

 

[badger2]

Astrobiology links Alzheimer's to the oldest living organism on Earth, a lichen, estimated at 8,600 years:

Rhizocarpon geographicum

Rhizocarpon geographicum - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

'....Rhizocarpon geographicum located in the Arctic have been age-estimated at 8,600 years....'

2010 NASA Interplanetary Transfer of Rhizocarpon geographicum, et al

Space microbiology - PubMed

The responses of microorganisms (viruses, bacterial cells, bacterial and fungal spores, and lichens) to selected factors of space (microgravity, galactic cosmic radiation, solar UV radiation, and space vacuum) were determined in space and laboratory simulation experiments. In general...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

'....Rhizocarpon geographicum....Xanthoria elegans....The data support the likelihood of interplanetary transfer of microorganisms within meteorites....demonstrated ability to proliferate in the presence of normally inhibitory levels of antibiotics.'

R. geographicum is a member of the Rhizocarpales, subclass Lecanormycetidae. Secondary metabolites produced in members of the Rhizocarpales include depsidones. It's not yet known to this writer whether R. geographicum shows fluorescence under black light.

2015 Turkey: Alzheimer's Anti-AChE Depsidones

A computational insight into acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity of a new lichen depsidone - PubMed

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors are yet the best drugs currently available for the management of Alzheimer's disease. The recent phytochemical investigation has led to the isolation of a new depsidone 1 with moderate AChE activity (1 μg). This work was focused on its electronic properties...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

'....AChE inhibitors are yet the best drugs currently available for the management of Alzheimer's....The molecular electrostatic potential maps of the depsidones 1 and 7 show potential regions of interaction with AChE enzyme....The high electron density lies on the seven-membered ring where acetylation occurs....Depsidone 7 demonstrates that it makes pi-pi interactions with Trp84, Phe330 and Tyr 334....a promising new lead for new AChE inhibitors based on the depsidone scaffold.'

 

[badger2]

As will be shown, the irony is that the very equipment used to construct the Extremely Large Telescope in Chile has very likely physically disturbed the specific microorganisms that produce similar anti-Alzheimer's chemistry by the world's oldest living organism, Rhizocarpon of post #69 (Ex., Vermilacinia, Cerro Moreno, Chile).

Lequeux et al address the problem of biosignatures:

'However, even with the most powerful telescopes, detecting indices of the presence of life will remain very difficult. There is hardly any biosignature for which we can say with certainty that it is unique, even ozone; in general, there is always an alternative scenario that could explain the observed signals. In order to announce the detection of the presence of life on a planet we must again have observed a variety of exoplanets, having defined, by comparing observations with models, what can be considered a "normal" atmosphere.

Then, by contrast, we will know whether the observed anomalies can be interpreted as due to the presence of life....The "Breakthrough Starshot" program funded by a Russian billionaire, which aims to send a nanoprobe traveling at 20% the speed of light to Alpha-Centauri has announced that it will fund ESO (European Southern Observatory) for developing one of the instruments of the VLT in Chile, with capabilities to image directly the planets around the other two stars of the system.'
(Lequeux J, et al, The Exoplanet Revolution, p. 220)

 

[badger2]

Along with the Miller-Urey experiment, Oro added to their synthesis of amino acids, the critical origin-of-life nucleotide, adenine synthesized from hydrogen cyanide:

Joan Oro

Joan Oró - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

'....first scientist pointing to comets as key carriers of organic molecules to Earth's early biosphere.'

 

[badger2]

Some of us will not be alive to witness it, though Lequeux goes on to explain the plan of the Russian billionaire, et al:

'Rendez-vous in 2029 for the first observations....and even if the quest remains unsuccessful with the VLT, these technological advances will be used for METIS, one of the instruments of the E-ELT (Chile). If there is a planet the size of Mars in orbit around one of the stars of the Alpha-Centauri system, it will not escape us!'

 

[badger2]

Astrobiology of Oxygen

Apparently after four rovers, no lichens, algae, nor cyanobacteria have been found on Mars. We can come closer to the timing of the rise of oxygen-breathing organisms, in lieu of digging deeper into the Martian surface for evidence of Methylotrophs:

Brocks JJ, et al, Archaean Molecular Fossils and the Early Rise of Eukaryotes (1999) Science 285: 1033-6:
'Molecular fossils of biological lipids are preserved in 2700-million-year-old shales from the Pilbara Craton, Australia. Biomarkers are indigenous and syngenetic to the Archaean shales, greatly extending the geological range of such molecules. The presence of abundant 2alpha-methylhopanes, characteristic of cyanobacteria, indicates that oxygenic photosynthesis evolved well before the atmosphere became oxidizing. The presence of steranes, particularly cholestane and its 28-30-carbon analogs, provides persuasive evidence for the existence of eukaryotes 500 million to 1 billion years before the fossil record indicates that the lineage arose.'

Pilbara Craton

Pilbara Craton - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[badger2]

Sabotaging Origins Investigations

Further Origins of Life investigation of Australia's Pilbara Craton can lead to spyware problems. Fougerite was first found in France, recalling that the Ariane rocket carrying the James Webb telescope was launched from French Guyana on Christmas Day, 2021: We caution readers not to click on the Gruyter document in reference 3.):

Fougerite

Fougèrite - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[badger2]

Reference 3.) @ Fougerite Wiki is from Metals, Microbes, and Minerals. The Kindle version is $175, the hardcover version has one volume left in stock, so this book should be controversial with regard to the promiscuity of the bible.

 

[badger2]

Readers can become familiar with recently discovered exoplanets with the TESS data. The first entry on this page is a planet with a 54.321-day orbital period and a temperature of about 449 Kelvin, reported on 2022 Feb 8:

TEV

TESS Exoplanet Vetter

tev.mit.edu

 

[toobfreak]

Our sun is a type G White Dwarf.

Actually, the Sun is just a common dwarf star as are most stars--- a yellow dwarf. Dwarfs are actually quite common.

A white dwarf is a degenerative star outside the Main Sequence near the end of its life having lost all of its outer shell to convulsions and has nothing left but neutron matter, like the Dog Star Sirius.

The Sun may end up a white dwarf in maybe another 6 billion years.

 

[Flash]

Actually, the Sun is just a common dwarf star as are most stars--- a yellow dwarf. Dwarfs are actually quite common.

A white dwarf is a degenerative star outside the Main Sequence near the end of its life having lost all of its outer shell to convulsions and has nothing left but neutron matter, like the Dog Star Sirius.

The Sun may end up a white dwarf in maybe another 6 billion years.

Over 60% of the stars in galaxy are red dwarfs.



Our Sun is a G star. There are 20 G stars within 30 light years out of almost 400 total stars. The vast majority of stars are M stars, also known as “red dwarfs”. These small red stars have much longer lifetimes than G stars but shine much fainter. Among nearby stars, the Sun is modestly weird. If give our definition of a “Sun-like” star some latitude, our star ends up being rare at the 10% level. That is about the fraction of American adults who are vegetarian.

Exactly how unusual is our Solar System?

There is only one Superman. One Wonder Woman, one Captain America, one Ironman. All told, a few dozen superheroes. And billions of superhero fans. What about our Solar System? Are we one-in-a-milli…

planetplanet.net

By the way, most stars like we have are more variable. Our star is unusually stable.

Our sun is a weirdly 'quiet' star — and that's lucky for all of us

The sun may be quieter than other stars like it, but that's a good thing.

www.space.com

Our sun is a weirdly 'quiet' star — and that's lucky for all of us​

Thank your lucky stars that the sun is pretty weird, as scientists have learned by comparing its activity with that of similar stars.



In new research, astronomers compared the brightness of our sun over time with data gathered on other stars by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope and by the European Space Agency's Gaia star-mapping mission. The result is a census of stars about the same size of our sun. But compared to these stars, our sun's brightness varies significantly less, suggesting that it is calmer than other stars of about the same size.

 

[toobfreak]

Over 60% of the stars in galaxy are red dwarfs.
Our Sun is a G star. There are 20 G stars within 30 light years out of almost 400 total stars. The vast majority of stars are M stars, also known as “red dwarfs”. These small red stars have much longer lifetimes than G stars but shine much fainter. Among nearby stars, the Sun is modestly weird. If give our definition of a “Sun-like” star some latitude, our star ends up being rare at the 10% level. That is about the fraction of American adults who are vegetarian.
By the way, most stars like we have are more variable. Our star is unusually stable.

Thanks Flash, I know all that. I've taught (still teach) astronomy, and almost went into astronomy as my main career.

There are probably even more red dwarfs than we realize because they are so faint.

Life on another planet is possible with a red dwarf or even an A type star given the right orbit, etc. What matters most is longevity (that rules out OB type stars) and stability and most stars reach a stable phase at some point in their lives, leaving the biggest hurdle really being the stability of the planet and its climate.

Even once the Sun reaches its M class giant phase, it will still be able to support life on the outer planets. Of course, there may be many other forms of life yet unknown by man.

 

[badger2]

It was surprising to browse the TESS catalog and find an exoplanet with possible cirrus clouds! And this without using the James Webb telescope. What will the Webb telescope be able to determine about this exoplanet when its eye is eventually trained on it?