Space Stories: Missing Water on Venus, More About Planet Nine, and Possible Life on an Exoplanet

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Image (Credit): Venus from a composite of data from NASA’s Magellan spacecraft and Pioneer Venus Orbiter. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—University of Colorado at Boulder: “Venus Has Almost No Water: A New Study May Reveal Why“

Planetary scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder have discovered how Venus, Earth’s scalding and uninhabitable neighbor, became so dry. The new study fills in a big gap in what the researchers call “the water story on Venus.” Using computer simulations, the team found that hydrogen atoms in the planet’s atmosphere go whizzing into space through a process known as “dissociative recombination” — causing Venus to lose roughly twice as much water every day compared to previous estimates.

—UniverseToday: “New Evidence for Our Solar System’s Ghost: Planet Nine“

Does another undetected planet languish in our Solar System’s distant reaches? Does it follow a distant orbit around the Sun in the murky realm of comets and other icy objects? For some researchers, the answer is “almost certainly.” The case for Planet Nine (P9) goes back at least as far as 2016. In that year, astronomers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin published evidence pointing to its existence. Along with colleagues, they’ve published other work supporting P9 since then. Now, they’ve published another paper along with colleagues Alessandro Morbidelli and David Nesvorny, presenting more evidence supporting P9. It’s titled “Generation of Low-Inclination, Neptune-Crossing TNOs by Planet Nine.” It’s published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

—Astonomy.com: “Possible Hints of Life Found on Exoplanet K2-18b – How Excited Should We Be?”

Data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has shown that an exoplanet around a star in the constellation Leo has some of the chemical markers that, on Earth, are associated with living organisms. But these are vague indications. So how likely is it that this exoplanet harbours alien life? …The planet in question is named K2-18b. It’s so named because it was the first planet found to orbit the red dwarf star K2-18.

Space Stories: New Observatory in Chile, Why Exoplanets Spiral Towards their Sun, and Citizens Help Find an Exoplanet

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Image (Credit): University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory, built on the summit of a desert mountain in northern Chile. (The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory Project)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—University of Tokyo: “New Observatory in Chile—the Highest in the World—Aims to Reveal Origins of Planets, Galaxies and More“

At an altitude of 5,640 meters, the University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO), built on the summit of a desert mountain in northern Chile, is the highest astronomical observatory in the world, which should give it unrivaled capabilities, but presents some novel challenges…”Construction on the summit of Cerro Chajnantor was an incredible challenge, not just technically, but politically too. I have liaised with Indigenous peoples to ensure their rights and views are considered, the Chilean government to secure permission, local universities for technical collaboration, and even the Chilean Health Ministry to make sure people can work at that altitude in a safe manner. Thanks to all involved, research I’ve only ever dreamed about can soon become a reality, and I couldn’t be happier.”

—Durham University: “Scientists Explain Why Some Exoplanets are Spiraling Towards their Stars“

According to existing theories, the closeness of hot Jupiters should create powerful gravitational ‘tidal waves’ between the planet and star. Over billions of years, these tides transfer energy, causing the planets to spiral inwards until they are eventually consumed by their stars. However, some hot Jupiters like WASP-12b seem to be spiralling in way too quickly for the theories to explain. Scientists were missing a key part of the mystery. Our scientists say they have found the missing piece – magnets!

—Simons Foundation: “Citizen Scientists Help Discover Record-Breaking Exoplanet in Binary Star System“

With an orbit longer than those of most of its brethren, the new planet spotted by volunteer planet hunters and confirmed by Flatiron Institute scientists and their colleagues could offer insights into how exoplanets form and remain stable in multi-star systems…The newfound planet — formally called TOI 4633 c, but nicknamed Percival (after a character from the “Harry Potter” book series) by the scientists — was first identified by citizen scientists sifting through data collected by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). 

Space Stories: Protests to Save Chandra, Problems Retrieving Martian Sample, and TESS is Getting Testy

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Credit: https://www.savechandra.org

Here are some recent stories related to NASA missions.

—PhysicsWorld: “US Astronomers Slam Cuts to the Chandra X-ray Observatory“

X-ray astronomers in the US have begun a campaign to save the Chandra X-ray Observatory from budget cuts that would effectively end the mission. They assert that the craft, which was launched in 1999, has plenty of life left in it. Cancelling support could, they say, damage scientific efforts to understand the universe and the careers of an emerging generation of X-ray astronomers.

—CNN: “NASA Rethinks Plan to Return Rare Mars Samples to Earth“

“Mars Sample Return will be one of the most complex missions NASA has ever undertaken. The bottom line is, an $11 billion budget is too expensive, and a 2040 return date is too far away,” Nelson said. “Safely landing and collecting the samples, launching a rocket with the samples off another planet — which has never been done before — and safely transporting the samples more than 33 million miles (53 million kilometers) back to Earth is no small task. We need to look outside the box to find a way ahead that is both affordable and returns samples in a reasonable time frame.”

—NASA: “NASA’s TESS Temporarily Pauses Science Observations“

NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) entered into safe mode April 8, temporarily interrupting science observations. The team is investigating the root cause of the safe mode, which occurred during scheduled engineering activities. The satellite itself remains in good health. The team will continue investigating the issue and is in the process of returning TESS to science observations in the coming days.

The Goldilocks Zone Turned Awfully Cold for Earth

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Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of a “Snowball Earth.” (NASA)

We point of telescopes at distant solar systems searching for exoplanets in the “Goldilocks Zone,” it being defined as the habitable zone around a star where water can remain in liquid form. But that was not always the case for planet Earth, even if we are the model for this zone.

A recent New York Times article, “How Earth Might Have Turned Into a Snowball,” discusses how the Earth became a frozen ball about 717 million years ago. And it remained in this deep freeze for approximately 56 million years.

While the article goes on to discuss the reasons for this freeze, I am more interested in the idea of what this may mean for our own plans to someday travel to a distant star.

If a civilization on another planet was viewing our solar system from afar 750 million years ago, they too may have mistaken our Earth as a perfectly place planet to support life on its surface. However, they would have needed to wait another 23 million years for our planet to revert back to having a liquid surface.

It appears timing is everything, and the inner workings of a planet can be just as important as its placement in the solar system. I expect our telescopes will be able to tease our more information about each exoplanet in the future, though it also makes sense to send robotic probes before ever attempting to send a human that far.

In the meantime, we have a few moons here in our own solar system with frozen oceans. We can start to learn more about the potential for life in such places and our ability to survive in such climates. NASA’s Europa Clipper, set to launch later this year, is part of that learning process.

Space Quote: Hubble Detects Water on an Exoplanet

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Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of exoplanet exoplanet GJ 9827d. (NASA/ESA/Leah Hustak (STScI)/Ralf Crawford (STScI))

“This would be the first time that we can directly show through an atmospheric detection, that these planets with water-rich atmospheres can actually exist around other stars…This is an important step toward determining the prevalence and diversity of atmospheres on rocky planets.”

–Statement by Björn Benneke of the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets at Université de Montréal. He was referring to the Hubble space telescope’s detection of water vapor in the atmosphere of exoplanet GJ 9827d. The exoplanet is about twice the Earth’s diameter and approximately 97 light-years from Earth. You can read more about the Hubble discovery here.