On this day in 1983, astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, traveling aboard the shuttle Challenger. And 20 years earlier on the same date, Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first Russian female in space, returned to Earth aboard Vostok 6, after orbiting the planet 48 times. She still remains the only woman to travel into space on a solo mission.
Astronomers peering into the night sky always talk about exoplanets located in the “Goldilocks Zone,” or “Habitable Zone,” similar to the Earth’s location from the sun. But what if that is too limited? What if we should also be focusing on colder regions as well as exomoons?
The new study released this week based on data from NASA’s spacecraft Cassini has found that Saturn’s moon Enceladus contains the ingredients for life as we know it. The study states:
Saturn’s moon Enceladus harbours a global ice-covered water ocean. The Cassini spacecraft investigated the composition of the ocean by analysis of material ejected into space by the moon’s cryovolcanic plume. The analysis of salt-rich ice grains by Cassini’s Cosmic Dust Analyzer enabled inference of major solutes in the ocean water (Na+, K+, Cl–, HCO3–, CO32–) and its alkaline pH. Phosphorus, the least abundant of the bio-essential elements, has not yet been detected in an ocean beyond Earth. Earlier geochemical modelling studies suggest that phosphate might be scarce in the ocean of Enceladus and other icy ocean worlds. However, more recent modelling of mineral solubilities in Enceladus’s ocean indicates that phosphate could be relatively abundant.
Again, this represents the building blocks of life and it is the first time all these ingredients have been discovered in our solar system outside of Earth. We did not find it on Venus or Mars, two other planets in the Goldilocks Zone. No, it was found in a much colder part of the solar system on a tiny moon.
This discovery certainly mixes up the situation and provides a much broader region for life to appear in other solar systems. It’s not a new idea, but it has more credibility now that we know a little more about our own neighborhood.
Maybe Goldilock’s concerns about something being too cold was not such a problem after all.
Note: It seems James Cameron figured this out years ago. The planet visited in the Avatar movies, Pandora, is portrayed as a moon (or exomoon) in the Alpha Centauri System.
Here are some recent stories of interest.
—Futurism: “NASA Sending Adorable Little Buddy to Hang Out Next to the James Webb“
The space agency recently selected a toaster-sized cubesat that will become the much bigger telescope’s tiny, adorable “sidekick,” according to a statement. NASA chose the $8.5 million space mission, called the “Monitoring Activity from Nearby sTars with uv Imaging and Spectroscopy” (MANTIS), which will be designed and built by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder. The diminutive but mighty spacecraft, scheduled to launch sometime in 2026, will make observations of the night sky in the full range of ultraviolet light, including extreme UV (EUV) light, a more energetic form.
—Universe Today: “Why Didn’t the Big Bang Collapse in a Giant Black Hole?“
Despite the enormous densities, the early universe didn’t collapse into a black hole because, simply put, there was nothing to collapse into…Even though the early universe was incredibly dense, it was also incredibly uniform. The average density throughout the universe was the same from place to place. There weren’t enough differences to trigger the formation of black holes.
—University of Warwick: “Using Photosynthesis for Martian Occupation—While Making Space Travel More Sustainable“
In a study published in Nature Communications, scientists assess a new technique which could convert renewable, green energy from outside the Earth’s atmosphere. They are taking advantage of photosynthesis—the chemical process plants undergo every day to create energy—to help the space industry become more sustainable. The research led by the University of Warwick evaluates the use of a special device known as semiconductor to absorb sunlight on moon and Mars. It is hoped that the devices could promote Martian life support systems.
If we had a real chance of being harmed by life on the lunar surface, Covid 19 would be child’s play. The New York Times has an article, “Cosmic Luck: NASA’s Apollo 11 Moon Quarantine Broke Down,” indicates we were not really ready for any potential contamination during the Apollo program. The newspaper cites a recent study on the quarantine process, which noted:
As NASA prepared to land astronauts on the Moon in the 1960s, scientists and federal officials came to fear that they could bring lunar microorganisms back to Earth, with potentially grave consequences for human, plant, and animal life. To prevent this“back contamination,”representatives from NASA and a network of federal departments and services developed a protocol to quarantine astronauts, equipment, samples, and spacecraft exposed to lunar dust. Yet although NASA assured policy makers and an anxious public that it had implemented impermeable safeguards against the escape of lunar microorganisms, it had in fact prioritized likely risks to astronauts over unlikely risks to American society. To a degree previously unknown, the Apollo quarantine protocol suffered from numerous containment breaches that would likely have exposed the terrestrial biosphere to contamination—had lunar microorganisms actually existed.
Of course, now that we have landed on the moon and sent up multiple missions, the risk today is that we have contaminated the lunar surface, as noted in this second story from Futurism, “NASA Says There May Be Life on the Moon After All.” For instance, an earlier Israeli mission that crashed on the lunar surface was carrying thousands of microscopic Tardigrades. The story also cites meteors as a possible source of life that could have found refuge on the Moon.
I think I will put my money on the Tardigrades.
This week’s image comes from NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance as it explores the to Jezero Crater. The photo was posted last month. It has been a little while since we directly our attention at the Red Planet.
The image shows what may be the result of a fast-moving river some time in the past. In the NASA write-up accompanying the photo above, we read:
“Pinestand” is an isolated hill bearing sedimentary layers that curve skyward, some as high as 66 feet (20 meters). Scientists think these tall layers may also have been formed by a powerful river, although they’re exploring other explanations, as well.
“These layers are anomalously tall for rivers on Earth,” [postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California Libby] Ives said. “But at the same time, the most common way to create these kinds of landforms would be a river.”
