Astronomy
Volcanic rocks’ primordial water suggests life might be more common
Life on other planets is considered to be a certainty, and with new evidence of the infinitely intricate details of the universe and their influence on Earth come to light more often as ever, it is undoubtable. However, in a new study involving volcanic rocks and the types of isotopes they contain revealed that life could be more common in the universe than we might have expected.
Volcanic rocks examined by Lydia Hallis and her planetary scientist colleagues revealed that the Earth might have been “born with water”. In the theory they put forward in the latest issue of Science magazine, they argue that the isotopes discovered within volcanic rocks found in Iceland and Baffin Island suggest water had been part of Earth since it first started forming within the protosolar nebula.
Based on the light hydrogen isotope ratio discovered in the volcanic rocks we mentioned earlier, the primordial water within trapped within the rocks came from the protosolar nebula. The researchers demonstrated in their paper last week that the hydrogen isotope ratio in the volcanic rocks was much lighter than ocean water, making it much older. The discovery could hold against the theory that the water on our planet came from numerous water-contaminated asteroid collisions.
The breakthrough came after scientists evaporated volcanic rocks and examined the trapped water in their insides, revealing that Earth has not in fact gathered its water isotopes over the years due to debris from outer space impacting its surface, as previous theories believed. In fact, the primordial water from within the volcanic rocks of Iceland might be straight out of the Protosolar Nebula – or the gas and hydrogen molecular clouds that eventually became the Solar System.
The theory suggests that if the Solar System’s nebular history of formation is considered, then we should be able to find many different solar systems with planets like Earth orbiting around. These planets could have actually harbored the same primordial water at one point in time in the past few billion years, and if their geology was as fortunate as Earth’s, they might have evolved in the same way our own planet has. Water may signify the presence of biological life, thus the chances of finding planets similar to Earth might be slightly higher. The theory cannot be considered definite proof, of course, but it does propose an interesting idea.
If planets within solar systems are formed from the same materials as the primordial protosolar nebula, and are capable of retaining water in a similar manner to Earth, the possibility of finding life closer to home is greatly increased. However, that doesn’t mean that we might be closer to intelligence. You might have heard theories about inferior forms of life being closer to us than we had ever thought – on Mars, for instance. In the future, we might discover primordial water on the Red Planet.
The volcanic rocks that the scientists base their theory on can now be considered as the first evidence of primordial water on Earth. If you want to get in on the science behind analyzing these unique volcanic rocks, you can read the full study in Science magazine. The discovery is significant and brings us one step closer to identifying the first planet, aside from Earth, harboring biological life.
NASA will release a major report on UFOs, or “unidentified anomalous phenomena” (UAP).
The briefing will be held at the agency’s Washington DC headquarters at 10:00 EDT (14:00 UTC) on Thursday, September 14. The video player below streams the discussion live.
NASA commissioned an independent study group of 16 scientific, aeronautical, and data experts led by astrophysicist David Spergel in 2022 to produce the findings.
NASA says the study group will “examine UAP from a scientific perspective and create a roadmap for how to use data and the tools of science to move our understanding of UAP forward.”
The team’s full report will be posted online by NASA 30 minutes before the briefing.
This report will be released in accordance with NASA’s openness, transparency, and scientific integrity. When the study was announced last year, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate assistant deputy associate administrator for research, Daniel Evans, said, “We take that obligation seriously and make it easily accessible for anyone to see or study.”
UAP sightings were once the domain of conspiracy theorists and sci-fi, but recent high-profile US military sightings have legitimized them.
US authorities are taking UAPs seriously because they may be Russian or Chinese experimental aircraft being tested for national security.
Also possible is extraterrestrial life. NASA is open to all possibilities, but this week’s announcement won’t reveal alien lifeforms visiting Earth.
Instead, the report may outline new protocols to help the agency collect UAP data in the future.
“The report informs NASA of future data collection opportunities to shed light on UAP’s nature and origin. The announcement’s brief NASA statement said the report is not a review or assessment of previous unidentifiable observations.
“There are currently a limited number of high-quality observations of UAP, which make it impossible to draw firm scientific conclusions about their nature,” the agency said.
At the time of impact, the impactor vehicle, about the size of a vending machine, was moving at about 14,000 mph.
After traveling for over a year, NASA‘s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which attempted to provide answers, “Could a specially crafted satellite be used to divert an asteroid from its planet-destroying course? How about a number? “has effectively impacted the Dimorphos asteroid. However, NASA ground control has confirmed that the DART impact vehicle has intercepted the target asteroid. The results and data from the collision are still being received. Yes, Dimorphos is about the size of a football stadium, but space is very big, extremely dark, and both the asteroid and the spaceship were traveling rather quickly at the time.
“It’s been a successful completion of the first part of the world’s first planetary defense test,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said after the impact. “I believe it’s going to teach us how one day to protect our own planet from an incoming asteroid. We are showing that planetary defense is a global endeavor and it is very possible to save our planet.”
In an effort to investigate the employment of defensive satellites as a method of planetary defense against Near Earth Objects, NASA launched the DART mission in November 2021. Nearly 68 million miles from Earth, the DART impactor vehicle, about the size of a vending machine, tragically crossed Dimorphos’ path while traveling at about 14,000 MPH.
It remains to be seen if future generations of a planetary defense system will be packed with satellites ready to go full June Bug vs. Chrysler Windshield against real planet-killer asteroids. Dimorphos is one of two asteroids that are gravitationally entangled; its parent rock is more than five times larger than Dimorphos itself, but both are dwarfed by the space rock that struck Earth 66 million years ago and destroyed 75% of the planet’s multicellular life while gouging out the Gulf of Mexico.
The world of science and technology brings us yet another crazy possibility that’s going to be explored quite soon. Fourth Generation Cellular Networks are seeing implementations on various places. One of them could be the natural satellite orbiting the earth: The Moon.
A partnership between Nokia, Vodafone and Audi is looking to implement cellular networks on the moon sometime next year. Even if the proposition sounds crazy, it seems like they have a lot of plans to make this dream a reality.
Vodafone will be designing the lunar network and will make use of equipment designed by Nokia Bell Labs. This connectivity will allow two Audi Lunar Quattro rovers to communicate wirelessly with a base station at the Autonomous Landing and Navigation Module.
Using existing satellites, mission organizer Part Time Scientists will also be able to live stream scientific data and HD video content from the Moon to viewers on Earth. In other words, we will be getting some very detailed views of Earth for public viewing.
The networking equipment will be launched into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. If you think it’s going to be very heavy and sloppy to handle. Nokia’s engineers have worked really hard to make it weigh less than one kilogram.
We’re seeing the vestiges of life in the moon very frequently now. All thanks to the options becoming more and more accessible with the fast advancements in technology. Of course, this rapid growth is far from reaching its peak potential.
Who knows? Maybe we will be able to look at interplanetary travels and living. The sky is the limit when it comes to the amount of creations. Nowadays bizarre ideas like mobile networks in different planets aren’t that far fetched eiher.
It’s going to be an interesting ride, for sure. However, we must be also conscious about the planet we’re currently living in. Even though there are efforts to make this planet greener, there is a lot left to do.
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