Saturn •

Hidden Life on Unexpected Planets

May 17, 2016 By Troy Rubenson Leave a Comment

Hidden life. Gas Giant

STATES CHRONICLE – A new study called “Hunting for hidden life on worlds orbiting old, red stars” from the Cornell University and another one called “Habitable zones of Post-Main Sequence Stars” from the Carl Sagan Institute find alien life might exist on other planets in different solar systems because of the changing habitable zones.

Looking at stars of different ages, scientists have realized that they might find life on planets that were once icy like Jupiter’s moon Europa.

When a star ages it changes its size to hundreds of times its original dimension and its force attracts nearby planets and engulfs them. The ones that are not drawn in the “circle of fire” are the more distant and big ones like our own Saturn and Jupiter.

Then this type of planets might sit in what is now known as the “Goldilocks Zone.” This zone situated at a perfect distance from the sun, like our planet is now – not too close, but not too far either – to sustain life.

In the universe, there is a myriad of solar systems and stars of all ages. The habitable zone has changed or will “soon” change for many of them. This means hidden life might be present on “initially frozen worlds” that their dying star has now melted and left in a new habitable zone.

Astronomers can now compile a new list of planets in their search for hidden life. Using stellar ages and a list of known red giants, with the help of this new model, the quest might turn out a trove of alien treasures.

With the shift of the habitable zone, the planets situated here might suffer from “inhabitable” conditions like intense solar winds that can erode a plate’s atmosphere as the planets move outward.

Still, scientists are optimistic about these red giants and their planets harboring hidden alien life potential. The planets might hold their atmosphere for at least “half a billion years” and “that’s no small amount of time,” said the Carl Sagan Institute scientists.

Authors Lisa Kaltinegger and Ramses M. Ramirez also added that humans might escape to the moons of Saturn and Jupiter when Earth will become inhabitable. Hopefully, we would have found lots of hidden life and helpful aliens by then.

The new habitable zones theory is a first attempt to link a star’s model to a planet’s model.

Image courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Titan’s Peaks Explored by Cassini

March 25, 2016 By Sebastian Mc’Mannen Leave a Comment

Titan, Saturn’s largest moon has 3,000 meters tall peaks

STATES CHRONICLE – The Cassini spacecraft has been sent out in space to explore different cosmic objects in our galaxy. Lately, the spacecraft has been focusing its research on Saturn and its moons in particular. At the moment, Cassini has approached Titan, Saturn’s largest moon and it has identified the highest points of this moon.

According to the images and data, Cassini sent to NASA, Titan’s highest peak is 3,337 meters tall and can be found in a mountainous ridge called the Mithrim Montes. All of the peaks there, three in total, are approximately 3,000 meters tall.

Luckily, the Cassini probe has technology advanced enough and a radar that can see through the smog of the moon’s atmosphere and reveal pretty clear and detailed images of the surface. According to NASA scientists, this is most probably the highest point on Titan as they don’t believe they can find another one.

The moon’s tallest mountains are located near the equator. Some other peaks of similar height were found both in the Mithrim Montes as well as in Xanadu and some isolated peaks near the landing site of ESA’s Huygens spacecraft.

The peaks were found as a result of a search for active zones within the moon’s crust. In other words, NASA was looking for places where dynamic forces shaped the landscape, maybe similar to how our relief was formed. They were looking both for the highest peaks and the deepest places.

But the relief is not formed only by dynamic forces within the crust, but also by erosion made by wind or rain. It turns out that on Titan, just as on Earth, rain and rivers have also eroded the landscape. However, the process is a slower one than what happens on Earth. This is because the energy coming from the sun is too little to power erosive processes in the atmosphere of the moon, mainly because it is located ten times farther from the sun than the Earth.

Nevertheless, seeing that the landscape on Titan is mostly formed in a way similar to the landscape on Earth is a very interesting discovery and sheds light over how this moon has evolved in time. It also shows that some tectonic forces have also contributed to the process of forming mountains.

However, the existence of such tall peaks comes as a surprise because Titan is made up entirely of a huge ocean covered in ice so that NASA researchers will be looking further into the matter.

Image source: www.bing.com

Plastic on Saturn’s moon Titan!

October 1, 2013 By Janet Vasquez Leave a Comment

Have you ever imagined plastics on planet other than Earth. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has detected propylene, a chemical essential for creation of plastic, on Saturn’s moon Titan.

On Earth, this molecule, which comprises three carbon atoms and six hydrogen atoms, is a constituent of many plastics.

Talking about the development, US space agency said, “It is the first definitive detection of the plastic ingredient on any moon or planet, other than our home world”.

The discovery, made by Cassini’s infrared spectrometer, is reported in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Propylene is the first molecule to be discovered on Titan using Cassini’s Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), which measures the infrared light, or heat radiation, emitted from Saturn and its moons.

“This chemical is all around us in everyday life, strung together in long chains to form a plastic called polypropylene,” said Conor Nixon, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, and lead author of the paper in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Titan is dominated by hydrocarbons – principally methane, which after nitrogen is the most common component of the atmosphere. Sunlight drives reactions that break apart the methane, allowing the fragments to join up and form even bigger molecules.

The family of chemicals with two carbons includes the flammable gas ethane. Propane, a common fuel for portable stoves, belongs to the three-carbon family.

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