'Space Hurricane' confirmed to have formed above Earth
This storm rained electrons, shifted energy from the sun's rays to the magnetosphere, and went unnoticed for a long time.
05 March, 2021
Qing-He Zhang / Shandong University
- An international team of scientists has confirmed the existence of a "space hurricane" seven years ago.
- The storm formed in the magnetosphere above the North magnetic pole.
- The storm posed to risk to life on Earth, though it might have interfered with some electronics.
Seven years ago, a 600-mile wide space hurricane made of plasma raged for eight hours high over the North Magnetic Pole. Only now has an international team of scientists been able to describe the phenomenon and report on it in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21459-y" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nature Communications</a>. <p class=""><br></p>
What do you call that kind of storm when it forms over the Arctic ocean?
<iframe width="730" height="430" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8GqnzBJkWcw" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><p> Many objects in space, like Earth, the Sun, most of the planets, and even some large moons, have magnetic fields. The area around these objects which is affected by these fields is known as the magnetosphere.</p><p>For us Earthlings, the magnetosphere is what protects us from the most intense cosmic radiation and keeps the solar wind from affecting our atmosphere. When charged particles interact with it, we see the aurora. Its fluctuations lead to changes in what is known as "space weather," which can impact electronics. </p><p>This "space hurricane," as the scientists are calling it, was formed by the interactions between Earth's magnetosphere and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_magnetic_field" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">interplanetary magnetic field,</a> the part of the sun's magnetosphere that goes out into the solar system. It took on the familiar shape of a cyclone as it followed magnetic fields. For example, the study's authors note that the numerous arms traced out the "footprints of the reconnected magnetic field lines." It rotated counter-clockwise with a speed of nearly 7,000 feet per second. The eye, of course, was still and <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/for-the-first-time-a-plasma-hurricane-has-been-detected-in-space" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">calm</a>.</p><p>The storm, which was invisible to the naked eye, rained electrons and shifted energy from space into the ionosphere. It seems as though such a thing can only form under calm situations when large amounts of energy are moving between the solar wind and the upper <a href="https://www.reading.ac.uk/news-and-events/releases/PR854520.aspx" target="_blank">atmosphere</a>. These conditions were modeled by the scientists using 3-D <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21459-y#Sec10" target="_blank">imaging</a>.<br><br>Co-author Larry Lyons of UCLA explained the process of putting the data together to form the models to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/space-hurricane-rained-electrons-observed-first-time-rcna328" target="_blank">NBC</a>:<br><br>"We had various instruments measuring various things at different times, so it wasn't like we took a big picture and could see it. The really fun thing about this type of work is that we had to piece together bits of information and put together the whole picture."<br><br>He further mentioned that these findings were completely unexpected and that nobody that even theorized a thing like this could exist. <br></p><p>While this storm wasn't a threat to any life on Earth, a storm like this could have noticeable effects on space weather. This study suggests that this could have several effects, including "increased satellite drag, disturbances in High Frequency (HF) radio communications, and increased errors in over-the-horizon radar location, satellite navigation, and communication systems."</p><p>The authors <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21459-y#Sec8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">speculate</a> that these "space hurricanes" could also exist in the magnetospheres of other planets.</p><p>Lead author Professor Qing-He Zhang of Shandong University discussed how these findings will influence our understanding of the magnetosphere and its changes with <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/uor-sho030221.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">EurekaAlert</a>:</p><p>"This study suggests that there are still existing local intense geomagnetic disturbance and energy depositions which is comparable to that during super storms. This will update our understanding of the solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling process under extremely quiet geomagnetic conditions."</p>
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NASA's Perseverance rover has a 1997 computer chip brain. Here's why.
It may be old tech, but it's super-reliable.
03 March, 2021
Credit: NASA
<ul class="ee-ul"></ul>
<p>It's probably a good idea to stop and take a moment every now and then to marvel at the incredible amount of computing power in your pocket. Today's phones have processors that make the computers of the internet-boom era seem like little more than garage-door openers. Forget about the massive room-sized early computers that couldn't run a game of Pong, much less Panda Pop. Nope, your pocket is packed with power.</p><p>It may surprise you then to learn that a processor that was released by IBM and Motorola back in 1997 is the chip that serves as the brain of NASA's cutting-edge <a href="https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/perseverance-rover" target="_blank">Perseverance Mars rover</a>. The craft's developers were more interested in reliability than sheer power, and their solution was a G3 processor, or CPU, used in Apple's Power G3 Macintosh starting in 1998.</p>
The G3 compared to today’s chips
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcxMzA4OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3MjgxMDAxNX0.yAyX3ACtn3HMKyPB6hj8EJttWKNrfreOAC2PlK9GW4o/img.jpg?width=980" id="a5d5a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dc5cb2f37bed6b16f0e3f4f223069b2b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1237" data-height="1150" />Credit: Apple
<p>Apple veterans remember the G3 fondly. It was a futuristic, tower-style computer of translucent white and blue. Its side conveniently flipped open to facilitate expansion. It smoked older Macs with a processor operating speed that topped out at a screaming 266 megahertz (MHz).</p><p>Or so we thought at the time. Today's processors leave the G3 in the dust. The processor in an Apple iPhone 12 runs at <a href="https://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/cpu-apple_a14_bionic-1693" target="_blank">3 <em>GigaHertz</em></a> (GHz), while a Samsung Galaxy S21 runs at <a href="https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-galaxy-s21-ultra-snapdragon-vs-exynos-1195066/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2.9 GHz</a> in the U.S. model.</p><p>Not only that, but today's processors are multicore chips, meaning that they're like multiple processors running side by side within the chip. So, see ya later G3, as far as consumer use goes.</p><p>Still, the G3 was very reliable, and it was the first of a breed of chips to perform "dynamic branch prediction," an architecture still used today. It involves the CPU predicting upcoming tasks so as to line up its processing resources as efficiently as possible.</p>Perseverance's brain
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcxMzA5NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNjY4NzA5Mn0.8F043ECbcKycnfIAPJK7AnWdIwY3qdm_DjlzqYFnFms/img.jpg?width=980" id="2b434" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9c0204d7b6b7731b7f92e40a83f761ae" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1440" data-height="756" />Old G3 (left), and the new G3 for Perseverance (right)
Credit: /Henriok/Wikimedia Commons
<p>The chip in Perseverance, the PowerPC 750, isn't even the fastest G3 chip — the single-core chip runs at 200 MHz, which is still 10 times the speed of the chips powering the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, according to NASA.</p><p>Perseverance's chip is also not an off-the-shelf PowerPC 750. It's a purpose-built, radiation-hardened version of the chip called the <a href="https://www.baesystems.com/en/article/bae-systems-rad750--single-board-computers-guide-insight-mars-landing" target="_blank">RAD750</a>. Fabricated by BEA Systems, the processor can operate in temperatures between -55 and 125° Celsius (-67 to 257 degrees Fahrenheit), perfect for Mars' frigid atmosphere. Also, because that atmosphere is so thin that its surface is continually bombarded with radiation, the RAD750 can withstand 200,000 to 1,000,000 Rads of radiation.</p><p>It's also not the RAD750's first trip to Mars: There was one onboard the Insight craft that landed there in November 2018.</p><p>NASA's upcoming <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Orion</a> craft will also use the RAD750. In 2014, when Orion was announced, NASA's Matt Lemke explained to <a href="https://www.thespacereview.com/article/2665/1" target="_blank">The Space Review</a> that "it's not about the speed as much as the ruggedness and the reliability. I need to make sure it will always work." Especially attractive was the RAD750's tolerance of radiation: "The one thing we really like about this computer is that it doesn't get destroyed by radiation. It can be upset, but it won't fail. We've done a lot of testing on the different parts in the computer. When it sees radiation, it might have to reset but it will come back up and work again."</p><p>The designers of Perseverance were also somewhat parsimonious with onboard memory — every millimeter/gram is precious on a spacecraft. Though storage isn't bad, at 2 GB of Flash memory, there's just 256 megabytes of working RAM and 256 kilobytes of EEPROM (electrically-erasable programmable read-only memory).</p><p>Back here on Earth, we're surrounded by RAD750 devices whizzing overhead in about 100 satellites. So far, not one of them has failed. No wonder the chip's been sent on such a critical mission the Red Planet.</p>
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Best. Science. Fiction. Show. Ever.
"The Expanse" is the best vision I've ever seen of a space-faring future that may be just a few generations away.
26 February, 2021
Credit: "The Expanse" / Syfy
- Want three reasons why that headline is justified? Characters and acting, universe building, and science.
- For those who don't know, "The Expanse" is a series that's run on SyFy and Amazon Prime set about 200 years in the future in a mostly settled solar system with three waring factions: Earth, Mars, and Belters.
- No other show I know of manages to use real science so adeptly in the service of its story and its grand universe building.
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<p>Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know: <em>Best science fiction show ever. </em>That is a pretty audacious claim and it means I've got some explaining to do. But with 58.5 years of nerdom behind me, including years of watching "Star Trek", "UFO", "Space 1999", "Battlestar Galactica" (the original one that sucked except for the special effects), "Stargate", "The X-Files", "Farscape", "Battlestar Galactica" (the new one that didn't suck) and Firefly I have seen a thing or two concerning science fiction on TV. That's why I'm here ready to stand my ground and proclaim for all nerdom to hear…</p>
<p>"<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MMJTJSH" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Expanse</a>" is the greatest science fiction TV show ever. EVER!</p>
<p>For those of you who don't know, "The Expanse" is a series that's run on SyFy and Amazon Prime set about 200 years in the future in a mostly settled solar system (slight spoiler alerts follow). Based on an <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/56399-the-expanse" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">amazing book series</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/AbrahamHanover" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SA Corey</a>, in this future there are three major political factions in constant conflict with each other. First, there is Earth which remains powerful but is stretched thin by climate change and overpopulation. Then there is Mars, a former colony of Earth, that's now an independent militaristic republic whose technology generally outpaces that of humanity's homeworld. The final faction is "The Belt" which refers to the asteroids and moons of the giant planets. Belters are resource extractors, and they are the oppressed underclass. After generations living on ships and in low-gravity environments, their bodies have changed, making it impossible for many of them to handle the crush of gravity on the inner planets. </p>
<p>The story begins with all three factions at each other's throats. Mars and Earth are in the midst of a long cold war that, occasionally, turns <a href="https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/Vesta_Blockade" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hot</a>. What Earth and Mars have in common, however, is keeping their boot on the neck of the Belters who are, themselves, poised for bloody rebellion. This simmering political, social and military conflict would be enough for a hundred episodes but it's into this pile of dynamite "The Expanse" drops an alien artifact that changes everything and propels the narrative.</p><p>Now, the individual elements in what I described above are not really that original. You can find many versions of them in many TV shows across many decades. So, what does "The Expanse" do with these elements that makes it so special? For me the excellence of the show manifests in three distinct ways: characters and acting; universe building; science.</p>
<blockquote>The level of attempted scientific realism in the show is wonderful, extending even to little details like how whiskey spirals out of its bottle due to the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/coriolis-effect/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Coriolis effect</a> when poured on a rotating space station.</blockquote>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY5MTc0OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODc0NzIyMn0.h3G9wanrr1lmk3itUpVAyj-fw_iuUkUvyFa7Oum86-M/img.jpg?width=980" id="d6dcc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2e1eacc6a1afa879c5c199aec589c06b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1000" data-height="200" /><p>Let's start with characters and acting. No matter how good your science fiction ideas may be, you have to tell your stories through actors pretending to be characters interacting with each other. By its nature, science fiction shows can ask a lot of actors. They have to stare at green screens, pretending to be in awe of an alien mothership that won't get added till post-production CGI; or they dangle from wires emoting through a screen set in the weightlessness of space. It takes serious acting chops to maintain the gravity (or levity) that makes it all believable or better yet <em>relatable</em>. That's why the depth of performances in <em>The Expanse</em> is its best surprise. The recent season, for example, had actor <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4625680/" target="_blank">Dominique Tipper</a> killing it across three episodes as Belter engineer Naomi Nagata. Nagata is caught alone on a booby-trapped ship, exhausting herself trying to signal her friends to <em>not</em> attempt a rescue. It's a solo performance reminiscent of Tom Hanks' great work in "Castaway".<br></p><br>Across the seasons, other actors have also filled out their characters with an empathy that's comparable to anything else in any other genre on TV. <a href="https://twitter.com/ThomasJane" target="_blank">Thomas Jane's</a> detective Josephus Miller was an epic noir depiction of a man broken by circumstance but still moving towards something better. <a href="https://twitter.com/SAghdashloo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Shohreh Aghdashloo's</a> foul-mouthed UN leader Chrisjen Avasarala is a skilled politician who will kick your ass and save your world at the same time. And, perhaps best of all, is <a href="https://twitter.com/weschatham" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Wes Chatham</a>'s Amos Burton. Born in the worst the streets can offer he became a killer then escaped to become a spaceship mechanic. Chatham plays Burton as simultaneously dangerous, kind, and slightly bewildered, always wanting to do the right thing if he just knew what that was. And don't even get me started on how good <a href="https://twitter.com/CaraGeeeee" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cara Gee</a> is as Belter captain Camina Drummer.
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY5MTc0OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NTgzOTgwMX0.7RtmTVSHBVO7lpWbIa3qx9bmpBi_qG58b6J_L-nGO0s/img.jpg?width=980" id="e8c48" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2b0f8459f35eb2073d4ed2347f667a6d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1000" data-height="200" /><p>Next, we come to what's called 'universe building' in science fiction. All the great acting needs a fully fleshed out, lived-in world to ground it. How, for example, do the trams work on a hollowed out, spinning asteroid like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_(dwarf_planet)" target="_blank">Ceres</a> that's used as a space settlement? This isn't a physics question. Instead, it means if you arrived on Ceres, where would you find the tram station? What do the maps look like that would help you get around? These are the kind of details that fall both to the writers and the art department. Getting these details wrong means the world your show inhabits will either look cheesy or, worse, sterile, as if all your expensive sets never had anyone live in them.</p>
<p>Happily, everything in "The Expanse" looks lived in. Everything looks like part of an organic whole. The sets and scenes give us a world built by humans for human purposes even if it's a city built into the side of a Martian cliff. From visions of New York City under siege from climate change to the claustrophobic interiors of Belter ships (all webbing, ductwork and grimy computer screens), the universe of "The Expanse" is endlessly rich, interesting, and believable (<a href="https://twitter.com/donttrythis" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Adam Savage</a> has a great set of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2ICDTv3VJA" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">videos</a> on production design in "The Expanse").</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY5MTc1MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDEyNDg2Nn0.b7YJNl900W-P531IJDBt-a3sxieX3VdjuyhOVJU19PY/img.jpg?width=980" id="90aec" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7630d221c2eadd637411ac089fb7c652" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1000" data-height="200" /><p>Finally, we come to the science, because, after all, this is science fiction. I am not one who demands that my science fiction always get the science right. What matters is that the writers create a self-consistent universe where whatever "science" is invoked remains constant as constraints imposed to provide obstacles and make the story work. But, to my joy, for the most part the "science" used in "The Expanse" is the science I teach in my <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/12/how-real-world-science-sets-expanse-apart-other-sci-fi-shows" target="_blank">physics</a> classes. For example, there is no imaginary "artificial gravity" babble. Instead, there is thrust gravity when the engines are on, accelerating spaceships. There is also spin gravity when you're on the inside of something rotating. Other than that, you are "on the float." Just like what will happen in real spaceships and space stations in the future.</p>
<p>The level of attempted scientific realism in the show is wonderful, extending even to little details like how whiskey spirals out of its bottle due to the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/coriolis-effect/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Coriolis effect</a> when poured on a rotating space station. Most importantly, the writers use the real physics real people will really encounter in real space travel as a kind of extra character in the show. During space battles, as ships roll and pivot, Newton's first law (inertia) means unsecured tools are sent flying across the cabin. That makes them dangerous projectiles our brave heroes must dodge while fighting evil and advancing the storyline. It all makes my physicist's heart weep in gratitude.</p>
<p>Of course, not all the science in "The Expanse" is valid or accurate or correct. But that's OK. No other show I know of manages to use real science so adeptly in the service of its story and its grand universe building. I often rewatch episodes of "The Expanse" just to get a sense of "Oh yeah, that's how it might look." In a way, the show is the best vision I've ever seen of a space-faring future that may be just a few generations away.</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY5MTc1OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNTc0OTQ1OX0.Enwz2n8tuWTiTJCUGhNZyKdFFMpIluc_gMiF81syppo/img.jpg?width=980" id="58949" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="19881167238be86e0db2bcae4e79f249" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="970" data-height="546" />
Credit: "The Expanse" / Syfy
<p>Now, I get it if you don't agree with me. I love "Star Trek" and I thought "Battlestar Galactica" (the new one) was amazing and I do adore "The Mandalorian". They are all fun and important and worth watching and thinking about. And maybe you love them more than anything else. But when you sum up the acting, the universe building, and the use of real science where it matters, I think nothing can beat "The Expanse". And with a <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_expanse" target="_blank">Rotten Tomato</a> average rating of 93%, I'm clearly not the only one who feels this way.</p><p>Best.</p><p>Show.</p><p>Ever. </p>
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Scientists grow extremophile microbes on rocks from Mars
The results could help NASA's Perseverance rover find evidence of ancient life on Mars.
24 February, 2021
Credit: Milojevic et al.
- In a recent study, researchers simulated the environment of ancient Mars and tested whether a type of extremophile found on Earth could grow on fragments of a meteorite from Mars.
- Extremophiles are organisms that have adapted to survive in conditions in which most life forms cannot, such as ice, volcanoes, and space.
- The results showed that the extremophiles were able to convert the rock into energy. What's more, the microbes left behind biosignatures that could help scientists identify evidence of past life on Mars.
<p>Scientists have successfully grown microcrobrial organisms on rocks from Mars, boosting the case that life could have once existed on the Red Planet.</p><p>The study, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00105-x" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Communications Earth & Environment</a>, involved tiny chunks of a Martian meteorite called Northwest Africa 7034, better known by its nickname: Black Beauty. The meteorite was discovered in the Sahara Desert, where it crashed around 1,000 years ago. Today, it's worth 250 times the price of gold.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Black Beauty is among the rarest substances on Earth, it is a unique Martian breccia formed by various pieces of Martian crust (some of them are dated at 4.42 ± 0.07 billion years) and ejected millions [of] years ago from the Martian surface," study author Tetyana Milojevic, an astrobiologist at the University of Vienna in Austria, told <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-grown-microbes-on-actual-rock-from-mars" target="_blank">Science Alert.</a></p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"We had to choose a pretty bold approach of crushing a few grams of precious Martian rock to recreate the possible look of Mars' earliest and simplest life form."</p><p>Ancient Mars probably looked a lot different than the planet does today. NASA data suggest that, billions of years ago, Mars was warmer, wetter, and had a thicker atmosphere, all of which are ingredients for the evolution of life. What kinds of life? It's unclear, but extremophiles are a good bet.</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY4NDg5Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MDg2NDk0OX0.NsfLVJRcWq3BUgRLvN5KltSGhxbQCsDxHFf93LkN93A/img.jpg?width=980" id="a29d4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="713fa45f99fb8f76059c3712a925d810" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1280" data-height="1707" />
Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034
Credit: NASA
<p>Extremophiles are organisms that thrive in conditions where most life forms would die. Scientists have observed them in volcanoes, soda lakes, Antarctic ice, and hydrothermal vents. Some have even <a href="https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/tardigrades-extremophiles" target="_self">survived the vacuum of space</a>. The team behind the recent study focused on a particular class of extremophiles called chemolithotrophs, which are microbes that use inorganic compounds as a source of energy.<br></p><p>To test whether chemolithotrophs might have been able to evolve on Mars, the team placed a chemolithtrophic microbe called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallosphaera_sedula" target="_blank"><em>Metallosphaera sedula</em></a> onto bits of Black Beauty. The researchers simulated the ancient Martian environment by keeping the microbe-covered rock bits in a bioreactor that controlled temperature and levels of carbon dioxide and air.</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY4NDg5OS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNjcyNjYxMH0.tztvcSVLi3okQ8wVVPOIxwes6hWvBgfFPZnQCWAukA4/img.png?width=980" id="bf9bd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a57c70ae690983d81c43ea05599eb7c1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="632" data-height="548" />
The high-angle annular dark-field (HAADF) scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) image of the focused ion beam (FIB) section extracted for STEM analysis from the NWA 7034 fragment used in this study
Credit: Milojevic et al.
<p>Using microscopy, the researchers saw that the microbe successfully converted rock pieces into biomass.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Grown on Martian crustal material, the microbe formed a robust mineral capsule comprised [sic] of complexed iron, manganese and aluminum phosphates," Milojevic told Science Alert.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Apart from the massive encrustation of the cell surface, we have observed intracellular formation of crystalline deposits of a very complex nature (Fe, Mn oxides, mixed Mn silicates). These are distinguishable unique features of growth on the Noachian Martian breccia, which we did not observe previously when cultivating this microbe on terrestrial mineral sources and a stony chondritic meteorite."</p>Mars 2020 mission
<p>The study didn't prove that chemolithotrophs or any other type of life ever existed on Mars. But the results did show that the chemolithotrophs left behind unique biosignatures as they converted the rock bits into energy. </p><p>With these fingerprints on the books, scientists working with the Mars 2020 mission might be able to find similar biosignatures in rock samples collected or observed by the Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars in February. Rock samples collected by the rover are expected to return to Earth in 2031.</p>
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Astrophysicists find rare star spinning backwards
A unique star system where exoplanets orbit their star backwards located by researchers.
18 February, 2021
Illustration: Christoffer Grønne.
- Astrophysicists find a very rare system with two exoplanets orbiting their star backwards.
- The star system K2-290 is 897 light years away.
- In our Solar System, all the planets revolve in the same direction as the rotation of the Sun.
<p>Astrophysicists discovered a very rare planetary system 897 light years away which features two exoplanets orbiting their star backwards. This unexpected arrangement is due to the tilting of the protoplanetary disk in which the planets were formed.</p><p>The researchers found that the two planets in the K2-290 system orbit around the star in almost the opposite direction as the star's rotation around its own axis. In our Solar System, by comparison, all the planets revolve in the same direction as the rotation of the Sun. K2-290 A's rotational axis is tilted by approximately 124 degrees in contrast to the orbits of the planets. <br></p>
<p>The international research team was led by Maria Hjorth and Simon Albrecht from the Stellar Astrophysics Centre of Aarhus University in Denmark, and also involved scientists from Princeton University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Toronto, and Tokyo Institute of Technology.</p><p><span style="background-color: initial;">This actually isn't the first time a "backwards" planetary system like this has been spotted. One was sighted over 10 years ago. But, as one of the study's authors Joshua Winn from Princeton University explained in a <a href="https://phys.au.dk/sac/sac-seminars/article/artikel/two-backwards-planets-in-a-dynamic-stellar-system/" target="_blank">press release</a>, "</span><span style="background-color: initial;">this is a rare case in which we think we know what caused the drastic misalignment, and the explanation is different from what researchers have assumed might have happened in the other systems."</span></p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY2MjI5NC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0OTA5NjA2Mn0.ZB9BHKeicjb2VMpvhm_Cx6H8_AlMoYpWQKsHBPdYEeE/img.png?width=980" id="d3eab" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="acd264a11dce146c6541520ae3558059" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="2222" data-height="1250" />
A protoplanetary disc was twisted almost 180° before planet formation.
Illustration: Christoffer Grønne.
<p>The unusual formation of the planets was caused by the protoplanetary disk – a disk of material that spins around a young star for several million years after the star's birth. Normally, this spin is going in the same direction as the star but the gravitational force from a neighboring star can tilt the disk, which is what happened in this case.</p><p>Another author, PhD student Emil Knudstrup from Aarhus University, shared what drew him to this work: </p><p>"The idea that planets travel on wildly misaligned orbits has fascinated me throughout my graduate study. It is one thing to predict the existence of these crazy orbits, so very different from what we see in the Solar System. It is quite another thing to participate in actually finding them!"</p><p>Check out the paper "<a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/8/e2017418118" target="_blank">A backward-spinning star with two coplanar planets</a>" published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).</p>
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