World's 1st Free Course on "Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life"

World's 1st Free Course on "Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life"
World's 1st Free Course on "Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life"The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy  « Nearby Mars-Sized Exo-Planet Discovered Orbiting a Red Dwarf |Main| 1st Known Spiral Galaxy in Universe Discovered --Billions of Years Older than Expected »

July 19, 2012 World's 1st Free Course on "Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life"

 

                

Edinburgh University’s upcoming free course, “Introduction to Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life” will open up an exciting new era in the study of extraterrestrial life. According to Jeff Haywood, vice principal of the University of Edinburgh, the number of students for the online course is potentially 100,000 or more. The course reflects the ever increasing global awareness of the possibility of extraterrestrial life and its societal implications. 

Over two thousand years ago, the ancient Greeks wondered if other worlds were habitable. In the coming years this question will be experimentally tested. This course is an introduction to astrobiology. It explores the origin and evolution of life on the Earth and its potential to exist elsewhere. Astrobiology addresses compelling questions of wide interest such as: How did life originate on the Earth? Is this an inevitable process and is life common across the Universe? Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary science that bridges fields as diverse as astrophysics, biology, geosciences and chemistry.

The coursewill explore what we know about life’s ability to live in extreme environments on the Earth, we will look at different hypotheses for how it originated. It will look at some of the missions to search for life in our own Solar System and on planets orbiting distant stars,and discuss some of the extreme environments on the Earth that help us understand the limits of life and how life has adapted to cope with extremes. The course willexplore the possibility of intelligent alien life and some of the implications of its detection, and provide a foundation in astrobiology and introduce students to concepts in a diversity of scientific fields.

The course will be taught by Charles Cockell, professor of Astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh (image below). He received his doctorate at the University of Oxford and was a National Research Council Associate at the NASA Ames Research Centre. He was a visiting scholar at Stanford University and the University of Arizona. Cockell is currently Director of the UK Centre for Astrobiology and his research interests focus on how microbes survive in extreme environments, including volcanic and impact crater environments.

Cockell is a Senior Editor of the journal, Astrobiology. His popular science books include ‘Impossible Extinction’ (Cambridge University Press), which explores the tenacity of microbes on the Earth, and ‘Space on Earth’ (Macmillan) which looks at the links between environmentalism and space exploration. He is Chair of the Earth and Space Foundation, a non-profit organisation he established in 1994. He was the first Chair of the Astrobiology Society of Britain.

Course Syllabus

Week 1: What is life and what are the definitions of life? What do we know about the origin of life and what are the current hypotheses for how it originated on the Earth?

Week 2: What was the environment of early Earth like when life first emerged and what do we know about life on the earliest Earth? How did life evolve to cope with survival in extreme environments? What have been the major evolutionary transitions of life on the Earth?

Week 3: What are the prospects for life on other planetary bodies in our Solar System and how do we go about searching for it? What conditions are required for a planet to be habitable?

Week 4: How do we search for Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars and how would we detect life on them?

Week 5: What are the possibilities for intelligent life elsewhere? How would be deal with contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence and what would be the impact on society? Who would represent Earth?

No background is required. Suggested Readings: Lunine, J. Astrobiology: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Addison Wesley'

The course will consist of ten lectures of one hour each. beginning 28 January 2013 (5 weeks long). Students will receive a certificate of completion signed by theinstructor.* Workload: 3-4 hours/week

 

          

The Daily Galaxy via https://www.coursera.org/course/astrobio

Image credit of Charles Cockell: With thanks to the Haughton Mars Project 

Posted at 07:30 AM | Permalink

Comments

Coincidentally, I just finished the first part of a video series I'm putting together on the subject. Might be relevant-
http://youtu.be/1Y4IMWC4Dcs

Posted by:Taurus |July 19, 2012 at 11:30 AM

This makes a ll kinds of sense dude.

www.Now-Anon.tk

Posted by:derkwann |July 19, 2012 at 01:51 PM

The infamous Dr. J says that life will always surprise us in the most interesting ways,and the search for extraterrestrial life will teach us how little we really know. We expect that life will e either a mirror image of us or completely alien and insect like, but the free course that will be offered will, hopefully inspire many to enter into the new field of biology and make some awesome discoveries. Although, like all scientists, like the historical legends of Darwin and Cousteau, the only way that modern
Astrobiologist would make the grand discoveries would be out in the field where alien life will exist.

Posted by:kristi276 |July 19, 2012 at 11:20 PM

Its free, but is it open to people from any academic background? Say... social sciences or mathematics?

Posted by:Trantorian |July 20, 2012 at 05:01 AM

I've taken an FREE college course Astro-biology Class at Sacramento City College win Professor Liam McDaid back in 2009 or 2010. Same exact course material, just no certificate. There is also no prerequisites for this class. Editor's Note: Why don't we think it's "the same exact course material."

Posted by:Hatever |July 20, 2012 at 08:58 AM

The course sounds something I would like but is the course an on-line course?

Posted by:Fred Higginbottom |July 20, 2012 at 02:57 PM

this is what it say on the above messages:
"the number of students for the online course is potentially 100,000 or more."
I guess it is an online course :) Im doubting that too myself. But hoping it is :D

Posted by:Angeliena Christina Alexander |July 20, 2012 at 10:20 PM

I feel so stupid now :)

Posted by:Fred Higginbottom |July 21, 2012 at 09:26 AM

Fred, you are stupid. What classroom cou7ld hold 100,000 students?

Posted by:Pete |July 22, 2012 at 04:39 AM

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address: (Not displayed with comment.)

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments:

« Nearby Mars-Sized Exo-Planet Discovered Orbiting a Red Dwarf |Main| 1st Known Spiral Galaxy in Universe Discovered --Billions of Years Older than Expected »

var ACE_AR = {Site: '774230', Size: '120600'};


var ACE_AR = {Site: '770549', Size: '300250'};















Our Partners









ArchivesJuly 2012June 2012May 2012April 2012March 2012February 2012January 2012December 2011November 2011October 2011About Us/Privacy PolicyFor more information on The Daily Galaxy and to contact us please visit this page.

document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://sb" : "http://b") + ".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js'%3E%3C/script%3E"));COMSCORE.beacon({ c1: 2, c2: "6035669", c3: "", c4: "http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/07/worlds-1st-free-course-on-astrobiology-and-the-search-for-extraterrestrial-life.html", c5: "", c6: "", c15: ""});

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

NASA Researchers Discover the Origin of a Major Aspect of Creation of Life

NASA Researchers Discover the Origin of a Major Aspect of Creation of Life
NASA Researchers Discover the Origin of a Major Aspect of Creation of LifeThe Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy  « NASA's August 5th Mars Landing --Will Launch the Robotic Search for Life |Main| Image of the Day: Stratospheric! -- "Extreme Space Jumping" »

July 26, 2012 NASA Researchers Discover the Origin of a Major Aspect of Creation of Life

 

             

 

Researchers analyzing meteorite fragments that fell on a frozen lake in Canada have developed an explanation for the origin of life's "handedness" – why living things only use molecules with specific orientations. The work also gave the strongest evidence to date that liquid water inside an asteroid leads to a strong preference of left-handed over right-handed forms of some common protein amino acids in meteorites. The result makes the search for extraterrestrial life more challenging.

"Our analysis of the amino acids in meteorite fragments from Tagish Lake gave us one possible explanation for why all known life uses only left-handed versions of amino acids to build proteins," said Dr. Daniel Glavin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Glavin is lead author of a paper on this research to be published in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science.

In January, 2000, a large meteoroid exploded in the atmosphere over northern British Columbia, Canada, and rained fragments across the frozen surface of Tagish Lake. Because many people witnessed the fireball, pieces were collected within days and kept preserved in their frozen state. This ensured that there was very little contamination from terrestrial life.

"The Tagish Lake meteorite continues to reveal more secrets about the early Solar System the more we investigate it," said Dr. Christopher Herd of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, a co-author on the paper who provided samples of the Tagish Lake meteorite for the team to analyze. "This latest study gives us a glimpse into the role that water percolating through asteroids must have played in making the left-handed amino acids that are so characteristic of all life on Earth."

 

                               

Proteins are the workhorse molecules of life, used in everything from structures like hair to enzymes, the catalysts that speed up or regulate chemical reactions. Just as the 26 letters of the alphabet are arranged in limitless combinations to make words, life uses 20 different amino acids in a huge variety of arrangements to build millions of different proteins. Amino acid molecules can be built in two ways that are mirror images of each other, like your hands. Although life based on right-handed amino acids would presumably work fine, they can't be mixed.

"Synthetic proteins created using a mix of left- and right-handed amino acids just don't work," says Dr. Jason Dworkin of NASA Goddard, co-author of the study and head of the Goddard Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory, where the analysis was performed. *Since life can't function with a mix of left- and right-handed amino acids, researchers want to know how life – at least, life on Earth -- got set up with the left-handed ones. "The handedness observed in biological molecules – left-handed amino acids and right-handed sugars – is a property important for molecular recognition processes and is thought to be a prerequisite for life," said Dworkin.

All ordinary methods of synthetically creating amino acids result in equal mixtures of left- and right-handed amino acids. Therefore, how the nearly exclusive production of one hand of such molecules arose from what were presumably equal mixtures of left and right molecules in a prebiotic world has been an area of intensive research. 

Theteam ground up samples of the Tagish Lake meteorites, mixed them into a hot-water solution, then separated and identified the molecules in them using a liquid chromatograph mass spectrometer.

"We discovered that the samples had about four times as many left-handed versions of aspartic acid as the opposite hand," says Glavin. Aspartic acid is an amino acid used in every enzyme in the human body. It is also used to make the sugar substitute Aspartame. "Interestingly, the same meteorite sample showed only a slight left-hand excess (no more than eight percent) for alanine, another amino acid used by life."

"At first, this made no sense, because if these amino acids came from contamination by terrestrial life, both amino acids should have large left-handed excesses, because both are common in biology," says Glavin. "However, a large left-hand excess in one and not the other tells us that they were not created by life but instead were made inside the Tagish Lake asteroid."

The team confirmed that the amino acids were probably created in space using isotope analysis.  Isotopes are versions of an element with different masses; for example, carbon 13 is a heavier, and less common, variety of carbon. Since the chemistry of life prefers lighter isotopes, amino acids enriched in the heavier carbon 13 were likely created in space.

"We found that the aspartic acid and alanine in our Tagish Lake samples were highly enriched in carbon 13, indicating they were probably created by non-biological processes in the parent asteroid," said Dr. Jamie Elsila of NASA Goddard, a co-author on the paper who performed the isotopic analysis.

This is the first time that carbon isotope measurements have been reported for these amino acids in Tagish Lake. The carbon 13 enrichment, combined with the large left-hand excess in aspartic acid but not in alanine, provides very strong evidence that some left-handed proteinogenic amino acids -- ones used by life to make proteins -- can be produced in excess in asteroids, according to the team.

Some have argued that left-handed amino acid excesses in meteorites were formed by exposure to polarized radiation in the solar nebula – the cloud of gas and dust from which asteroids, and eventually the Solar System, were formed. However, in this case, the left-hand aspartic acid excesses are so large that they cannot be explained by polarized radiation alone. The team believes that another process is required.

Additionally, the large left-hand excess in aspartic acid but not in alanine gave the team a critical clue as to how these amino acids could have been made inside the asteroid, and therefore how a large left-hand excess could arise before life originated on Earth.  

"One thing that jumped out at me was that alanine and aspartic acid can crystallize differently when you have mixtures of both left-handed and right-handed molecules," said Dr. Aaron Burton, a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at NASA Goddard and a co-author on the study. "This led us to find several studies where researchers have exploited the crystallization behavior of molecules like aspartic acid to get left-handed or right-handed excesses. Because alanine forms different kinds of crystals, these same processes would produce equal amounts of left- and right-handed alanine. We need to do some more experiments, but this explanation has the potential to explain what we see in the Tagish Lake meteorite and other meteorites."

The team believes a small initial left-hand excess could get amplified by crystallization and dissolution from a saturated solution with liquid water. Some amino acids, like aspartic acid, have a shape that lets them fit together in a pure crystal – one comprised of just left-handed or right-handed molecules. For these amino acids, a small initial left- or right-hand excess could become greatly amplified at the expense of the opposite-handed crystals, similar to the way a large snowball gathers more snow and gets bigger more rapidly when rolled downhill than a small one.

Other amino acids, like alanine, have a shape that prefers to join together with their mirror image to make a crystal, so these crystals are comprised of equal numbers of left- and right-handed molecules. As these "hybrid" crystals grow, any small initial excess would tend to be washed out for these amino acids. A requirement for both of these processes is a way to convert left-handed to right-handed molecules, and vice-versa, while they are dissolved in the solution.

This process only amplifies a small excess that already exists. Perhaps a tiny initial left-hand excess was created by conditions in the solar nebula. For example, polarized ultraviolet light or other types of radiation from nearby stars might favor the creation of left-handed amino acids or the destruction of right-handed ones, according to the team.

This initial left-hand excess could then get amplified in asteroids by processes like crystallization. Impacts from asteroids and meteorites could deliver this material to Earth, and left-handed amino acids might have been incorporated into emerging life due to their greater abundance, according to the team. Also, similar enrichments of left-handed amino acids by crystallization could have occurred on Earth in ancient sediments that had water flowing through them, such as the bottoms of rivers, lakes, or seas, according to the team.

The result complicates the search for extraterrestrial life – like microbial life hypothesized to dwell beneath the surface of Mars, for example. "Since it appears a non-biological process can create a left-hand excess in some kinds of amino acids, we can't use such an excess alone as proof of biological activity," says Glavin.

TheDaily Galaxy via NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Posted at 10:30 AM | Permalink

Comments

Doing a Internet search I found that circulated light is responsible for the left handed spin of amino acids in liquid water. This process is referenced as being responsible for the existence of proteins that are required for the beginnings of the evolution of life.
If the information on the entire Internet can be coded and transported through a light beam in a tiny fibre optic cable can it also be the case that the code of life is similarly transported in the beams of cosmic radiation?

Posted by:Lee |July 26, 2012 at 04:04 PM

Nice one lee, like your theory.

Posted by:FreeWorldForAll |July 26, 2012 at 04:26 PM

Meteors or not . . . life’s basically building blocks can be found more or less all over the place in cosmos.

"Life" is generated everywhere electric force (light) makes magnetic swirling fields and circuits of gasses and particles. It all depends on what gasses and what particles are activated and in which actual combinations.

Posted by:Ivar Nielsen |July 27, 2012 at 01:40 AM

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address: (Not displayed with comment.)

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments:

« NASA's August 5th Mars Landing --Will Launch the Robotic Search for Life |Main| Image of the Day: Stratospheric! -- "Extreme Space Jumping" »

var ACE_AR = {Site: '774230', Size: '120600'};


var ACE_AR = {Site: '770549', Size: '300250'};















Our Partners









ArchivesJuly 2012June 2012May 2012April 2012March 2012February 2012January 2012December 2011November 2011October 2011About Us/Privacy PolicyFor more information on The Daily Galaxy and to contact us please visit this page.

document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://sb" : "http://b") + ".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js'%3E%3C/script%3E"));COMSCORE.beacon({ c1: 2, c2: "6035669", c3: "", c4: "http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/07/nasa-researchers-discover-the-origin-of-a-major-aspect-of-creation-of-life.html", c5: "", c6: "", c15: ""});

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

NASA Researchers Discover the Origin of a Major Aspect of Creation of Life

NASA Researchers Discover the Origin of a Major Aspect of Creation of Life
NASA Researchers Discover the Origin of a Major Aspect of Creation of LifeThe Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy  « NASA's August 5th Mars Landing --Will Launch the Robotic Search for Life |Main| Image of the Day: Stratospheric! -- "Extreme Space Jumping" »

July 26, 2012 NASA Researchers Discover the Origin of a Major Aspect of Creation of Life

 

             

 

Researchers analyzing meteorite fragments that fell on a frozen lake in Canada have developed an explanation for the origin of life's "handedness" – why living things only use molecules with specific orientations. The work also gave the strongest evidence to date that liquid water inside an asteroid leads to a strong preference of left-handed over right-handed forms of some common protein amino acids in meteorites. The result makes the search for extraterrestrial life more challenging.

"Our analysis of the amino acids in meteorite fragments from Tagish Lake gave us one possible explanation for why all known life uses only left-handed versions of amino acids to build proteins," said Dr. Daniel Glavin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Glavin is lead author of a paper on this research to be published in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science.

In January, 2000, a large meteoroid exploded in the atmosphere over northern British Columbia, Canada, and rained fragments across the frozen surface of Tagish Lake. Because many people witnessed the fireball, pieces were collected within days and kept preserved in their frozen state. This ensured that there was very little contamination from terrestrial life.

"The Tagish Lake meteorite continues to reveal more secrets about the early Solar System the more we investigate it," said Dr. Christopher Herd of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, a co-author on the paper who provided samples of the Tagish Lake meteorite for the team to analyze. "This latest study gives us a glimpse into the role that water percolating through asteroids must have played in making the left-handed amino acids that are so characteristic of all life on Earth."

 

                               

Proteins are the workhorse molecules of life, used in everything from structures like hair to enzymes, the catalysts that speed up or regulate chemical reactions. Just as the 26 letters of the alphabet are arranged in limitless combinations to make words, life uses 20 different amino acids in a huge variety of arrangements to build millions of different proteins. Amino acid molecules can be built in two ways that are mirror images of each other, like your hands. Although life based on right-handed amino acids would presumably work fine, they can't be mixed.

"Synthetic proteins created using a mix of left- and right-handed amino acids just don't work," says Dr. Jason Dworkin of NASA Goddard, co-author of the study and head of the Goddard Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory, where the analysis was performed. *Since life can't function with a mix of left- and right-handed amino acids, researchers want to know how life – at least, life on Earth -- got set up with the left-handed ones. "The handedness observed in biological molecules – left-handed amino acids and right-handed sugars – is a property important for molecular recognition processes and is thought to be a prerequisite for life," said Dworkin.

All ordinary methods of synthetically creating amino acids result in equal mixtures of left- and right-handed amino acids. Therefore, how the nearly exclusive production of one hand of such molecules arose from what were presumably equal mixtures of left and right molecules in a prebiotic world has been an area of intensive research. 

Theteam ground up samples of the Tagish Lake meteorites, mixed them into a hot-water solution, then separated and identified the molecules in them using a liquid chromatograph mass spectrometer.

"We discovered that the samples had about four times as many left-handed versions of aspartic acid as the opposite hand," says Glavin. Aspartic acid is an amino acid used in every enzyme in the human body. It is also used to make the sugar substitute Aspartame. "Interestingly, the same meteorite sample showed only a slight left-hand excess (no more than eight percent) for alanine, another amino acid used by life."

"At first, this made no sense, because if these amino acids came from contamination by terrestrial life, both amino acids should have large left-handed excesses, because both are common in biology," says Glavin. "However, a large left-hand excess in one and not the other tells us that they were not created by life but instead were made inside the Tagish Lake asteroid."

The team confirmed that the amino acids were probably created in space using isotope analysis.  Isotopes are versions of an element with different masses; for example, carbon 13 is a heavier, and less common, variety of carbon. Since the chemistry of life prefers lighter isotopes, amino acids enriched in the heavier carbon 13 were likely created in space.

"We found that the aspartic acid and alanine in our Tagish Lake samples were highly enriched in carbon 13, indicating they were probably created by non-biological processes in the parent asteroid," said Dr. Jamie Elsila of NASA Goddard, a co-author on the paper who performed the isotopic analysis.

This is the first time that carbon isotope measurements have been reported for these amino acids in Tagish Lake. The carbon 13 enrichment, combined with the large left-hand excess in aspartic acid but not in alanine, provides very strong evidence that some left-handed proteinogenic amino acids -- ones used by life to make proteins -- can be produced in excess in asteroids, according to the team.

Some have argued that left-handed amino acid excesses in meteorites were formed by exposure to polarized radiation in the solar nebula – the cloud of gas and dust from which asteroids, and eventually the Solar System, were formed. However, in this case, the left-hand aspartic acid excesses are so large that they cannot be explained by polarized radiation alone. The team believes that another process is required.

Additionally, the large left-hand excess in aspartic acid but not in alanine gave the team a critical clue as to how these amino acids could have been made inside the asteroid, and therefore how a large left-hand excess could arise before life originated on Earth.  

"One thing that jumped out at me was that alanine and aspartic acid can crystallize differently when you have mixtures of both left-handed and right-handed molecules," said Dr. Aaron Burton, a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at NASA Goddard and a co-author on the study. "This led us to find several studies where researchers have exploited the crystallization behavior of molecules like aspartic acid to get left-handed or right-handed excesses. Because alanine forms different kinds of crystals, these same processes would produce equal amounts of left- and right-handed alanine. We need to do some more experiments, but this explanation has the potential to explain what we see in the Tagish Lake meteorite and other meteorites."

The team believes a small initial left-hand excess could get amplified by crystallization and dissolution from a saturated solution with liquid water. Some amino acids, like aspartic acid, have a shape that lets them fit together in a pure crystal – one comprised of just left-handed or right-handed molecules. For these amino acids, a small initial left- or right-hand excess could become greatly amplified at the expense of the opposite-handed crystals, similar to the way a large snowball gathers more snow and gets bigger more rapidly when rolled downhill than a small one.

Other amino acids, like alanine, have a shape that prefers to join together with their mirror image to make a crystal, so these crystals are comprised of equal numbers of left- and right-handed molecules. As these "hybrid" crystals grow, any small initial excess would tend to be washed out for these amino acids. A requirement for both of these processes is a way to convert left-handed to right-handed molecules, and vice-versa, while they are dissolved in the solution.

This process only amplifies a small excess that already exists. Perhaps a tiny initial left-hand excess was created by conditions in the solar nebula. For example, polarized ultraviolet light or other types of radiation from nearby stars might favor the creation of left-handed amino acids or the destruction of right-handed ones, according to the team.

This initial left-hand excess could then get amplified in asteroids by processes like crystallization. Impacts from asteroids and meteorites could deliver this material to Earth, and left-handed amino acids might have been incorporated into emerging life due to their greater abundance, according to the team. Also, similar enrichments of left-handed amino acids by crystallization could have occurred on Earth in ancient sediments that had water flowing through them, such as the bottoms of rivers, lakes, or seas, according to the team.

The result complicates the search for extraterrestrial life – like microbial life hypothesized to dwell beneath the surface of Mars, for example. "Since it appears a non-biological process can create a left-hand excess in some kinds of amino acids, we can't use such an excess alone as proof of biological activity," says Glavin.

TheDaily Galaxy via NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Posted at 10:30 AM | Permalink

Comments

Doing a Internet search I found that circulated light is responsible for the left handed spin of amino acids in liquid water. This process is referenced as being responsible for the existence of proteins that are required for the beginnings of the evolution of life.
If the information on the entire Internet can be coded and transported through a light beam in a tiny fibre optic cable can it also be the case that the code of life is similarly transported in the beams of cosmic radiation?

Posted by:Lee |July 26, 2012 at 04:04 PM

Nice one lee, like your theory.

Posted by:FreeWorldForAll |July 26, 2012 at 04:26 PM

Meteors or not . . . life’s basically building blocks can be found more or less all over the place in cosmos.

"Life" is generated everywhere electric force (light) makes magnetic swirling fields and circuits of gasses and particles. It all depends on what gasses and what particles are activated and in which actual combinations.

Posted by:Ivar Nielsen |July 27, 2012 at 01:40 AM

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address: (Not displayed with comment.)

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments:

« NASA's August 5th Mars Landing --Will Launch the Robotic Search for Life |Main| Image of the Day: Stratospheric! -- "Extreme Space Jumping" »

var ACE_AR = {Site: '774230', Size: '120600'};


var ACE_AR = {Site: '770549', Size: '300250'};















Our Partners









ArchivesJuly 2012June 2012May 2012April 2012March 2012February 2012January 2012December 2011November 2011October 2011About Us/Privacy PolicyFor more information on The Daily Galaxy and to contact us please visit this page.

document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://sb" : "http://b") + ".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js'%3E%3C/script%3E"));COMSCORE.beacon({ c1: 2, c2: "6035669", c3: "", c4: "http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/07/nasa-researchers-discover-the-origin-of-a-major-aspect-of-creation-of-life.html", c5: "", c6: "", c15: ""});

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

"Pillars of Creation" --An 'Illusion' Vaporized by a Supernova Explosion 6,000 Years Ago (Today's Most Popular)

"Pillars of Creation" --An 'Illusion' Vaporized by a Supernova Explosion 6,000 Years Ago (Today's Most Popular)
"Pillars of Creation" --An 'Illusion' Vaporized by a Supernova Explosion 6,000 Years Ago (Today's Most Popular) The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy  « Image of the Day: The Orion Nebula --An Engine of Life in the Milky Way? |Main| New Observatory Technology --"Puts the Shadow of the Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole within Reach" »

July 18, 2012 "Pillars of Creation" --An 'Illusion' Vaporized by a Supernova Explosion 6,000 Years Ago (Today's Most Popular)

 

           

 

In early 2007, scientists using the Spitzer discovered evidence that potentially indicates the famed three Pillars of Creation photographed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 1995 in the Eagle Nebula were destroyed by a nearby supernova explosion about 6,000 years ago, but the light showing the new shape of the nebula will not reach Earth for another thousand years.

A striking image from Spitzer (below) shows the intact dust towers next to a giant cloud of hot dust thought to have been scorched by the blast of a star that exploded, or went supernova. Astronomers speculate that the supernova's shock wave could have already reached the dusty towers, causing them to topple about 6,000 years ago.

However, because light from this region takes 7,000 years to reach Earth, we won't be able to capture photos of the destruction for another millenium or so. Spitzer's view of the region shows the entire Eagle nebula, a vast and stormy community of stars set amid clouds and steep pillars made of gas and dust, including the three well-known "Pillars of Creation."

"I remember seeing a photograph of these pillars more than a decade ago and being inspired to become an astronomer," said Nicolas Flagey of The Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale in France. "Now, we have discovered something new about this region we thought we understood so well."

Astronomers have long predicted that a supernova blast wave would mean the end for the popular pillars. The region is littered with 20 or so stars ripe for exploding, so it was only a matter of time, they reasoned, before one would blow up.

The new Spitzer observations suggest one of these stellar time bombs has in fact already detonated, an event humans most likely witnessed 1,000 to 2,000 years ago as an unusually bright star in the sky. Whenever the mighty pillars are vaporized, gas and dust will be blown away, exposing newborn stars that were forming inside. A new generation of stars might also spring up from the dusty wreckage.

Spitzer is a space telescope that detects infrared, longer-wavelength light that our eyes cannot see. This allows the observatory to both see the dust and see through it, depending on which infrared wavelength is being observed.

In Spitzer's new look at the Eagle nebula, the three pillars appear small and ghostly transparent. They are colored green in this particular view. In the largest of the three columns, an embedded star is seen forming inside the tip. Above the pillars is the enormous cloud of hot dust, colored red in the picture, which astronomers think was seared by the blast wave of a supernova explosion.

Flagey and his team say evidence for this scenario comes from similarities observed between this hot dust and dust around known supernova remnants. The dust also appears to have a shell-like shape, implying that a supernova blast wave is traveling outward and sculpting it. The mysterious dust was first revealed in previous images from the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory, but Spitzer's longer-wavelength infrared instrument was able to tentatively match the dust to a supernova event.

"Something else besides starlight is heating this dust," said Dr. Alberto Noriega-Crespo, Flagey's advisor at the Spitzer Science Center. "With Spitzer, we now have the missing long-wavelength infrared data that are giving us an answer."

 

           

 

The Daily Galaxy via NASA/Spitzer For additional graphics and more information about Spitzer, visit http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale

Posted at 08:45 AM | Permalink

Comments

probably the best astronomical image of all time

Posted by:novenator |July 18, 2012 at 10:10 AM

This article is confusing as it seems the wrong picture is posted.

"the three pillars appear small and ghostly transparent. They are colored green in this particular view. In the largest of the three columns, an embedded star is seen forming inside the tip. Above the pillars is the enormous cloud of hot dust, colored red in the picture,"

I believe the article refers to this picture:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/ssc2007-01b.html

not the one shown. Editor's Comment: Corrected and added. With thanks!

Posted by:James H |July 18, 2012 at 10:31 AM

I wonder how many other iconic structures in space are also long dead. At a mere 500 light years, Betelgeuse could have gone supernova when the European powers were figuring out how to claim the Americas. Hopefully it did so we can see it before we die.

Posted by:Weknownothing |July 18, 2012 at 04:11 PM

Your closer than I am. I've got some old literature that said approximately 500 light years. The official 'guess' is 643 light years. Apparently red giants are difficult to get good distances on.

"While an exact distance to Betelgeuse is difficult to assess (late stage red giants have tenuous outer envelopes, thwarting traditional attempts to measure distance accurately), our best estimate is that it is about 600 light-years from Earth."

http://space.about.com/b/2011/01/24/will-betelgeuse-go-supernova-in-2012.htm

Posted by:Weknownothing |July 19, 2012 at 01:04 AM

OK - this article makes no sense. What is the evidence? That scientists are predicting (speculating?) a star went supernova? Let's put it this way - if the light showing how the pillars look today won't reach Earth for another thousand or so years, and light is the cosmic speed limit, then ANYTHING indicating an actual supernova will ALSO take another thousand years or so to get here.

So - the article is basically saying there's a star on the verge of supernova (we think) in a picture. And we have a probability model that suggests it may have gone supernova (plus or minus some error bar)... but we won't know for another millenium. And - lo! - if it has, QED. If not - we would still be in the speculation regime that the supernova may or may not have occurred.

Anybody see the parallels with the Quantum "cat in a box" logic? It could be supernova (dead) or not (live) at the same time...

Posted by:JohnR |July 20, 2012 at 06:11 AM

@John , scientists are of the view that there is a possibility
of supernova explosion in Eagle nebula after studying the star there.There is nothing wrong in the analysis. Editor's Note: Thank you, Ramkamar.

Posted by:Ramkumar |July 20, 2012 at 10:15 PM

@WeKnowNothing

The hypothetical supernova happened X years ago, where X is long enough that the light from the supernova itself has alredy reached us.

The physical shockwave is propegating through space much slower than the light, according to this article hitting the pillars 1-2k years after the actual supernova (still 5-6k years ago).

The hypothetical light showing the distruction of the pillars is on the way to us now, even though the supernova light got here millenia ago.

Posted by:Jason Coyne |July 26, 2012 at 01:58 PM

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address: (Not displayed with comment.)

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments:

« Image of the Day: The Orion Nebula --An Engine of Life in the Milky Way? |Main| New Observatory Technology --"Puts the Shadow of the Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole within Reach" »

var ACE_AR = {Site: '774230', Size: '120600'};


var ACE_AR = {Site: '770549', Size: '300250'};















Our Partners









ArchivesJuly 2012June 2012May 2012April 2012March 2012February 2012January 2012December 2011November 2011October 2011About Us/Privacy PolicyFor more information on The Daily Galaxy and to contact us please visit this page.

document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://sb" : "http://b") + ".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js'%3E%3C/script%3E"));COMSCORE.beacon({ c1: 2, c2: "6035669", c3: "", c4: "http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/07/pillars-of-creation-a-cosmic-artifact-vaporized-by-a-supernova-explosion-6000-years-ago-in.html", c5: "", c6: "", c15: ""});

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Late surge in voting wins Villarreal AT&T Goal of the Week

Late surge in voting wins Villarreal AT&T Goal of the Week | LA Galaxy #bg { background: #2a2d51 url(/sites/losangeles/files/la-bg-sos-v6.jpg) no-repeat scroll center top !important; } Castfire.html5ify({ ios_ext: "adaptive.m3u8", // Profile for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad h264_ext: "640.mp4" // Profile for Android, webOS, Blackberry }); Skip To Content SCHEDULE 2012 Schedule Reserve League Schedule Broadcast Schedule Schedule Download Promotional Nights Real Madrid Upcoming Appearances

TICKETS Season Tickets 3 & 6-Game Mini Plans Single Game Tickets Real Madrid Special Offers & Promotions Metro PCS Friends & Family Offer Group Tickets Seating Map Ticket Marketplace

Club Roster Coaches Youth Academy Standings Stats History SuperDraft History Radio Partners TV Partners Partners Front Office & Staff FAQ Contact Us COMPETITIONS Real Madrid Champions League U.S. Open Cup News Press Releases Match Reports Injury Report Galaxy in the Media Academy News Fitness Insider CCL News All-Access Podcast Español RSS Photos Gold Standard E-news BLOG Video Recently Added Highlights Match Previews/Recaps Academy & Training Int'l Friendlies CONCACAF Champions League YouTube

Academy & Training Overview Teams Coaches News Videos Photos Newsletter Camps & Clinics Youth & Adult Fantasy Camps Copa LA Fans Gameday Pubs and Viewing Parties Road Trips Season Ticket Holders Supporters Contests & Promotions Galaxy Street Team Futboleros Browser Skin Download Wallpapers Stay Connected Mobile Apps

GAMEDAY Gameday Info Gameday Live The Home Depot Center Directions Parking & Traffic Information Prohibited Items Seating Map Stadium FAQs Game Alert E-News Community Donation Requests Los Angeles Galaxy Foundation Player Appearances Events Fundraisers Name in Lights Make-A-Wish Kicks for Kids Español Shop Late surge in voting wins Villarreal AT&T Goal of the Week 18-year-old rookie's first MLS goal wins GOTW July 27, 2012 Ryan Krasnoo MLSsoccer.com Tweet villarreal_tottenham_3rdkit Photo Credit:  Robert Mora / LA Galaxy

LA's Jose Villarreal seems to have a flair for the dramatic.

After salvaging a 2-2 draw with the Vancouver Whitecaps last Wednesday on a wicked left-footed strike, the 18-year-old rookie stormed back in the voting to surpass Thierry Henry and capture Week 20's AT&T Goal of the Week.

Down 2-1 on the road, the Galaxy youngster – who was playing in just his second professional game – took a quick feed from Juninho at the top of the box, cut the ball back and fired it into the top corner.

Villarreal secures the fourth AT&T Goal of the Week award for the Galaxy in 2012 – and the second consecutive – after David Beckham won in Weeks 6, 10 and 19. For a complete Goal of the Week archive, click here.

1. Jose Villarreal (LA), 40%
2. Thierry Henry (NY), 37%
3. Macoumba Kandji (HOU), 11%
4. Sanna Nyassi (MTL), 11%
5. Paolo Cardozo (CHV), 1%

GOTW Player Related Links Villarreal stuns VancouverYoungster overjoyed with first MLS goalHomegrown player Jose Villarreal makes his MLS DebutPlayer Profile Related Content Gonzalez appears fit during longest playing stint since injury AT&T GOTW Update: Vintage Henry strike leads Villarreal All-Star: Beckham crosses Atlantic to log impressive shift All-Star: Chelsea players say MLS owes it to Beckham #sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_body {padding: 0px; line-height: 0px;}#sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_header, #sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_bg {border: 0px none;}

Latest News Notebook: LA's Arena addresses Beckham's availability vs. Dallas Match Preview: LA aiming to stay hot when they face FC Dallas on Saturday Late surge in voting wins Villarreal AT&T Goal of the Week Gonzalez appears fit during longest playing stint since injury AT&T GOTW Update: Vintage Henry strike leads Villarreal WATCH: Beckham and Donovan discuss MLS All-Star experience Recap: All-Stars defeat Chelsea 3-2 win injury-time goal All-Star: Beckham crosses Atlantic to log impressive shift All-Star: Chelsea players say MLS owes it to Beckham All-Star preview: MLS squad ready to take on Chelsea at PPL Park MORE LATEST NEWS Stay Connected

 

Follow @LAGalaxy

 

MORE WAYS TO CONNECT Footer Menu AboutFAQJobsThe GameRoster RulesRules of CompetitionSocial MediaTwitterFacebookLinkedInYouTubeMLS SoccerMLS W.O.R.K.S.SUMU.S. SoccerPartnersPartner PromotionsLegalTerms of ServicePrivacy Policy .submitted { display: none; }.page-schedule .even .venue {background: #FFF !important; } © 2011 MLS. All Major League Soccer trademarks and copyrights used by permission. All rights reserved.

var _comscore = _comscore || []; _comscore.push({ c1: "2", c2: "6036539", c3: "", c4: "www.lagalaxy.com/news/2012/07/late-surge-voting-wins-villarreal-att-goal-week", c5: "", c6: "", c15: "" }); (function() { var s = document.createElement("script"), el = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.async = true; s.src = (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://sb" : "http://b") + ".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js"; el.parentNode.insertBefore(s, el); })(); (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=141233419225958"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.