Latest news with #CenterForAstrophysics
Gizmodo
4 days ago
- Science
- Gizmodo
New Theory Could Dramatically Expand the Search for Aliens
The search for alien life is largely centered on finding planets in the 'Goldilocks Zone'—the distance from a star where a planet could have liquid water on its surface and enough light to sustain life. But a new study offers a tantalizing possibility that other worlds, far from their host stars, may also be able to support living things, a finding that could dramatically broaden the search for extraterrestrial life. In a paper published last week in the International Journal of Astrobiology, researchers describe how cosmic rays—high-speed beams of particles pinging across the universe—could carry enough energy to sustain life. These rays can penetrate deep into the interior of planets far from their host stars, where they could strike underground reservoirs of water. The impact from the rays would split the water particles, releasing electrons in a process called radiolysis. Certain microbes that are known to survive in dark, cold environments on Earth sustain themselves using this mechanism. If alien life could survive on radiolysis, as the findings suggest, then astronomers may need to reevaluate what is considered the habitable zone. Led by New York University Abu Dhabi's Center for Astrophysics and Space Science, the researchers ran computer simulations to determine how different levels of cosmic ray exposure might influence the surfaces of three cold bodies in our solar system: Mars, Enceladus (one of Saturn's moons), and Europa (a moon of Jupiter). Specifically, they wanted to see whether cosmic rays could trigger radiolysis there, and especially on the two moons, as astronomers have long believed they could have water below their icy surfaces. The team found that Enceladus was the most promising candidate for sustaining life via radiolysis, although the simulations suggested that all three bodies could support some level of radiolysis, according to the paper. The researchers suggest that astronomers should expand what they think of as the habitable zone, dubbing this larger arena the Radiolytic Habitable Zone. 'This discovery changes the way we think about where life might exist,' lead study author Dimitra Atri said in a statement. 'Instead of looking only for warm planets with sunlight, we can now consider places that are cold and dark, as long as they have some water beneath the surface and are exposed to cosmic rays. Life might be able to survive in more places than we ever imagined,' he added.
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronomers discover strange solar system body dancing in sync with Neptune: 'Like finding a hidden rhythm in a song'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Astronomers have found that a weird space rock at the edge of the solar system is locked in a rhythmic dance with Neptune. The object, designated 2020 VN40, is part of a family of distant solar system objects called trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). 2020 VN40 is the first object discovered that orbits the sun once for every ten orbits Neptune makes. Considering that one Neptunian year lasts 164.8 Earth years, that means 2020 VN40 has one heck of a long year, lasting around 1,648 years or 19,776 months on Earth! The team behind this research thinks that 2020 VN40's ponderous orbital dance with Neptune may have come about when it was temporarily snared by the gravity of the ice giant planet. Thus, this discovery could help researchers better understand the dynamics of bodies at the edge of the solar system. "This is a big step in understanding the outer solar system," team leader Rosemary Pike from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian said in a statement. "It shows that even very distant regions influenced by Neptune can contain objects, and it gives us new clues about how the solar system evolved." The orbital rhythm of 2020 VN40 was discovered in data from the Large inclination Distant Objects (LiDO) survey. LiDO uses the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope with backup from the Gemini Observatory and the Walter Baade Telescope to search the outer solar system for weird objects. In particular, LiDO specializes in hunting TNOs with orbits that take them far above and below the orbital plane of Earth around the sun. These are regions of the solar system that have thus far only been sparsely explored by astronomers. "It has been fascinating to learn how many small bodies in the solar system exist on these very large, very tilted orbits," LiDO team member and University of Regina researcher Samantha Lawler said. The highly tilted path of 2020 VN40 finds it at an average distance from the sun equivalent to 140 times the distance between Earth and our star. However, the most interesting element of the orbit of 2020 VN40 is its resonance with the orbit of Neptune. Other bodies rhythmically aligned with Neptune make their closest approaches to the sun, their perihelion, when Neptune is at its greatest distance from our star, or its aphelion. Defying this trend, 2020 VN40 is at perihelion when Neptune is also close to the sun. That's if one were looking at it from above the solar system, with the tilt of 2020 VN40 meaning that this TNO and Neptune are not actually close together; the TNO is actually far below the solar system. This also separates 2020 VN40 from other resonant TNOs, which tend to stay within the plane of the solar system when they make close approaches to the sun. "This new motion is like finding a hidden rhythm in a song we thought we knew," team member and University of California Santa Cruz scientist Ruth Murray-Clay said. "It could change how we think about the way distant objects move." Related Stories: — Astronomers discover a cosmic 'fossil' at the edge of our solar system. Is this bad news for 'Planet 9'? — Icy asteroids help the James Webb Space Telescope uncover Neptune's history —Messenger comets might be why Earth has life, asteroid Ryugu samples suggest Revealing the orbital strangeness of 2020 VN40 suggests that solar system objects with highly tilted orbits can adopt novel and unexpected types of movement. The hunt is now on for more bodies like 2020 VN40, with the newly operating Vera C. Rubin Observatory set to play a key role in this investigation. "This is just the beginning," team member and Planetary Science Institute researcher Kathryn Volk said. "We're opening a new window into the solar system's past." The 2020 VN40 results were published on July 7 in The Planetary Science Journal. Solve the daily Crossword
