Latest news with #NatureAstronomy
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Life on Mars? Paper co-authored by LANL scientist says more terraforming research needed
It might be surprising to hear planetary scientist Nina Lanza use the word 'disappointing' in the same sentence as 'Mars.' After all, the Los Alamos National Laboratory researcher has dedicated her entire career to the Red Planet. Lanza personally has been fascinated with Mars since seeing images taken of the surface during the 1997 Pathfinder mission. But she said the earlier Viking missions in the 1970s were a letdown to many, leading to a longtime lack of interest in Earth's rusty neighbor and an approximately two-decade gap before the next Mars mission. 'We saw a bunch of rocks,' Lanza said. 'That's not actually unexpected — that's what planets are made out of. But there was so much hype, I think, built up from 100 years of study of Mars as having canals, with these civilizations moving water. All of that was built up so much that when we actually saw the surface of Mars as it is, people couldn't help being disappointed.' That's changed. Lanza, who recently co-authored a perspective paper on the potential to terraform Mars, said the fourth planet from the sun is going through a renaissance. Technological advances, Space X and Andy Weir's The Martian have returned Mars to the forefront of the public's imagination. An idea popularized by astronomer and planetary scientist Carl Sagan in 1971 is having a renaissance as well: terraforming. 'Mars has been a lot more of a complex, dynamic place than we really gave it credit for when we first landed with Viking,' Lanza said. 'It's a place with a lot of resources. It's a place that I think we can, yet again, start to imagine ourselves going to and being there on the surface.' Nina Lanza X post Nina Lanza, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist who has dedicated her career to Mars, documents milestones in red planet research on her X account. Her perspective paper, published in Nature Astronomy, asks two main questions: Can the currently inhospitable Mars be warmed enough for life? And, once that question is answered, another arises: Should it? The paper makes a case for more terraforming research. But there's a long way to go before the red planet turns green. Terraforming has, in the past, been relegated to the pages of novels. A 2018 study published in Nature Astronomy suggested there's not enough readily accessible carbon dioxide left on Mars to warm the planet sufficiently with greenhouse gases alone. But Edwin Kite, associate professor of planetary science at the University of Chicago and another co-author on the perspective paper, said there's been technological advances in the past couple of years that have made terraforming seem more in reach. 'It hasn't been a goal in the past because it's been seen as science fiction,' Kite said. '… It's only in the last few years that there's been a big increase in our ability to move mass around the solar system, and these new warming efforts that make it seem like something we might actually do — as opposed to science fiction.' A friendlier climate New Mexico and Mars are both deserts, Lanza noted. Water scarcity is a big problem in the Southwest, but it pales in comparison to the lack of readily accessible water on Mars. The majority of the planet's water reserves are in its coldest parts, according to her paper. Mars was likely once a warmer, wetter place, but that's not the case now. Cold, dry and radiation heavy, its surface is 'worse than the worst deserts on Earth,' Lanza said — more akin to the frozen desert of Antarctica. New Mexico is 'like a tropical jungle compared to Mars,' she said. Mars also has a thin atmosphere. Nina Lanza 'Right now, Mars is not a great place to go if you're a human — or any kind of microscopic life. It's a really harsh environment,' Lanza said. '[But] you can make it less harsh, even if you can't recreate Earth.' Kite said there's several potential ways to address these challenges and warm Mars. For example, in a 2024 article co-authored by Kite, researchers looked at using artificial aerosols made of materials readily available on the planet's surface, rather than greenhouse gases, and found it potentially could warm the planet more effectively. The recent perspective paper also delves into using solar sails and other methods to potentially increase the planet's average global temperature by 'tens of degrees' over the course of several years. Raising ethical questions But 'can' and 'should' are two different words. The paper delves into the ethics of terraforming — and putting humans on Mars in general. 'Indeed, any movement of humans beyond Earth raises ethical issues,' the paper states. 'It is a trope of science fiction that, even though humans have already restructured Earth's land surface, nitrogen cycle and so on at the planetary scale, attempts to do the same for other worlds will be seen as dysfunctional.' Much of that swirls around a lingering question left unanswered by David Bowie: Is there, or has there ever been, life on Mars? If there is, researchers argue, that totally changes the discussion about terraforming. While the planet appears dead on the surface, Kite said, there could be life lurking in the deep subsurface. And Lanza said rocks studied with Mars rovers have displayed 'fascinating chemistry' that could be an indicator of ancient life on Mars. 'If we had seen it on Earth, it wouldn't be a question to us that this was formed by life,' Lanza said. 'But because it's on Mars, it requires much, much larger burden of proof.' In some ways, the perspective paper is a call to action: More research is needed. Such research could also inform our knowledge of Earth, Lanza said, noting the planet's changing climate. Mars has gone through its own climate change, becoming drier and colder; terraforming would be yet another change. The surface is also much more ancient than Earth's, Lanza said, allowing for a more complete geologic record. But, while similar, Mars and Earth have fundamental differences, Lanza said. Terraforming could make them more similar, but Mars will never become a copy of Earth. 'Earth is unique, Mars is unique, and Mars will continue to be unique,' Lanza said. 'Planets are never going to be identical.' Nina Lanza Stalled sample mission Evidence of life could be in samples of matter collected on the planet's surface, which NASA had planned to return to Earth for study. The Mars rover Perseverance has been collecting samples, but they might not make it to Earth. An early proposed budget report said costly missions like Mars Sample Return, described as 'grossly over budget,' should be terminated. The need for research on samples would be fulfilled by human missions to Mars, the report stated. It's not the first time the high cost of the mission has raised eyebrows. An independent September 2023 report expressed concerns over an 'unrealistic budget and schedule expectations.' The mission was unlikely to meet proposed timelines, the report said, and the proposed fiscal year 2024 budget wouldn't be enough to get the program off the ground. However, the value of the samples is high, the report stated. The return would 'revolutionize' the understanding of the inner solar system and answer 'one of the most important scientific questions we can answer' — whether there is, or was, life off of Earth. But NASA struggled to communicate the importance of the mission to the public, the report stated. Last year, then-NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the agency was working on a plan to address the issues. 'Mars Sample Return will be one of the most complex missions NASA has ever undertaken. The bottom line is, an $11 billion budget is too expensive, and a 2040 return date is too far away,' Nelson said in an August news release. 'Safely landing and collecting the samples, launching a rocket with the samples off another planet — which has never been done before — and safely transporting the samples more than 33 million miles back to Earth is no small task. We need to look outside the box to find a way ahead that is both affordable and returns samples in a reasonable timeframe.' Nina Lanza Lanza said the Mars Sample Return mission is critical. She doesn't see human missions as an alternative — the human presence can disrupt the planet's landscape, potentially obscuring any record of ancient or current life. The samples can also help protect humans, and their equipment, on future Mars missions, she said. She pointed to lunar regolith, sharp dust on the moon that can be damaging to breathe. 'Understanding what Mars is made out of and how it might pose any particular hazards to health, that's really important if you're going to send people into that hazard,' Lanza said. Kite had a different perspective. Although the samples have been 'judiciously chosen,' he said, they won't answer every question about Mars — and the high cost makes it unlikely other sample return missions will be approved. 'Even if it had been pursued, it would have been the last sample return, because taxpayers would never sign off on a second one that was very expensive,' Kite said. '… Making it that expensive is a very eggs-in-one-basket approach, because it seems that your first bunch of samples will answer all questions about Mars.' He added, 'I don't think that's likely.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Find Jupiter Used to Be More Than Twice Its Current Size
You don't need us to tell you that Jupiter, which has more than twice the mass of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, is the biggest game in town (other than the Sun, at least.) But believe it or not, it may have once been even bigger. Try more than double its current size, according to new research from Caltech and the University of Michigan — boasting enough volume to fit 2,000 Earths inside it with room to spare. Over time, the bloated world cooled off, contracting to the relatively humbler size it is today. The findings, published in a new study in the journal Nature Astronomy, provide a window into the Solar System's early evolution, around 3.8 million years after the first solids formed. Jupiter, with its enormous gravitational pull — and as the first planet to form — would have played an instrumental role in determining how the orbits of the nascent planets eventually settled. "Our ultimate goal is to understand where we come from, and pinning down the early phases of planet formation is essential to solving the puzzle," co-lead author Konstantin Batygin, a professor of planetary science at Caltech, said in a statement about the work. "This brings us closer to understanding how not only Jupiter but the entire Solar System took shape." The clues to uncovering this early episode of Jupiter's past lie in two of its small moons, Amalthea and Thebe, which exhibit unusual orbits that aren't fully explained by their host's current size. To examine this discrepancy, the researchers bypassed existing planetary formation models and focused on aspects of the Jovian system that could be directly measured, including the orbital dynamics of the tiny moons and the planet's angular momentum. Their calculations revealed that, around 4.5 billion years ago, Jupiter must have had a radius up to 2.5 times greater than it is today. Likewise, its magnetic field — terrifyingly, as it's already 20,000 stronger than the Earth's — would have been a staggering 50 times more powerful. This dramatically shapes our idea of Jupiter in a critical moment in the Solar System's evolution, when the great disk of matter surrounding the Sun called the protoplanetary disk, which gave birth to the planets, evaporated. Mind-boggling as they are, these findings, the researchers say, are consistent with the prevailing core-accretion theory describing how giant planets formed. According to this theory, the giant planets began as heavy, solid cores floating on the farther and colder side of the protoplanetary disk, pulling in the lighter gas molecules surrounding them — first gradually, and then after passing a threshold of mass, much more rapidly. The exact details surrounding the planets' origins are still hotly contested. But the researchers say they've made the most precise measurements to date of primordial Jupiter's size, spin rate, and magnetic conditions, which will be indispensable to furthering our understanding of the Solar System's architecture. "What we've established here is a valuable benchmark," Batygin said. "A point from which we can more confidently reconstruct the evolution of our Solar System." More on astronomy: Astronomers Baffled by a Suspicious, Perfectly Round Sphere in Our Galaxy
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Jupiter is shrinking and used to be twice as big, mind-boggling study reveals
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Jupiter, the solar system's largest planet, used to be even bigger, according to a new study. The cloud of gas and dust from which the sun and planets formed dissipated around 4.5 billion years ago. At that time, Jupiter was at least twice its current size, and its magnetic field was about 50 times stronger, researchers found. The findings, which the team described in a study published May 20 in the journal Nature Astronomy, could help scientists develop a clearer picture of the early solar system. "Our ultimate goal is to understand where we come from, and pinning down the early phases of planet formation is essential to solving the puzzle," study co-author Konstantin Batygin, a planetary scientist at Caltech, said in a statement. "This brings us closer to understanding how not only Jupiter but the entire solar system took shape." Jupiter's immense gravity — along with the sun's — helped fashion the solar system, shaping the orbits of other planets and rocky bodies. But how the giant planet itself formed remains opaque. To gain a better picture of Jupiter's early days, the researchers studied the present-day, slightly tilted orbits of two of Jupiter's moons, Amalthea and Thebe. The paths these moons chart are similar to what they were when they first formed, but the moons have been pulled slightly over time by their larger, volcanically active neighbor Io. By analyzing the discrepancies between the actual changes and those expected from Io's nudges, the researchers could work out Jupiter's original size. Related: 'This has left us scratching our heads': Astronomers stumped by James Webb telescope's latest views of Jupiter When the solar nebula dissipated, marking the end of planet formation, Jupiter's radius would have been between two and 2.5 times its current size to give Amalthea and Thebe their current orbits, the scientists calculated. Over time, the planet has shrunk to its current size as its surface cools. Then, the team used the radius to calculate the strength of the planet's magnetic field, which would have been around 21 milliteslas — about 50 times stronger than its current value and 400 times stronger than Earth's. "It's astonishing that even after 4.5 billion years, enough clues remain to let us reconstruct Jupiter's physical state at the dawn of its existence," study co-author Fred Adams, an astrophysicist at the University of Michigan, said in the statement. RELATED STORIES —Cloudy with a chance of mushballs: Jupiter's monster storms include softball size hailstones made of ammonia —'This has left us scratching our heads': Astronomers stumped by James Webb telescope's latest views of Jupiter —Is Jupiter's Great Red Spot an impostor? Giant storm may not be the original one discovered 350 years ago The findings sharpen researchers' view of the solar system at a critical transition point in its history. The calculations also don't depend on how Jupiter formed — a process that's still not understood in detail — relying instead on directly observable quantities. "What we've established here is a valuable benchmark," Batygin said in the statement. "A point from which we can more confidently reconstruct the evolution of our solar system." Jupiter is currently shrinking by about 2 centimeters per year, according to Caltech. This is due to the Kelvin-Helmholtz mechanism — a process by which planets grow smaller as they cool. As Jupiter slowly cools, its internal pressure drops, causing the planet to steadily shrink. It's unclear when this process began.
Gizmodo
5 days ago
- Science
- Gizmodo
Most Detailed Simulation of Magnetic Turbulence in Space Is Surprisingly Beautiful
A new simulation of the galaxy's magnetic turbulence shakes up how we think about—and visualize—the astrophysical environments. The model was developed by James Beattie, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto's Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics and Princeton University, and collaborators from the U.S., Australia, and Europe. Described in a recent paper in Nature Astronomy, the model simulates space in high-definition—from volumes 30 light-years wide all the way down to tiny pockets scaled 5,000 times smaller. 'This is the first time we can study these phenomena at this level of precision and at these different scales,' Beattie said in a university release. The simulation maps the chaotic dance of particles in the interstellar medium (ISM) with unprecedented precision. One aspect of the model is its ability to capture shifts in the interstellar medium's density—from the near-emptiness of interstellar space to the dense clouds where stars are born. The magnetic field that threads through our galaxy is millions of times weaker than a refrigerator magnet, but it nevertheless is a guiding force for matter in the interstellar medium. Galactic magnetism helps shape how stars form, how cosmic rays travel, and even how the solar wind messes with Earth's magnetic field. 'We know that magnetic pressure opposes star formation by pushing outward against gravity as it tries to collapse a star-forming nebula,' Beattie said. 'Now we can quantify in detail what to expect from magnetic turbulence on those kinds of scales.' The simulation also scales down to help scientists probe phenomena much closer to home—namely the solar wind that streams from the Sun and bombards spacecraft and Earth's atmosphere, generating brilliant auroras. Early tests comparing the model's results to real-world data of the solar wind look promising, Beattie noted, which indicates that the model could be used to predict space weather. As more powerful radio telescopes such as the Square Kilometre Array come online to measure magnetic field fluctuations in the universe, among other things, the model can be fed data that improves its reflection of how magnetism shapes the matter all around us. Deciphering the universe's secrets is partly done through observation, but just as important are solid models of the forces that govern the cosmos. Magnetic fields have a hidden—but crucial—role in our Milky Way, and the new model helps us get closer to an accurate portrait of the galaxy.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Mesmerizing new simulation shows the space between stars like you've never seen it before
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. If you've ever poured milk into a cup of coffee and watched it swirl, you've seen turbulence in action. This phenomenon is responsible for everything from a bumpy airplane trip to ocean currents. Now, researchers have developed a way to visualize in unprecedented detail the turbulence within the interstellar medium — the clouds of gas and charged particles between stars — and how it interacts with magnetic fields. The model was described in a paper published May 13 in the journal Nature Astronomy. "This is the first time we can study these phenomena at this level of precision and at these different scales," James Beattie, an astrophysicist at the University of Toronto and Princeton University, and lead author of the new study, said in a statement. Such complex calculations take a lot of computing power. To develop their model, Beattie and his colleagues used the SuperMUC-NG supercomputer at Germany's Leibniz Supercomputing Center. The model is scalable, consisting of a series of virtual modules that can be stacked to form a cube of up to 10,000 units. At this size, it can help researchers simulate our galaxy's magnetic field. When scaled down, it can be used to model more localized turbulent processes in space, such as the solar wind, the stream of charged particles emanating from the sun. "This is the first time we can study these phenomena at this level of precision and at these different scales," Beattie said. Related: Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' contains surprisingly accurate physics — suggesting he understood the hidden 'dynamism of the sky' The charged particles in the interstellar medium are significantly more diffuse than even ultrahigh vacuum experiments on Earth. Still, their motion is enough to generate a magnetic field. This field is millions of times weaker than a fridge magnet, but in the vacuum of space, it plays a major role in shaping galaxies, and even in forming stars. Unlike previous simulations, the new model considered this dynamic, replicating how the field shifts and swirls interstellar ions from areas of higher or lower density based on their charge. This could help astrophysicists gain a deeper understanding of how galaxies like our own came to be. RELATED STORIES —A dozen black holes may be 'wandering' through our galaxy — and they're the rarest type in the universe —Astronomers spy puzzlingly 'perfect' cosmic orb with unknown size and location —Venus may be geologically 'alive' after all, reanalysis of 30-year-old NASA data reveals In the future, Beattie and his team hope to develop models with even higher resolution. They also plan to compare their simulations against real-world data, such as solar wind measurements. Sensitive new observatories, like Australia and South Africa's joint Square Kilometre Array, promise to make these models even more precise. The images promise to be just as stunning. "I love doing turbulence research," Beattie said. "It looks the same whether you're looking at the plasma between galaxies, within galaxies, within the solar system, in a cup of coffee or in Van Gogh's 'The Starry Night.'"
