Space Stuff

Building blocks of life found floating in Milky Way in discovery that suggests we are not alone​

Celebrities who had their secrets spilled by employees
1657570188021.png
The building blocks of life have been found floating near the centre of the Milky Way in a discovery that raises the chance that life could have evolved on other planets in the galaxy.
Some of the key building blocks of life — known as nitriles — have been detected by scientists at the heart of the Milky Way - Kelko University
© Kelko University Some of the key building blocks of life — known as nitriles — have been detected by scientists at the heart of the Milky Way - Kelko University
Organic molecules, known as nitriles, are abundant in interstellar clouds, scientists have discovered, supporting the theory that similar life-sparking particles hitchhiked a ride to Earth.
The theory is known as the "RNA World" theory, which proposes that the ingredients for life arrived on meteorites and comets during a period of heavy bombardment roughly four billion years ago.
According to the scenario, life on Earth was originally based on the messenger molecule RNA (Ribonucleic acid), with DNA evolving later.
 
 

NASA uses occult means to spot tiny moon orbiting asteroid​

Lucy probe is five years away from getting a closeup of Polymele's satellite​


NASA scientists working on the Lucy mission, humanity's first exploration of the "Trojan" asteroids that orbit Jupiter's Lagrange points, have found a moon around one of the asteroids the probe will visit.
Lucy launched in 2021 to engage in a 12-year journey resulting in the flyby of seven Trojan asteroids and one in the solar systems' main asteroid belt. The Trojans are believed to have formed by the same process as planets so boffins are hoping it will tell them more about how our solar system began.
But in late March, NASA was able to add one more celestial body to the list scheduled for observation – a moon orbiting the smallest of the mission's Trojan asteroid targets, Polymele.
The moon was discovered during a campaign to study it while it passed in front of a star, thus blocking out the star's light, a tactic that was expected to lead to understanding the asteroid's location, size and shape with deep precision. The blockage, or occultation, revealed the satellite.
 
cecilia said:
www.space.com

Mysterious rings in new James Webb Space Telescope image puzzle astronomers

Concentric ripples surrounding a distant star have a strange, squarish shape.
www.space.com www.space.com
Click to expand...
"The six-pointed blue structure is an artifact due to optical diffraction from the bright star WR140 in this #JWST MIRI image," he wrote. "But red curvy-yet-boxy stuff is real, a series of shells around WR140. Actually in space. Around a star."

"He noted that WR140 is what astronomers call a Wolf-Rayet star, which have spat much of their hydrogen into space. These objects are also surrounded by dust, he added, which a companion star is sculpting into the strange shells."
Click to expand...
Fascinating stuff. I've never heard of this type of diffraction before.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top