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Category: alien life

‘Interstellar glaciers’: NASA’s SPHEREx maps vast galactic ice regions

NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) mission has mapped interstellar ice at an unprecedented scale. Covering regions in our Milky Way galaxy more than 600 light-years across, the ice was found inside giant molecular clouds—vast regions of gas and dust where dense clumps of matter collapse under gravity, giving birth to stars. A study describing these findings was published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal.

One of SPHEREx’s main goals is to map the chemical signatures of various types of interstellar ice. This ice includes molecules like water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide, which are vital to the chemistry that allows life to develop. Researchers believe these ice reservoirs, attached to the surfaces of tiny dust grains, are where most of the universe’s water is formed and stored. The water in Earth’s oceans —and the ices in comets and on other planets and moons in our galaxy—originates from these regions.

“These vast frozen complexes are like ‘interstellar glaciers’ that could deliver a massive water supply to new solar systems that will be born in the region,” said study co-author Phil Korngut, the instrument scientist for SPHEREx at Caltech in Pasadena, California. “It’s a profound idea that we are looking at a map of material that could rain on nascent planets and potentially support future life.”

Planets need more water to support life than scientists previously thought

Unfortunately for science fiction fans, desert worlds outside our solar system are unlikely to host life, according to new research from the University of Washington. Scientists show that an Earth-sized planet needs at least 20 to 50% of the water in Earth’s oceans to maintain a critical natural cycle that keeps water on the surface.

Scientists believe that there are billions of planets outside our solar system. More than 6,000 of these exoplanets are confirmed, but only some of them are candidates for life. The search for life has focused on planets in the “habitable zone,” a sweet spot that is neither too close nor too far from a central star. Planets in this zone are considered viable because they can maintain liquid surface water.

“When you are searching for life in the broad landscape of the universe with limited resources, you have to filter out some planets,” said lead author Haskelle White-Gianella, a UW doctoral student of Earth and space sciences.

Lawrence Krauss — Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Consciousness?

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That the universe is fine-tuned for life, with multiple physical laws required to be within small ranges, is generally accepted. But can we then make the additional argument that the universe is somehow required to contain consciousness? Such a conclusion may not follow. But the key question is this: Is consciousness wholly contingent or somehow special?

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Lawrence Maxwell Krauss is a Canadian-American theoretical physicist and cosmologist who is a Foundation Professor of the School of Earth and Space Exploration, and director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University.

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Martin Rees — Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Life and Mind?

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If the deep laws of the universe had been ever so slightly different human beings wouldn’t, and couldn’t, exist. All explanations of this exquisite fine-tuning, obvious and not-so-obvious, have problems or complexities. Natural or supernatural, that is the question.

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Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, is a British cosmologist and astrophysicist. He has been Astronomer Royal since 1995 and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge from 2004 to 2012. He was President of the Royal Society between 2005 and 2010.

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Sean Carroll — Why Fine-tuning Seems Designed

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If all is random and our universe is the only universe, the chance existence of human awareness would seem incredible. Because the laws of physics would have to be so carefully calibrated to enable stars and planets to form and life to emerge, it would seem to require some kind of design. But there are other explanations.

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Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. His research focuses on fundamental physics and cosmology.

Life on Mars May Be Hiding or Sleeping

Life on Mars may be hiding or dormant. See my new blog on Big Think discussing various options how life on Mars may adapt to the challenging environment. Link through my website Searchforlifeintheuniverse:

(https://www.searchforlifeintheuniverse.com/post/life-in-mars…r-sleeping)

Astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch argues that even if Mars’s surface is uninhabitable, life could persist underground, inside salt crusts, or locked in a dormant state.

Martian Dust Storms Create Electric Chemical Reactions

“This research sheds light on an important facet of modern Mars: the interaction of the atmosphere and the surface,” said Dr. Paul Byrne. [ https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/30400/martian-dust-s…eactions-2](https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/30400/martian-dust-s…eactions-2)

How does static electricity shape the surface of Mars? This is what a recent study published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters hopes to address as an international team of scientists investigated atmosphere-surface interactions on Mars, specifically regarding electrostatic discharge, or static electricity. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand atmosphere-surface interactions on planetary bodies and how this could help find life beyond Earth.

For the study, the researchers conducted a series of laboratory experiments to simulate how dust storms and dust devils on Mars could trigger the production of compounds like perchlorates and carbonates within the Martian regolith (often mistakenly called “soil”) and hydrochloric acid (HCl) in the atmosphere. The motivation for the study was to gain insight into how planets work, specifically regarding their geological activity.

In the end, the researchers found that static electricity from Martian dust activities are responsible for producing perchlorates and carbonates in the Martian regolith and HCl in the Martian atmosphere. The study’s results were compared with real-world data obtained from the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and NASA’s Curiosity rover for atmospheric and surface data, respectively.

The Great Xeelee Secret

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We’ve covered the Xeelee Sequence multiple times on this channel. In short, The Xeelee Sequence is a series of science fiction novels and short stories by Stephen Baxter that deal with humanity as they exist in a universe dominated by the powerful and enigmatic race of Aliens known as the Xeelee. The Xeelee were more akin to gods than lifeforms.

When humankind first entered into cosmic society, we were oppressed and enslaved by multiple alien races before we found our footing. The aquatic Squeem, the amorphous Qax. We overcame them, I go in depth into this in my Timelike Infinity video and also in my Ultimate Timeline of the Xeelee Sequence video. Over many thousand of years humankind grew to dominate the milkyway, none stood stronger than us aside from the Xeelee.

When that time came, humankind was contained, our colonies throughout the milky way removed, men had no knowledge of the war that had been raging for billions of years. The Photino Birds were beings of Dark Matter, they were born at the beginning of the universe and since the beginning they have raged against the Xeelee for the soul of the cosmos. The Photino birds were creatures that existed in a sector of reality we could barely perceive. While ordinary matter formed stars, planets, and life, dark matter formed something else entirely. Vast structures. Vast ecologies. And within that hidden universe, the Photino Birds were dominant.

Their war with the Xeelee was not fought with fleets or soldiers. It was fought with the fundamental laws of physics.

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