Diminishing dinosaur steps saved by laser and laptop
- The Fumanya site, in the Bergueda region of central Catalonia, is so delicate that experts cannot get physically close enough to the tracks to examine them.In the years since the tracks were discovered they have been exposed to the elements, and as a result are severely weathered and eroding at a rapid rate.To make things even more difficult, the tracks are imprinted into near-vertical rock faces.Palaeontologists feared the tracks could be lost forever - but a permanent and detailed record has now been created using cutting-edge equipment.Using a high-tech laser scanning system called RIEGL, researchers from The School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental have produced an interactive 3D model of a quarry face covered in thousands of tracks made by the late Cretaceous dinosaurs, including sauropods and possibly predatory theropod dinosaurs.The portable system, which is powered by a battery, works by rotating and firing laser beams, which reflect off the quarry faces back to a receiver. The device then cross references the reflections with a built-in digital camera and GPS, and feeds the information into an attached laptop. Software is then used to create a detailed and very accurate 3D computer model of the location.This technology has allowed researchers to closely examine and analyse the Spanish quarry tracks from many different angles and even inside out.This information is very important for palaeontologists and dinosaur locomotion experts, because it gives an insight into the way these dinosaurs moved and the environments in which they lived.The on-going project - run in conjunction with Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona - is being led by palaeontologist Dr Phil Manning, who received a grant of Euro 9,000 from the Consorci Ruta Minera to fund the laser scanning.The computer modelling for the project was done by Dr David Hodgetts, a senior lecturer in Reservoir Modelling and Petroleum Geology.Student Karl Bates, who is now carrying out Post Graduate research into dinosaur locomotion, worked on the Fumanya tracks for his MPhil degree project.Karl said: "Due to the fragile environment and the sensitivity of the site we were not permitted direct contact and therefore all measurements had to taken remotely.Dr Manning added: "Laser scanning allowed the rapid, high resolution, 3D digital mapping of an otherwise inaccessible site. The computer-generated trackways we have created preserve important information on the locomotion of dinosaurs, which can be properly accessed for the first time."It took four days for a team from the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences to collect all the necessary information to create a comprehensive 3D model of the quarry, although some initial results were available within just 15 minutes.The quarry, which lies to the north of Barcelona, was still active until fairly recently, but there are now plans to make it a protected site of special scientific interest.Dr Manning was part of the UNESCO team who initially evaluated the trackway localities in Northern Spain, as part of a pending Iberian Peninsula World Heritage Site application.Although the footprints are imprinted in a vertical cliff face, the surface the dinosaurs travelled across millions of years ago would have been flat.The School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences was the first academic department in the country to acquire the RIEGL scanning equipment.Only one other department in the UK can boast such equipment.The equipment is generally used in oil exploration, but this project is the first time The University has used it to create images of dinosaur tracks.Dr Manning has also extended the use of the scanner to palaeontological investigation in the Creek Formation in the United States, home to the infamous Tyrannosaurs Rex.
University of Manchester
http://brightsurf.com/news/headlines/30453/Diminishing_dinosaur_steps_saved_by_laser_and_laptop.html
who: The Palaeontologists at Manchester university
what: Are looking at whats left of dinosaur fossils with the help of lasers and laptop technology.
when:May 10th 2007
where: At the Manchester University
This is fascinating. Ive always wondered about dinosaurs. They are very interesting creatures and its a shame taht they have vanished. Its good that there are remainders left all over the world from these animals. I hope these Palaeontologists can come through and find additional information describing the fossils.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
3RD BLOG -CURRENT EVENT.
-Astronomers find first habitable Earth-like planet April 25, 2007 -
-Astronomers have discovered the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, an exoplanet with a radius only 50% larger than the Earth and capable of having liquid water. Using the ESO 3.6-m telescope, a team of Swiss, French and Portuguese scientists discovered a super-Earth about 5 times the mass of the Earth that orbits a red dwarf, already known to harbour a Neptune-mass planet. The astronomers have also strong evidence for the presence of a third planet with a mass about 8 Earth masses.This exoplanet - as astronomers call planets around a star other than the Sun is the smallest ever found up to now [1] and it completes a full orbit in 13 days. It is 14 times closer to its star than the Earth is from the Sun. However, given that its host star, the red dwarf Gliese 581 [2], is smaller and colder than the Sun and thus less luminous the planet nevertheless lies in the habitable zone, the region around a star where water could be liquid!"We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid," explains Stphane Udry, from the Geneva Observatory (Switzerland) and lead-author of the paper reporting the result. "Moreover, its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earths radius, and models predict that the planet should be either rocky like our Earth or covered with oceans," he adds."Liquid water is critical to life as we know it," avows Xavier Delfosse, a member of the team from Grenoble University (France). "Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extra-terrestrial life. On the treasure map of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X."The host star, Gliese 581, is among the 100 closest stars to us, located only 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra ("the Scales"). It has a mass of only one third the mass of the Sun. Such red dwarfs are intrinsically at least 50 times fainter than the Sun and are the most common stars in our Galaxy: among the 100 closest stars to the Sun, 80 belong to this class."Red dwarfs are ideal targets for the search for low-mass planets where water could be liquid. Because such dwarfs emit less light, the habitable zone is much closer to them than it is around the Sun," emphasizes Xavier Bonfils, a co-worker from Lisbon University. Planets lying in this zone are then more easily detected with the radial-velocity method [3], the most successful in detecting exoplanets.Two years ago, the same team of astronomers already found a planet around Gliese 581 (see ESO 30/05). With a mass of 15 Earth-masses, i.e. similar to that of Neptune, it orbits its host star in 5.4 days. At the time, the astronomers had already seen hints of another planet. They therefore obtained a new set of measurements and found the new super-Earth, but also clear indications for another one, an 8 Earth-mass planet completing an orbit in 84 days. The planetary system surrounding Gliese 581 contains thus no fewer than 3 planets of 15 Earth masses or less, and as such is a quite remarkable system.The discovery was made thanks to HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity for Planetary Searcher), perhaps the most precise spectrograph in the world. Located on the ESO 3.6-m telescope at La Silla, Chile, HARPS is able to measure velocities with a precision better than one metre per second (or 3.6 km/h)! HARPS is one of the most successful instruments for detecting exoplanets and holds already several recent records, including the discovery of another Trio of Neptunes (ESO 18/06, see also ESO 22/04).The detected velocity variations are between 2 and 3 metres per second, corresponding to about 9 km/h! That's the speed of a person walking briskly. Such tiny signals could not have been distinguished from 'simple noise' by most of today's available spectrographs."HARPS is a unique planet hunting machine," says Michel Mayor, from Geneva Observatory, and HARPS Principal Investigator. "Given the incredible precision of HARPS, we have focused our effort on low-mass planets. And we can say without doubt that HARPS has been very successful: out of the 13 known planets with a mass below 20 Earth masses, 11 were discovered with HARPS!"HARPS is also very efficient in finding planetary systems, where tiny signals have to be uncovered. The two systems known to have three low mass planets HD 69830 and Gl 581 were discovered by HARPS."And we are confident that, given the results obtained so far, finding a planet with the mass of the Earth around a red dwarf is within reach," affirms Mayor.
-European Southern Observatory (ESO)
http://brightsurf.com/news/headlines/30140/Astronomers_find_first_habitable_Earth-like_planet.html
Who: A team of Swiss, French and Portuguese scientists
What: Have discovered the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System
When: April 25th, 2007
Where: At the Geneva Observatory (located in Switzerland)
From my prospective this is very interesting. The people who created the planet hunting machine should be honored. This is something we have been struggling with ofr many many years. And to finally discover another earth-like planet outside of out solar system is shocking. . I find it mind boggling that we have such AMAZING technology. This new discovery has probally triggered other scientits brains. I hope they keep us updated on these type of discoveries because i am very interested in finding out more about whats happening today all around the world.
-Astronomers have discovered the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, an exoplanet with a radius only 50% larger than the Earth and capable of having liquid water. Using the ESO 3.6-m telescope, a team of Swiss, French and Portuguese scientists discovered a super-Earth about 5 times the mass of the Earth that orbits a red dwarf, already known to harbour a Neptune-mass planet. The astronomers have also strong evidence for the presence of a third planet with a mass about 8 Earth masses.This exoplanet - as astronomers call planets around a star other than the Sun is the smallest ever found up to now [1] and it completes a full orbit in 13 days. It is 14 times closer to its star than the Earth is from the Sun. However, given that its host star, the red dwarf Gliese 581 [2], is smaller and colder than the Sun and thus less luminous the planet nevertheless lies in the habitable zone, the region around a star where water could be liquid!"We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid," explains Stphane Udry, from the Geneva Observatory (Switzerland) and lead-author of the paper reporting the result. "Moreover, its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earths radius, and models predict that the planet should be either rocky like our Earth or covered with oceans," he adds."Liquid water is critical to life as we know it," avows Xavier Delfosse, a member of the team from Grenoble University (France). "Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extra-terrestrial life. On the treasure map of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X."The host star, Gliese 581, is among the 100 closest stars to us, located only 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra ("the Scales"). It has a mass of only one third the mass of the Sun. Such red dwarfs are intrinsically at least 50 times fainter than the Sun and are the most common stars in our Galaxy: among the 100 closest stars to the Sun, 80 belong to this class."Red dwarfs are ideal targets for the search for low-mass planets where water could be liquid. Because such dwarfs emit less light, the habitable zone is much closer to them than it is around the Sun," emphasizes Xavier Bonfils, a co-worker from Lisbon University. Planets lying in this zone are then more easily detected with the radial-velocity method [3], the most successful in detecting exoplanets.Two years ago, the same team of astronomers already found a planet around Gliese 581 (see ESO 30/05). With a mass of 15 Earth-masses, i.e. similar to that of Neptune, it orbits its host star in 5.4 days. At the time, the astronomers had already seen hints of another planet. They therefore obtained a new set of measurements and found the new super-Earth, but also clear indications for another one, an 8 Earth-mass planet completing an orbit in 84 days. The planetary system surrounding Gliese 581 contains thus no fewer than 3 planets of 15 Earth masses or less, and as such is a quite remarkable system.The discovery was made thanks to HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity for Planetary Searcher), perhaps the most precise spectrograph in the world. Located on the ESO 3.6-m telescope at La Silla, Chile, HARPS is able to measure velocities with a precision better than one metre per second (or 3.6 km/h)! HARPS is one of the most successful instruments for detecting exoplanets and holds already several recent records, including the discovery of another Trio of Neptunes (ESO 18/06, see also ESO 22/04).The detected velocity variations are between 2 and 3 metres per second, corresponding to about 9 km/h! That's the speed of a person walking briskly. Such tiny signals could not have been distinguished from 'simple noise' by most of today's available spectrographs."HARPS is a unique planet hunting machine," says Michel Mayor, from Geneva Observatory, and HARPS Principal Investigator. "Given the incredible precision of HARPS, we have focused our effort on low-mass planets. And we can say without doubt that HARPS has been very successful: out of the 13 known planets with a mass below 20 Earth masses, 11 were discovered with HARPS!"HARPS is also very efficient in finding planetary systems, where tiny signals have to be uncovered. The two systems known to have three low mass planets HD 69830 and Gl 581 were discovered by HARPS."And we are confident that, given the results obtained so far, finding a planet with the mass of the Earth around a red dwarf is within reach," affirms Mayor.
-European Southern Observatory (ESO)
http://brightsurf.com/news/headlines/30140/Astronomers_find_first_habitable_Earth-like_planet.html
Who: A team of Swiss, French and Portuguese scientists
What: Have discovered the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System
When: April 25th, 2007
Where: At the Geneva Observatory (located in Switzerland)
From my prospective this is very interesting. The people who created the planet hunting machine should be honored. This is something we have been struggling with ofr many many years. And to finally discover another earth-like planet outside of out solar system is shocking. . I find it mind boggling that we have such AMAZING technology. This new discovery has probally triggered other scientits brains. I hope they keep us updated on these type of discoveries because i am very interested in finding out more about whats happening today all around the world.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
2ND BLOG -CURRENT EVET
NASA's Chandra finds black holes are "Green"
-Black holes are the most fuel efficient engines in the Universe, according to a new study using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. By making the first direct estimate of how efficient or "green" black holes are, this work gives insight into how black holes generate energy and affect their environment.The new Chandra finding shows that most of the energy released by matter falling toward a supermassive black hole is in the form of high-energy jets traveling at near the speed of light away from the black hole. This is an important step in understanding how such jets can be launched from magnetized disks of gas near the event horizon of a black hole."Just as with cars, it's critical to know the fuel efficiency of black holes," said lead author Steve Allen of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University, and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. "Without this information, we cannot figure out what is going on under the hood, so to speak, or what the engine can do."Allen and his team used Chandra to study nine supermassive black holes at the centers of elliptical galaxies. These black holes are relatively old and generate much less radiation than quasars, rapidly growing supermassive black holes seen in the early Universe. The surprise came when the Chandra results showed that these "quiet" black holes are all producing much more energy in jets of high-energy particles than in visible light or X-rays. These jets create huge bubbles, or cavities, in the hot gas in the galaxies.The efficiency of the black hole energy-production was calculated in two steps: first Chandra images of the inner regions of the galaxies were used to estimate how much fuel is available for the black hole; then Chandra images were used to estimate the power required to produce the cavities."If a car was as fuel-efficient as these black holes, it could theoretically travel over a billion miles on a gallon of gas," said coauthor Christopher Reynolds of the University of Maryland, College Park.New details are given about how black hole engines achieve this extreme efficiency. Some of the gas first attracted to the black holes may be blown away by the energetic activity before it gets too near the black hole, but a significant fraction must eventually approach the event horizon where it is used with high efficiency to power the jets. The study also implies that matter flows towards the black holes at a steady rate for several million years."These black holes are very efficient, but it also takes a very long time to refuel them," said Steve Allen who receives funding from the Office of Science of the Department of Energy.This new study shows that black holes are green in another important way. The energy transferred to the hot gas by the jets should keep hot gas from cooling, thereby preventing billions of new stars from forming. This will place limits on the growth of the largest galaxies, and prevent galactic sprawl from taking over the neighborhood.
-Chandra X-ray Center
Who: NASA's Chandra X-ray Center
What: Have discovered that black holes are green & how black holes function.
When: April 13, 2006
Where: Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University
I think this is very interesting, considering that last year i discovered that black holes are deadly and strech your body like laffy taffy. When you hear the world black hole you would take it literaly. Therefore i was shocked to find out that black holes are green!! Also to find out how black holes generate energy and have an impact on their inviroment was something i never thought about. NASA has created
http://brightsurf.com/news/headlines/24080/NASAs_Chandra_finds_black_holes_are_green.html
-Black holes are the most fuel efficient engines in the Universe, according to a new study using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. By making the first direct estimate of how efficient or "green" black holes are, this work gives insight into how black holes generate energy and affect their environment.The new Chandra finding shows that most of the energy released by matter falling toward a supermassive black hole is in the form of high-energy jets traveling at near the speed of light away from the black hole. This is an important step in understanding how such jets can be launched from magnetized disks of gas near the event horizon of a black hole."Just as with cars, it's critical to know the fuel efficiency of black holes," said lead author Steve Allen of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University, and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. "Without this information, we cannot figure out what is going on under the hood, so to speak, or what the engine can do."Allen and his team used Chandra to study nine supermassive black holes at the centers of elliptical galaxies. These black holes are relatively old and generate much less radiation than quasars, rapidly growing supermassive black holes seen in the early Universe. The surprise came when the Chandra results showed that these "quiet" black holes are all producing much more energy in jets of high-energy particles than in visible light or X-rays. These jets create huge bubbles, or cavities, in the hot gas in the galaxies.The efficiency of the black hole energy-production was calculated in two steps: first Chandra images of the inner regions of the galaxies were used to estimate how much fuel is available for the black hole; then Chandra images were used to estimate the power required to produce the cavities."If a car was as fuel-efficient as these black holes, it could theoretically travel over a billion miles on a gallon of gas," said coauthor Christopher Reynolds of the University of Maryland, College Park.New details are given about how black hole engines achieve this extreme efficiency. Some of the gas first attracted to the black holes may be blown away by the energetic activity before it gets too near the black hole, but a significant fraction must eventually approach the event horizon where it is used with high efficiency to power the jets. The study also implies that matter flows towards the black holes at a steady rate for several million years."These black holes are very efficient, but it also takes a very long time to refuel them," said Steve Allen who receives funding from the Office of Science of the Department of Energy.This new study shows that black holes are green in another important way. The energy transferred to the hot gas by the jets should keep hot gas from cooling, thereby preventing billions of new stars from forming. This will place limits on the growth of the largest galaxies, and prevent galactic sprawl from taking over the neighborhood.
-Chandra X-ray Center
Who: NASA's Chandra X-ray Center
What: Have discovered that black holes are green & how black holes function.
When: April 13, 2006
Where: Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University
I think this is very interesting, considering that last year i discovered that black holes are deadly and strech your body like laffy taffy. When you hear the world black hole you would take it literaly. Therefore i was shocked to find out that black holes are green!! Also to find out how black holes generate energy and have an impact on their inviroment was something i never thought about. NASA has created
http://brightsurf.com/news/headlines/24080/NASAs_Chandra_finds_black_holes_are_green.html
Friday, March 30, 2007
1ST BLOG- IN CLASS RESPONSE
"WAVES!"
-Lately during class we have been doing exersises about waves. Waves are caused by vibration. We learned differnt types of waves and even what waves do. Longitudinal and transverse waves are they only two ive learned.I figured out that longitudinal waves move parallel through the medium. While a transverse wave moves at an right angle through the medium(middle point which waves travel through). Some difffernt parts of a transverse waves is the crest-(highest point of the wave) and the trough-( is the lowest point.). In addition the longitudinal wave has two total different parts called compression and rarefraction. Picture a slinky in your head. When the coils are close together is known as compression. When the cils are spaced out it is called rarefraction. In class we did an experiment with sand. sand was placed in a cup and hug 2 feet over 3 sheets of paper and was swung in a back and forth motion while the paper was slowly slid. We then traced our wave and labeled parts of it.
-http://www.gmi.edu/~drussell/Demos/waves/wavemotion.html/
-http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/tralon.html
From these sites i leraned exactly how waves move. It gave great examples and the exersises we did in science was a great help. I also leraned waves are all around you. These are the most two common waves.From the second website i discovered that transverse waves cannot propagate in a gas or a liquid because there is no mechanism for driving motion. This is goingt o be interesting to find out more facts!
-Lately during class we have been doing exersises about waves. Waves are caused by vibration. We learned differnt types of waves and even what waves do. Longitudinal and transverse waves are they only two ive learned.I figured out that longitudinal waves move parallel through the medium. While a transverse wave moves at an right angle through the medium(middle point which waves travel through). Some difffernt parts of a transverse waves is the crest-(highest point of the wave) and the trough-( is the lowest point.). In addition the longitudinal wave has two total different parts called compression and rarefraction. Picture a slinky in your head. When the coils are close together is known as compression. When the cils are spaced out it is called rarefraction. In class we did an experiment with sand. sand was placed in a cup and hug 2 feet over 3 sheets of paper and was swung in a back and forth motion while the paper was slowly slid. We then traced our wave and labeled parts of it.
-http://www.gmi.edu/~drussell/Demos/waves/wavemotion.html/
-http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/tralon.html
From these sites i leraned exactly how waves move. It gave great examples and the exersises we did in science was a great help. I also leraned waves are all around you. These are the most two common waves.From the second website i discovered that transverse waves cannot propagate in a gas or a liquid because there is no mechanism for driving motion. This is goingt o be interesting to find out more facts!
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
"Meiosis Square Dance!!"
Topic: Meosis
Facts:http://genetics.gsk.com/chromosomes.htm
-Your body is made up of trillions of cells.
- The process of meiosis begins with a single cell containing 46 chromosomes
Other Facts:www.bbc.co.uk/.../celldivisionrev3.shtml
-For each of the 23 pairs there is a 50-50 chance as to which pole the paternal or maternal pair of chromatids go.
-There are over 8 million possiblities for variation.
-A human body cell contains 23 pairs of chromosones to begin with.
My thoughs:
During science we wathced a movie called "Meiosis Square Dance." This was an interesting movie. This movies was easy to learn form. I learned how exactly the process of meiosis goes. It sems like a very complex procedure. I find it amusing that a human body cell conatins 23 chromosones....that is alot. I wonder how this process was discovered?
Facts:http://genetics.gsk.com/chromosomes.htm
-Your body is made up of trillions of cells.
- The process of meiosis begins with a single cell containing 46 chromosomes
Other Facts:www.bbc.co.uk/.../celldivisionrev3.shtml
-For each of the 23 pairs there is a 50-50 chance as to which pole the paternal or maternal pair of chromatids go.
-There are over 8 million possiblities for variation.
-A human body cell contains 23 pairs of chromosones to begin with.
My thoughs:
During science we wathced a movie called "Meiosis Square Dance." This was an interesting movie. This movies was easy to learn form. I learned how exactly the process of meiosis goes. It sems like a very complex procedure. I find it amusing that a human body cell conatins 23 chromosones....that is alot. I wonder how this process was discovered?
"Gregor Mendel" Class Response
Topic: It is about what Gregor mendel contributed to science.
Facts: http://library.thinkquest.org/19037/idfog.html
- Is known to be "The Father of Genetics"
-He loved botany [studying plants]
- He was a Monk
-The first trait Mendel tested was height
-It took about forty years for people to discover his writings and research and it was actully found to be true.
-Mendel died in 1884.
Other Facts: http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BC/Gregor_Mendel.html
-loved nature
-Mendel was also interestined in meteorology and theories of evolution.
-The first person to trace the characteristics of successive generations of living things.
-He was the second child of Anton and Rosine Mendel
- His parents were farmers in Brunn
What I think:
Mendels decision to move on after not becoming a teacher was a good choice. Although Gregor Mendel is dead his discovery is still used everyday. I think it is so ironic how he didnt kno he was the forst peron ever to cross polinate pea plants. I guess it is good to be curious. His curiosity led him to this answer. I wonder how he would feel if he knew that he is now known as "The Father of Genetics." Where would we be if he hadnt discover this?
Facts: http://library.thinkquest.org/19037/idfog.html
- Is known to be "The Father of Genetics"
-He loved botany [studying plants]
- He was a Monk
-The first trait Mendel tested was height
-It took about forty years for people to discover his writings and research and it was actully found to be true.
-Mendel died in 1884.
Other Facts: http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BC/Gregor_Mendel.html
-loved nature
-Mendel was also interestined in meteorology and theories of evolution.
-The first person to trace the characteristics of successive generations of living things.
-He was the second child of Anton and Rosine Mendel
- His parents were farmers in Brunn
What I think:
Mendels decision to move on after not becoming a teacher was a good choice. Although Gregor Mendel is dead his discovery is still used everyday. I think it is so ironic how he didnt kno he was the forst peron ever to cross polinate pea plants. I guess it is good to be curious. His curiosity led him to this answer. I wonder how he would feel if he knew that he is now known as "The Father of Genetics." Where would we be if he hadnt discover this?
3rd Current Event
Looking for life on Jupiter's icy moon Europa
February 26, 2007 *
- While NASA and the European Space Agency focus on Mars rovers and future missions to search for life on the Red Planet, a determined core of scientists is lobbying for equal attention to a place they feel is just as likely to harbor life–Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.“Because of the well-supported presence of water ice on Europa and the probability that there are briny oceans, Europa has to be a major target for the search for life in the solar system,” said paleobiologist Jere H.
Lipps, professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. “Many of us are proposing that there is habitat there where we can expect to find evidence of life.”Lipps took up the issue with three other scientists on a panel Sunday (Feb. 18) at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco. The group, organized by Lipps, reviewed what is known about Europa and focused on the problems that need to be solved before undertaking a search for life on the frozen moon.With years of experience studying life in the Antarctic and Arctic ice, Lipps, a member of the campus’s Museum of Paleontology, knows the bizarre places organisms can thrive, and the unique processes that can bring life from deep under the ice to the surface. This is relevant because Europa, the third largest of Jupiter’s moons, is thought to have a thick ocean of water overlain by a layer of ice that could be miles thick.“Life thrives in ice, it doesn’t mind at all,” said Lipps, whose interest in single-celled organisms drew him to consider the possibility of life on other planets, which is likely to be more akin to bacteria than to humans. “In Antarctica, every phylum of algae, protozoan, bacteria and animal lives in the ice, many of them in brine channels that don’t freeze.” Bacteria, diatoms, clams, snails, sponges and even fish larvae live under the ice shelves, yet often appear on the surface because of upheavals in the ice.Similarly, photos taken by the Galileo spacecraft reveal a highly fractured ice surface on Europa with domes and ridges and uptilted ice rafts indicating that the surface has been reworked in a way that could have brought organisms living under the ice to the surface. There’s also evidence that liquid water has welled up through cracks and refrozen in smooth lakes.Using his knowledge of Earth’s polar environments gained over 12 years working in Antarctica, including on the Ross Ice Shelf, Lipps proposed 25 likely habitats for life on Europa in a 2005 paper in the journal Icarus. Any exploration of the moon should examine these sites in detail, he said.Lipps does not assume that life on Europa would be like life on Earth. However, he said, “The strategy of seeking and exploring habitats, rather than the life itself, should provide a most powerful search strategy,” as well as guiding instrument development and deployment programs.Lipps argues that the environments of life, the energy for life and all the chemicals needed for life, including oxygen, have been present on the moon for a long time, probably at least 60 million years, judging from crater counts on the moon’s surface. Scientists suspect that liquid water near the freezing point, zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), is able to exist on Europa because of heat generated by tidal friction between the moon and its immense neighbor, the planet Jupiter. “Based on analogy with Earth’s polar seas, Europan life may occur in many habitats: on soft and rocky bottoms at the ocean’s floor, associated with hydrothermal vents on the floor of the oceans, at different levels in the water column as plankton and nekton, and in and on the ice cover itself,” Lipps noted. “Some of these might contain complex associations of life forms, including both micro- and macroscopic forms and consumers and predators.”Just as turnover of Antarctic ice brings organisms to the top, so would the dynamic oceanographic and geologic processes evident on Europa’s icy surface expose these life forms at the surface, where they could be detected by orbiting spacecraft or roving landers.“This is a paleontological search strategy, which is what I do,” he said. “If I want to collect fossils in Nevada, I get a map and look for likely spots, like rock outcroppings, where fossils will be found. Ice turned on its edge is just a geologic outcrop to me–let’s go there and see if we can find evidence of past or present life.”Surface sites that might contain habitats with life or fossils include the areas of refrozen ocean, chaotic terrains with tilted and rotated blocks of ice, the ridges and rills associated with fissures, low areas where water may have collected, and “dirty” ice that may include material and organisms floated to the surface by ice formed on the bottom of the ocean or gouged by moving ice, as well as a variety of habitats in the ice itself.Lipps noted, too, that while radiation at the surface could be intense enough to kill any Earth-like life, it would not penetrate more than a meter or two, so that many cracks, tubes, caves, and overhangs might exist in the surface ice that could be inhabited by life forms. Ices of different ages could provide an evolutionary look at life on the moon.“A sampling strategy for life and its history on Europa should include paleontological, molecular biological, and volatile and organic chemical objectives that would clearly document the present and/or former existence of life on Europa,” he said. He also urged detailed imaging of surface features, even at the microscopic level, since “the most exciting and convincing evidence for the general public would be an image of a life form.”Lipps said that if we start planning now, we could perhaps have a spacecraft on Europa in 15 years.“We’d like a mission to Europa, and we’ve pointed out the likely places for life,” Lipps said. “It’s now up to the engineers, and to NASA decision-makers and funders, to determine how to get there.”Other scientists speaking at the symposium, “Enigmatic Europa: Understanding Jupiter’s Icy Moon,” were Ronald Greeley of Arizona State University in Tempe; Bill McKinnon of Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.; and Louise Prockter of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.-University of California–Berkeley
http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/29018/Looking_for_life_on_Jupiter’s_icy_moon_Europa.html
Who: Jere H. Lipps
What: Thinks there could possibly be or there once was life on Europa, Jupiter moon.
When: On February 26, 2007
Where: At the University of California–Berkeley
I think because Europa is icy there couldn’t be life on it. I don’t think it could support any creature because as noted up above it is a “frozen moon.” In addition if there is a supposedly to be a ocean under miles thick of ice… what makes them think any creature could bare through that kind of weather. I hope that they can get NASA to send a rover of some type to Europa.
February 26, 2007 *
- While NASA and the European Space Agency focus on Mars rovers and future missions to search for life on the Red Planet, a determined core of scientists is lobbying for equal attention to a place they feel is just as likely to harbor life–Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.“Because of the well-supported presence of water ice on Europa and the probability that there are briny oceans, Europa has to be a major target for the search for life in the solar system,” said paleobiologist Jere H.
Lipps, professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. “Many of us are proposing that there is habitat there where we can expect to find evidence of life.”Lipps took up the issue with three other scientists on a panel Sunday (Feb. 18) at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco. The group, organized by Lipps, reviewed what is known about Europa and focused on the problems that need to be solved before undertaking a search for life on the frozen moon.With years of experience studying life in the Antarctic and Arctic ice, Lipps, a member of the campus’s Museum of Paleontology, knows the bizarre places organisms can thrive, and the unique processes that can bring life from deep under the ice to the surface. This is relevant because Europa, the third largest of Jupiter’s moons, is thought to have a thick ocean of water overlain by a layer of ice that could be miles thick.“Life thrives in ice, it doesn’t mind at all,” said Lipps, whose interest in single-celled organisms drew him to consider the possibility of life on other planets, which is likely to be more akin to bacteria than to humans. “In Antarctica, every phylum of algae, protozoan, bacteria and animal lives in the ice, many of them in brine channels that don’t freeze.” Bacteria, diatoms, clams, snails, sponges and even fish larvae live under the ice shelves, yet often appear on the surface because of upheavals in the ice.Similarly, photos taken by the Galileo spacecraft reveal a highly fractured ice surface on Europa with domes and ridges and uptilted ice rafts indicating that the surface has been reworked in a way that could have brought organisms living under the ice to the surface. There’s also evidence that liquid water has welled up through cracks and refrozen in smooth lakes.Using his knowledge of Earth’s polar environments gained over 12 years working in Antarctica, including on the Ross Ice Shelf, Lipps proposed 25 likely habitats for life on Europa in a 2005 paper in the journal Icarus. Any exploration of the moon should examine these sites in detail, he said.Lipps does not assume that life on Europa would be like life on Earth. However, he said, “The strategy of seeking and exploring habitats, rather than the life itself, should provide a most powerful search strategy,” as well as guiding instrument development and deployment programs.Lipps argues that the environments of life, the energy for life and all the chemicals needed for life, including oxygen, have been present on the moon for a long time, probably at least 60 million years, judging from crater counts on the moon’s surface. Scientists suspect that liquid water near the freezing point, zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), is able to exist on Europa because of heat generated by tidal friction between the moon and its immense neighbor, the planet Jupiter. “Based on analogy with Earth’s polar seas, Europan life may occur in many habitats: on soft and rocky bottoms at the ocean’s floor, associated with hydrothermal vents on the floor of the oceans, at different levels in the water column as plankton and nekton, and in and on the ice cover itself,” Lipps noted. “Some of these might contain complex associations of life forms, including both micro- and macroscopic forms and consumers and predators.”Just as turnover of Antarctic ice brings organisms to the top, so would the dynamic oceanographic and geologic processes evident on Europa’s icy surface expose these life forms at the surface, where they could be detected by orbiting spacecraft or roving landers.“This is a paleontological search strategy, which is what I do,” he said. “If I want to collect fossils in Nevada, I get a map and look for likely spots, like rock outcroppings, where fossils will be found. Ice turned on its edge is just a geologic outcrop to me–let’s go there and see if we can find evidence of past or present life.”Surface sites that might contain habitats with life or fossils include the areas of refrozen ocean, chaotic terrains with tilted and rotated blocks of ice, the ridges and rills associated with fissures, low areas where water may have collected, and “dirty” ice that may include material and organisms floated to the surface by ice formed on the bottom of the ocean or gouged by moving ice, as well as a variety of habitats in the ice itself.Lipps noted, too, that while radiation at the surface could be intense enough to kill any Earth-like life, it would not penetrate more than a meter or two, so that many cracks, tubes, caves, and overhangs might exist in the surface ice that could be inhabited by life forms. Ices of different ages could provide an evolutionary look at life on the moon.“A sampling strategy for life and its history on Europa should include paleontological, molecular biological, and volatile and organic chemical objectives that would clearly document the present and/or former existence of life on Europa,” he said. He also urged detailed imaging of surface features, even at the microscopic level, since “the most exciting and convincing evidence for the general public would be an image of a life form.”Lipps said that if we start planning now, we could perhaps have a spacecraft on Europa in 15 years.“We’d like a mission to Europa, and we’ve pointed out the likely places for life,” Lipps said. “It’s now up to the engineers, and to NASA decision-makers and funders, to determine how to get there.”Other scientists speaking at the symposium, “Enigmatic Europa: Understanding Jupiter’s Icy Moon,” were Ronald Greeley of Arizona State University in Tempe; Bill McKinnon of Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.; and Louise Prockter of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.-University of California–Berkeley
http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/29018/Looking_for_life_on_Jupiter’s_icy_moon_Europa.html
Who: Jere H. Lipps
What: Thinks there could possibly be or there once was life on Europa, Jupiter moon.
When: On February 26, 2007
Where: At the University of California–Berkeley
I think because Europa is icy there couldn’t be life on it. I don’t think it could support any creature because as noted up above it is a “frozen moon.” In addition if there is a supposedly to be a ocean under miles thick of ice… what makes them think any creature could bare through that kind of weather. I hope that they can get NASA to send a rover of some type to Europa.
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