Jupiter's Great Red Spot reveals signs of water, raise hopes life could exist there

NASA scientists peering deep inside Jupiter's Great Red Spot -- a storm that has been raging on the planet for over 350 years -- have detected signs of water above the planet's deepest clouds.

The pressure of the water combined with their measurements of another oxygen-bearing gas, carbon monoxide, imply that Jupiter has two to nine times more oxygen than the Sun, researchers said.

The findings, published in the Astronomical Journal, support theoretical and computer-simulation models that have predicted abundant water on Jupiter.

The revelation was stirring given that the team's experiment could have easily failed. The Great Red Spot is full of dense clouds, which makes it hard for electromagnetic energy to escape and teach astronomers anything about the chemistry within.

The data collected will supplement the information NASA's Juno spacecraft is gathering as it circles the planet from north to south once every 53 days.

Among other things, Juno is looking for water with its own infrared spectrometer and with a microwave radiometer that can probe deeper than anyone has seen -- to 100 bars, or 100 times the atmospheric pressure at Earth's surface.

If Juno returns similar water findings, it could open a new window into solving the water problem.

Juno is the latest spacecraft tasked with finding water, likely in gas form, on this giant gaseous planet.

Jupiter is thought to be the first planet to have formed by siphoning the elements left over from the formation of the Sun as our star coalesced from an amorphous nebula into the fiery ball of gases we see today.

Read the full report of NASA : Jupiter's Great Red Spot

First lake of liquid water discovered on Mars

The lake, however, would not be drinkable, and lies almost 1.5 km beneath the icy surface in a harsh and frigid environment.

International News → A massive underground lake has been detected for the first time on Mars, raising the possibility that more water -- and maybe even life -- exists there, international astronomers. Located under a layer of Martian ice, the lake is about 20 km wide, said the report led by Italian researchers in the US journal Science. It is the largest body of liquid water ever found on the Red Planet.

"This is a stunning result that suggests water on Mars is not a temporary trickle like previous discoveries but a persistent body of water that provides the conditions for life for extended periods of time," said Alan Duffy, an associate professor at Swinburne University in Australia, who was not involved in the study.
Mars is now cold, barren and dry but used to be warm and wet. It was home to plenty of liquid water and lakes at least 3.6 billion years ago.

Scientists are eager to find signs of contemporary water, because such discoveries are key to unlocking the mystery of whether life ever formed on Mars in its ancient past, or if it might persist today.

First lake of liquid water discovered on Mars

Being able to access water sources could also help humans survive on a future crewed mission to Earth's neighbouring planet. This particular lake, however, would not be drinkable, and lies almost 1.5 km beneath the icy surface in a harsh and frigid environment.

Whether microbial forms of life lie within is a matter of debate. Some experts are skeptical of the possibility since the lake is so cold and briny, and mixed with a heavy dose of dissolved Martian salts and minerals. The temperature is likely below the freezing point of pure water, but can remain liquid due to the presence of magnesium, calcium, and sodium.

The discovery was made using radar instruments on board the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter, which launched in 2003. The tool is called the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS), and was designed to find subsurface water by sending radar pulses....continue reading

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 News Source : BS

2016, the year that was: Science + Technology

A round-up of major events in science and technology

Breaking News - Science & Technology 2016 may have been gruelling for some, with the political shockwaves of Brexit and the election in the US of Donald Trump, not to mention a spate of celebrity deaths.

But it was a big year for those engaging the tools of empirical science to better understand the natural universe around us.

In fact, 2016 kicked off with one of the biggest discoveries of this century so far: the detection of gravitational waves by an international team of scientists, including several from Australia.

 

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Fortuitously enough, this came almost precisely 100 years after Albert Einstein predicted such waves ought to exist, and is a testament to the power of the scientific method. Based on the observations of his day, along with the power of mathematics and his inspired imagination, Einstein was able to describe a phenomenon that it was impossible for him to test.

 

Yet the dogged persistence of scientists in the intervening century enabled them to build a detector with a sensitivity that boggles the mind: it could spot a wobble in the fabric of spacetime that was 10,000 times smaller than the width of a proton.

Yet, in light of this profound discovery, we still don’t teach Einstein’s theories in high school.

 

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