Thursday 26 March 2015

Significant Space Science Stories of 2014

Zoran Zjačić
Science 9E
Mr. Youell
3.26.2015

Significant Space Science Stories
Of 2014
Or S.S.S.S.2014 for short

Space has been around for a very long time, and it is talked and wrote about a lot. In the past year, the knowledge that we have about the subject has expanded immensely, and here are the news stories to prove it
When space and news stories of 2014 are mentioned, the one that comes to mind is the Rosetta spaceship, and how Philae failed to land in the right spot. Everybody already knows about that, but i wanted to shed light on three other topics about space.
Now, what do we know about space and our planet? Well, not much, but not very little. We know that we are in a galaxy called The Milky Way, we know that there are nine planets in it, and that the earth is about 13000 kilometers in diameter. The universe is probably expanding, ever since the big band, and it's even expanding faster at the time when you are reading this than when i typed it. It has a wide array of things to discover, and nobody knows how much it holds. 
 Just last year, according to NASA's official website, The Kepler discovered the first earth sized plane in the habitable zone of another star. The habitable zone being the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. This discovery shows us that there are other planets like earth that are orbiting other stars, which gives us hope about finding intelligent life on other planets. 
 It’s called “Kepler-186f”.(Figure 1) It orbits it's star every 130 days and it is 10% larger than the earth, which puts it as the top contender for planets that have the same structure and same habitability as earth.(Figure 2) The planet is at a great distance away, being 500 light years away from our point in the universe. Now, why is this discovery important? Well, this is the first planet to be this similar to the earth, and it gives us hope that we will find more like it. If we find more like this one, there is a greater chance that we will discover life outside our galaxy, or on another planet . However, it's star is much cooler and redder than our sun, which means that if photosynthesis does actually exist on the planet, the color palette of it's plants wouldn’t be green, and it would most likely be red.(Figure 3)




(Figure 1) An illustration of what the planet looks like



(Figure 2) Additional information on the similarities of the earth and Kepler-186



(Figure 3) The plant life on the planet is most likely to be red due to it’s star


 While we are on the topic of finding life and planets that can or have ever supported it, there was another discovery that was made by the Curiosity rover on mars, according to The Guardian.
 The rover found a spike of methane on the red planet, at it's landing site, the Gale Crater. It measured the methane levels four times over two months, and the first three times it was increasing in levels while it decreased for the fourth measurement. Scientists are not sure what caused this fluctuation or why it happened.
 Scientists are particularly interested in this discovery on alien planets since living organisms produce much of the same gas on earth, which could potentially mean that mars once supported life. And even though the signs of methane on the planet don't necessarily mean that the planet has ever held life, since it can be produced from natural occurrences, it does give a solid starting point, according to a large number of scientists. There are many reasons other than life to why there is 1 part to a billion in the atmosphere on mars. (Figure 4)


(Figure 4) The possible reasons for the methane spike on Mars

We are yet to find out if there is life on other planets, such as Kepler-186f, but it was also discovered that it may be closer than we thought.
 On, or inside it to be correct, Saturn's icy moon, Enceladus, scientists found a hidden ocean beneath it's 35 kilometer thick shell of ice, according to Space.com.(Figure 5) An ocean is no big deal when heard about at first, but a study confirms that it could very well support life. It is 10 kilometers deep and it has direct contact with a rocky seafloor, which, in theory, could mean that some chemical reactions could of occurred which have led to the rise of sea life on our planet. That means that some forms of aquatic animals have possibly formed or have yet to do so, and both are intriguing. 

 An illustration of the possible interior of Enceladus (Figure 6)



(Figure 5) Enceladus, in all it’s icy glory.


(Figure 6) An illustration of what the inside of Enceladus most likely looks like





Now, what does all this mean? We have advanced our knowledge on the possibility of life forming on other planets very much in the past year. From evidence of it forming on Mars, to discovering a habitable ocean in Enceladus, and even to finding another planet suitable to human life. Or, to follow the steps of the movie ‘Interstellar’, we can hope that one day we can transfer humanity to one of those other planets, when we come to the point that the one we’re living on right now isn’t capable of enduring any more human life.
 All these stories show us that there is always hope for exploring the universe, and finding any possible life that can reside in it. The planet that's similar to ours, the methane on mars, and the water on Saturn's icy moon can all mean that life can happen, whether in water or on land, just like it happened on our planet. 



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