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Scientists seem to have come up with a new parlor game – how many ways can we potentially detect exoplanets?  The two most common methods, the transit method and the Doppler method, each have their own problems.  Alternative methods are starting to sprout up, and a new one was recently proposed by Jacob Nibauer, an undergraduate student in the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.  His suggestion: look at a star’s chemical composition. And his findings after analyzing data on some 1,500 stars hold some surprises.

Spectroscopy allows scientists to directly collect data on the chemical composition of stars.  Mr. Nibauer’s method took into account that stars and planets form from the same nebular material.  Given that the chemical compositions of that material can be estimated before a star is formed, if the star itself happens to be lacking some of the material that would be used to make rocky planets, it’s a pretty strong indicator that there are in fact rocky planets orbiting that star.

UT Video discussing some possibilities for types of rocky exoplanets.

To prove this theory, Mr. Nibauer used data from APOGEE-2, part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and focused on 5 different elements prevalent in rocky planets whose chemical composition was in the APOGEE-2 data.  He then applied a statistical tool called Bayesian analysis to separate types of stars in the data set into either a regular category, where the star still has the expected amount of “refractory” (i.e. rock forming) elements that would be expected from the nebular cloud, or a “depleted” category where the concentrations are less than expected.  

Interestingly, the data showed that most stars in the survey were actually Sun-like in their chemical composition, falling into the “depleted” category from their lack of refractory materials.  Previous studies of stars’ chemical compositions showed the Sun as an outlier, but may have been biased in that they used some characteristic of the Sun itself as a sorting mechanism.  But the methodology of categorizing the two groups before analyzing the Sun, and then slotting our nearest star into the appropriately categorized group, is a much more unbiased approach.

Data from the study showing stars from the study (orange) and the ratios of iron to hydrogen and for each of the five elements in the study.
Data from the study showing stars from the study (orange) and the ratios of iron to hydrogen and for each of the five elements in the study.
Credit: Jacob Nibauer

Even with the elimination of that bias, there are still plenty of unanswered questions in this research.  So far, there hasn’t been any clear evidence that links “depleted” stars to rocky planets more than non-depleted ones.  Additionally, even 1500 stars is a relatively small sample size given the total number of stars in the galaxy.  As more data is collected on both exoplanets themselves and of the chemical signature of stars, it will build a clearer picture of what, if any, relationship there is between the presence of these rock forming minerals and that of any rocky planets in these extrasolar systems.

Learn More:
UPenn – Connecting a star’s chemical composition and planet formation
The Astrophysical Journal – Statistics of the Chemical Composition of Solar Analog Stars and Links to Planet Formation
UT – What are Stars Made Of?

The post What’s the Connection Between the Chemistry of a Star and the Formation of its Planets? appeared first on Universe Today.

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Is it Life, or is it Volcanoes?

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September 29, 2023

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Molecules space FEA

Astronomers are working hard to understand biosignatures and how they indicate life’s presence on an exoplanet. But each planet we encounter is a unique puzzle. When it comes to planetary atmospheres, carbon is a big piece of the puzzle because it has a powerful effect on climate and biogeochemistry. If scientists can figure out how and where a planet’s carbon comes from and how it behaves in the atmosphere, they’ve made progress in solving the puzzle.

But one of the problems with carbon in exoplanet atmospheres is that it can send mixed signals.

Carbon, in this context, means all of the major species of carbon, things like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and methane (CO2, CO, and CH4.) A new study investigates the diversity of these chemicals in the atmospheres of exoplanets similar to Earth orbiting stars similar to the Sun.

The study is “Relative abundances of CO2, CO, and CH4 in atmospheres of Earth-like lifeless planets.” It’s been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal and is available on the pre-press site arxiv.org. The authors are Yasuto Watanabe and Kazumi Ozaki. Watanabe is affiliated with the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at the University of Tokyo, and Ozaki is affiliated with the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

The study is particularly concerned with CO. “We focused on the conditions for the formation of a CO-rich atmosphere, which would be favourable for the origin of life,” the authors write.

There's no escaping carbon's importance. Earth life is carbon-based, and there's no particular reason to think it'll be different on other planets. This illustration shows carbon molecules in space. Credit: IAC; original image of the Helix Nebula (NASA, NOAO, ESA, the Hubble Helix Nebula Team, M. Meixner, STScI, & T.A. Rector, NRAO
There’s no escaping carbon’s importance. Earth life is carbon-based, and there’s no particular reason to think it’ll be different on other planets. This illustration shows carbon molecules in space. Credit: IAC; original image of the Helix Nebula (NASA, NOAO, ESA, the Hubble Helix Nebula Team, M. Meixner, STScI, & T.A. Rector, NRAO

In Earth’s present atmosphere, CO can’t build up because chemical reactions destroy it. But in the deep past, three billion years ago, when the oceans were teeming with simple life, CO could’ve accumulated in Earth’s atmosphere. It’s because there was very little oxygen in the atmosphere, and the Sun was dimmer.

So when we’re searching for biosignatures, an atmosphere with CO could indicate simple life. That’s because it can be an important source of both carbon and oxygen for life. But it’s not that cut and dried. This study aims to untangle some of the details of exoplanet atmospheres so we can identify which mixtures of carbon molecules, including carbon monoxide, might be a biosignature.

“Consequently, a detailed understanding of those factors that govern the relative abundances of CO2, CO, and CH4 in planetary atmospheres has far-reaching implications in the search for habitable planets beyond our solar system,” the paper states.

A key concept in this research is called CO runaway. In an atmosphere like early Earth’s, which contained very little oxygen, CO is produced by photodissociation from UV radiation. On the other side of the equation, it’s destroyed by chemical reactions stemming from the photodissociation of water. When conditions are right, more CO is produced than destroyed, and that can lead to CO runaway.

Understanding CO runaway is critical in the appearance of life because prebiotic chemicals necessary for life—especially peptides—are more readily created in a CO-rich atmosphere than in a CO2-rich atmosphere. Evidence from Mars bolsters this point.

The pair of researchers used atmospheric chemistry models to investigate the details behind CO runaway and how it might help us discern which exoplanets could shelter life.

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Colliding Moons Might Have Created Saturn’s Rings

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September 29, 2023

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1280px Saturn September 9 2007 Annotated 50316920862 1024x391 1

If we could wind the clock back billions of years, we’d see our Solar System the way it used to be. Planetesimals and other rocky bodies were constantly colliding with each other, and new objects would coalesce out of the debris. Asteroids rained down on the planets and their moons. The gas giants were migrating and contributing to the chaos by destroying gravitational relationships and creating new ones. Even moons and moonlets would’ve been part of the cascade of collisions and impacts.

When nature crams enough objects into a small enough space, it breeds collisions. A new study says that’s what happened at Saturn and created the planet’s dramatic rings.

The research is “A Recent Impact Origin of Saturn’s Rings and Mid-sized Moons,” and it’s published in The Astrophysical Journal.” The lead author is Luis Todorow, a Research Fellow at the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow.

Saturn’s rings are so iconic that even schoolchildren can identify them. Astronomers have puzzled over them for a long time, trying to figure out how they formed and when. We know they’re mostly made of ice, but a consensus for their formation has been hard to reach.

This study, conducted by NASA and its partners, says a collision between two icy moons is responsible, and the debris is still circling the planet.

We don’t have to wind the clock back too far to find the impact the research identifies. It occurred only a few hundred million years ago, maybe even more recently than that. The research team says that it was triggered by “resonant instabilities in a previous satellite system.”

The research is based on detailed simulations of Saturn and its system of moons (it has 146 confirmed satellites) and rings.

NASA’s Cassini mission laid the groundwork for this research. The spacecraft spent more than ten years in the Saturn system. One of its main discoveries was that the gas giant’s rings and moons are not very old in astronomical terms. The larger ones are probably old, and their cratered surfaces are a clue to their ages. But some of the planet’s smaller moons are likely much younger.

An annotated picture of Saturn's many moons captured by the Cassini spacecraft. Image Credit: By Kevin Gill from Los Angeles, CA, United States - Saturn - September 9 2007 - Annotated, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=131463918
An annotated picture of Saturn’s many moons captured by the Cassini spacecraft. Image Credit: By Kevin Gill from Los Angeles, CA, United States – Saturn – September 9, 2007 – Annotated, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=131463918

A moon’s distance from its planet plays a role in this. The gravitational struggle between a planet and its moon tends to drive moons away. Earth’s Moon is receding a tiny yet measurable amount each year. Some research shows that if the moons nearest to Saturn’s rings were old, they would’ve been pushed away by now. Since they’re still there, they must be young.

But it’s not that cut and dry because the smaller inner moons also have cratered surfaces.

Saturn's moon Mimas is covered in craters, including the dramatic Herschel crater that gives the moon its
Saturn’s moon Mimas is covered in craters, including the dramatic Herschel crater that gives the moon its “Death Star” nickname. But it’s close to Saturn. What’s going on? Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI

So Saturn is still mysterious.

Adding to the intrigue is our fascination with icy moons. Saturn’s moon Enceladus, as well as other moons like Jupiter’s Europa, contain vast oceans underneath icy shells. They’re prime targets in the
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Chinese Astronauts May Build a Base Inside a Lunar Lava Tube

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September 28, 2023

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1080px Lava tube Big island Hawaii 44459923190 1024x683 1

Caves were some of humanity’s first shelters. Who knows what our distant ancestors were thinking as they sought refuge there, huddling and cooking meat over a fire, maybe drawing animals on the walls. Caves protected our ancient ancestors from the elements, and from predators and rivals, back when sticks, stones, furs and fire were our only technologies.

So there’s a poetic parallel between early humans and us. We’re visiting the Moon again, and lunar caves could shelter us the way caves sheltered our ancestors on Earth.

On the Moon, astronauts will need protection from a different set of hazards. They’ll have to contend with cosmic and solar radiation, meteorites, wild temperature swings, and even impact ejecta. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has found hundreds of lunar ‘skylights,’ locations where a lava tube’s ceiling has collapsed, making a natural opening into the tube. It’s hard to tell without exploring, but lava tubes several hundred meters in diameter could exist on the Moon. That’s a lot of room to work with, and they could provide the shelter astronauts will need. The idea is to build a base inside a lunar lava tube, where astronauts gain additional protection from the thick rock ceiling overhead.

China is considering the idea now, just like others before them. Lunar lava caves might be a resource too valuable to ignore.

Lava tubes are also called pyroducts. They formed when lava flowing across the surface of the Moon began to cool. The top of the flowing lava formed a hardened crust, but the molten lava kept flowing underneath it and eventually drained, leaving an empty tube. They’re here on Earth as well.

This is the entrance to a lava tube on Hawaii's Big Island. Image Credit: By dronepicr - Lava tube Big island Hawaii, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75616740
This is the entrance to a lava tube on Hawaii’s Big Island. Image Credit: By dronepicr – Lava tube Big island Hawaii, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75616740

Scientists aren’t sure when lunar volcanism ended. It may have been as far back as one billion years ago, though some evidence shows there was small-scale volcanism in the last 50 million years. In either case, these lava tubes are ancient and untouched.

On the Moon, astronauts will have to contend with the temperature swings. Earth’s natural satellite is a world of temperature extremes. One side of the Moon is in direct sunlight for half of the time, and surface temperatures reach as high as 127 Celsius (260 F.) The side that’s shrouded in darkness sinks as low as -173 C (-280 F.) That wild temperature swing makes it challenging to work on the lunar surface, and to engineer and build equipment that can be effective in such a large range. Lava tubes provide a natural steady-temperature environment that can’t be found elsewhere on the Moon.

Radiation is also hazardous on the lunar surface. It can be as much as 150 times more powerful than on Earth’s surface. That’s deadly, but in lunar caves astronauts would be sheltered by several metres of overhead rock. That’s a thick enough barrier to provide effective protection.

The risk of impacts and impact debris is much smaller, but it has to be accounted for. Obviously, lava tubes provide shelter from small impacts.

Different teams of scientists from different countries and agencies have studied the idea of using lava tubes as shelter. At a recent conference in China, Zhang Chongfeng from the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology presented a study into the underground world of lava tubes. Chinese researchers did fieldwork in Chinese lava tubes to understand how to use them on the Moon.

According to Zhang, there’s enough similarity between lunar and Earthly lava tubes for one to be an analogue of the other. It starts with their two types of entrances, vertical and sloped. Both worlds have both types.

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