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08.02.09

Astrological Patterns and Detachment

Over the past several months I have been exposed to a particular astrological pattern. I have quite honestly never seen such a... more

karthikmns
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7 months ago

^#1

Venus once had Oceans and Continents like Earth

Venus Express has charted the first map of Venus's southern hemisphere at infrared wavelengths. The new map hints that our neighbouring world may once have been more Earth-like, with both, a plate tectonics system and an ocean of water.

The map comprises over a thousand individual images, recorded between May 2006 and December 2007. Because Venus is covered in clouds, normal cameras cannot see the surface, but Venus Express used a particular infrared wavelength that can see through them.

Although radar systems have been used in the past to provide high-resolution maps of Venus's surface, Venus Express is the first orbiting spacecraft to produce a map that hints at the chemical composition of the rocks. The new data is consistent with suspicions that the highland plateaus of Venus are ancient continents, once surrounded by ocean and produced by past volcanic activity.

"This is not proof, but it is consistent. All we can really say at the moment is that the plateau rocks look different from elsewhere," says Nils Müller at the Joint Planetary Interior Physics Research Group of the University Münster and DLR Berlin, who headed the mapping efforts.

The rocks look different because of the amount of infrared light they radiate into space, similar to the way a brick wall heats up during the day and gives off its heat at night. Besides, different surfaces radiate different amounts of heat at infrared wavelengths due to a material characteristic known as emissivity, which varies in different materials. The Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) instrument captured this infrared radiation during Venus's night-time orbits around the planet's southern hemisphere.

The eight Russian landers of the 1970s and 1980s touched down away from the highlands and found only basalt-like rock beneath their landing pads. The new map shows that the rocks on the Phoebe and Alpha Regio plateaus are lighter in colour and look old compared to the majority of the planet. On Earth, such light-coloured rocks are usually granite and form continents.

Granite is formed when ancient rocks, made of basalt, are driven down into the planet by shifting continents, a process known as plate tectonics. The water combines with the basalt to form granite and the mixture is reborn through volcanic eruptions.

"If there is granite on Venus, there must have been an ocean and plate tectonics in the past," says Müller.

Müller points out that the only way to know for sure whether the highland plateaus are continents is to send a lander there. Over time, Venus's water has been lost to space, but there might still be volcanic activity. The infrared observations are very sensitive to temperature. But in all images they saw only variations of between 3-20°C, instead of the kind of temperature difference they would expect from active lava flows.

Although Venus Express did not see any evidence of ongoing volcanic activity this time this time around, Müller does not rule it out. "Venus is a big planet, being heated by radioactive elements in its interior. It should have as much volcanic activity as Earth," he says. Indeed, some areas do appear to be composed of darker rock, which hints at relatively recent volcanic flows.

The new map gives astronomers another tool in their quest to understand why Venus is so similar in size to Earth and yet has evolved so differently.Venus Express has charted the first map of Venus's southern hemisphere at infrared wavelengths. The new map hints that our... more

EmperorThan
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7 months ago

^#2

Hubble Captures Images of Rare Mammoth Stars

The Hubble Space Telescope has revealed two of the most massive stars in our galaxy as never before. Located 7,500 light years... more

EmperorThan
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7 months ago

^#3

Perihelion and Aphelion Visually Demonstrated

This year Aphelion, the point in Earth's elliptical orbit when it is farthest from the Sun, occurs tomorrow, July 4th. Of... more

EmperorThan
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7 months ago

^#4

Tibetan Monks and Nuns Turn Their Minds Toward Science

Tibetan monks and nuns spend their lives studying the inner world of the mind rather than the physical world of matter. Yet for... more

Siriuslyfun19212
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7 months ago

^#5

Deepest Underground Laboratory to Focus on Dark Matter

This week, the Sanford Lab dedicated an underground science fortress to research dark matter. The lab is 5,000 feet underground in... more

EmperorThan
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7 months ago

^#6

The Biocentric Universe Theory: Life Creates Time, Space, and the Cosmos Itself

For centuries, scientists regarded Berkeley’s argument as a philosophical sideshow and continued to build physical models... more

SoundBigfoot
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11 comments

9 months ago

^#7

Could Earth collide with Mars? Yes, quite possibly...

Scientists are saying that there is a real possibility that Earth will be hit by either Mars or Venus - y'know, those two... more

FreshPlastic
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1 comment

8 months ago

^#8

'Alien skull' spotted on Mars

Oooh I want one for my alien skull collection.... I think they timed this story to coincide with the release of the new Star... more

Mike_Johnston
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9 months ago

^#9

Mars have Interplanetary Airport July 26, 2009

Today in Exopolitics Summit 2009, Barcelona, Spain Robert Dean presented NASA photo evidence of Mars have Interplanetary Airport.... more

current_spider
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7 comments

7 months ago

^#10

Mini Light Saber for Surgeons: The Plasma Needle

Physicists and bioengineers in the Netherlands have developed a new plasma-based approach that could be used in medical procedures... more

atomiclegion
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8 months ago

^#11

mars sorcerors and weirdos

what a mix of creaturthingies that seems trouble free from here where theres popcorn giants black and white small humanoids that... more

benzoid11
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6 months ago

^#12

Why are tech millionaires obsessed with traveling into Space?

There is also a shadow NASA out there, made up of tech geeks who are investing their second entrepreneurial wind into beating... more

atomiclegion
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12 comments

8 months ago

^#13

Experts puzzled by spot on Venus

Astronomers are puzzled by a strange bright spot which has appeared in the clouds of Venus. The spot was first identified by an... more

unimatrix0
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1 comment

6 months ago

^#14

mars even more to seeable

hi contrast employed to bring out the most rectangular forms no matter how lo res or smudged rectangles are the test of human... more

benzoid11
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6 months ago

^#15

Ion engines to speed up astronauts' future trips to Mars

Scientists are currently working on a new ion engine, set to power astronauts to Mars in a length of 39 days. Traditional... more

Skyscraper08
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7 months ago

^#16

Buzz Aldrin calls for manned flight to Mars (& RAPS?)

The second person to walk on the moon said that setting up habitation on the surface of the red planet was a "wonderful... more

Bigdog_mike
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12 comments

7 months ago

^#17

jupitercalistoeuropaartthinkvenus

lotrs of images have value only in their contrast reveals rectangles and squares not to be confused with pixelating which often... more

benzoid11
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6 months ago

^#18

7 Man-Made Substances that Laugh in the Face of Physics

Cracked.com have come up with the seven most awesomist man-made substances that, er, laugh in the face of physics. Yeah biatch,... more

FreshPlastic
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8 months ago

^#19

From the Moon to Mars

"Forty years ago this month the lunar surface reverberated with life for the first time. Forty years from now will Mars, too, come alive? President Barack Obama has affirmed the broad goals for human spaceflight that his predecessor put forward in 2004: retire the shuttle in 2010, develop a replacement line of rockets (named Ares), return to the moon by 2020, and go to Mars, perhaps in the mid-2030s [see “To the Moon and Beyond,” by Charles Dingell, William A. Johns and Julie Kramer White; Scientific American, October 2007]. The program is known as Constellation.

Mountains higher than the walls of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado towered above the long, narrow valley of Taurus-Littrow. A brilliant sun, brighter than any sun experienced on Earth, illuminated the cratered valley floor and steep mountain slopes, starkly contrasted against a blacker-than-black sky. My crewmate Gene Cernan and I explored this nearly four-billion-year-old valley, as well as the slightly younger volcanic lava rocks and ash partially filling it, for three days in 1972—concluding the Apollo program. It was the first and, so far, only time a geologist has ever done hands-on study of another world. Now the U.S., the European Union, Russia and other international partners are contemplating sending astronauts to Mars to do fieldwork there, probably beginning within the first third of this century. What will be new and what will be familiar to the first geologist to step before a red Martian sunrise?

For each new body that people explore, we must build on our experience exploring the last place we have been—as geologists have done on Earth for more than two centuries. We must continually ask what may be similar and what may be different. How will Martian geology, accessibility, exploration strategy and optimal crew composition compare with the experience of Apollo?

On Mars, scientists expect influences that combine those affecting Earth and the moon, because the Red Planet is intermediate in size. Indeed, our growing geologic knowledge about Mars already confirms this blend of processes. Since the first photographs provided by orbital cameras and the Viking landers, we have known that geologic features on Mars resulted from combinations of internal and external influences."

Much more at link!

So cool to think about the inevitable day that people will explore Mars! Ponder the future!"Forty years ago this month the lunar surface reverberated with life for the first time. Forty years from now will Mars, too,... more