#habitable planet

[whirligig-girl]

My interpretation of Chris Wayan's Planetocopia, a set of alien worlds that test the limits of planetary habitablity (and also, as it happens, alien furry design.)

Planetocopia can be found here.

The planetary science based design of Planetocopia has been a huge influence on my planet-scale worldbuilding style ever since I learned of it probably close to a decade ago.

These drawings were mostly done by projecting the planet maps onto an orthographic projection and then tracing the coastlines, with all other features done manually, but some of them were traced from the photos of the physical globe models, and Kakalea, Xanadu, and Serrana were done freehanded.

Cloudless version below the cut.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

“And the third, of course, is climate change, perhaps the greatest of all these challenges, and certainly the one about which we’ve done the least. It may not be quite game-ending, but it seems set, at the very least, to utterly change the board on which the game is played, and in more profound ways than almost anyone now imagines. The habitable planet has literally begun to shrink, a novel development that will be the great story of our century.”

― Bill McKibben, Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?

[sciencenewsforstudents]

Planets with hydrogen-rich atmospheres could harbor life

Lab experiments show yeast and E. coli survive and reproduce in hydrogen gas, suggesting new environments to seek alien life.

Microbes can live and grow in an atmosphere of pure hydrogen, lab experiments show. The finding could widen the range of environments where astronomers seek signs of alien life.

“We’re trying to expand people’s view of what should be considered a habitable planet,” says exoplanet astronomer Sara Seager of MIT (SN: 10/4/19). “It seems to increase our chances that we may find life elsewhere.”

Seager and her colleagues placed yeast and E. coli — both considered stand-ins for other single-celled organisms — in small bottles with some nutrient broth. The researchers displaced the air in six bottles and replaced it with pure hydrogen gas, pure helium gas or a mixture of 80 percent nitrogen and 20 percent carbon dioxide. A final set of bottles was left with Earth air.

Every few hours, the researchers removed some of the microbes with a hypodermic needle to count how many were alive. The microbes had replicated in every atmosphere tested, the team reports May 4 in Nature Astronomy, thriving most in ordinary Earth air.

In addition, E. coli in particular produced several gases that already are considered potential biosignatures, or signs of possible life, if found in other planets’ atmospheres, including ammonia, methanethiol and nitrous oxide (SN: 4/18/16).

“E. coli is such a simple organism, yet it produces an incredible array” of gases, says astrobiologist Giada Arney at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who was not involved in the experiments. “Knowing which gases can be produced by life is a necessary first step towards vetting them as possible detectable biosignatures on an exoplanet.”

But just seeking a hydrogen-rich atmosphere isn’t enough, says astrobiologist John Baross of the University of Washington in Seattle. A planet would also need to have the equivalent of the nutrient broth in the bottle for life to thrive — perhaps a liquid water ocean that exchanges chemicals with a rocky surface.

Astrobiologists plan to search for signs of alien life by looking at starlight filtering through exoplanets’ atmospheres (SN: 4/19/16). If life on a rocky planet’s surface emits telltale gases, future telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope could detect those emissions.

It’s not clear whether rocky planets with pure hydrogen atmospheres exist. Based on what’s known about how planets form, pure hydrogen atmospheres should be rare, says planetary scientist Daniel Koll of MIT, who was not involved in the new work.

[oupacademic]

World Space Week 2017

Life in space holds the fascination of many, evidenced by the sheer number of TV programmes, movies, books, and games that allow us to imagine what it would be like. But is this even a remote possibility? Space exploration has really taken off in the last couple of decades to answer just this question.

This week, 4-10 October, we’ve been celebrating World Space Week. We’ve uncovered some mind-bending facts about the exploration of new worlds in space. Which fact do you think is most out of this world?

NASA’s space probe to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt has been en route for 4279 days. The New Horizons mission flew past Pluto in July 2015, collecting the first sets of data about this dwarf planet. The first features on the planet’s surface were named in September 2017.

More than half a million asteroids have been identified since the first one was discovered in 1801. A group of those on the asteroid belt contain large deposits of metals, which are currently being explored for metal mining opportunities.

Earth-sized swirling storms at the poles of Jupiter were discovered on the Juno mission, which arrived at the planet in July 2016. It’s not yet sure whether these storms are dynamic or stable, and what affects they have on the rest of the atmosphere.

Mars is our biggest hope of extraterrestrial settlements. Samples taken by the Curiosity Rover from the planet have suggested that it was similar to an early Earth, and that habitable environments existed about 3.5 billion years ago.

Stars similar to our Sun have orbiting habitable planets, as proven by the Kepler satellite, which identified its first Earth-sized planet in 2015.

Images: 1) Stanford Torus interior by Donald Davis for NASA. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. 2) Kepler186f-ArtistConcept by NASA Ames. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

[cocoonmatenrouopera]

Ayame's Blog, February 23, 2017 Translation: MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT! I've been crazy busy with recording, and wow, I haven't blogged at all. There were various interesting news stories during this time too, they flowed right in one ear and out the other, huh? Heart-Shaking Major Announcement Well, having to do with a band, we hear the words "major announcement" all over the place, but I'm talking about NASA's major announcement last night, that quietly made news in the world. Previously it was announced that there may be liquid water on Jupiter's moon, Europa. *Water on Europa article in English:https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-hubble-spots-possible-water-plumes-erupting-on-jupiters-moon-europa Now there's an announcement concerning Exosolar Planets. Personally I was expecting that they would announce there is a planet with an ocean, and this was pretty close. "We have found various planets on which the existence of life would be feasible, 'habitable planets.'" -yahoo news, sorae.jp Source: http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20170223-00010000-sorae_jp-sctch *English language article: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-telescope-reveals-largest-batch-of-earth-size-habitable-zone-planets-around It's about the range between the star (which would be the sun there) and the planets. The big idea from that is that water and conditions supporting life will exist in the proper temperature. The implication is that its likely there is life there, or an environment humankind could inhabit, or something like that, right? "Habitable zone" is the phrase we are starting to hear, circumstances that can support the existance of life, (spawning of life), these are the kind of words for the cosmic frontier. 39 Light-Years Away. Is That Close? Is That Far? "39 light-years away," they say that, but it doesn't really ping, does it? One "light year" is 9.5 billion kilometers. Nah, this doesn't ping. With humankind's technology right now, doing the simple calculation, it would take about 100,000 years, we can't just visit there casually, that's all I'm saying, y'know. 39 years at the speed of light, that is how long it would take for a super high powered electromagnetic wave to send an email from earth to over there, I'm saying it would take 39 years to be delivered. If there will be civilization over there, won't it take another 39 years to get the reply from your friends on earth, something like that? Saying it will take 78 years to exchange a message is definitely about right, the number becomes a little more real, huh? Discussing the size of the universe, 39 light-years is in our neighborhood. This clear and pretty winter season in Tokyo, you can see three big points, this Orion's Betelgeuse stands 642 light-years away, and how far is the famous Altair? it's 16 light years. By the way, there has been an announcement like this in the past. "A planet similar to earth was discovered circling the star nearest to our solar system. It is reported that there is a possiblity that water could exist on this rock. Researchers from a University in London, England announced it on August 25th in the British scientific journal 'Nature.' 8 countries are cooperating in the research..." Source: http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASJ8S4J2TJ8SULBJ003.html English language article: http://www.nature.com/news/earth-sized-planet-around-nearby-star-is-astronomy-dream-come-true-1.20445 This one is 4 light-years away, that's more in our neighborhood, right? Astronomy is progressing day by day, more and who knows what other new discoveries there will be, eh? I really wonder if they might announce the existance of extraterrestrials in my lifetime... http://ayano.me/archives/351

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Australian astronomers discover potentially habitable planet

The candidate planet, named HD 137010 b, was identified by an international team led by University of South...

By: Emily Bennett

Published: Jan 29, 2026

Australian astronomers have discovered a potentially habitable planet 150 light years away.

The candidate planet, named HD 137010 b, was identified by an international team led by University of Southern Queensland researcher Dr Alexander Venner using data from NASA's Kepler extended K2 mission captured in 2017.

The new planet is estimated to be only six per cent larger than Earth, with a surface temperature more similar to Mars, potentially below -70 degrees.

[ The candidate planet, named HD 137010 b, was identified by an international team led by University of Southern Queensland researcher Dr Alexander Venner. ]

The findings were published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The study found the candidate planet is located near the outer edge of the habitable zone, where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface.

HD 137010 b was spotted when it briefly crossed in front of its star during three months of Kepler observations.

[ The new planet is estimated to be only six per cent larger than Earth, with a surface temperature more similar to Mars potentially below -70 degrees. ]

The candidate planet left only the faintest trace, clue was detected by a team of amateur citizen scientists including Venner.

"I contributed to this citizen science project called Planet Hunters back when I was in secondary school, and it was a big part of how I got into research," Venner said.

"It was an amazing experience to go back to this work and dig up such an important discovery."

University of Southern Queensland astrophysicist Dr Chelsea Huang, a co-author of the study and Venner's PhD supervisor, said to date most of the potential habitable planets were around small dim stars.

"This causes a problem because these planets are so close to the host star that they experience an extended period of high-energy radiation," Huang said.

"Scientists expect this high-energy radiation will blast the atmosphere away of this planet and make them inhabitable."

Huang said the team expects this new candidate planet will have more favourable conditions for habitability.

Venner said HD 137010 b was the first planet candidate with Earth-like properties to transit a Sun-like star bright enough for substantial follow-up observations.

"While current generations of astronomical instruments cannot fully characterise this newly discovered planet, it could become a prime target for future radial velocity instruments aiming to detect Earth analogues," he said.

"Future space missions designed to directly image Earth-like planets, like the NASA Habitable Worlds Observatory, may also be capable of capturing images of HD 137010 b."

[dyanamic]

Super-Earth: The Search for Alien Life Continues

Scientists are exploring Super-Earths for signs of alien life. Learn how these distant planets might support life and why they’re a key focu

Breaking discovery: Alien life found on a Super-Earth! Scientists uncover evidence of extraterrestrial organisms on a distant, habitable exoplanet. Explore the groundbreaking findings that could change our understanding of the universe.

[dyanamic]

 Breaking discovery: Alien life found on a Super-Earth! Scientists uncover evidence of extraterrestrial organisms on a distant, habitable exoplanet. Explore the groundbreaking findings that could change our understanding of the universe.