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Tag: Planets

  • A new Study Suggests that Planets Lacking Water May Still Be Capable of Generating Certain Liquids

    A new Study Suggests that Planets Lacking Water May Still Be Capable of Generating Certain Liquids

    Image Credits: Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT

    While water is vital for life on Earth, scientists have long assumed it’s also essential for life elsewhere. This belief has shaped decades of thinking about planetary habitability.

    However, the factors that make a planet habitable may have little to do with water. In fact, life could potentially exist in environments where water is scarce, sustained by an entirely different type of liquid. According to a new MIT study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one such candidate is an ionic liquid — a salt that remains liquid below about 100 °C.

    In lab tests, researchers created ionic liquids by combining sulfuric acid with certain nitrogen-containing organic molecules. On rocky planets, sulfuric acid could result from volcanic activity, and nitrogen-based compounds — already found on asteroids and planets in our solar system — may also occur in other planetary systems. This suggests that such liquids could form naturally on worlds far different from Earth.

    Potential for Life in Extreme, Waterless Environments

    Ionic liquids have extremely low vapor pressure, meaning they don’t evaporate, and can exist at higher temperatures and lower pressures than liquid water can withstand. Researchers note that these fluids can provide a stable environment for certain biomolecules, such as proteins that remain intact within them.

    The team suggests that even on planets too hot or with atmospheres too thin for liquid water, pockets of ionic liquid could still exist. And where liquid is present, there may be potential for life — though likely very different from Earth’s water-based organisms.

    “We think of water as essential for life because it’s necessary for life on Earth,” says study lead Rachana Agrawal, a former MIT postdoc in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. “But if we broaden the definition, what’s truly required is a liquid that can support metabolism. Including ionic liquids in that definition could vastly expand the potential habitability zones for rocky planets.”

    The MIT co-authors of the study include Sara Seager, Class of 1941 Professor of Planetary Sciences in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, who also holds appointments in the Departments of Physics and Aeronautics and Astronautics, along with Iaroslav Iakubivskyi, Weston Buchanan, Ana Glidden, and Jingcheng Huang. Other contributors are Maxwell Seager from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, William Bains from Cardiff University, and Janusz Petkowski from Wroclaw University of Science and Technology in Poland.

    A Fluid Breakthrough

    The team’s exploration of ionic liquids began as part of their search for potential life on Venus, a planet shrouded in thick, toxic clouds of sulfuric acid. While harsh, these clouds could still harbor traces of life — an idea that upcoming atmospheric missions aim to investigate.

    Agrawal and Seager, who leads the Morning Star Missions to Venus, were studying methods to collect and evaporate sulfuric acid. Any samples brought back from Venus’ clouds would need the acid removed to detect leftover organic compounds that might indicate life.

    Using a custom low-pressure setup designed to evaporate excess sulfuric acid, they tested a mixture of the acid and the organic molecule glycine. In every trial, most of the sulfuric acid boiled away, but a persistent layer of liquid remained. They discovered that sulfuric acid was chemically reacting with glycine, transferring hydrogen atoms to it. This reaction produced a salt-based fluid — an ionic liquid — that stayed liquid under a wide range of temperatures and pressures.

    This unexpected discovery sparked a new question: Could ionic liquids naturally form on planets that are too hot and have atmospheres too thin for water to survive?

    “From there, we began imagining the possibilities,” Agrawal says. “On Earth, volcanoes produce sulfuric acid, and organic compounds have been detected on asteroids and other planetary bodies. That made us wonder whether ionic liquids might also form and persist on exoplanets.”

    Stony Havens

    On Earth, ionic liquids are mostly created for industrial applications and rarely occur naturally — with the sole known exception being a case where they form from the interaction of venoms produced by two competing ant species.

    The researchers aimed to determine the natural conditions under which ionic liquids could form, as well as the temperature and pressure ranges in which they could persist. In lab experiments, they combined sulfuric acid with various nitrogen-based organic compounds. Previous studies by Seager’s team showed that sulfuric acid can unexpectedly preserve some of these compounds, which link to life’s chemistry.

    “In high school, you learn that acids like to give up protons,” Seager explains. “From our earlier work with sulfuric acid (the primary component of Venus’ clouds) and nitrogen-based compounds, we also knew that nitrogen tends to take up hydrogen. It’s a bit like one person’s trash becoming another’s treasure.”

    Ionic Liquids Form Easily Under Diverse Conditions

    The researchers discovered that a small amount of ionic liquid could form when sulfuric acid and nitrogen-based organics were mixed in a one-to-one ratio — a proportion not examined in earlier studies. For this new work, Seager and Agrawal combined sulfuric acid with more than 30 different nitrogen-containing organic compounds under various temperatures and pressures, then evaporated the sulfuric acid from the mixtures to see if ionic liquid remained. They also tested the reaction directly on basalt rocks, which are common on the surfaces of many rocky planets.

    “We were amazed by how often the ionic liquid formed,” Seager says. “When we placed sulfuric acid and the organic compound on rock, the extra acid seeped into the pores, but a droplet of ionic liquid still remained on the surface. No matter what we tried, it kept forming.”

    Ionic Liquids Can Form in Extreme Heat and Low Pressure

    The experiments showed that ionic liquid could form at temperatures as high as 180 °C and under very low pressures — far below Earth’s atmospheric pressure. These findings indicate that, given the right conditions, ionic liquids could naturally arise on planets where liquid water cannot survive.

    “We imagine a planet hotter than Earth, without water, that at some point — past or present — contained sulfuric acid from volcanic outgassing,” Seager says. “That acid would need to come into contact with a small patch of organic material, and organic deposits are quite common throughout the solar system.”

    She explains that the resulting pools of liquid could persist on the planet’s surface for years or even millennia, potentially acting as tiny refuges for simple forms of life based on ionic liquids. Seager’s team now plans to explore what biomolecules and other life-related ingredients could survive — and possibly flourish — in such environments.

    Read the original article on: MIT

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  • Sunken Continents Could Unbalance Earth’s Magnetic Field

    Sunken Continents Could Unbalance Earth’s Magnetic Field

    Credit: Depositphotos

    Structures the size of continents, protruding from the lower mantle towards Earth’s outer core, may be contributing to an instability in our planet’s magnetic field.

    Initial Assumptions About Similarity

    These two formations, one beneath the Pacific and the other under Africa, have similar characteristics in terms of seismic waves, leading scientists to initially believe they had the same composition.

    However, James Panton, a geodynamicist at Cardiff University, and his team came to a different conclusion, discovering that the two regions are made up of distinct materials and have different geological histories. If confirmed, this could affect heat flow and convection deep within the Earth in ways that could influence how the planet generates its magnetosphere.

    Up to 900 kilometers in height and thousands of kilometers wide, these “large low-velocity provinces” have puzzled scientists since they were identified by seismic data in the 1980s. Subsequent research suggested that they are, in part, composed of ancient oceanic crust.

    The Fascinating Link Between Plate Movements and Deep Structures

    “It is fascinating to see the connection between the movements of plates on the Earth’s surface and structures 3000 kilometers deep,” says Paula Koelemeijer, a seismologist at the University of Oxford.

    The layers of Earth’s internal structures. (Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library/Getty Images)

    Over millions of years, the natural cycling of crust has mixed what was once Earth’s surface deep into the mantle. The resulting composition now covers up to 30% of the core, slowing down the seismic waves used by geologists to study Earth’s inner structure.

    “Our models of mantle circulation over the past billion years show that large low-velocity provinces can naturally develop as a result of recycling oceanic crust,” write Panton and his team, countering competing theories that the anomalies arose from the collision with Earth around 4.5 billion years ago, which led to the Moon’s formation.

    The structure in the Pacific appears to contain 50% more fresh oceanic crust mixed in than the African province, resulting in a greater compositional difference between the Pacific province and the surrounding mantle, as well as a notable difference in its density.

    Impact of Subduction on the Pacific Province

    Panton says, “We find that subducted oceanic crust enriches the Pacific large low-velocity province, suggesting that Earth’s recent subduction history drives this difference.”

    The geologically active Pacific Ring of Fire has consistently replenished crust material, the researchers suspect.

    The proposed processes sustaining the Pacific and African mantle anomalies over the past 300 million years. Orange arrows indicate the flow of materials, green indicates fresher material, and yellow indicates older, more mixed material. (Panton et al., Scientific Reports, 2025)

    In contrast, the geological activity around the African structure is lower, so the older crust there has mixed more thoroughly, making this structure less dense.

    “The fact that these two large low-velocity provinces differ in composition but not in temperature is key to the story and explains why they appear similar seismically,” explains Koelemeijer.

    The different temperatures of these two structures, compared to their surrounding regions, impact how heat dissipates from Earth’s core, which in turn affects convection in the core that drives the planet’s magnetic field.

    The researchers suspect that, since these two mantle structures are not allowing the core’s heat to escape evenly on both sides of the planet, they may be contributing to an imbalance in the magnetic field that supports life in our atmosphere.

    Earth’s magnetic field shields us from the bulk of the harmful solar particles. (buradaki/iStock/Getty Images)

    Africa’s Role in Magnetic Field Weakening

    The weakening of the nearby magnetic field has already been linked to Africa’s large low-velocity province.

    To better understand the impacts of this deep-Earth asymmetry, the researchers need more data, such as observations of Earth’s gravitational field.

    Read the original article on: Science Alert

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  • A Unique Alignment of 7 Planets Will Soon Grace the Sky

    A Unique Alignment of 7 Planets Will Soon Grace the Sky

    A rare celestial spectacle is set to illuminate Earth’s night skies. On the evening of February 28, 2025, all seven other planets in the Solar System—Saturn, Mercury, Neptune, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter, and Mars—will align in a striking row. This breathtaking event, known as a great planetary alignment, promises a stunning visual treat.
    Credit: Pixabay

    A rare celestial spectacle is set to illuminate Earth’s night skies. On the evening of February 28, 2025, all seven other planets in the Solar System—Saturn, Mercury, Neptune, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter, and Mars—will align in a striking row. This breathtaking event, known as a great planetary alignment, promises a stunning visual treat.

    Six Planets Align in January 2025

    That’s not the only exciting event. On January 21, 2025, six of the seven other planets—Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Venus, and Saturn—will align in the sky, with Mercury being the only one not included in this grand display.

    An illustration of the upcoming January planetary alignment as seen from the Northern Hemisphere. (Star Walk)

    While it’s not unusual for a few planets to be on the same side of the Sun at the same time, it’s far rarer for most, or all, of the planets to align.

    From Three to Six Planets

    An alignment involves anywhere from three to eight planets. When five or six planets line up, it’s considered a large alignment, with five-planet alignments being much more common than six-planet ones.

    Great alignments involving seven planets are, of course, the most infrequent.

    These alignments aren’t the perfectly ordered planetary arrangements often depicted in diagrams and illustrations of the Solar System. Unfortunately, such a formation doesn’t occur in reality.

    The planets do, however, seem to align along an invisible line.

    Why Planets Align

    This happens because the planets in the Solar System orbit the Sun on a flat plane known as the ecliptic. While some planets have orbits that are slightly tilted above or below this plane, they generally remain on the same level, much like grooves on a vinyl record, due to the way stars like our Sun are formed.

    A newborn star begins to spin, causing the surrounding cloud of material to swirl into a flat disk that feeds into the star at its equator.

    Planets develop from the remaining material in the disk, and if undisturbed by other gravitational forces, they will continue to orbit along that same plane.

    An illustration of the upcoming February planetary alignment as seen from the Northern Hemisphere. (Star Walk)

    Rare Planetary Alignments

    At times, the planets align on the same side of the Sun in their orbits, allowing us to observe them together in the sky. This will happen on the evenings of January 21 and February 28.

    Your ability to see the alignments, as well as the times the planets rise and set and their order, will depend on your location on Earth.

    There are resources available that can provide you with specific times and sky positions for your area.

    More details on the upcoming January planetary alignment. (StarWalk)

    Time and Date offers an interactive tool where you can select the date you wish to observe. It provides the rise and set times for each planet, their positions in the sky, and how easy or difficult they will be to spot.

    Stellarium offers a similar web tool that displays the positions of all the planets.

    Sky Tonight is a free mobile app that uses your phone’s sensors to determine your location and shows you the real-time positions of celestial objects on a map of the sky above. You can also find a list of other options here.

    To fully enjoy the view of the planets, you’ll need binoculars or a telescope, so if you haven’t already, start planning ahead. And be sure to hope for clear skies!

    Read the original article on: Science Alert

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  • Kepler Discovers a New System of 7 Planets

    Kepler Discovers a New System of 7 Planets

    Seven Sweltering Worlds – A Glimpse of the Kepler-385 System. Credit: NASA/Daniel Rutter

    NASA’s Kepler missions have concluded, but astronomers persist in refining their data, leading to remarkable discoveries in exoplanets. Among these findings is identifying the hottest seven-planet system, facilitated by meticulous data analysis.

    A Fiery Star at the Center: Kepler-385

    At the heart of this extraordinary system is Kepler-385, a star surpassing our Sun in size by approximately 10 percent and radiating a scorching heat that is 5 percent higher.

    In stark contrast to the expansive orbits in our own Solar System, these exoplanets hug their star, basking in an intense influx of light.

    Seven Planets nearby

    The first two exoplanets in this system have orbital periods of 10 and 15 days, respectively, and possess radii only slightly larger than Earth’s. These rocky worlds, if they include an atmosphere, likely have a thin one.

    The remaining five planets are more giant, falling short of being classified as giant planets. These super-Earths boast a radius twice that of our planet and are enveloped in a dense atmosphere.

    A Milestone in Exoplanet Research

    Professor Jason Rowe of Bishop’s University remarks, “Our revision to the Kepler Exoplanet catalog provides the first true uniform analysis of exoplanet properties. Improvements in characterizing planetary and stellar attributes have opened the door for an in-depth exploration of exoplanetary systems, allowing us to draw parallels with our Solar System and delve into the intricacies of specific systems like Kepler-385.”

    A Unique Planetary Arrangement

    All seven planets orbit well within the inner boundary of the habitable zone, yet they are too hot to sustain life as we know it. Nevertheless, astronomers are captivated by the planetary configuration of this septet.

    Notably, the innermost two and the outermost three planets exhibit a resonance in their orbits, with their rotational periods finely synchronized, yielding a captivating sonification.

    A Breakthrough in Orbital Understanding

    Professor Eric Ford from Penn State underscores the significance of this discovery, saying, “Our new result is a more direct and model-independent demonstration that systems with more transiting planets have more circular orbits.” This finding highlights the relationship between the number of transiting planets and orbital eccentricities.

    Kepler’s Enduring Legacy

    The catalog of planet candidates unveiled by Kepler remains unrivaled in its size and uniformity, representing a valuable resource for exoplanetary research. While current observatories continue to advance, these researchers emphasize that Kepler’s data remains the gold standard for investigating exoplanets.

    Jack Lissauer, a research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and lead author of the paper presenting the new catalog, sums it up, “We’ve assembled the most accurate list of Kepler planet candidates and their properties to date. NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered most known exoplanets, and this new catalog will enable astronomers to learn more about their characteristics.”

    Read the original article on IFL Science.

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  • Did life Exist on Mars or other Planets? AI could Reveal Soon

    Did life Exist on Mars or other Planets? AI could Reveal Soon

    Researchers have unearthed a straightforward and dependable method for detecting indications of past or present life on planets, a breakthrough often referred to as the ultimate goal of astrobiology.
    Credit: Pixaobay

    Researchers have unearthed a straightforward and dependable method for detecting indications of past or present life on planets, a breakthrough often referred to as the ultimate goal of astrobiology.

    In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of seven researchers has reported a groundbreaking development. Their artificial intelligence-based approach has shown a remarkable 90% accuracy in distinguishing between modern and ancient biological samples and those of non-biological origin. This achievement is often referred to as the holy grail of astrobiology.

    Dr. Hazen, a member of the team, has described this routine analytical method as a potential game-changer in the search for extraterrestrial life and our understanding of the origin and chemistry of early life on Earth. It paves the way for the deployment of intelligent sensors on robotic spacecraft, landers, and rovers, allowing for the detection of life signs before samples return to Earth.

    Unraveling Earth’s Ancient Rocks and Mars Exploration

    In the immediate term, this new test could shed light on the history of enigmatic ancient rocks on Earth, and it might even apply to samples already collected by the Mars Curiosity rover’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. The latter tests could be performed using an onboard analytical instrument known as “SAM” (Sample Analysis at Mars).

    Lead author Jim Cleaves from the Earth and Planets Laboratory at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, DC, emphasized the significance of this research. He highlighted three key takeaways: firstly, that biochemistry fundamentally differs from non-biological organic chemistry at a deep level; secondly, that it is possible to examine samples from Mars and ancient Earth to determine if they once hosted life; and thirdly, that this new method may be capable of distinguishing alternative biospheres from Earth’s, which has profound implications for future astrobiology missions.

    AI Detects Molecular Patterns

    The novel analytical method doesn’t rely solely on identifying specific molecules or compound groups within a sample. Instead, it utilizes artificial intelligence to detect subtle distinctions within a sample’s molecular patterns, as revealed by pyrolysis gas chromatography analysis (which separates and identifies a sample’s component parts) followed by mass spectrometry (which determines the molecular weights of those components).

    A team of researchers, utilizing vast multidimensional data from molecular analyses of 134 known carbon-rich samples, employed artificial intelligence (AI) to predict the origin of new samples. Remarkably, AI achieved an accuracy rate of approximately 90% in identifying the source of samples:

    1. Living organisms, such as modern shells, teeth, bones, insects, leaves, rice, human hair, and cells preserved in fine-grained rock.
    2. Remains of ancient life altered by geological processes (e.g., coal, oil, amber, and carbon-rich fossils).
    3. Samples with abiotic origins, such as pure laboratory chemicals (e.g., amino acids) and carbon-rich meteorites.

    This development has significant implications for astrobiology and our understanding of life’s origins. The method may be applied to detect life forms from different planets and biospheres, even if they differ substantially from Earth’s life. Additionally, the technique could differentiate recent biological samples from fossilized ones, offering new insights.

    AI is instrumental in discerning subtle distinctions within molecular patterns obtained through pyrolysis gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. These distinctions arise due to differences in water solubility, molecular weights, volatility, and other factors between biotic and abiotic samples. For example, living cells exhibit distinct water solubility properties compared to petroleum or coal.

    Unlocking Scientific Mysteries and Multidisciplinary Potential

    This innovative approach is poised to address scientific mysteries, including the biogenicity of ancient sediments and rocks on Earth. It may provide valuable insights into various fields such as biology, paleontology, and archaeology.

    The researchers are now considering how this approach could be used to examine the characteristics of ancient fossil cells, including the presence of nuclei or photosynthetic properties. Moreover, it could be applied to analyze charred remains and differentiate types of wood in archaeological contexts.

    This groundbreaking method has the potential to benefit astrobiology missions and enhance our understanding of life’s history on Earth and beyond. It may even be employed in future missions to Mars to investigate the possibility of life on the red planet.

    Leading experts in the field have hailed this research as an exciting and innovative avenue for astrobiology and the study of Earth’s early history. It opens up new possibilities for identifying life forms based on molecular complexity, without relying on specific biomolecules, which could be unique to Earth’s life.

    In conclusion, this AI-based method offers a promising tool for identifying life both on other planets and in Earth’s distant past, with broad applications and implications for astrobiology and related fields.

    Read the original article on: Phys Org

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