Billions of habitable worlds lurking in Milky Way

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Hindustan Times: Our galaxy may be teeming with billions of habitable planets, which could have huge consequences on the search for extra-terrestrial life, according to a recent survey. Two Princeton researchers recently contemplated that we really might be alone in the universe, but the study of red dwarf stars in the Milky Way discovered nine super-Earths - and two in the ‘habitable zone’ where liquid water could exist.Red dwarf stars account for 80 per cent of the 200 to 400 billion stars in our galaxy and scientists now believe that 40 per cent of those might have a planet in the habitable zone, the Daily Mail reported. The news that the Milky Way may include billions of habitable planets has given California-based SETI institute - the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence scientists something to smile about “SETI is looking for Mr. Right or maybe Ms. Right, depending on your point of view. It helps to find 

Star V838 Monocerotis's (V838 Mon) light echo, which is about six light years in diameter, is seen from the Hubble space telescope in this in this February 2004 handout photo released by NASA. It became the brightest star in the Milky Way Galaxy in January 2002 when its outer surface greatly expanded suddenly. Reuters/File

out that there''s 10 times as many candidates as there were before,” SETI Senior Astronomer Seth Shostak said. However, Shostak has cautioned that because red dwarfs are comparatively dim, planets would need to orbit very close to them to get enough heat for life to grow, which would mean they’d receive potentially fatal doses of radiation. Protection may exist, though, in the form of a magnetic field around the planet – or large oceans, which would guard aquatic life. “We''re not sure intelligent life, if under water, will be building radio transmitters and we''re going to hear from them,’ Shostak said. “But it’s possible.” The revelation that the Milky Way may be packed with habitable planets came from an international team of star gazers led by Dr Xavier Bonfils, from Grenoble University in France. “Because red dwarfs are so common - there are about 160 billion of them in the Milky Way - this leads us to the astonishing result that there are tens of billions of these planets in our galaxy alone,” he said. The astronomers surveyed a cautiously chosen sample of 102 red dwarfs using the European Southern Observatory’s 3.6-metre telescope at La Silla, Chile. A total of nine super-Earths - planets with masses between one and 10 times that of Earth - were discovered. Two were situated within the habitable zones of the stars Gliese 581 and Gliese 667 C. These data were combined with other observations, including those of stars that did not have planets. The astronomers worked out that habitable zone super-Earths orbiting red dwarfs occurred with a frequency of nearly 41 per cent. On the other hand, massive planets, similar to Jupiter and Saturn, were rare around red dwarfs. Less than 12 per cent of the stars were expected to have such ‘gas giants’. As red dwarfs are common near the sun, many ‘super-Earths’ may not be far away in astronomical terms. The scientists have estimated that there could be about 100 habitable zone planets within 30 light years. The research has been published in the journal Astronomy ‘n’ Astrophysics. Source: Hindustan Times

Read More........→May 01, 2012

Next Yellowstone Caldera Super Eruption Predicted By Scientists

A thorough examination of tiny crystals of zircon, a mineral found in rhyolites, an igneous rock, from the Snake River Plain has solidified evidence for a new way of looking at the life cycle of super-volcanic eruptions in the long track of the Yellowstone hotspot, say University of Oregon scientists. The pattern emerging from new and previous research completed in the last five years under a National Science Foundation career award, said UO geologist Ilya N. Bindeman, is that another super-eruption from the still-alive Yellowstone volcanic field is less likely for the next few million years than previously thought (see related story, "Not in a million years, says Oregon geologist about Yellowstone eruption"). The last eruption 640,000 years ago created the Yellowstone Caldera and the Lava Creek Tuff in what is now Yellowstone National Park. University of Oregon geologist Ilya Bindeman, left, and graduate student Dana Drew, working in Bindeman's stable isotope laboratory say that the composition of zircon bits in igneous rocks in the Yellowstone hotspot track tell a new story on how super volcanoes recycle magma.

Credit: University of Oregon

The Yellowstone hotspot creates a conveyor belt style of volcanism because of the southwest migration of the North American plate at 2-4 centimeters (about .8 to 1.6 inches) annually over the last 16 million years of volcanism. Due to the movement of the North American plate, the plume interaction with the crust leaves footprints in the form of caldera clusters, in what is now the Snake River Plain, Bindeman

said. The Picabo volcanic field of southern Idaho, described in a new paper by a six-member team, was active between 10.4 and 6.6 million years ago and experienced at least three, and maybe as many as six, violent caldera-forming eruptions. The field has been difficult to assess, said lead author Dana Drew, a UO graduate student, because the calderas have been buried by as much as two kilometers of basalt since its eruption cycle died. The work at Picabo is detailed in a paper online ahead of publication in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The team theorized that basalt from the mantle plume, rocks from Earth's crust and previously erupted volcanoes are melted together to form the rhyolites erupted in the Snake River Plain. Before each eruption, rhyolite magma is stored in dispersed pockets throughout the upper crust, which are later mixed together, according to geochemical evidence. "We think that this batch-assembly process is an important part of caldera-forming eruptions, and generating rhyolites in general," Drew said. In reaching their conclusions, Drew and colleagues analyzed radiogenic and stable isotopic data -- specifically oxygen and hafnium -- in zircons detected in rhyolites found at the margins of the Picabo field and from a deep borehole. That data, in combination with whole rock geochemistry and zircon uranium-lead geochronology helped provide a framework to understand the region's ancient volcanic past. Previous research on the related Heise volcanic field east of Picabo yielded similar results. "There is a growing database of the geochemistry of rhyolites in the Yellowstone hotspot track," Drew said. "Adding Picabo provides a missing link in the database. Path of the Yellowstone hot spot over the past

16 million years Drew and colleagues, through their oxygen isotope analyses, identified a wide diversity of oxygen ratios occurring in erupted zircons near the end of the Picabo volcanic cycle. Such oxygen ratios are referred to as delta-O-18 signatures based on oxygen 18 levels relative to seawater. (Oxygen 18 contains eight protons and 10 neutrons; Oxygen 16, with eight protons and eight neutrons, is the most commonly found form of oxygen in nature) The approach provided a glimpse into the connection of surface and subsurface processes at a caldera cluster. The interaction of erupted rhyolite with groundwater and surface water causes hydrothermal alteration and the change in oxygen isotopes, thereby providing a

Rhyolite

fingerprinting tool for the level of hydrothermal alteration, Drew said. "Through the eruptive sequence, we begin to generate lower delta-O-18 signatures of the magmas and, with that, we also see a more diverse signature," Drew said. "By the time of the final eruption there is up to five per mil diversity in the signature recorded in the zircons." The team attributes these signatures to the mixing of diverse magma batches dispersed in the upper crust, which were formed by melting variably hydrothermally altered rocks -- thus diverse delta-O-18 -- after repeated formation of calderas and regional extension or stretching of the crust. When the pockets of melt are rapidly assembled, the process could be the trigger for caldera forming eruptions, Bindeman said. "That leads to a homogenized magma, but in a way that preserves these zircons of different signatures from the individual pockets of melt," he said. This research, he added, highlights the importance of using new micro-analytical isotopic techniques to relate geochemistry at the crystal-scale to processes occurring at the crustal-wide scale in generating and predicting large-volume rhyolitic eruptions. "This important research by Dr. Bindeman and his team demonstrates the enormous impact an NSF CAREER award can have," said Kimberly Andrews Espy, vice president for research and innovation and dean of the graduate school at the University of Oregon. "The five-year project is providing new insights into the eruption cycles of the Yellowstone hotspot and helping scientists to better predict future volcanic activity." Contacts and sources: Jim Barlow, University of Oregon. Source: Nano Patents And Innovations

Read More........→October 12, 2013

The incredible first pictures inside the £15-million Adastra super-yacht that can be controlled by an iPad

The Adastra superyacht is a floating pleasure palace that would fit as comfortably in outer space as it would on the open sea. And as these amazing new pictures show, SuperYatch is equipped to entertain a billionaire with even the highest of standards. She is the the new pet of Hong Kong-based shipping magnate Anto Marden, whose uses for her may include - among other things - gliding between the two

Main deck Area

tropical islands he already owns off the coast of Indonesia. Designed by Sussex-based yacht designer John Shuttleworth, the Adastra is so high-tech, it can even be controlled remotely at the touch of an iPad... as long as you don't get any further away than 50 metres. The yacht's high-concept, space-age look is no gimmick. The shape has been specially developed to cut through waves as it glides across the

high seas.Adastra was built in Zhuhai, China for a couple based in Hong Kong, at the cost of a cool $15 million Described as ‘one of the world's most amazing super yachts’, Adastra, unveiled yesterday in China, took five years to build, is 42.5 metres long, 16 metres wide and weighs 52 tons. Her enormous petrol tank coupled with her dynamic sailing efficiency allows the Adastra to travel up to 4,000 miles

Master Bedroom

without refuelling - the same distance from London to New York. ‘It  takes  the  power  trimaran  concept 

further than has ever been attempted before,’ Mr Shuttleworth told Boat International. ‘The challenge of turning this concept into a viable luxury yacht has taken us to further research and to develop new thinking on stability and comfort at sea for this type of craft.’ It is the result of five years of planning and construction, and rivals anything owned by yacht-lover Roman Abramovich. The hull of the Adastra is built from glass and Kevlar and can house nine guests and six crewmen. The deck saloon has a panoramic view while the opencockpit has sofas on both sides. The open deck running aft also has a door that hinges out to create a bathing platform. Boat International magazine said Adastra 'could spell the future for efficient long range cruising'. The yacht has an integrated ship monitoring system. Adastra is powered

Bathroom

by one Caterpillar C18 engine of 1150hp at 2300 rpm and has 2 Yanmar 110hp @ 3200 rpm outrigger engines. Adastra's 16-metre beam  features a saloon area on the main deck with a lounge area, dining table, and navigation station. The deck at the rear of the yacht has a sofa and bar area to port and a dining area to starboard. The main helm station, which has seating for two, is positioned in a raised pilot

house situated between the rear deck and the saloon area  and forms part of the cross beam structure. The Adastra is the latest in a long line of super yachts that compete to be the most high tech. Last year Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich bought a £300 million superyacht with

Kitchen

two swimming pools, two helipads, a gym, hair salon, dancefloor and submarine.Eclipse has plenty of room to entertain friends, with 15 double bedroom cabins all equipped with their own luxury bathrooms

Designers with Yatch

and 6ft wide television screens. Parties on the 533ft yacht are  guaranteed to stay private, as it’s fitted with an ‘anti-paparazzi shield’ that fires a laser beam of light at cameras to ruin photographs. The 20,000 sq ft interior also houses a sauna, steam bath and whirlpool to help guests wind down.It was commissioned by a billionaire businessman who already owns two islands off Indonesia. Source: Ananta-Tech

Read More........→November 10, 2012