Lifeboat Foundation

If humans are ever going to live on the red planet, they’re going to have to bring bugs with them.

European astronomers, co-led by researchers from the Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven, used recent observations made with the James Webb Space Telescope to study the atmosphere of the nearby exoplanet WASP-107b. Peering deep into the fluffy atmosphere of WASP-107b they discovered not only water vapour and sulfur dioxide, but even silicate sand clouds. These particles reside within a dynamic atmosphere that exhibits vigorous transport of material.

Astronomers worldwide are harnessing the advanced capabilities of the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) aboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to conduct groundbreaking observations of exoplanets – planets orbiting stars other than our own Sun. One of these fascinating worlds is WASP-107b, a unique gaseous exoplanet that orbits a star slightly cooler and less massive than our Sun. The mass of the planet is similar to that of Neptune but its size is much larger than that of Neptune, almost approaching the size of Jupiter. This characteristic renders WASP-107b rather ‘fluffy’ when compared to the gas giant planets within our solar system. The fluffiness of this exoplanet enables astronomers to look roughly 50 times deeper into its atmosphere compared to the depth of exploration achieved for a solar-system giant like Jupiter.

The team of European astronomers took full advantage of the remarkable fluffiness of this exoplanet, enabling them to look deep into its atmosphere. This opportunity opened a window into unravelling the complex chemical composition of its atmosphere. The reason behind this is quite straightforward: the signals, or spectral features, are far more prominent in a less dense atmosphere compared to a more compact one. Their recent study, now published in Nature, reveals the presence of water vapour, sulfur dioxide (SO2), and silicate clouds, but notably, there is no trace of the greenhouse gas methane (CH4).

A Texas undergrad is investigating how to grow vegetables on Mars — and has cultivated test samples of English peas in simulated Martian soil, with fertilizer from fly larvae.

The contrast between the James Webb Space Telescope.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb) is an orbiting infrared observatory that will complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope. It covers longer wavelengths of light, with greatly improved sensitivity, allowing it to see inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today as well as looking further back in time to observe the first galaxies that formed in the early universe.

The James Webb and Hubble space telescopes have combined forces to image a cluster of galaxies 4.3 billion light-years away in one of the most colorful pictures of the universe ever taken.

Here’s an unusual fact that takes a bit of explaining. The center of the Earth is around two and a half years younger than the surface.

About 4.6 billion years ago, a hot cloud of dust orbiting the Sun coalesced and cooled. As it did so, the heavier elements formed the center of the Earth, while lighter elements formed the mantle, and the thin layer of crust formed on the surface. This all took place at the same time, with the minor caveat that Earth has accumulated more matter in the intervening years, including potentially from planet Theia, which may have formed the Moon and left mysterious structures deep within the Earth. And yet now the center is younger than the outer bits. How?

A team of physicists calculated this strange fact in 2016. The team was aware that in the 1960s theoretical physicist Richard Feynman gave a lecture in which he stated, according to the possibly erroneous transcription, that the center of the Earth is “one or two days” younger than the surface because of the time-dilating effects of gravity. The team write that they had seen this claim repeated without being checked, likely due to “proof by ethos”, where a scientist’s status is so high that their results and calculations aren’t questioned.

Part 2 ||||| You can find Part 1 here: https://youtu.be/aaf3Gwp_bfQ
Chapter list:
00:00:00 — (14) A Rabble In Arms 01
00:46:09 — (15) A Rabble In Arms 02
01:12:19 — (16) A Rabble In Arms 03
01:46:14 — (17) A Rabble In Arms 04
02:14:56 — (18) A Rabble In Arms 05
02:56:08 — (19) A Rabble In Arms 06
03:17:59 — (20) A Rabble In Arms 07
03:32:50 — (21) A Rabble In Arms 08
03:59:34 — (22) A Rabble In Arms 09
04:27:51 — (23) “Tanstaafl!” 01
04:39:45 — (24) “Tanstaafl!” 02
05:00:44 — (25) “Tanstaafl!” 03
05:27:54 — (26) “Tanstaafl!” 04
05:52:31 — (27) “Tanstaafl!” 05
06:14:53 — (28) “Tanstaafl!” 06
06:42:52 — (29) “Tanstaafl!” 07
06:48:24 — (30) “Tanstaafl!” 08

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“Luna is a twenty-first-century penal colony but, since no one can stand Earth gravity after being on the moon for a few weeks, all who are sent there must stay. When the liberated people rise against the authority, they receive unexpected help from a computer with a personality.“
Part 1 ||||| You can find Part 2 here: https://youtu.be/P1jI2Oh4-lo.
Chapter list:
00:00:00 — (i) Book info.
00:02:25 — (01) That Dinkum Thnkum 01
00:27:06 — (02) That Dinkum Thnkum 02
00:57:20 — (03) That Dinkum Thnkum 03
01:35:45 — (04) That Dinkum Thnkum 04
02:03:08 — (05) That Dinkum Thnkum 05
02:34:06 — (06) That Dinkum Thnkum 06
03:09:22 — (07) That Dinkum Thnkum 07
03:30:53 — (08) That Dinkum Thnkum 08
03:49:45 — (09) That Dinkum Thnkum 09
04:46:19 — (10) That Dinkum Thnkum 10
05:12:25 — (11) That Dinkum Thnkum 11
05:47:51 — (12) That Dinkum Thnkum 12
06:08:50 — (13) That Dinkum Thnkum 13

Like these books? Want to help?
These books come from the National Library Services.
I encourage you to donate:
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Basically on the pro side it could be something good to help earth but really if is on the bad side we probably want to cloak the earth with an invisibility cloak and force fields ideally so they don’t wipe us out.

An experiment aboard NASA’s Psyche mission achieved “first light” by sending and receiving its first deep-space laser communications from far beyond the moon.