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How life might evolve with “exotic” biochemistry and solvents

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, September 18 (ANI): Scientists at a new interdisciplinary research group in Austria are working to uncover how life might evolve with “exotic” biochemistry and solvents, such as sulfuric acid instead of water.

The research group for Alternative Solvents as a Basis for Life Supporting Zones in (Exo-) Planetary Systems was established by the University of Vienna.

Traditionally, planets that might sustain life are looked for in the ‘habitable zone’, the region around a star in which Earth-like planets with carbon dioxide, water vapor and nitrogen atmospheres could maintain liquid water on their surfaces.

Consequently, scientists have been looking for biomarkers produced by extraterrestrial life with metabolisms resembling the terrestrial ones, where water is used as a solvent and the building blocks of life, amino acids, are based on carbon and oxygen.

However, these may not be the only conditions under which life could evolve.

“It is time to make a radical change in our present geocentric mindset for life as we know it on Earth,” said scientist Johannes Leitner.

“Even though this is the only kind of life we know, it cannot be ruled out that life forms have evolved somewhere that neither rely on water nor on a carbon and oxygen based metabolism,” he added.

One requirement for a life-supporting solvent is that it remains liquid over a large temperature range.

Water is liquid between 0 degree Celsius and 100 degrees C, but other solvents exist which are liquid over more than 200 degrees C.

Such a solvent would allow an ocean on a planet closer to the central star.

The reverse scenario is also possible. A liquid ocean of ammonia could exist much further from a star.

Furthermore, sulfuric acid can be found within the cloud layers of Venus and it is now known that lakes of methane/ethane cover parts of the surface of the Saturnian satellite Titan.

Consequently, the discussion on potential life and the best strategies for its detection is ongoing and not only limited to exoplanets and habitable zones.

The newly established research group at the University of Vienna, together with international collaborators, will investigate the properties of a range of solvents other than water, including their abundance in space, thermal and biochemical characteristics as well as their ability to support the origin and evolution of life supporting metabolisms. (ANI)

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Salt in ice plume on Enceladus points to presence of liquid ocean

May 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, April 30 (ANI): Scientists, studying measurements made by Cassini spacecraft, have found salt in the ice plumes that bloom above Saturn’s moon Enceladus, which suggest the presence of a liquid ocean on the satellite.

The Cassini spacecraft flew through a plume on October 9, 2008, and measured the molecular weight of chemicals in the ice.

According to a report in New Scientist, Frank Postberg of the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany, and colleagues, found traces of sodium in the form of salt and sodium bicarbonate.

The chemicals would have originated in the rocky core of Enceladus, so to reach a plume they must have leached from the core via liquid water.

Observations from Earth in 2007 spotted no sign of sodium, casting doubt on such a subsurface sea.

Although the salt could have been leached out by an ancient ocean which since froze solid, that freezing process would concentrate most of the salt very far from the surface of the moon’s ice, according to Julie Castillo of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

“It is easier to imagine that the salts are present in a liquid ocean below the surface,” she said. “That’s why this detection, if confirmed, is very important,” she added. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: ancient ocean, cassini spacecraft, freezing process, heidelberg germany, jet propulsion laboratory, julie castillo, Liquid Ocean, liquid water, max planck institute, max-planck, molecular weight of chemicals, moon enceladus, NASA, New Scientist, nuclear physics, pasadena california, plume, Rocky Core, Saturn Moon, sodium bicarbonate, surface of the moon

Most Earthlike planet yet found may have water and life

April 22, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 22 (ANI): In a new research, an astronomer has suggested that the most Earthlike planet yet found has conditions right for liquid water, and life as we know it.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the planet, known as Gliese 581d, has a lot more in common with Earth than astronomers first thought.

“New measurements of the planet’s orbit place it firmly in a region where conditions would be right for liquid water, and thus life as we know it,” said astronomer Michel Mayor, from Geneva University in Switzerland.

“It lies in the (life-supporting) habitable zone, and it could have an ocean at its surface,” he added.

First discovered in 2007, Gliese 581d was originally calculated to be too far away from its host star-and therefore too cold-to support an ocean.

But Mayor and colleagues now show that the extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, orbits its host in 66.8 days, putting it just inside the cool star’s habitable zone.

Gliese 581, a red dwarf star in the constellation Libra, lies around 20.5 light-years from Earth.

“In astronomical terms, it is one of our near neighbors, the 87th closest known star system to the sun,” said Carole Haswell, an astronomer at the Open University in Milton Keynes, U.K.

Since planets orbiting Gliese 581 are too far away to be seen directly, Mayor and colleagues originally spotted Gliese 581d by searching for tiny wobbles in the host star’s motion using the European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescope at La Silla in Chile.

Weighing in at around seven Earth masses, Gliese 581d is unlikely to be made of rocks alone, according to the team.

“We can only speculate at this stage, but it may have a rocky core, encased in an icy layer, with a liquid ocean at the surface and an atmosphere,” Mayor said.

“It is very exciting that such a promising candidate for an Earthlike planet has been found so close to us. It means there are likely to be many more when we search further,” said Norton’s colleague Haswell.

And the more Earthlike planets there are, the greater the chance of discovering one that harbors life.

“I think it is only a matter of time,” Norton said. “If life really does exist elsewhere in the universe, then within the next 10 to 15 years I expect we may see the first signs of life, via spectroscopic signals from exoplanets,” he added. (ANI)

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Salt in ice plume on Enceladus points to presence of liquid ocean

Most Earthlike planet yet found may have water and life

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