Bizarre Exoplanet Atmosphere: Pebble Rain, Molten Lava Lakes

It sounds rather hellish: a planet where clouds of pebbles rain down into lakes of molten lava. That’s what scientists think the atmosphere is like on a newly discovered exoplanet called COROT-7b, and it definitely makes even our worst storms here on Earth seem like a piece of cake.

COROT-7b was spotted last February by the COROT space telescope launched by French and European space agencies.

From Washington University News:

The peculiar atmosphere has its own singular weather. “As you go higher the atmosphere gets cooler and eventually you get saturated with different types of ‘rock’ the way you get saturated with water in the atmosphere of Earth,” explains Fegley. “But instead of a water cloud forming and then raining water droplets, you get a ‘rock cloud’ forming and it starts raining out little pebbles of different types of rock.”

Even more strangely, the kind of rock condensing out of the cloud depends on the altitude. The atmosphere works the same way as fractionating columns, the tall knobby columns that make petrochemical plants recognizable from afar. In a fractionating column, crude oil is boiled and its components condense out on a series of trays, with the heaviest one (with the highest boiling point) sulking at the bottom, and the lightest (and most volatile) rising to the top.

COROT-7b has an average density about the same as Earth’s, but it’s certainly nowhere near as hospitable. It’s 23 times closer to its star than Mercury is to our Sun and its star-facing side is hot enough to vaporize rocks.

You don’t even have to be a stoner to have have a “Whoooaaaa, duuuuude!” reaction to stuff like this. It’s sort of mind-blowing to ponder such things from the comfort of our own beautiful planet.

Link [Washington University News]
Photo credit: ESO/L Calcada

Mysterious Glow in the Sky was Astronaut Urine

A trail of light sparkled through the sky on Wednesday night, observed by some skygazers who marveled at its beauty. Was it a shooting star, or some other romantic celestial occurrence? No. It was astronaut piss.

Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery were merely dumping water and urine out into space in preparation for a landing attempt on Thursday. Poor weather forced them to postpone, but the Discovery safely landed in California on Friday.

From Space.com:

The light show Wednesday was aided by an unusually large amount of water being dumped all at once – about 150 pounds (68 kg), said NASA spokeswoman Kylie Clem. Discovery had just undocked from the International Space Station the day before, and had not been able to unload waste water during the 10-day visit.

“It would have been a large quantity because we don’t do water dumps while docked to the station now,” Clem told SPACE.com in an e-mail. “That is a fairly new restriction over the last couple of flights in order to prevent potential contamination of the Kibo module.”

The Kibo module is a new Japanese-built research lab on the space station that includes an external platform to expose science experiments to the space environment. Water dumps from a docked shuttle could potentially pollute the experiments.

So, why would dumping water cause a shimmering light trail in the sky? When astronauts dump waste water, it usually freezes into a cloud of tiny ice droplets. When the sun hits them, the ice turns into water vapor and disperses in space.

It’s probably safe to say that piss has never been so pretty.

Link [Space.com]
Photo credit: Painting by Scott Listfield via BOOOOOOOM; Inset: Space.com

UK Wind Turbine Destroyed, Locals Claim UFO Did It

A 290-foot turbine was mysteriously mangled overnight on Sunday near Louth in Linconshire, United Kingdom with local residents claiming to have seen an octopus-like UFO. Experts have ruled out most of the more believable explanations, like a meteor or lightning strike.

Dozens of people in the area say they saw bright flashing spheres in the sky that night, with one woman claiming that she saw an object fly near the wind farm. Others described the lights as being linked to ‘tentacles’.

From The Telegraph:

Dorothy Willows, who lives a mile and a half from the crash site, said: “The lights were moving across the sky towards the wind farm. Then I saw a low flying object. It was skimming across the sky towards the turbines.”

Later on Sunday night, one of a turbine’s 65ft blades was ripped off and another severely damaged.

The Health and Safety Executive described the damage as a “unique incident”, and the energy firm Ecotricity which owns the 20-turbine site say it has no explanation.

“We are struggling to find an answer, yes, and it has been quite interesting to read the reports in the press about what people have seen,” Dale Vince from the company told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme..

“It sounds unbelievable but actually we don’t have any explanation at the moment. Give us a few days and if there is a rational explanation we will find it.”

UFO enthusiasts are calling for testing on the damaged parts to uncover the cause of the collision, hoping to find evidence of an alien encounter. Others suspect that the turbine was damaged due to a buildup of ice on the blades.

Well, I think it’s obvious what happened here. Extraterrestrials are getting impatient that we haven’t destroyed ourselves yet, and wind turbines are evidence that we might be sticking around a while longer. So, they’re trying the nonviolent approach by helping us along. Bye bye wind turbines, bye bye human race.

Link [The Telegraph]
Photo credit: The Telegraph + The Daily Mail

Japan Will Monitor Greenhouse Gases from Space

Japan will begin monitoring greenhouse gases around the world via satellite starting later this month. Officials hope that the data collected will help combat climate change, particularly as the satellite gathers info for developing countries that are not currently tracking their own emissions.

From Yahoo News:

The Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT), to be launched on January 21, will enable scientists to calculate the density of carbon dioxide and methane from 56,000 locations on the Earth’s surface, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.

The coverage compares with just 282 land-based observation sites as of last October, said Takashi Hamazaki, manager of the 35 billion yen ($372.9 million) JAXA project.

Equipped with two sensors, GOSAT will track infrared rays from the Earth, which will help calculate the densities of the two greenhouse gases, because they absorb the rays at certain wavelengths.

The satellite will also pick up any sign of clouds, enabling it to process data only when the sky is clear.

GOSAT, set to be in orbit for five years, will collect data once a month, with preliminary data from the satellite expected to be ready for researchers in April or May.

This new greenhouse gas tracking program is part of an attempt by Japan to meet its 2008-2012 target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions and becoming more vocal in global talks about climate change. Japanese officials hope GOSAT’s data will will be reflected in a report by a UN panel of scientists due out in 2014.

It’s important to get an idea of the amounts of CO2 and other greenhouse gases being emitted by poor countries that aren’t currently paying much attention to such things, so this satellite project could be very big for the fight against global warming. It’s always encouraging to see more nations around the world dedicating themselves to taking this task seriously.

Link [Yahoo News]
Photo credit: NASA

Urine Recycler Finally Passes Astronauts’ Test

Astronauts on the Endeavor have been testing a $154 million water recycling system for a week now, and after a few days of problems with the machine shutting down intermittently, it’s finally working. The urine processor is brand-spanking-new technology that NASA hopes will help them solve the problem of water availability in space. They need to be able to convert astronauts’ urine and sweat into drinkable water in order to double the size of the space station crew to six next year.

From MSNBC:

By early Tuesday, the machine had run continuously for five hours, well past the intended mark. Additional testing was ongoing, and hopes were high that more than enough samples of processed urine would be returned to Earth aboard Endeavour for safety tests.

Space station skipper Mike Fincke, who had nursed the urine processor along, yelled “Yippee” when he learned it was finally doing its job.

“You have to remember that this is serial number zero-zero-one for a brand new technology which we’re testing out here on space station, so you can expect to have a few hiccups,” said astronaut Donald Pettit, who also worked on the contraption.

No one will drink the recycled water until it’s tested for safety back on Earth, but the Endeavor will return this weekend with six one-liter containers of recycled urine and condensation, more than originally expected.

This kind of technology isn’t just helpful up in space – it could revolutionize our ability to provide enough safe drinking water for the growing population. We’re going to need to get very clever about water conservation, and this is a great step forward.

Link [MSNBC]

“Oh, Great!” Astronaut Accidentally Litters in Space While Cleaning Solar Panel

A spacewalking astronaut clung to the outside of the International Space Station, trying to clean and lube a gummed-up solar panel. Just as she got started, a grease gun in her tool bag exploded, getting dark gray stuff all over her helmet camera and her gloves. The surprised woman, struggling to wipe herself off, accidentally let go of the backpack-sized bag. Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper watched helplessly as the tool bag floated off into space.

“Oh, great,” she mumbled.

It’s one of the largest items ever to be lost by a spacewalker – another piece of random junk floating around in space. Flight controllers are still assessing how the runaway tool bag might affect the next three planned spacewalks. Before the mishap, Stefanyshyn-Piper says she watched as a vagabond screw went floating by, too far away to catch.  The screw was not considered a serious hazard, but it sounds as if the bag might be.

Despite what she called a “hiccup”, Stefanyshyn-Piper finished her job by sharing tools with fellow spacewalker Stephen Bowen. The efforts to repair the solar panel were unprecedented – for more than a year, the jammed joint had been unable to automatically point the right-side solar wings toward the sun for maximum energy production.

Hey, we all know how hard it can be to hold onto things when lube is involved.

Via [The Independent]