Image Compliments of Astronomy Today
The NASA Kepler Space Telescope was launched in 2009 to peer at an area of space as big as a hand extended at arms length. It's mission was to detect possible planets orbiting their host star by a detecting minute drop in light intensity as the planet passed in front of the star. The mission was a resounding success resulting in the discovery of over 4,000 exoplanets, some of which are present within the habitable zones around their stars and therefore can possibly contain life. The newest NASA telescope placed in orbit is called TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). It is designed to discover planets that pass in front of their host stars blocking small portion of the light normally emitted. TESS was put in orbit April 18, 2018 and is intended to replace the Kepler Telescope that is now out of service. TESS watches the stars in an area 400 times larger than the Kepler Telescope and when a planet passes in front of a star, the overall light emitted is dimmed.
We had a great trip Walleye Fishing on Lake Erie in early June. We were in the East end of Lake Erie hoping to get some early walleye as they migrate around the east end of the Lake from the American side. Every year the migration begins from Dunkirk, NY to the Niagara River mouth and to Pt. Abino.
Did you ever think of how humans compare in proportion to all other life on Earth? Here is a mind blowing comparison in chart form, compliments of VOX. As you can see, humans make up only 0.06 Gt of Carbon. However while humans represent only a small fraction of biomass on the Earth, we are reducing the rest of animal and plant life in staggering amounts. While plants still represent an overwhelming majority of the bio-matter, it is estimated that plant mass used to be approximately DOUBLE what it is today on Earth before humans started clearing forests for agriculture and human living. SOURCE-PNAS "The biomass Distribution on Earth".
Maddalena Environmental Inc. Al Maddalena The above image is compliments of NASA The 2017 NASA discovery of 7 exoplanets surrounding the Red Dwarf star, Trappist 1 is stunning and recent information from scientists indicates that the exoplanets do not have massive amounts of hydrogen. This based on a spectroscopic survey of the atmospheres on the exoplanets conducted by the Hubble space telescope. This means that they are not gas giants like Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. Ruling out these types of planets is the first level of scrutiny in evaluating new worlds for signs of life. As we understand life, it requires the following: -planets need to be present and orbiting consistently within the habitable zone of a stable star -planets need to be solid, with an stable atmosphere containing nitrogen and oxygen -planets need to have water present So far, the 6 out of exoplanets of Trappist 1 satisfy 3 of the 4 criteria above. All of the planets are closer to the Red Dwarf than Mercury is to our Sun, but the red star is not as hot as our Sun therefore NASA scientists believe it is possible for them to have water. Trappist -1 is only 4 light years from Earth and further studies by the James Webb Telescope will provide more detailed information on the atmospheres of these exoplanets very soon. As shown in the image below, the entire Trappist-1 solar system can fit within the orbit of Mercury of our solar system. Maddalena Environmental Inc.
Al Maddalena |