Cidersomerset
30th September 2014, 17:28
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26 September 2014 Last updated at 10:56
Complex organic molecule found in interstellar space
By Michael Eyre Science reporter
Alma telescope
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77824000/jpg/_77824083_77824082.jpg
The scientists searched for the molecule deep in the Milky Way
Scientists have found the beginnings of life-bearing chemistry at the centre of the
galaxy.Iso-propyl cyanide has been detected in a star-forming cloud 27,000 light-
years from Earth.Its branched carbon structure is closer to the complex organic
molecules of life than any previous finding from interstellar space.
The discovery suggests the building blocks of life may be widespread throughout
our galaxy.Various organic molecules have previously been discovered in
interstellar space, but i-propyl cyanide is the first with a branched carbon backbone.
The branched structure is important as it shows that interstellar space could be the
origin of more complex branched molecules, such as amino acids, that are
necessary for life on Earth.
Dr Arnaud Belloche from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy is lead
author of the research, which appears in the journal Science.
"Amino acids on Earth are the building blocks of proteins, and proteins are very
important for life as we know it. The question in the background is: is there life
somewhere else in the galaxy?"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alma telescope to unlock secrets of the Universe
MBSY1AXPrUg
13 March 2013 Last updated at 13:27 Help
The Alma project, built in the Atacama Desert in Chile, officially opens on
Wednesday.The telescope is expected to help scientists unlock new information
about the Universe.
The BBC's Vladimir Hernandez reports.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21769926
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
continue.......
Watch the skies
The molecule was detected in a giant gas cloud called Sagittarius B2, an active
region of ongoing star formation in the centre of the Milky Way.As stars are born in
the cloud they heat up microscopic dust grains. Chemical reactions on the surface
of the dust allow complex molecules like i-propyl cyanide to form.The molecules
emit radiation that was detected as radio waves by twenty 12m telescopes at the
Atacama Large Millimeter Array (Alma) in Chile.
Each molecule produces a different "spectral fingerprint" of frequencies. "The game
consists in matching these frequencies… to molecules that have been characterised
in the laboratory," explained Dr Belloche.
"Our goal is to search for new complex organic molecules in the interstellar medium."
Previously discovered molecules in the Sagittarius B2 cloud include vinyl alcohol
and ethyl formate, the chemical that gives raspberries their flavour and rum its
smell.
But i-propyl cyanide is the largest and most complex organic molecule found to
date - and the only one to share the branched atomic backbone of amino acids.
"The idea is to know whether the elements that are necessary for life to occur… can
be found in other places in our galaxy."
Alma graphic
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77824000/jpg/_77824086_5fa1ffae-4eca-4f4d-9131-036a5e084938.jpg
Prof Matt Griffin, head of the school of physics and astronomy at Cardiff University,
commented on the discovery.
"It's clearly very high-quality data - a very emphatic detection with multiple
spectral signatures all seen together."
Prof Griffin added that the quantity of i-propyl cyanide detected is significant.
Molecule model
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77824000/jpg/_77824307_77824306.jpg
The molecule i-propyl cyanide has a branched backbone of carbon atoms
"There seems to be quite a lot of it, which would indicate that this more complex
organic structure is possibly very common, maybe even the norm, when it comes
to simple organic molecules in space.
"It's a step closer to discovering molecules that can be regarded as the building
blocks or the precursors… of amino acids."
The hope is that amino acids will eventually be detected outside our Solar
System. "That's what everyone would like to see," said Prof Griffin.
If amino acids are widespread throughout the galaxy, life may be also.
"So far we do not have the sensitivity to detect the signals from [amino acids]… in
the interstellar medium," explained Dr Belloche. "The interstellar chemistry seems
to be able to form these amino acids but at the moment we lack the evidence.
"Alma in the future may be able to do that, once the full capabilities are available."
Prof Griffin agreed this could be the first of many further discoveries from
the "fantastically sensitive and powerful" Alma facility.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29368984
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OQpSTrsN1vo
Published on 13 May 2014
ALMA and the Supercomputer - Episode 14 of Astronomy: Secrets of the Universe
Revealed Segment 1: All Systems Go for Highest Altitude Supercomputer [6:33]
One of the most powerful supercomputers in the world has now been fully installed
and tested at its remote, high altitude site in the Andes of northern Chile. This
marks one of the major remaining milestones toward completion of the Atacama
Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the most elaborate ground-based
telescope in history. The special-purpose ALMA correlator has over 134 million
processors and performs up to 17 quadrillion operations per second, a speed
comparable to the fastest general-purpose supercomputer in operation today.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
====================================================
HRTWEM-aaAU
Published on 24 Sep 2014
Observations of planet HAT-P-11b by the Hubble, Spitzer and Kepler Space
Telescopes were used to make the discovery. The planet is 120 light-years away in
the constellation of Cygnus.
Full Story: http://goo.gl/8h7zEP
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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24 September 2014 Last updated at 20:21
Clear skies reveal water on distant Neptune-sized planet
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77796000/jpg/_77796716_r4200090-neptune-spl.jpg
Artwork Neptune Artwork: The exoplanet HAT-P-11b is four times the size of Earth,
or about the same size as Neptune
A cloud-free atmosphere has allowed scientists to pick out signs of water vapour on
a distant planet the size of Neptune: the smallest "exoplanet" ever to reveal its
chemical composition.Previously, only larger, Jupiter-like giants have been studied
in this way.Working with three space telescopes, astronomers deduced the
of water by measuring the colours of light the planet absorbed when it
passed in front of its star.
The find appears in the journal Nature.
It was made by a team of researchers led from the University of Maryland, US.
The planet, designated HAT P-11b, orbits a sun in the constellation Cygnus some
124 light-years - about a quadrillion kilometres - from Earth. It is roughly four
times the width of our home world.
The scientists studied the planet's atmosphere with the aid of the US space
agency's Hubble, Spitzer and Kepler telescopes.Their observations were also greatly
assisted by there being no clouds on HAT P-11b, which would otherwise have
frustrated their attempts to probe its gaseous envelope.The team determined that
the far-off world's atmosphere contained about 90% hydrogen, but also significant
quantities of water vapour as well.
Commenting on the findings, Dr Eliza Kempton from Grinnell College, Iowa, said
the Maryland group had taken another important step in the study of exoplanets -
planets beyond our Solar System.
"Astronomers have detected water vapour in the atmospheres of larger planets -
planets that are closer in size to Jupiter. But you can imagine that eventually we
want to be able to detect molecules in the atmospheres of even smaller planets.
"We'd like to be able to look at an Earth-sized planet and measure its gaseous
composition. So this is a step on the ladder; we're stepping down the ladder
towards smaller and smaller planets," she told this week's Science In Action
programme on the BBC World Service.
Water has obvious implications for life, although HAT P-11b is too close to its star -
and therefore too hot - to be habitable.But in the future study of Earth-sized
exoplanets, the presence of water will be an important consideration as scientists
search for biology elsewhere in our galaxy.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77803000/jpg/_77803831_c10fae0c-b540-4fa2-a508-d8eaf2fd4386.jpg
Artwork of transit Artwork: A planetary atmosphere's composition is revealed by the light it absorbs from the background
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29343987
26 September 2014 Last updated at 10:56
Complex organic molecule found in interstellar space
By Michael Eyre Science reporter
Alma telescope
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77824000/jpg/_77824083_77824082.jpg
The scientists searched for the molecule deep in the Milky Way
Scientists have found the beginnings of life-bearing chemistry at the centre of the
galaxy.Iso-propyl cyanide has been detected in a star-forming cloud 27,000 light-
years from Earth.Its branched carbon structure is closer to the complex organic
molecules of life than any previous finding from interstellar space.
The discovery suggests the building blocks of life may be widespread throughout
our galaxy.Various organic molecules have previously been discovered in
interstellar space, but i-propyl cyanide is the first with a branched carbon backbone.
The branched structure is important as it shows that interstellar space could be the
origin of more complex branched molecules, such as amino acids, that are
necessary for life on Earth.
Dr Arnaud Belloche from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy is lead
author of the research, which appears in the journal Science.
"Amino acids on Earth are the building blocks of proteins, and proteins are very
important for life as we know it. The question in the background is: is there life
somewhere else in the galaxy?"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alma telescope to unlock secrets of the Universe
MBSY1AXPrUg
13 March 2013 Last updated at 13:27 Help
The Alma project, built in the Atacama Desert in Chile, officially opens on
Wednesday.The telescope is expected to help scientists unlock new information
about the Universe.
The BBC's Vladimir Hernandez reports.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21769926
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
continue.......
Watch the skies
The molecule was detected in a giant gas cloud called Sagittarius B2, an active
region of ongoing star formation in the centre of the Milky Way.As stars are born in
the cloud they heat up microscopic dust grains. Chemical reactions on the surface
of the dust allow complex molecules like i-propyl cyanide to form.The molecules
emit radiation that was detected as radio waves by twenty 12m telescopes at the
Atacama Large Millimeter Array (Alma) in Chile.
Each molecule produces a different "spectral fingerprint" of frequencies. "The game
consists in matching these frequencies… to molecules that have been characterised
in the laboratory," explained Dr Belloche.
"Our goal is to search for new complex organic molecules in the interstellar medium."
Previously discovered molecules in the Sagittarius B2 cloud include vinyl alcohol
and ethyl formate, the chemical that gives raspberries their flavour and rum its
smell.
But i-propyl cyanide is the largest and most complex organic molecule found to
date - and the only one to share the branched atomic backbone of amino acids.
"The idea is to know whether the elements that are necessary for life to occur… can
be found in other places in our galaxy."
Alma graphic
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77824000/jpg/_77824086_5fa1ffae-4eca-4f4d-9131-036a5e084938.jpg
Prof Matt Griffin, head of the school of physics and astronomy at Cardiff University,
commented on the discovery.
"It's clearly very high-quality data - a very emphatic detection with multiple
spectral signatures all seen together."
Prof Griffin added that the quantity of i-propyl cyanide detected is significant.
Molecule model
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77824000/jpg/_77824307_77824306.jpg
The molecule i-propyl cyanide has a branched backbone of carbon atoms
"There seems to be quite a lot of it, which would indicate that this more complex
organic structure is possibly very common, maybe even the norm, when it comes
to simple organic molecules in space.
"It's a step closer to discovering molecules that can be regarded as the building
blocks or the precursors… of amino acids."
The hope is that amino acids will eventually be detected outside our Solar
System. "That's what everyone would like to see," said Prof Griffin.
If amino acids are widespread throughout the galaxy, life may be also.
"So far we do not have the sensitivity to detect the signals from [amino acids]… in
the interstellar medium," explained Dr Belloche. "The interstellar chemistry seems
to be able to form these amino acids but at the moment we lack the evidence.
"Alma in the future may be able to do that, once the full capabilities are available."
Prof Griffin agreed this could be the first of many further discoveries from
the "fantastically sensitive and powerful" Alma facility.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29368984
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OQpSTrsN1vo
Published on 13 May 2014
ALMA and the Supercomputer - Episode 14 of Astronomy: Secrets of the Universe
Revealed Segment 1: All Systems Go for Highest Altitude Supercomputer [6:33]
One of the most powerful supercomputers in the world has now been fully installed
and tested at its remote, high altitude site in the Andes of northern Chile. This
marks one of the major remaining milestones toward completion of the Atacama
Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the most elaborate ground-based
telescope in history. The special-purpose ALMA correlator has over 134 million
processors and performs up to 17 quadrillion operations per second, a speed
comparable to the fastest general-purpose supercomputer in operation today.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
====================================================
HRTWEM-aaAU
Published on 24 Sep 2014
Observations of planet HAT-P-11b by the Hubble, Spitzer and Kepler Space
Telescopes were used to make the discovery. The planet is 120 light-years away in
the constellation of Cygnus.
Full Story: http://goo.gl/8h7zEP
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://static.bbci.co.uk/frameworks/barlesque/2.72.2/desktop/3.5/img/blq-blocks_grey_alpha.png
24 September 2014 Last updated at 20:21
Clear skies reveal water on distant Neptune-sized planet
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77796000/jpg/_77796716_r4200090-neptune-spl.jpg
Artwork Neptune Artwork: The exoplanet HAT-P-11b is four times the size of Earth,
or about the same size as Neptune
A cloud-free atmosphere has allowed scientists to pick out signs of water vapour on
a distant planet the size of Neptune: the smallest "exoplanet" ever to reveal its
chemical composition.Previously, only larger, Jupiter-like giants have been studied
in this way.Working with three space telescopes, astronomers deduced the
of water by measuring the colours of light the planet absorbed when it
passed in front of its star.
The find appears in the journal Nature.
It was made by a team of researchers led from the University of Maryland, US.
The planet, designated HAT P-11b, orbits a sun in the constellation Cygnus some
124 light-years - about a quadrillion kilometres - from Earth. It is roughly four
times the width of our home world.
The scientists studied the planet's atmosphere with the aid of the US space
agency's Hubble, Spitzer and Kepler telescopes.Their observations were also greatly
assisted by there being no clouds on HAT P-11b, which would otherwise have
frustrated their attempts to probe its gaseous envelope.The team determined that
the far-off world's atmosphere contained about 90% hydrogen, but also significant
quantities of water vapour as well.
Commenting on the findings, Dr Eliza Kempton from Grinnell College, Iowa, said
the Maryland group had taken another important step in the study of exoplanets -
planets beyond our Solar System.
"Astronomers have detected water vapour in the atmospheres of larger planets -
planets that are closer in size to Jupiter. But you can imagine that eventually we
want to be able to detect molecules in the atmospheres of even smaller planets.
"We'd like to be able to look at an Earth-sized planet and measure its gaseous
composition. So this is a step on the ladder; we're stepping down the ladder
towards smaller and smaller planets," she told this week's Science In Action
programme on the BBC World Service.
Water has obvious implications for life, although HAT P-11b is too close to its star -
and therefore too hot - to be habitable.But in the future study of Earth-sized
exoplanets, the presence of water will be an important consideration as scientists
search for biology elsewhere in our galaxy.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77803000/jpg/_77803831_c10fae0c-b540-4fa2-a508-d8eaf2fd4386.jpg
Artwork of transit Artwork: A planetary atmosphere's composition is revealed by the light it absorbs from the background
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29343987