Newfound Alien Planet Hot Enough to Melt Iron (SPACE.com)

Astronomers have found an alien planet not much bigger than Earth, but so blisteringly hot that life has no shot of gaining a foothold there.

The exoplanet, known as Kepler-21b, is just 1.6 times bigger than our home planet, making it a so-called "super Earth." But it orbits so close to its parent star that astronomers estimate its surface temperature to be about 2,960 degrees Fahrenheit (1,627 degrees Celsius) — hot enough to melt iron.

Researchers found Kepler-21b using NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope. Kepler spots alien worlds using what's called the "transit method," which looks for telltale dips in a star's brightness caused when a planet crosses in front of the star's face from Kepler's perspective, and blocks some of its light.

Astronomers then confirmed Kepler-21b with the help of telescopes at Arizona's Kitt Peak National Observatory.

Kepler-21b is located 352 light-years from Earth. Its mass is no more than 10 times that of our home planet, researchers said, but it sits just 3.7 million miles (6 million kilometers) from its host star and takes 2.8 days to complete one orbit. Earth, for comparison, zips around the sun at a distance of 93 million miles (150 million km).

Kepler-21b's parent star, known as HD 179070, is 1.3 times more massive than the sun. HD 179070 is a little hotter and brighter than our star, researchers said, and a little younger, too. Astronomers estimate its age at 2.84 billion years, compared to 4.6 billion years for the sun.

HD 179070 cannot be seen by the unaided eye, but a small telescope can easily pick it out, researchers said.

Since its launch in March 2009, the $600 million Kepler spacecraft has identified 1,235 alien planet candidates. Kepler-21b is just the 26th of these to be confirmed by follow-up observations, but Kepler scientists have estimated that at least 80 percent of the instrument's finds will end up being the real deal.

If that turns out to be the case, Kepler's discoveries will more than double the number of known alien planets, which currently stands at about 700. Astronomers think our Milky Way galaxy likely harbors billions of alien planets, though most are so far away that they'll be difficult for us to detect.

Researchers report the discovery of Kepler-21b in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

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Astronomers Discover 18 Huge New Alien Planets (SPACE.com)

Astronomers have found 18 new alien planets, all of them Jupiter-size gas giants that circle stars bigger than our sun, a new study reports.

The discoveries increase the number of known planets orbiting massive stars by 50 percent. The exoplanet bounty should also help astronomers better understand how giant planets form and grow in nascent alien solar systems, researchers said.

The haul comes just a few months after a different team of researchers announced the discovery of 50 newfound alien worlds, including one rocky planet that could be a good candidate for life. The list of known alien planets is now well over 700 and climbing fast.

Staring at 'retired' stars

The researchers surveyed about 300 stars using the Keck Observatory in Hawaii and instruments in Texas and Arizona. They focused on so-called "retired" type A stars that are at least 1.5 times more massive than our own sun.

These stars are just beyond the main stage of life — hence the name "retired" — and are now ballooning out to become what's known as subgiant stars.

The team scrutinized these stars, looking for slight wobbles caused by the gravitational tug of orbiting planets. This process revealed 18 new alien worlds, all of them with masses similar to Jupiter's. All 18 planets also orbit relatively far from their stars, at a distance of at least 0.7 times the span from Earth to the sun (about 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers). [Gallery: The Strangest Alien Planets]

Planet-formation theories

In addition to boosting the ever-growing alien planet tally, the new finds lend support to one of two theories that attempt to explain the formation and evolution of planets, researchers said.

This theory, called core accretion, posits that planets grow as gas and dust glom onto seed particles in a protoplanetary disk. Core accretion predicts that the characteristics of a planetary system — the number and size of planets, for example — depend strongly on the mass of the star.

The main competing theory, called gravitational collapse, holds that planets form when big clouds of gas and dust in the disk spontaneously collapse into clumps that become planets. According to this idea, stellar mass should have little impact on planet size, number and other characteristics.

As the exoplanet finds pile up, it seems that stellar mass does in fact play an important role. The 18 huge newfound alien worlds, which all orbit massive stars, add more evidence in support of core accretion, researchers said.

"It's nice to see all these converging lines of evidence pointing toward one class of formation mechanisms," study lead author John Johnson, of Caltech in Pasadena, said in a statement.

Johnson and his colleagues reported their results in the December issue of the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.

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Whales win, walruses lose in warmer Arctic: report

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON | Fri Dec 2, 2011 8:09am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Arctic zone has moved into a warmer, greener "new normal" phase, which means less habitat for polar bears and more access for development, an international scientific team reported on Thursday.

Arctic air temperatures were higher - about 2.5 degrees F (1.5 degrees C) higher in 2011 than the baseline number for the previous 30 years - and there was a dramatic loss of sea ice and glacier mass, the scientists said in a telephone briefing.

With less bright ice to reflect sunlight, and more dark open water to absorb it, the Arctic's changed characteristics are likely to feed on each other and accelerate, specialists from 14 countries said in an annual assessment called the Arctic Report Card. (here)

"We've got a new normal," said Don Perovich, an expert on sea ice at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Cold Regions Research & Engineering Laboratory in New Hampshire.

"Whether it's a tipping point and it will never recover, who can say? But we have a new normal ... that has implications not just for the ice but other components of the Arctic system."

The turning point for the Arctic came in 2006, when persistent weather patterns pushed sea ice out of the Arctic, setting the stage for 2007, when Arctic ice extent - the area of the ocean covered by ice at summer's end - dropped to its lowest level ever. In 2011, Arctic sea ice reached its second-lowest extent.

Released as U.N. climate talks proceed in Durban, South Africa, the Arctic report found significant changes in atmospheric, sea ice and ocean conditions, and in land-based ice including glaciers, while marine and terrestrial ecosystems were also changed by the Arctic warming trend.

The Arctic acts as Earth's "air conditioner" and also as a potent global weather-maker. As a result, sweeping changes there influence life across the planet. The report found that even as the Arctic warmed, a shift in weather patterns sent cold Arctic air as far south as the United States and densely populated parts of northern Europe.

INCREASING DEMANDS ON ARCTIC RESOURCES

With less sea ice to clog potential shipping lanes, development in the Arctic is likely, said Monica Medina of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She suggested that this report and others could help "prepare for increasing demands on Arctic resources" as warming makes these resources more available.

The Arctic "new normal" means oil and gas companies and tourists can begin to expect routine access to the area, according to report co-author Jackie Richter-Menge of the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.

The new warmth in the Arctic means more tundra vegetation, with taller shrubs winning out over lower-lying moss and lichens, which could in turn affect caribou and reindeer.

The loss of sea ice cuts into the habitat of polar bears and walruses, which use ice floes as hunting platforms, the scientists said.

Whales were winners, especially those that migrate from temperate areas, because they could stay for longer periods in the Arctic while the water there was open in the summer. Populations of tagged bowhead whales from Alaska and west Greenland were able to mingle in the Northwest Passage, which until this century was blocked by ice.

At the base of the marine food chain, biological productivity soared by 20 percent between 1998 and 2009 as more sunlight penetrates increasingly open Arctic water, the scientists said.

Open Arctic water also absorbs climate-warming carbon dioxide, but that has made the Beaufort and Chukchi seas more acidic, which could erode the shells of some shellfish.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

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Mayans never predicted world to end in 2012: experts

A general view shows the exterior of the tomb of a Mayan ruler at the ruins of the Mayan city of Palenque in the hills of the southern Mexican state of Chiapas in this undated handout photo by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) released June 23, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/INAH/Handout

By Pepe Cortes

PALENQUE, Mexico | Fri Dec 2, 2011 10:06am EST

PALENQUE, Mexico (Reuters) - If you are worried the world will end next year based on the Mayan calendar, relax: the end of time is still far off.

So say Mayan experts who want to dispel any belief that the ancient Mayans predicted a world apocalypse next year.

The Mayan calendar marks the end of a 5,126 year old cycle around December 12, 2012 which should bring the return of Bolon Yokte, a Mayan god associated with war and creation.

Author Jose Arguelles called the date "the ending of time as we know it" in a 1987 book that spawned an army of Mayan theorists, whose speculations on a cataclysmic end abound online. But specialists meeting at this ancient Mayan city in southern Mexico say it merely marks the termination of one period of creation and the beginning of another.

"We have to be clear about this. There is no prophecy for 2012," said Erik Velasquez, an etchings specialist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). "It's a marketing fallacy."

The National Institute of Anthropological History in Mexico has been trying to quell the barrage of forecasters predicting the apocalypse. "The West's messianic thinking has distorted the world view of ancient civilizations like the Mayans," the institute said in a statement.

In the Mayan calendar, the long calendar count begins in 3,114 BC and is divided into roughly 394-year periods called Baktuns. Mayans held the number 13 sacred and the 13th Baktun ends next year.

Sven Gronemeyer, a researcher of Mayan codes from La Trobe University in Australia, who has been trying to decode the calendar, said the so-called end day reflects a transition from one era to the next in which Bolon Yokte returns.

"Because Bolon Yokte was already present at the day of creation ... it just seemed natural for the Mayan that Bolon Yokte will again be present," he said.

Of the approximately 15,000 registered glyphic texts found in different parts of what was then the Mayan empire, only two mention 2012, the Institute said.

"The Maya did not think about humanity, global warming or predict the poles would fuse together," said Alfonso Ladena, a professor from the Complutense University of Madrid. "We project our worries on them."

(Reporting by Pepe Cortes; editing by Anthony Boadle)

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Killer mold too risky in U.S. war on drugs: report

By Anna Yukhananov

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 30, 2011 3:55pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Using fungi to kill coca and other illegal drug crops would be a risky tactic, as there is not enough data about how to control these killer molds and what effect they could have on people and the environment, according to a U.S. study released Wednesday.

The U.S. Congress asked scientists to look into whether some types of fungi, called mycoherbicides, could stem the flow of illicit drugs into the United States by killing the plants used to make cocaine, marijuana and opium.

But scientists from the National Research Council, one of the national academies of science that advises U.S. policymakers, said evidence about the fungi was sketchy and incomplete.

"There are too many unresolved questions regarding efficacy -- whether they'll really perform in real-time conditions, and whether they'll be safe to non-target plants," said Raghavan Charudattan, chairman of the committee that prepared the report and professor emeritus in the University of Florida's department of plant pathology.

"We did not see any data where a high level of control could be achieved," he said.

Mycoherbicides are toxic fungi that have been used as an environmentally friendly alternative to chemical weedkillers. They can also be targeted to specific plants, and can reproduce themselves, staying in the soil for many years.

But using them on a large scale against illicit drugs has never been tested, Charudattan said. A fungus could kill anywhere from 10 percent to 60 percent of an infected drug crop. It could also fail completely because of too much rain or a drought.

An official from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said drug control policies should be grounded in evidence and research.

"There's way too much uncertainty surrounding the use of mycoherbicides and we have absolutely no intention of pursuing this as a counter-drug tool," the official said.

PRACTICAL CHALLENGES

Available evidence also does not address the practical challenges of trying to infect drug crops abroad.

Farmers could easily sabotage any herbicide campaign by using fungicides to protect their crops or cultivate plants resistant to the fungi. Growers could also attack any low-flying aircraft used to spray their crops.

And it is unknown whether the fungi could morph into chemical compounds known as mycotoxins, which are harmful to people, Charudattan said.

Mycoherbicides could also only be used with the permission of a country's government, which has proven a challenge in the past.

Colombia, the world's largest producer of cocaine, refused to approve such fungi to kill its coca plants when the United States proposed it in 2000.

The U.S. government has pushed experimentation with fungal pesticides in Colombia and other parts of Latin America and Asia as a way to combat drug crops.

In the 1990s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture conducted research into the mycoherbicides as a replacement for the chemical fungicides that are sprayed from crop dusters on coca and heroin-poppy crops.

In the past, natural fungal epidemics have killed off poppy crops in Afghanistan and coca crops in Peru.

Congress required government scientists to further study mycoherbicides against illicit drugs as part of a funding bill for the White House drug czar's office in 2006.

(Reporting by Anna Yukhananov; editing by Eric Beech)

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Microscopic worms may hold key to living on Mars

NASA?s Phoenix Mars Lander?s solar panel and the lander?s Robotic Arm with a sample in the scoop are seen in this image taken June 10, 2008 by the lander's Surface Stereo Imager.

Credit: Reuters/NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Handout

LONDON | Wed Nov 30, 2011 8:08am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists believe microscopic worms which are biologically very similar to humans may be the key to helping humans colonize other planets like Mars by giving clues on coping with long-term space living.

A team of scientists led by Nathaniel Szewczyk from Notthingham University blasted 4,000 of the worms, known as known as Caenorhabditis elegans, or C. elegans, into space on board the Space Shuttle Discovery, and studied their progress.

Many experts -- including astrophysicist Stephen Hawking -- believe the ultimate survival of humanity could be dependent on the human colonization of other planets.

"While this sounds like science fiction, it is a fact that if mankind wants to avoid the natural order of extinction then we need to find ways to live on other planets," Szewczyk said in a statement about his research.

But there are some major challenges associated with long-term space living -- including high levels of radiation exposure and rapid loss of bone strength.

In a study published in Interface, a journal of The Royal Society, Szewczyk's team found that in space, their worms developed from egg to adulthood and produced offspring just as they do on earth.

This makes them an ideal and cost-effective experimental way to study the possible effects of long-term and long-distance space exploration in humans, they said.

The researchers were able to successfully monitor the effect of low Earth orbit (LEO) on 12 generations of C. elegans during the first three months of a six month voyage on the International Space Station.

"While it may seem surprising, many of the biological changes that happen during spaceflight affect astronauts and worms and in the same way," Szewczyk said.

"We have been able to show that worms can grow and reproduce in space for long enough to reach another planet and that we can remotely monitor their health."

C. elegans was the first multi-cellular organism to have its genetic structure completely mapped, and many of its 20,000 genes have the same functions as those in humans, Szewczyk's team explained in their study.

Around two thousand of these genes play a role in promoting muscle function and 50 to 60 percent of these have obvious human counterparts, they said.

The C. elegans worm has long been used by scientists to help further the understanding of human biology, so now Szewczyk thinks it could help researchers investigate living on Mars.

Szewczyk's team worked with experts at the Universities of Pittsburgh and Colorado in the United States and the Simon Fraser University in Canada, to develop a compact automated C. elegans culturing system which could be monitored remotely for the effects of environmental toxins and in-flight radiation.

"Worms allow us to detect changes in growth, development, reproduction and behavior in response to environmental conditions such as toxins or in response to deep space missions," Szewczyk said.

"Given the high failure rate of Mars missions, use of worms allows us to safely and relatively cheaply test spacecraft systems prior to manned missions."

(Reporting by Kate Kelland, editing by Paul Casciato)

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NASA rover launched to seek out life clues on Mars

An artist's concept of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover.

Credit: Reuters/NASA/JPL-Caltech

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Tue Nov 29, 2011 3:51pm EST

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Florida on Saturday, launching a $2.5 billion nuclear-powered NASA rover toward Mars to look for clues on what could sustain life on the Red Planet.

The 20-story-tall booster built by United Launch Alliance lifted off from its seaside launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 10:02 a.m. EST (3:02 p.m. GMT).

It soared through partly cloudy skies into space, carrying NASA's Mars Science Laboratory on a 354-million mile (556 million km), nearly nine-month journey to the planet.

"I think this mission is an important next step in NASA's overall goal to address the issue of life in the universe," lead scientist John Grotzinger, with the California Institute of Technology, told reporters shortly after the launch.

The car-sized rover, nicknamed Curiosity, is expected to touch down on August 6, 2012, to begin two years of detailed analysis of a 96-mile (154-km) wide impact basin near the Martian equator called Gale Crater.

The goal is to determine if Mars has or ever had environments to support life. It is the first astrobiology mission to Mars since the 1970s-era Viking probes.

Scientists chose the landing site because it has a three-mile-high (4.8-km high) mountain of what appears from orbital imagery and mineral analysis to be layers of rock piled up like the Grand Canyon, each layer testifying to a different period in Mars' history.

The rover has 17 cameras and 10 science instruments, including chemistry labs, to identify elements in soil and rock samples to be dug up by the probe's drill-tipped robotic arm.

'LONG SHOT'

The base of the crater's mountain has clays, evidence of a prolonged wet environment, and what appears to be minerals such as sulfates that likely were deposited as water evaporated.

Water is considered to be a key element for life, but not the only one.

Previous Mars probes, including the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, searched for signs of past surface water.

"We are not a life-detection mission," Grotzinger said. "We have no ability to detect life present on the surface of Mars. It's an intermediate mission between the search for water and future missions, which may undertake life detection."

With Curiosity, which is twice as long and three times heavier than its predecessors, NASA shifts its focus to look for other ingredients for life, including possibly organic carbon, the building block for life on Earth.

"It's a long shot, but we're going to try," Grotzinger said.

Launch is generally considered the riskiest part of a mission, but Curiosity's landing on Mars will not be without drama.

The 1,980-pound (898 kg) rover is too big for the airbag or thruster-rocket landings used on previous Mars probes, so engineers designed a rocket-powered "sky-crane" to gently lower Curiosity to the crater floor via a 43-foot (13-meter) cable.

"We call it the 'six-minutes of terror,'" said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, referring to the landing. "It is pretty scary, but my confidence level is really high."

Curiosity is powered by heat from the radioactive decay of plutonium. It is designed to last one Martian year, or 687 Earth days.

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