Little Green Men or
Just Little Microscopic Organisms?
The question of life on Mars is a puzzle that has plagued many minds throughout the world. Life on Mars, though, is a reality. When you think of Martians, you think of little green men who are planning to invade Earth and destroy all human life, right? Well, some do and some do not. Though believing that there are little green men on Mars is just a fantasy, or is it? The kind of life that may have lived there is the kind you would never consider of giving the name "Martian" to. They are small organisms such as microbes or bacteria.
Proof of this was found in a meteorite containing the fossils of the microscopic organisms intact. Two highly regarded chemistry professors from Stanford, Claude Maechling and Richard Zare, dissected three meteorites that were about 2 to 8 millimeters long and found trace elements of a big mumbo jumbo word- polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. That pretty much means that there once was a warmer climate and maybe even lakes or oceans. Life on Mars is now a real idea.
The climate of Mars about 3.8 billion years ago was much similar to the young Earth. Microbes and bacteria probably sprouted everywhere in the warm and wet climate. Although now we only see a cold red planet, which was probably due to a collision of an astroid that would have set back the evolution process of Mars, causing it to be a harsh planet. A Viking spacecraft which landed on Mars in 1976 found that the planet was bathed in ultraviolet radiation, "intense enough so it would probably fry any microbe we know on this planet,"says Jack Farmer, an Ames researcher who calls himself an "exopaleontologist"-a searcher for fossils on other worlds. The redness of Mars is due to the chemical assault known as oxidation, which turns iron compounds into rust, and it would surely kill anything that sticks its head up.
"So why do you still believe that there is life on Mars?" you say. Life on Mars is not located on the ultraviolet radiation oxidized surface. The microbes are found below it, probably located in the boiling hot springs, or in frozen time capsules. Life here on Earth are located in some strange places so why wouldn't the Martian microbes be found in strange places if they were trying to survive? Scientists have found bacteria here on Earth that were living inside rocks where they got all of their nourishment from the rocks and from some water. Martians probably do the same thing.
The Marsokhod, which is Russian for "Mars Rover"- a six-wheeled vehicle about the size of a golf cart, with an arm for carrying a camera or other instruments, is planned to launch in 1998. The rover might actually find the truth that there was once life and that there is still life on Mars.
Who knows, but what if the once ancient microbes or bacteria have evolved into little green men who are planning to invade Earth and destroy all human life? What if there was a whole colony of Martians in underground tunnels all over Mars? How did we evolve? From microscopic microbes, right? They may have evolved, too. When I read all of this I am reminded by a quote from a character on Jurassic Park named Ian Malcolm who said, "Life finds a way."
Bibliography
Chui, Glennda. "Life on Mars II". [http://www.sjmercury.com/news/nation/mars.htm.] December 19, 1995.
Davidson, Keay. "New Signs That There Was Life On Mars." San Francisco Examiner. March 16, 1995. Pg. A2. SIRS Physical Science, Electronic Only 1995. Art.104. SIRS Researcher CD-ROM, CD-ROM. SIRS. Fall 1996.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Hale Bopp
As I am sure all of you know, we have recently been able to see a new but not permanent additon to the night sky. This addition is known as Hale-Bopp, a comet that is about 122 million miles (about 1.3 times the distance of the sun to the earth) from the earth and is approximately 25 miles wide. Hale-Bopp was discovered on July 23,1995 by two scientists named Alan Hale in New Mexico and Thomas Bopp in Arizona. This is the first discovery for both of them, although Alan Hale is one of the top visual comet observers in the world, having seen about 200 comet apparitions. That is one of the reasons they put his name first.
Alan Hale comments, "I love the irony -- I've spent over 400 hours of my life looking for comets, and haven't found anything, and now, suddenly, when I'm not looking for one, I get one dumped in my lap. I had obtained an observation of P/Clark earlier, and needed to wait an hour or so before P/d'Arrest got high enough to look at, and was just passing the time til then, and I decided to look at some deep-sky objects in Sagittarius. When I turned to M70, I saw a fuzzy object in the same field, and almost immediately suspected a comet, since I had been looking at M70 last month, and *knew* there wasn't any other objects there."
Thomas Bopp explains his story like this, "On the night of July 22, 1995 some friends and I headed out into the desert for a dark of the moon observing session. The site, which is west of Stanfield, AZ and a few mile south of Interstate 8 is about 90 miles southwest from my home.
My friend Jim Stevens had brought his 17-1/2" Dobsonian. We started the evening observing some of the Messier objects such as the Veil and North American Nebulae in Cygnus, when Jim said " Let's look at some of the globulars in Sagittarius." We started our tour with M22 and M28, observing at 50X and then at 180X. Around 11:00 local time, we had M-70 in the field when Jim went to the charts to determine the next object of investigation. I continued watching M-70 slowly drift across the field, when it reached a point 3/4 of the way across a slight glow appeared on the eastern edge. I repositioned the scope to center on the new object but was unable to resolve it. I called to Jim and asked him if he knew what it might be, after a visual inspection he stated he wasn't familiar with it but would check the charts. After determining the general position of the object he was unable to find it on either Sky Atlas 2000.0 or Uranometria.
The moment Jim said "we might have something" excitement began to grow among our group and I breathed a silent prayer thanking God for his wondrous creation. My friend, Kevin Gill then took a position from his digital setting circles and estimated a magnitude.
At 11:15 I said that we needed to check the object for motion and should watch it for an hour. The group observed it change position against the star field over that period and at 12:25 I decided to drive home and report our finding.
Arriving at home initial attempts to send the telegram were unsuccessful due to an incomplete address I had. After searching my library I was able to located the correct address and confirmation was requested.
At 8:25 AM July 23, 1995 Daniel Green of the Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory telephoned and said, "Congratulations Tom, I believe you discovered a new comet." and that was one of the most exciting moments of my life.
The comet is visible in the evening. Look about 40 degrees west of North and about 20 degrees off the horizon at about 8:00 p.m. The comet will be the brightest object in the northwest sky.The comet is traveling at about 28 km per second and the orbit of this comet is about 4,200 years since the last appearance and because of gravitational tugs by the planets, especially Jupiter, the next appearance will be in about 2380 years or the year 4377. Hale-Bopp has been through our solar system before which surprisingly means it is not a new comet from the Oort Cloud. Its orbit is a very long, stretched out orbit and the comet is part of our solar system in orbit around our Sun. Sadly, this excitment will end in October when Hale-Bopp will disapear to the naked eye.
(Special thanks to Kevin Gill of the Black Mountain Observatory for Alan Hale's and Thomas Bopp's quotes.)
Alan Hale comments, "I love the irony -- I've spent over 400 hours of my life looking for comets, and haven't found anything, and now, suddenly, when I'm not looking for one, I get one dumped in my lap. I had obtained an observation of P/Clark earlier, and needed to wait an hour or so before P/d'Arrest got high enough to look at, and was just passing the time til then, and I decided to look at some deep-sky objects in Sagittarius. When I turned to M70, I saw a fuzzy object in the same field, and almost immediately suspected a comet, since I had been looking at M70 last month, and *knew* there wasn't any other objects there."
Thomas Bopp explains his story like this, "On the night of July 22, 1995 some friends and I headed out into the desert for a dark of the moon observing session. The site, which is west of Stanfield, AZ and a few mile south of Interstate 8 is about 90 miles southwest from my home.
My friend Jim Stevens had brought his 17-1/2" Dobsonian. We started the evening observing some of the Messier objects such as the Veil and North American Nebulae in Cygnus, when Jim said " Let's look at some of the globulars in Sagittarius." We started our tour with M22 and M28, observing at 50X and then at 180X. Around 11:00 local time, we had M-70 in the field when Jim went to the charts to determine the next object of investigation. I continued watching M-70 slowly drift across the field, when it reached a point 3/4 of the way across a slight glow appeared on the eastern edge. I repositioned the scope to center on the new object but was unable to resolve it. I called to Jim and asked him if he knew what it might be, after a visual inspection he stated he wasn't familiar with it but would check the charts. After determining the general position of the object he was unable to find it on either Sky Atlas 2000.0 or Uranometria.
The moment Jim said "we might have something" excitement began to grow among our group and I breathed a silent prayer thanking God for his wondrous creation. My friend, Kevin Gill then took a position from his digital setting circles and estimated a magnitude.
At 11:15 I said that we needed to check the object for motion and should watch it for an hour. The group observed it change position against the star field over that period and at 12:25 I decided to drive home and report our finding.
Arriving at home initial attempts to send the telegram were unsuccessful due to an incomplete address I had. After searching my library I was able to located the correct address and confirmation was requested.
At 8:25 AM July 23, 1995 Daniel Green of the Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory telephoned and said, "Congratulations Tom, I believe you discovered a new comet." and that was one of the most exciting moments of my life.
The comet is visible in the evening. Look about 40 degrees west of North and about 20 degrees off the horizon at about 8:00 p.m. The comet will be the brightest object in the northwest sky.The comet is traveling at about 28 km per second and the orbit of this comet is about 4,200 years since the last appearance and because of gravitational tugs by the planets, especially Jupiter, the next appearance will be in about 2380 years or the year 4377. Hale-Bopp has been through our solar system before which surprisingly means it is not a new comet from the Oort Cloud. Its orbit is a very long, stretched out orbit and the comet is part of our solar system in orbit around our Sun. Sadly, this excitment will end in October when Hale-Bopp will disapear to the naked eye.
(Special thanks to Kevin Gill of the Black Mountain Observatory for Alan Hale's and Thomas Bopp's quotes.)
Gamma Rays
Gamma Rays are Waves on the electromagnetic Spectrum that have a
Wavelength of 10 or Higher and 11 down. Gamma Rays are produced in labs
through the process of nuclear collision and also through the artificial
Radioactivity that accompanies these interactions. The high energy nuclei
needed for the collisions are accelerated by such devices such as the
Cyclotron and synchrotron.
There are also many uses for Gamma rays in Medicine. Gamma Rays
are used in medicine to kill and treat certain types of cancers and tumors.
Gamma rays passing through the tissue of the body produce ionization in the
tissue. Gamma rays can harm the cells in our body. The rays can also detect
brain and Cardiovascular Abnormalities. These are some of the many uses of
Gamma Rays in Medicine.
Gamma Rays are also Used a great deal in modern day industries.
Gamma Rays can be used to examine metallic castings or welds in oil
pipelines for weak points. The rays pass through the metal and darken a
photographic film at places opposite weak points. In industry, Gamma rays
are also used for detecting internal defects in metal castings and in welded
structures. Gamma rays are used to kill pesticides and bugs in food. Gamma
rays are also used in nuclear reactors and atomic bombs.
Gamma rays are often used in the food industry. The radioisotopes
preserve foods. Although the rays never come in contact with the food, Beta
radiation kills various organisms such as bacteria, yeast, and insects. Gamma
rays are sometimes used in science. They are used to detect Beryllium. They
also played a very important role in the development of the atomic bomb.
Gamma Rays can be very dangerous to use or be in contact with.
Gamma rays bombard our bodies constantly. They come from the naturally
radioactive materials in rocks and soil. We take some of these materials into
our bodies from the air we breath and the water we drink. Gamma rays
passing through our bodies produce ionization in the tissue. High levels of
gamma Radiation can produce ionization of the tissue and cause skin cancer.
There are many ways in which we can protect ourselves from these
harmful affects Protection from gamma rays can be obtained Using a sheet of
iron that is a 1/2 inch thick. This kind of shielding will block only 50% of 1
million electron volts of Gamma rays. We can also protect ourselves from
gamma rays with 4 inches of water. Lead provides the most protection from
gamma rays. A 1/4 of an inch absorbs all the gamma ray exposure.
Many Gamma rays also come from outer space in a few major bursts
the sun produces gamma rays with energies up to one million electron volts.
The interaction of high energy electrons, Protons, and Nuclei of the sun, emit
the rays. Gamma rays can also come from the other stars in space, Through
the creation and death of the stars along with the creation of solar flares.
Astronomers have studied gamma rays to gain a better understanding of the
astronomical process. Gamma rays are a form of Electromagnetic radiation
similar to X-rays. Gamma rays carry millions of electron volts. As gamma
rays pass through matter, They lose energy, But at the same time Knock
electrons loose from the atom which ionizes them. Uranium and other
naturally occurring radioactive elements, which emit alpha and beta particles
from their nuclei which transforming into new elements, also emit gamma
rays.
Long before experiments gamma rays emitted by cosmic sources,
scientists had known that the universe should be producing such photons.
Hard work by several brilliant scientists had shown that a number of different
processes which were occurring in the universe would result in gamma ray
emissions. These processes included cosmic ray interactions with interstellar
gases, supernova explosions, and interactions of energetic electrons with
magnetic fields. In the 1960's we finally developed thew ability to actually
detect these emissions and we have been looking at them ever since.
Wavelength of 10 or Higher and 11 down. Gamma Rays are produced in labs
through the process of nuclear collision and also through the artificial
Radioactivity that accompanies these interactions. The high energy nuclei
needed for the collisions are accelerated by such devices such as the
Cyclotron and synchrotron.
There are also many uses for Gamma rays in Medicine. Gamma Rays
are used in medicine to kill and treat certain types of cancers and tumors.
Gamma rays passing through the tissue of the body produce ionization in the
tissue. Gamma rays can harm the cells in our body. The rays can also detect
brain and Cardiovascular Abnormalities. These are some of the many uses of
Gamma Rays in Medicine.
Gamma Rays are also Used a great deal in modern day industries.
Gamma Rays can be used to examine metallic castings or welds in oil
pipelines for weak points. The rays pass through the metal and darken a
photographic film at places opposite weak points. In industry, Gamma rays
are also used for detecting internal defects in metal castings and in welded
structures. Gamma rays are used to kill pesticides and bugs in food. Gamma
rays are also used in nuclear reactors and atomic bombs.
Gamma rays are often used in the food industry. The radioisotopes
preserve foods. Although the rays never come in contact with the food, Beta
radiation kills various organisms such as bacteria, yeast, and insects. Gamma
rays are sometimes used in science. They are used to detect Beryllium. They
also played a very important role in the development of the atomic bomb.
Gamma Rays can be very dangerous to use or be in contact with.
Gamma rays bombard our bodies constantly. They come from the naturally
radioactive materials in rocks and soil. We take some of these materials into
our bodies from the air we breath and the water we drink. Gamma rays
passing through our bodies produce ionization in the tissue. High levels of
gamma Radiation can produce ionization of the tissue and cause skin cancer.
There are many ways in which we can protect ourselves from these
harmful affects Protection from gamma rays can be obtained Using a sheet of
iron that is a 1/2 inch thick. This kind of shielding will block only 50% of 1
million electron volts of Gamma rays. We can also protect ourselves from
gamma rays with 4 inches of water. Lead provides the most protection from
gamma rays. A 1/4 of an inch absorbs all the gamma ray exposure.
Many Gamma rays also come from outer space in a few major bursts
the sun produces gamma rays with energies up to one million electron volts.
The interaction of high energy electrons, Protons, and Nuclei of the sun, emit
the rays. Gamma rays can also come from the other stars in space, Through
the creation and death of the stars along with the creation of solar flares.
Astronomers have studied gamma rays to gain a better understanding of the
astronomical process. Gamma rays are a form of Electromagnetic radiation
similar to X-rays. Gamma rays carry millions of electron volts. As gamma
rays pass through matter, They lose energy, But at the same time Knock
electrons loose from the atom which ionizes them. Uranium and other
naturally occurring radioactive elements, which emit alpha and beta particles
from their nuclei which transforming into new elements, also emit gamma
rays.
Long before experiments gamma rays emitted by cosmic sources,
scientists had known that the universe should be producing such photons.
Hard work by several brilliant scientists had shown that a number of different
processes which were occurring in the universe would result in gamma ray
emissions. These processes included cosmic ray interactions with interstellar
gases, supernova explosions, and interactions of energetic electrons with
magnetic fields. In the 1960's we finally developed thew ability to actually
detect these emissions and we have been looking at them ever since.
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