Friday Science Highlights – Alien Elevator Music, The Search for Second Earth, and Windsurfing on Jupiter

Science photo of the Week

This week's science photo is actually more about "science music". If intelligent life exists out in the deep black, and they happen to stumble across the Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977, then they will soon discover that they have a Golden Ticket straight to Earth. Or something like it, since the Voyager is carrying several discs collectively titled “The Golden Record.” The sound bytes contained on these records range from the music of trains and cars to mud pots bubbling – a digital museum of sorts meant to represent the sounds of Earth to strangers from another planet. There is even a large collection of spoken greetings in various human languages, in case your average interstellar dweller might happen to know Arcadian or Welsh.

Whether or not aliens will ever listen to these sounds, now they are available for native Terrans to listen to instead. So enjoy the sounds of civilization and nature. Once the aliens trace this miraculous variety back to Sol, you might not have the luxury again for a while. *doom doom doom*

The Search for Second Earth Comes Close with Kepler 452b

Earth is a delightful gem in a sea of what sometimes feels like sterile hostility. But surely in the vastness of space, Earth cannot be the only planet capable of containing some sort of life – or at least life supporting conditions. In fact, scientists and virtual space explorers may be on the verge of finding Earth’s twin. In a new crop of some five hundred planets being studied, Kepler 452b is the most similar to Earth yet. It has an orbital year of 385 days, and its sun is very similar to our own. Its perfect placement in the habitable range of its solar system makes it very likely that the planet could have water, the sort of atmosphere necessary to protect the development of life, and even active geological movement.

 Discovering planets with a decent chance of supporting human life is crucial if we are going to entertain any long-term colonization plans at all. But it also is a good indicator that perhaps other creatures might exist somewhere else in the galaxy.

Cloud Surfing in Jupiter’s Tempestuous Atmosphere

Jupiter, the mysterious monster planet with the iconic red eye, might be next on the list of celestial bodies to study up close and personal in ways never before accomplished. NASA is investigating an entirely new design for keeping a robot probe afloat in the hazardous conditions of Jupiter’s atmosphere. And, like most successful designs, the so called “wind bot” is being conceived based on an example taken from nature: the dandelion seed.

It’s an amusing image, but ultimately sensible. On Earth, dandelion seeds are extremely aerodynamic and exert no force of their own to stay afloat. They simply use their fantastic design in combination with the wind to scatter themselves far and wide, spreading the species with practically no effort. Who among us has never blown on a dandelion seed and watched the puff-ball umbrellas glide away on the slightest breeze?

No picture the never-ending rage of Jupiter’s stormy atmosphere, and you can see how this design may be too ingenious to laugh at. But NASA is still just in the planning stages. It will be a long time before the “wind bot” sees the winds of Jupiter up close.