Water World Hopefuls Get Interstellar Reality Check - http://clapway.com/2015/08/15/water-world-hopefuls-get-interstellar-101/

One would think, despite the strangely haunting sequence of monstrous waves ripping and chewing spacecraft and human bodies alike, that extraterrestrial planets covered in water would be prime life supporting material. One might even go so far as to suppose that–considering the degree which water is both necessary and nearly sufficient to support any kind of carbon-based life–that an ocean world should actually be preferred to one covered with land or archipelago.

WATER WORLD HOPEFULS TO GO DAUNTED

According to new research published online before in print in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, that’s not the case. Water that totally covers the surface of a planet interacts with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in ways that are capable of turning chilly planets frigid and warm ones even hotter. This recent research shows that Earth-sized water worlds would be habitable in an extremely limited range of temperatures; from roughly 32 to 260 degrees Fahrenheit. Any world slipping outside of that range is liable to be detrimental to primordial forms of life. The bad news is that these sub- and super-temps are actually quite common among planets inhabiting the “Goldilocks zone,” which, for a G2 star like our sun, places a planet roughly 102 million to 140 million miles from its star.

For comparison, the Earth is 93 million miles away from the sun.

INTERSTELLAR REALITY CHECK

When temperatures fall below freezing, the ocean water decomposes more carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas of obvious portent, which reduces the planet’s temperature, and at higher temperatures, less carbon dioxide is absorbed, causing the ocean to release a much greater amount of carbon dioxide, which sets a planet into a runaway warming period (hence the term greenhouse effect).

WIDER IMPLICATIONS

This supposition sketches scenarios for water worlds whose type falls outside that of Earth-sized planets and Sun-like stars. Researchers involved in this study have added that the process would be very similar for larger worlds orbiting even more gigantic stars.

The same cycle would take place with greenhouse gases like methane. With such thin temperature range necessary for habitability, ocean planets unfortunately are not likely to make the splash we might have hoped they would as we explore our interstellar neighborhood for signs of life.

---

 

MEANWHILE, ENJOY OUR SUN MORE WITH SUN LIFELIGHT’S BLUE LIGHT THERAPY

Water World Hopefuls Get Interstellar Reality Check

Study on Mice Suggests Life in Space Bad For Skin, Hair - http://clapway.com/2015/05/27/study-on-mice-suggests-life-in-space-bad-for-skin-hair-123/

Its been known that spending a long time in a very low-gravity environment is detrimental to your bone and muscle mass, as well as your vision. As if that wasn’t bad enough, scientists have now determined that it can lead to skin and hair problems. A study published on Wednesday in the NPJ Microgravity journal provides evidence based on an experiment done with mice in space.

Mice had thinner skin after 91 days on ISS.

The mice were part of a 91-day experiment set on the International Space Station that took place in 2009. In what was a near absence of gravity for three months, the mice developed poorer, thinner skin, with more degraded collagen molecules.

Weightlessness also had a negative impact on their fur.

The mice also went through something which seemed to resemble a reset of their hair growth cycles, with many follicles active when they should not have been. In fact, the data could have been more definitive if all of the mice had lived. Three of the six mousetronauts died onboard the space station. After analyzing the dead mouse bodies, they hypothesized that living long periods of life in space may mess with the way proteins are processed within skin cells. Some of the damage may have also been caused by a sedentary life in which the muscles aren’t stimulated enough.

Data could be crucial to future manned long-term space missions.

These findings, along with the previous ones on other negative effects of life in space, serve as a stern warning to humans about the dangers of long-term exposure to near-zero g. In fact, people living in the International Space Station before had complained of skin dryness, itching, irritation, and scratches. One German astronaut was checked by professionals, who found that his skin had decreased in elasticity after his stay aboard the space station. Scientists will most likely be searching for solutions to these problems in the near future. Yet, whether they do or don’t find solutions to these problems, they are unlikely to prevent people from embarking on future long-term space missions.

Study on Mice Suggests Life in Space Bad For Skin, Hair