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POPSBio-Earth: Are Planets Living Super-Organisms? He believes that expanding the study of life sciences to the core of our world and the depths of outer space will help us find distant relatives of our own Earth -- planets that could also sustain life. To explain why contintental plates drift on the surface of the Earth's molten mantle, Maruyama argues that continents actually have life cycles. Old, cold plates on continental fringes sink to “plate graveyards” deep in the Earth’s mantle, and then rise again, creating volcanoes fueled by three-dimensional convection movements deep below the surface.
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POPSShock Discovery of Ancient Space Invader This rock sample contains fragments of the first asteroid ever discovered intact. The brown 'nuggets' in the sample once orbited the Sun, and are probably older than the planets in our Solar System.
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POPSEarth could seed Titan with life Dr Gladman's team calculated that up to 20 terrestrial rocks from a large impact on Earth would reach Titan. These would strike Titan's upper atmosphere at 10-15 km/s. At this velocity, the cruise down to the surface might be comfortable enough for microbes to survive the journey.But the news was more bleak for Europa. By contrast with the handful that hit Titan, about 100 terrestrial meteoroids hit the icy moon. "It's frustrating if you're a microbe that's been wandering the Universe for a million years to then die striking the surface of Europa," Dr Gladman mused.Asked after his presentation by one scientist whether he thought microbes would be able to survive Titan's freezing temperatures, Dr Gladman answered: "That's for you people to decide, I'm just the pizza delivery boy."
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POPSDiamonds Suck! The big difference between moissanite and diamond is that moissanite can be manufactured reliably and efficiently in a laboratory. The result: flawless, brilliant gemstones at about 1/10th the cost of a comparable diamond.
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POPSGiant Impactor Theory what makes science attractive, is the ability to develop methods to test the solidity of the basic theories. one has to wait and see what would be the impact :)
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POPSWe're all Martians? I suppose it's POSSIBLE that we evolved from some organic matter that hitched a ride on a flying space rock, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
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POPSDust samples prompt rethink about comets The rock dust closely resembles material from bodies called chondritic meteorites from asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, they reported in the journal Science. Asteroids are fragments of ancient space rubble, made of rock and metal, that commonly orbit the sun in that belt. Wild 2 is named for Swiss astronomer Paul Wild (pronounced Vilt), who found it in 1978. Its diameter is 3 miles and it orbits the sun every 6-1/2 years. Stardust, launched in 1999, intercepted Wild 2 in 2004 in the vicinity of the asteroid belt, collecting dust particles from it. The spacecraft returned to Earth in January 2006 with a cargo of the tiny particles for scientists to study
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POPSHunt is on for tiny diamonds in space Carbon does have remarkable properties. One of the four basic organic elements, present in any number of compounds including pure carbon compounds like graphite and Diamonds. Mainly because the atom is built like it has four plugs, and four sockets. They think according to the meteorites that there is a vast amount of carbon in interstellar dust and think it may give them clues to the way carbon molecules form, including those that are the precursors of life. Then of course there's Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds? The 60s does seem to be a long time ago, and as they say, if you remember it you weren't there.
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POPSGlobal Warming Debunked IV More from my Global Warming debunked research. This whole article was very interesting, i wish i could have clipped more before reaching the pop limit.
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POPSArtificial Meteorite Shows Martian Impactors Could Carry Traces Of Life Unfortunately the heat of reentry was so high, even with a protective two centimetre-thick rock coating, that the organisms were carbonised. They died but their cells still remain as "pompeified" forms. if martian sedimentary meteorites carry traces of past life, these traces could be safely transported to Earth. However, the results are more problematic when applied to Panspermia, a theory that proposes living cells could be transported between planets. STONE-6 showed at least two centimetres of rock is not sufficient to protect the organisms during entry."
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POPSMirror-Image Clues to Life's Origins From the source: The meteorites did this by providing building blocks with a slight preponderance of that handedness (known scientifically as chirality) that makes life possible. "We know that all amino acids start mirror-image the same, but in living things they have this handedness," said Ronald Breslow, a Columbia University researcher who published recently on the topic. "This change doesn't happen spontaneously, and we've never been able to reproduce it in the laboratory" under conditions similar to early Earth. "The answer to where it comes from looks increasingly like meteorites," he added, "from extraterrestrial bodies falling to Earth. It's a complex story, but we're beginning to understand it better."
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