Astronomy

[Dreamwoven]

Sorry for the long delay in my reply!

I doubt whether a rover on the surface could undertake atmospheric measurements, you clearly need a satellite for that. This is just the first phase. As stated in their wiki post: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExoMars the second step will need to be done, to put a robot rover on the planet in 2021:

TGO is the first phase in a joint venture at Mars that
Europe is undertaking with Russia. The second step in the project,
known as ExoMars, is to put a robot rover on the planet in 2021. It
needs a lot of money from the European side to go forward, however --
just over 400m Euros. Research ministers from ESA member states are
meeting this week in Switzerland to try to resolve the budget problem.

After this they need to do phase 2 Exomars (Europe and Russia combined) in 2012, if it is approved.

It must be difficult co-ordinating all this. Especially as Russia has not done this before (no space projects since the USSR). See the wikipedia post on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExoMars. NASA has done all the Mars exploration up till now using land-based rovers.

I think we need to spend some time to catch up on this. Its been 3 months since your reply, YesNo.

[YesNo]

It is good to see someone besides NASA doing this research. There should be permanent robotic bases on Mars and the Moon if for no other reason than to test and improve the technology.

[Dreamwoven]

Today I got my first issue of the Swedish equivelent of Popular Astronomy: Populär Astronomi. I will be interested to compare it with the British version. It only comes out quarterly, though, not bi-monthly.

[Dreamwoven]

Today I was in Bollnäs Library and reading the journals. Popular Astronomy had an article on the space photometry revolution in which Hubble played a pioneering part. Now, new generations of space telescopes are becoming more and more prominent. The Spitzer infra-red space telescope is just one of a whole range of space telescopes deploying or under development.

This will radically improve our ability to study so-called goldylocks planets around other stars. There is an article on this in the current issue of The Swedish magazine Popular Science (Populär Vetenskap) has one on the search for life in other worlds. Some 3,000 worlds have been found that are classed as Goldylocks Worlds, possible harbouring life in some form or another.

Much of this - for now all of it - is speculation, but it will be interesting to see whether any life (e.g. micro-organisms) will be found on other exo-planets going around "near-by" stars.

[YesNo]

It looks like we still haven't found a Goldilocks planet yet, but "transit spectroscopy" sounds promising if a Goldilocks planet is ever discovered especially nearby.

[Dreamwoven]

I think it is quite likely that we will find a goldilocks planet relatively soon. But I doubt if it will have more than unicellular "life". Most people immediately jump to the conclusion that life means advanced animal life. Thats the danger with generalised definitions like "goldilocks planet". It rises expectations far too high.

[YesNo]

I would be happy just to find unicellular life, however, I don't know how we would be able to detect it. If there is an advanced civilization that we can talk to that would convince us that life existed on those exoplanets.

[Dreamwoven]

Well, there is no evidence that there is an advanced civilisation on one of the moons of Saturn, the one which has methane seas on it. See this Wikipedia item of the moons of Saturn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moons_of_Saturn.

I think it is pretty well established that there is no civilisation anywhere that is at all near to Earth, as far as we can tell.

Perhaps if NASA is planning a more detailed investigation of Mars they might come up with something. I believe water is found underground om Mars. See http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/mar...gy-underground, though only traces, no seas.

[YesNo]

In the solar system, the most I would expect to see are microorganisms. At least we can get to those objects. But further out, I don't know how we would tell there are microorganisms on an exoplanet.

[Dreamwoven]

No, I agree.

[Dreamwoven]

Earth Trojans are asteroids that circle the sun in the vicinity of the Earth-Sun Lagrangian Points. see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_trojan.

See also this article on Earth-Sun's only know Earth Trojan: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...space-science/.

See also this article on Earth Trojans: http://planetfacts.org/trojan/

Make sure you read the links if anything is unclear.

[Dreamwoven]

Earth Trojans:
An Earth trojan is an asteroid that orbits the Sun in the vicinity of the Earth–Sun Lagrangian points L4 (leading 60°) and L5 (trailing 60°), thus having an orbit similar to Earth's. Only one Earth trojan has so far been discovered. The name trojan was first used in 1906 for the Jupiter trojans, the asteroids that were observed near the Lagrangian points of Jupiter's orbit.

[Dreamwoven]

Tiny companion will remain tied to our planet for at least ten thousand years, experts predict.

A tiny space rock that's partially tethered to Earth by a gravitational leash is our planet's first known Trojan asteroid, astronomers say.

[Dreamwoven]

A Trojan, in Astronomy, is a minor planet or moon that shares an orbit with a larger planet or satellite but does not collide with the larger planet because while it orbits, it stays safely in what is called as the Lagrangian points. In theory, there are also Trojan planets that may reside at Trojan points.

Lagrangian points are five spots in any space where the gravitational pull of two relatively massive bodies, as in the case of a Sun and a planet are balanced out, making it possible for smaller bodies like moons, minor planets and asteroids to remain fixed, in essence, with respect to the planet. The smaller objects still move but they are locked into a synchronized orbit due to the gravities exerted by the two large bodies. Thus, collisions are avoided. However, only two of the five Lagrangian points located around 60 degrees of the planet at any point (L4 and L5) are stable and smaller objects and bodies tend to collect in the area. L1, L2 and L3, on the other hand are unstable, causing rapid object displacement.

The most popular Trojans in astronomy are those discovered around Neptune. They are so numerous that they are believed to be more than the asteroid count in the Asteroid Belt between the inner and outer planets. There are currently 6 known Trojans in the L4 point of the Neptune’s orbit. There are few identified Trojans because they are very faint as not only are they small, they are also too far from the Earth and the Sun. Studying Trojans help astronomers in understanding how planets and the planetary systems, such as the Solar system evolved.

The three links together can be understood by combining them into the three posts as I have done here.

I think this is fascinating...

[YesNo]

On the one hand the discovery of this 300 meter trojan in the Earth's orbit in 2010 makes me think that we do not know much about the solar system. On the other, this object is only 300 meters in diameter which isn't very large.