Science Saturday 10/27

This week’s Science Saturday is going to be a little space-heavy. I usually try to split it up among the major disciplines, but not this time.

 

LiveScience: Aliens Might Be Purple

Scientists have been learning how to use green light signatures from exoplanets to determine if they might host life, but  have recently begun considering that they should also start looking at purple light signatures. The idea is based off of the hypothesis that early life on Earth might have been mostly purple in appearance, due to greater absorption of energy-rich green light than the chloroplastic plants of today. Don’t worry about Thanos coming after us just yet, as we’re talking about microbes and small plants here.

ScienceNews: Cloud Zapping Lasers

Laser pulses would provide the fastest possible communication between long distances. However, there are a few major obstacles in the way of creating a world-wide quantum communications network. The largest of these is cloud cover. Researchers have recently come up with a possible solution to the problem, when they theorized that they could essentially clear a path through a cloud with a high-energy laser pulse, before sending data. If this pans out, we could construct a quantum internet network around Earth, and you could all read my blog at light speed.

 

National Geographic: Space Permanently Changes You

There have been a number of studies conducted recently, exploring the effects of space on the human body, most notably the NASA Twin Study. However, a new study of active Russian Cosmonauts shows that there may be unforeseen impacts of prolonged weightlessness on the brain. The study revealed that the brain deforms under null-g conditions, and doesn’t necessarily return to its previous state upon returning to Earth.

 

South China Morning Post: Space Elevator?

The space elevator has become the Holy Grail of space exploration. The development of a space elevator would slash the cost of putting stuff in space by an enormous margin, though it won’t be possible until we develop a material that’s capable of supporting it. Researchers at Tsinghua University in China have suggested that they’ve done just that, claiming that a new carbon-based fiber might have a tensile strength as high as 80 gigapascals. A space elevator would likely require cables with a tensile strength in excess of 7 gigapascals. The Tsinghua researchers say they are looking into the viability of mass-producing the material.

 

Space.Com: Earth From the Sun

In August, NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe, a spacecraft that will approach the Sun to study it. On its way, it looked back at Earth and took a photo, just to remind us all how small we are. The probe will eventually fly within 3.7 million miles of the Sun’s surface, and tell us more about the corona, and the solar winds.

 

That’s all for this week. I hope to have an exciting editing update later in the week, so stay tuned.