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Author Topic:   Astronomers find loads of ice on big asteroid
Glaucus
Knowflake

Posts: 3289
From: Sacramento,California
Registered: Apr 2009

posted April 28, 2010 05:35 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Glaucus     Edit/Delete Message
Astronomers find loads of ice on big asteroid

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer – 1 hr 44 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Scientists have found lots of life-essential water — frozen as ice — in an unexpected place in our solar system: an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter.

The discovery of significant asteroid ice has several consequences. It could help explain where early Earth first got its water. It makes asteroids more attractive to explore, dovetailing with President Barack Obama's announcement earlier this month that astronauts should visit an asteroid. And it even muddies the definition between comets and asteroids, potentially triggering a Pluto-like scientific spat over what to call these solar system bodies.

This asteroid has an extensive but thin frosty coating. It is likely replenished by an extensive reservoir of frozen water deep inside rock once thought to be dry and desolate, scientists report in two studies in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

Two teams of scientists used a NASA telescope in Hawaii to look at an asteroid called 24 Themis, one of the bigger rocks in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. They examined light waves bouncing off the rock and found the distinct chemical signature of ice, said University of Central Florida astronomy professor Humberto Campins, lead author of one of the studies.

Astronomers have long theorized that hydrogen and oxygen and bits of water locked in clay are in asteroids, but this is the first solid evidence. And what they found on 24 Themis, a rock more than 100 miles wide with temperatures around 100 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, was more than they ever expected. About a third of the rock seemed to be covered in frost.

Furthermore, scientists didn't just find ice; they found organic molecules, similar to what may have started life on Earth, Campins said.

"This asteroid holds clues to our past and how the solar system and water on Earth may have originated and it also has clues to our future with exploration of near-Earth asteroids," Campins told The Associated Press.

"We're showing that they're wetter than we thought," Campins said. "We're showing they have organic molecules that might have been the building blocks of life on Earth."

Earth, when it formed billions of years ago was dry, scientists say. So where did the water come from? One leading theory is from crashing comets, that are essentially icy snowballs.

But comets come from the outer reaches of the solar system and tend to have more heavy hydrogen than the water in our oceans, said Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Program office. Icy asteroids between Mars and Jupiter might have the right heavy hydrogen ratio to match what's on Earth, said Yeomans, who wasn't involved in the studies.

MIT's Richard Binzel, also praised the studies, calling the findings "one more piece in the puzzle for an abundance of water arriving on Earth and having available the ingredients for life."

Normally, the ice on the asteroid should have escaped Themis as a gas over thousands of years, but it's still there after a billion years or so, Campins said. That means there's likely a supply of ice inside the rock, replenishing the surface, he said.

And if that's the case for other similar asteroids — especially those that come closer to Earth — then it would be a boon for visiting astronauts, Campins and others said. The astronauts could use the water to drink and to help make fuel. The new NASA space plan calls for astronauts to head to a nearby asteroid sometime in about 15 years as a stepping stone to Mars.

The icy asteroid also just makes a mess of the differences between asteroids and their cosmic cousin, the comet. The general definition has been that asteroids are dry rocks and comets icy snowballs.

Now it seems to be more a continuum of dry and icy with not much difference between asteroids and comets, Campins and others said.

And that, said Andrew Rivkin of Johns Hopkins University, co-author of the other study in Nature, could wind up another cosmic controversy like the debate a few years ago about whether Pluto was a planet. Pluto wound up demoted and is now called a dwarf planet.
http://www.nature.com/nature

Themis (thē'mĭs), in Greek religion and mythology, a Titan. Sometimes identified as an earth goddess, she was more commonly a goddess of law, order, and justice. She was the mother by Zeus of the Horae (the Seasons) and the Moerae (the Fates). It was also said that she was the mother of Prometheus by Iapetus. http://www.answers.com/topic/themis

in my chart:

Themis in 13'31 Capricorn
trine/sextile Ascendant/Descendant in 13'27 Virgo/Pisces
square Uranus in 15'17 Libra
square Eris in 12'15 Aries R


Geocentric North Themis Node in 6'07 Taurus
oppose Sun in 5'20 Scorpio

Geocentric South Themis Node in 5'44 Scorpio
conjunct Sun in 5'20 Scorpio


Heliocentric Themis Nodes in 5'52 Taurus/Scorpio
oppose/conjunct Sun in 5'20 Scorpio


Themis is very prominent in my chart with Themis trine/sextile my Ascendant/Descendant and its Geocentric and Heliocentric Nodes in alignment with Sun. I am strongly connected to personal and collective Themis energy.


Where is Themis and its Nodes as well as their aspects in your chart?
http://www.true-node.com/eph1/


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Raymond

Supporting the Neurodiversity Movement

A Different Mind Is Not A Deficient Mind.
http://people.tribe.net/4b0cf8c4-1fc3-4171-92d3-b0915985bf95/blog

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iQ
Knowflake

Posts: 1525
From: Chennai, India
Registered: Apr 2009

posted April 29, 2010 02:28 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for iQ     Edit/Delete Message
Slowly and steadily they are putting out the information about extra-terrestrials from official sources. A few days ago it was from Stephen Hawking.

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Valus
Knowflake

Posts: 2555
From:
Registered: Apr 2009

posted April 29, 2010 02:51 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Valus     Edit/Delete Message

Pretty Cool, Glaucus.

So, how do they determine,
by looking through a telescope,
the "distinct chemical signature"
of ice?

I think there's an
earlier legend about
the birth of the Fates:

quote:

Egged on by his mother, Gaia, Cronos castrated his father, and from the spilled blood the Fates (the Erinyes) were born.
http://planetaryenergies.net/2008/10/29/the-saturn-uranus-opposition-2008-to-2010/


Valus

Themis Trine Mercury (exact)

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Glaucus
Knowflake

Posts: 3289
From: Sacramento,California
Registered: Apr 2009

posted April 29, 2010 03:01 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Glaucus     Edit/Delete Message
"They examined light waves bouncing off the rock and found the distinct chemical signature of ice, said University of Central Florida astronomy professor Humberto Campins, lead author of one of the studies."

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Raymond

Supporting the Neurodiversity Movement

A Different Mind Is Not A Deficient Mind.

http://people.tribe.net/4b0cf8c4-1fc3-4171-92d3-b0915985bf95/blog

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Glaucus
Knowflake

Posts: 3289
From: Sacramento,California
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posted April 29, 2010 03:04 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Glaucus     Edit/Delete Message

This article explains how ice is detected on objects in space:

Water on Extrasolar Planets
How Did Astronomers Detect the Composition of HD 209458b?

Read more at Suite101: Water on Extrasolar Planets: How Did Astronomers Detect the Composition of HD 209458b? http://astrophysics.suite101.com/article.cfm/water_on_hd_209458b#ixzz0mTDwvDMi

HD 209458

Too faint to be visible to the naked eye, the star HD 209458 (the star's name refers to star number 209458 listed in the Henry Draper catalog) is 150 light years away from us in the direction of the constellation Pegasus. This star is one of over 200 stars known to have at least one planet orbiting it. The planet, HD 209458b, is one of only 14 extrasolar planets known that transit its parent star, meaning that the planet passes in front of the star as seen from Earth. HD 209458b is a gas giant planet, like Jupiter, but is much closer to its parent star than the gas giants in our solar system. So it is often referred to as a hot Jupiter. HD 209458b was the first extrasolar planet observed to have an atmosphere and in April 2007 became the first observed to have water vapor in its atmosphere. How can astronomers detect water on a planet so far away?
Spectroscopy

The first key is spectroscopy, a tool that astronomers routinely use to find the compositions of astronomical objects. A rainbow is a very low resolution spectrum of the Sun. Just as water droplets separate sunlight into its component colors, or wavelengths, a spectroscope separates starlight into its component wavelengths, with much greater resolution.

Spectroscopy tells us the chemical compositions of astronomical objects because each type of atom or molecule has its own unique signature, which is a set of wavelengths, called lines, where the light is either brighter or fainter. The light is brighter, producing emission lines, when the atoms are in a hot transparent gas. The light is fainter, producing absorption lines, when light from another hotter source passes through a cool transparent gas. The wavelengths of these spectral lines, emission or absorption, are the signature that tells us which types of atoms or molecules are present. Lines for molecules, such as water, are often in the infrared rather than the visible part of the spectrum, so infrared spectroscopy is required. How do astronomers observe the spectral signature for the planet alone?

Read more at Suite101: Water on Extrasolar Planets: How Did Astronomers Detect the Composition of HD 209458b? http://astrophysics.suite101.com/article.cfm/water_on_hd_209458b#ixzz0mTE308RD
http://astrophysics.suite101.com/article.cfm/water_on_hd_209458b

------------------
Raymond

Supporting the Neurodiversity Movement

A Different Mind Is Not A Deficient Mind.

http://people.tribe.net/4b0cf8c4-1fc3-4171-92d3-b0915985bf95/blog

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Glaucus
Knowflake

Posts: 3289
From: Sacramento,California
Registered: Apr 2009

posted April 29, 2010 03:07 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Glaucus     Edit/Delete Message
Spectroscopy and Types of Spectra
Spectroscopy Tells Astronomers the Composition of Celestial Objects

Read more at Suite101: Spectroscopy and Types of Spectra: Spectroscopy Tells Astronomers the Composition of Celestial Objects http://astrophysics.suite101.com/article.cfm/spectroscopy_and_types_of_spectra#ixzz0mTEaDmOY


Invention of Spectroscopy

Isaac Newton discovered that passing light through a prism could break it up into its component colors, like a rainbow. A rainbow is simply a low resolution spectrum of the Sun produced by water droplets in the atmosphere.

In 1814 Josef von Fraunhofer (1787 - 1826) built the first spectroscope and used it to observe the spectrum of the Sun. He discovered that the solar spectrum has dark lines, called absorption lines, which are specific wavelengths where light is missing.

Spectroscopy began in earnest in 1859 when Gustav Robert Kirchoff (1824 - 1887) and Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811-1899) built an improved spectroscope. Bunsen had recently invented the Bunsen burner and the two scientists used their spectroscope to study the spectra of materials burning in the Bunsen burner. (One wonders if they were pyromaniacs as well as scientists.)
Types of Spectra

Bunsen and Kirchoff found that there are three types of spectra: continuous spectra, emission (or bright) line spectra, and absorption (or dark) line spectra.
Continuous Spectra

A continuous spectrum has no sharp changes in brightness at different wavelengths, so no specific wavelengths are significantly brighter or darker than the adjacent wavelengths. A hot solid, liquid, or compressed opaque gas will produce a continuous spectrum. For example, an incandescent light bulb glows when an electric current heats a tungsten wire, so as a hot solid it produces a continuous spectrum.

Read more at Suite101: Spectroscopy and Types of Spectra: Spectroscopy Tells Astronomers the Composition of Celestial Objects http://astrophysics.suite101.com/article.cfm/spectroscopy_and_types_of_spectra#ixzz0mTEemokQ


Emission Spectra

An emission line spectrum is dark at most wavelengths, but certain specific wavelengths are bright. These bright wavelengths are called emission lines or bright lines. Emission line spectra are produced by a hot transparent gas and the wavelengths of the emission lines depend on the chemical composition of the gas. A neon sign glows when an electric current heats neon gas in a glass tube. Looking at a neon sign through a spectroscope reveals the emission line spectrum of neon. Neon signs glow bright red because the spectrum of neon has a large number of lines at red wavelengths. A neon sign that is not red is not really a neon sign. It works on the same principle but contains a gas other than neon.

In astronomy, emission nebulae are interstellar clouds of gas at a temperature of about 10,000 Kelvins. Their spectra are emission line spectra because they are a hot transparent gas.
Absorption Spectra

An absorption line spectrum looks like a continuous spectrum with certain specific wavelengths missing. These dark lines are the absorption lines. An absorption spectrum occurs when light having a continuous spectrum passes through a transparent gas that is cooler than whatever produced the continuous spectrum. The wavelengths of the absorption lines depend on the chemical composition of the cool transparent gas. Most stars have absorption line spectra because their cores are much hotter and more compressed than their surface layers. The hot opaque core produces a continuous spectrum. When this light passes through the outer layers of the star, that are cooler than the core, absorption lines are produced.

Note that each type of atom or molecule has its own unique set of spectral lines that can be either emission or absorption lines depending on the physical condition producing the spectrum. This unique set of spectral lines produces a unique spectral signature for each element or compound and allows astronomers to determine the chemical compositions of astronomical objects. Chemists also use this technique to determine the chemical compositions of unknown samples on Earth, but chemists also have other techniques that are not available to astronomers.

Kirchoff and Bunsen did not know what causes the spectral lines. That required understanding atomic structure.

Read more at Suite101: Spectroscopy and Types of Spectra: Spectroscopy Tells Astronomers the Composition of Celestial Objects http://astrophysics.suite101.com/article.cfm/spectroscopy_and_types_of_spectra#ixzz0mTEl012n
http://astrophysics.suite101.com/article.cfm/spectroscopy_and_types_of_spectra


------------------
Raymond

Supporting the Neurodiversity Movement

A Different Mind Is Not A Deficient Mind.

http://people.tribe.net/4b0cf8c4-1fc3-4171-92d3-b0915985bf95/blog

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AbsintheDragonfly
Knowflake

Posts: 149
From:
Registered: Apr 2010

posted April 29, 2010 08:59 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for AbsintheDragonfly     Edit/Delete Message
Themis is conjunct my Leo Asc. And it's nodes are conjunct my Chiron at 19 Aries

goddess of law, order, and justice...hmm

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We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique. --Benjamin Jowett


It is in giving that we receive. --Saint Francis of Assisi

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teasel
Knowflake

Posts: 794
From: Ohio
Registered: Apr 2009

posted April 29, 2010 09:19 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for teasel     Edit/Delete Message
My Themis can be found at 18*33'7 Leo - conjunct my Midheaven, trine my 19* Mercury in Aries, and my Ceres/Chiron/Sun, also in Aries.

Interesting.

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