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Rogue planets could be habitable + NASA won’t rename James Webb telescope

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Rogue planets could be habitable
https://www.universetoday.com/152785/rog...habitable/

EXCERPT: . . . If there are, as deGrasse Tyson says, billions or trillions of rogue planets in the Milky Way, then it’s possible that the nearest exoplanet to us isn’t actually an exoplanet, but a rogue planet. And some of those planets could also be prime targets in the search for life, according to Lingam. “We normally think of planets bound to stars, such as Mars, that could support life, but in reality, these types of life-supporting planets could just be floating out there in the vast void of space with rich biospheres,” he said.

[...] An extremely dense hydrogen atmosphere could resist freezing and potentially trap heat. It could trap enough heat to keep surface water from freezing. We don’t know if there are any rocky planets with hydrogen atmospheres, and if there are they’re exceedingly rare. But experiments show that at least some organisms can live in a hydrogen atmosphere.

A rogue planet with a massive moon might have better odds of supporting life. A massive enough moon could cause the planet to undergo tidal heating. Tidal heating doesn’t seem to be rare, though in our own Solar System the gas giant Jupiter causes tidal heating in the moon Europa. So maybe in a rogue planet system with its own moons, a similar thing can happen: it’s the moon that stays warm and has a subsurface ocean instead of the planet.

Lingam says that there’s another possibility. If a rogue planet is near the galactic core, and the galaxy has an active galactic nucleus (AGN) then it’s theoretically possible that it receives enough light for photosynthesis to take place. According to Lingam, there’s enough energy to support photosynthesis less than about 1,000 light-years from an AGN.

We know life can exist without sunlight, down at the bottom of an ocean. Earth hosts entire biological communities near hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. These vents are called black smokers, and they produce a stream of minerals that serve as food for chemosynthetic bacteria. These bacteria attract other organisms that feed on them. Those organisms, in turn, attract predators and an entire food chain manifests. Rogue planets with geothermal heating could have similar communities.

If some rogue planets do carry life through interstellar space then they may play a role in panspermia. Panspermia is the idea that either the ingredients for life or life itself can spread throughout a galaxy by hitching rides on interstellar objects. Rogue planets seem like ideal candidates for vehicles for panspermia. Our Solar System will have sent its own rogue planets and ISO out into interstellar space. Maybe they’re spreading life throughout the galaxy.

Rogue planets with frozen surfaces and subsurface oceans might have one advantage over planets like Earth: they’re protected by an icy shield. Europa has a layer of ice that’s between 10–30 km (6–19 mi.) thick. Think of it as an asteroid shield. We know that asteroid strikes can have dire effects on a planet, can cause mass extinctions and change the whole course of evolution. Would an impactor the size of the Chicxulub impactor be able to disrupt life on a rogue planet the way it did on Earth? Maybe not... (MORE - details)

RELATED: A fast-moving star could be as good as a spaceship


NASA won’t rename James Webb telescope — and astronomers are angry
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02678-1

INTRO: NASA has decided not to rename its soon-to-be-launched flagship observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), after investigating whether its namesake, former NASA administrator James Webb, was involved in persecuting gay and lesbian people in the 1950s and 1960s. The agency says it found no evidence to support the allegations.

The decision and the lack of transparency with which it was announced — NASA released no report about the scope of the investigation — has angered a number of astronomers. “I’m disappointed,” says Johanna Teske, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC. “Without knowing what factors were considered, it’s hard for me to respect the decision to keep the current name.”

Since May, more than 1,200 people, including scientists who are slated to use the telescope after its planned December launch, have signed a petition calling for the JWST to be renamed. Webb held multiple leadership positions in the US government during a period in which gay and lesbian federal employees were systematically fired because of their sexual orientation. For instance, he was NASA administrator when an agency employee was fired in 1963 on suspicion of being gay.

In response to the concerns, NASA began an internal study of historical documents that might shed light on Webb’s behaviour towards gay and lesbian people. On 27 September, current agency administrator Bill Nelson released a one-sentence statement to some media outlets, including Nature, saying: “We have found no evidence at this time that warrants changing the name of the James Webb Space Telescope.” NASA’s acting chief historian, Brian Odom, who led the inquiry, told Nature on 30 September that he considers the investigation closed... (MORE)
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