Jan 25, 2022 03:49 AM
(This post was last modified: Jan 25, 2022 04:03 AM by C C.)
The Higgs boson could have kept our universe from collapsing
https://www.livescience.com/higgs-partic...multiverse
INTRO: The Higgs boson, the mysterious particle that lends other particles their mass, could have kept our universe from collapsing. And its properties might be a clue that we live in a multiverse of parallel worlds, a wild new theory suggests.
That theory, in which different regions of the universe have different sets of physical laws, would suggest that only worlds in which the Higgs boson is tiny would survive. If true, the new model would entail the creation of new particles, which in turn would explain why the strong force — which ultimately keeps atoms from collapsing — seems to obey certain symmetries. And along the way, it could help reveal the nature of dark matter — the elusive substance that makes up most matter... (MORE - details)
Curiosity rover finds 'tantalizing' signs of ancient Mars life
https://www.livescience.com/mars-organic...osignature
EXCERPT: . . . In the new study, which will be published Tuesday (Jan. 18) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research team looked at two dozen powdered rock samples that Curiosity collected with its percussive drill from a variety of locations between August 2012 and July 2021. The rover fed this material into SAM, which can identify and characterize organics — carbon-containing molecules that are the building blocks of life on Earth.
The scientists found that nearly half of these samples were enriched in carbon-12, the lighter of the two stable carbon isotopes, compared to previous measurements of Mars meteorites and the Martian atmosphere. (Isotopes are versions of an element that contain different numbers of neutrons in their atomic nuclei. Carbon-12 has six neutrons, and the far less abundant carbon-13 has seven.)
These high-carbon-12 samples came from five different locations within Gale Crater, all of which featured ancient surfaces that had been preserved well over the eons.
On Earth, organisms preferentially use carbon-12 for their metabolic processes, so enrichment in this isotope in ancient rock samples here is generally interpreted as a signal of biotic chemistry. But carbon cycles on Mars aren't understood nearly well enough to make similar assumptions for Red Planet finds, study team members said.
The researchers came up with three possible explanations for the intriguing carbon signal. The first involves Mars microbes producing methane, which was then converted into more complex organic molecules after interacting with ultraviolet (UV) light in the Red Planet air. These larger organics then fell back to the ground and were incorporated into the rocks that Curiosity sampled.
But similar reactions involving UV light and non-biological carbon dioxide, by far the most abundant gas in Mars' atmosphere, could have generated the result as well. It's also possible that the solar system drifted through a giant molecular cloud rich in carbon-12 long ago, the researchers said.
"All three explanations fit the data," study leader Christopher House, a Curiosity scientist based at Penn State University, said in the same statement. "We simply need more data to rule them in or out." (MORE - missing details)
https://www.livescience.com/higgs-partic...multiverse
INTRO: The Higgs boson, the mysterious particle that lends other particles their mass, could have kept our universe from collapsing. And its properties might be a clue that we live in a multiverse of parallel worlds, a wild new theory suggests.
That theory, in which different regions of the universe have different sets of physical laws, would suggest that only worlds in which the Higgs boson is tiny would survive. If true, the new model would entail the creation of new particles, which in turn would explain why the strong force — which ultimately keeps atoms from collapsing — seems to obey certain symmetries. And along the way, it could help reveal the nature of dark matter — the elusive substance that makes up most matter... (MORE - details)
Curiosity rover finds 'tantalizing' signs of ancient Mars life
https://www.livescience.com/mars-organic...osignature
EXCERPT: . . . In the new study, which will be published Tuesday (Jan. 18) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research team looked at two dozen powdered rock samples that Curiosity collected with its percussive drill from a variety of locations between August 2012 and July 2021. The rover fed this material into SAM, which can identify and characterize organics — carbon-containing molecules that are the building blocks of life on Earth.
The scientists found that nearly half of these samples were enriched in carbon-12, the lighter of the two stable carbon isotopes, compared to previous measurements of Mars meteorites and the Martian atmosphere. (Isotopes are versions of an element that contain different numbers of neutrons in their atomic nuclei. Carbon-12 has six neutrons, and the far less abundant carbon-13 has seven.)
These high-carbon-12 samples came from five different locations within Gale Crater, all of which featured ancient surfaces that had been preserved well over the eons.
On Earth, organisms preferentially use carbon-12 for their metabolic processes, so enrichment in this isotope in ancient rock samples here is generally interpreted as a signal of biotic chemistry. But carbon cycles on Mars aren't understood nearly well enough to make similar assumptions for Red Planet finds, study team members said.
The researchers came up with three possible explanations for the intriguing carbon signal. The first involves Mars microbes producing methane, which was then converted into more complex organic molecules after interacting with ultraviolet (UV) light in the Red Planet air. These larger organics then fell back to the ground and were incorporated into the rocks that Curiosity sampled.
But similar reactions involving UV light and non-biological carbon dioxide, by far the most abundant gas in Mars' atmosphere, could have generated the result as well. It's also possible that the solar system drifted through a giant molecular cloud rich in carbon-12 long ago, the researchers said.
"All three explanations fit the data," study leader Christopher House, a Curiosity scientist based at Penn State University, said in the same statement. "We simply need more data to rule them in or out." (MORE - missing details)