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Plankton in the Clouds

Posted by timothy on from the pray-for-rain dept.

An anonymous reader writes "NASA is reporting that the September 1997 Pacific hurricane, Nora, was able to deliver sea salt and plankton as far inland as Oklahoma. The tale-tell signs of prismatic light halos around cirrus clouds pointed to ice crystals with nucleated hexagons and sea-salted clouds. Various proposals have been made previously about such 'life in the clouds' proposals on other planets like Jupiter and Venus."

4 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Moon rainbows by ojQj · · Score: 5, Interesting
    A few years ago, in Houston I saw a pale rainbow around the almost-full moon at night. It was a very cold night for Houston (below freezing), but since it was Houston, the humidity in the air was very high. Someone explained to me that the rainbow was because the humidity in the air was frozen into ice crystals which then had special refractory properties.

    Based on this article, I have to ask: Could saltwater have been a better explanation for this beautiful phenomenon? Does anybody here know?

  2. Re:life by GigsVT · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The big deal is that it would cause all the religious people to freak out, and they would have to rewrite their religion in a major way. I'm not naive enough to believe it would be the end of religion, they've adapted before in the face of overwhelming evidence that they were wrong.

    --
    I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
  3. Re:Is NASA really relevant?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I suspect it is more about the ability to get ON the moon, than it is about actually getting there

  4. The Sun, The Genome and The Internet by shancock · · Score: 3, Interesting

    by Freeman Dyson talks about this in his wonderful book published in 1999. Specifically he talks about the chances of finding lifeforms on Mars and Europa (a satellite of Jupiter). He suggests looking into the space around Europa instead of on the surface for "freeze dried fish".

    From the final chapter: "Every time there is a major impact on Europa, a vast quantity of water will be splashed from the ocean into the space around Jupiter. The water will partly evaporate and partly condense into snow. Any creatures living in the water not too close to the impact (meteor impacts) will have a chance of being splashed intact into space with the water and quickly freeze dried."

    I'm not sure if this book has been reviewed in slashdot, but it deserves another shot since so much here is relevant especially after the last shuttle disaster. Dyson is dead on track here.