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Herschel Space Observatory Finds Precursors of Life In Orion
ogre7299 recommends an announcement out of Caltech on a milestone for HIFI, the Herschel Space Observatory's Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared. "The Herschel Space Observatory has revealed the chemical fingerprints of potential life-enabling organic molecules in the Orion Nebula, a nearby stellar nursery in our Milky Way galaxy. ... This detailed-spectrum, obtained with the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared (HIFI) — one of Herschel's three innovative instruments — demonstrates the gold mine of information that Herschel-HIFI will provide on how organic molecules form in space. The spectrum, one of the first to be obtained with HIFI since it returned to full health in January 2010 following technical difficulties, clearly demonstrates that the instrument is working well. ... [The HIFI instrument had previously been offline since] August 2009 when HIFI experienced an unexpected voltage spike in the electronic system, probably caused by a high-energy cosmic particle, resulting in the instrument shutting down. On 14 January 2010, HIFI was successfully switched back on using its spare electronics, with science observations commencing on 28 February."
It's the only way to be sure!
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Can pigs be far behind
We send a probe? We rejoice in the fact that there is life outside of Earth, that there is strong possibility we are not the only intelligent life in this Universe?
Also prepare for our new overlords.
Why rats? we should celebrate it as among the greatest discoveries if we can even confirm something as primitive as a worm. Evolutionarily, the jump from inorganic to a worm is far bigger jump than from a worm to (even an intelligent) man.
I don't know if they have thought of this, but it seems that what is not seen has more meaning than what is seen. If I had the data, I would look to see if the absorption spectrum was different at the primary frequency of the solar emissions and would indicate to me that life was present. I would assume that inorganic materials would have an absorption spectrum which was different from organic life as it uses this energy to manufacture itself. It would seem that this would be generally true in the overall spectrum of the universe and like the cosmic background measurements there should be a signature of the universe without life and one that indicates life. Just a thought.
We send a probe?
... which we don't sterilize properly or which picks up life earth has scattered around the solar system. Then this type of life, which has a hundreds of millions of years head start, kills all the native life. But that might explain the Star Trek nose-ridge aliens.
I would really want to leave another planet with no interesting life alone so see what other molecular bases support life.
Who ever said the probe had to land on the planet?
But, did God need a starship to get there?
Similar to the upcoming US election results
Five months is an awfully long time to spend scratching your head if you've got a redundant string ready to be switched on.
OK so their instrument had an upset. That sort of thing happens in space. Why did it take them 5 months to switch over to the redundant string?
It took them 5 months to switch over to the redundant system because they wanted to be sure that they fully understood what happened with the first failure. The problem was that there wasn't software protection for the critical systems.
They then had to put preventative measures in place to ensure that it didn't happen to the redundant system; otherwise they would be screwed. The HIFI instrument has some of the most discovery potential and its capabilities cannot be duplicated from earth or and only partly with the SOFIA airborne mission.
No. He actually moved there to him. Less work than figuring out how to make a starship.
Are they green, and if so - are they female?
#DeleteChrome
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Precursors of life off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die.
- Herschel Space Observatory's last transmission before deorbiting, November 2019
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
If you want to rank life forms according to some arbitrary scale from most to least advanced, you'll find that rats are just as advanced as humans. Their body chemistry is almost identical to ours, they exhibit high intelligence and ability to solve problems. They outnumber humans worldwide, and their high reproductive rate allows them to evolve much faster than us, they probably go through 100 generations for each human generation.
872835240
Do you know something we don't know about advances in beam-up technology? Of course the probe has to land to get access to the butts to be probed. And butts need probing. Aliens always do that. And in this case, the aliens are us!
Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
Ok, so lets say we do find life even as advanced as, say, rats. What do we do with that information? Especially if its so far out that we can't possibly make it to that planet?
We reduce our ignorance as a species. You see, science is about discovering the truths of the universe, regardless of whether or not certain truths are applicable to profitable business plans.
He went in an attack ship, but it caught fire. I've seen it.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
"The moment life is detected else where will once and for end the silly notion of god or religion."
Because?
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