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Mega-Volcanoes Might Be Detectable On Exoplanets
astroengine writes "Could we detect a huge volcanic eruption on an exoplanet 30 light-years from Earth? Possibly, say scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. What's more, there may be an opportunity for us to spot the ashy pollution ejected into the exoplanetary atmosphere when NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is launched in 2014. According to Discovery News, this would be a huge discovery if an Earth-like world was found to have active volcanoes: 'A geologically active terrestrial planet may be more suitable for life. It recycles crust, unleashes greenhouse gasses, opens new environmental niches, and generally provides a dynamic environment for advantageous life forms.'"
According to a related story at the BBC, we should soon be able to detect the presence of oceans on distant worlds as well. The JWST will be able to resolve the reflection of light off an ocean's surface from 20-30 light-years away.
if we could detect dinosaurs
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Hmm, according to the map of the universe I have hanging on my cube ( http://www.astro.princeton.edu/universe/ ) there are just over a dozen stars closer than 30 light years (~9 parsecs). Yeah, that fact is noted in TFA as well.
Oh, well, it's a start... there are quite a lot of stars in the 100parsec range if they can somehow refine their technique. Or maybe just move the JWST closer to the galactic center?! ;-)
That's she's detectable on exoplanets.
"unleashes greenhouse gasses"
Why, those un-green astronomers! Obviously exoplanets are responsible for global warming!!!
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
how much energy is in a beam of light.
Prot.
im a pretty scientifically minded person, but i think anything with more than one 'mega' or 'exo' needs to be reported exclusively by Carl Sagan...you know...for effect.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Seriously.
"A geologically active terrestrial planet may be more suitable for life."
There's just something mealy-mouthed and vaguely self-serving about that statement.
And I think it's in the "terrestrial" part. Because if you have the other 9,499 other ecological characteristics of a "terrestrial" planet, then ceteris parabis may apply to geological activity. But maybe there are other ways to get the things that volcanoes give you, and maybe you don't really need the things that volcanoes give you. Thinking they're necessary is overstating the butterfly effect of volcanoes on the suitability of planets to develop biospheres.
Although I have to admit, it's only the geological instability of the Earth that prevented it from being Snowball Earth for all eternity. The sun's light could have been reflected into space forever, but the magma didn't know or care that the entire planet was a glacier, it wanted out, and created enough ash to lower the Earth's albedo and raise the solar absorption and cause the global warming that gave us back our tropics and dog days. So, post hoc ergo propter hoc applies to our terrestrial planet, for one.
Of course a mega-volcano will be detectable if you're on an exoplanet and there is a huge fucking volcano there...
If they find this evidence of volcanoes it will be another nail in the coffin for AGW supporters - unless we can get Al Gore out there to prove that it really is AGW - Alienpomorphic Galactic Warming!!!
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Mega-Volcanoes Might Be Detectable On Exoplanets
And, a politicians might be honest. What kind of useless message is this title? Can't we get something that gives a more positive possibility? How about "maybe we can, and maybe we can't, detect mega-volcanoes on exopanets"
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Planet-sized...
Billboards: "Your ad here." "Save money on your spacecraft insurance by switching to..."
Bumper Sticker: "My other moon is a Death Star."
Solace: "We apologize for any inconvenience..."
Wraparound error: The back end of the JWST.
It stretches credibility to believe that astronomers could detect volcanos on planets 30 eff-ing light years away. I think that they are just bullshitting the feds in order to get more funding, what with astronomy being a rather low priority with the USA trillons of dollars in debt, the banking system collapsing, and the easy sources of oil depleting.
What difference would it make anyway? Even if technology were to continue on the same arc that it has for the past 150 years, it would still be a 5000 year project to get to another planet that is 30 eff-ing light years away.
Don't you just love all the Star Trek films where faster-than-light giant interplanetary starships are exploring distant reaches of the galaxy in only 200 years from now ? In 200 years from now, we will still be paying off the Iraq/Afghanistan war and trying to figure out how to grow grass in the thin layer of topsoil that used to be the corn-belt of the North American MidWest. Not to mention protecting our kids for antibiotic-resistant TB that resulted from late-20th century abuses.
Jeez, guys, stop wasting our time with science fiction fantasies about volcanos on planets 30 eff-ing light years away!
It would be cooler to find a mega-shark in a mega-volcano on an exoplanet.
"I'm not a quack, I'm a mad scientist! There's a difference." - Dr. Cockroach
the evil galactic emperor Xenu could be dropping nuclear weapons into normal exoplanet volcanoes in an attempt to destroy the souls of brain-washed alien dissidents thereby creating exo-Thetans that will torment the future residents of said exoplanet.
Teach the controversy!
If you didn't come to party don't bother knocking on my door. Prince '1999'
Discovery "News" scoops the field with this exercise in weasel words. No science was harmed in the making of this story. And besides, the pig might learn to fly.
> and generally provides a dynamic environment
> for advantageous life forms.
Well of course. It's well known that following any global scale catastrophe there's a surge in speciation. Turns out this happens because the environment is dynamic, rather than the old scientists' wives tale about a few survivors taking over the available niches since pretty much everything else that might have been competition was wiped out.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Yo Mama Is So Fat that you can detect her by the deviation of her sun's motion.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
If it weren't for greenhouse gases, earth would be frozen solid. But there have existed geologic periods when the concentration of greenhouse gases was so high that there was no ice anywhere on earth.
That goes to show how delicate equilibrium we have, a little bit more or less of those gases is enough to cause wide variations of temperature. Better be cautious.
The Sun will have collapsed into a black hole