extraterrestrial

Why 20°C “ice slush” changes our search for extraterrestrial life

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Titan, the crown jewel of the moons of saturnjust gave us a slap of reality. For two decades, the official narrative of space exploration focused on what was hidden beneath its thick haze. a vast global ocean of liquid water. But now we know that we were wrong, or at least, it was not as we imagined. The study. Led by Flavio Petricca, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) from NASAand published this December 17, 2025 in Nature magazineproposes a radically different model: Titan does not have an interconnected ocean, but a dense, viscous layer of “slush ice” with pockets of trapped liquid water. The 15 hour lag. The Cassini probe ended its mission in 2017 crashing into Saturn, but its data remains a gold mine for physicists. Petricca’s team has therefore decided to reanalyze the probe’s Doppler data, that is, the changes in frequency in the radio signals generated by the moon’s gravity. But now with the most modern processing techniques that we have developed. The result of the analysis is a 15-hour lag in Titan’s tidal response. This means that when Saturn exerts its brutal force of gravity on Titan, the moon deforms as if stretched. In this way, if on its surface there would be pure waterthe response would be almost instantaneous as it is liquid. But what they saw is a 15-hour delay that indicated that the interior is highly viscous. What is it? The data collected suggests that the material on Titan behaves more like a pasty glacier or extremely dense slush. What seems ruled out is free-flowing water, where the existence of life in the future was already pointed out. A new Titan. With all the data that has been collected, it has been possible to completely define everything we knew about the internal geology of Saturn’s largest moon. Specifically, it is now known that the rock core has a radius of 2.26 km, and the layer that surrounds it is formed by high-pressure ice mixed with water. Although not everything has to be so cold, it also has hot water pockets due to the internal heat. This is what keeps liquid water lakes near the rock core at about 20ºC. The question of life. At first glance, eliminating a global ocean of liquid water may seem like a bad idea for astrobiologists who had hoped for life here. But for the members of this study, the opposite is true. In the new “slush” model, the liquid water in the pockets is in direct contact with the rock core. This is very important, as it allows the water to dissolve essential nutrients from the rose and also have a temperature of 20°C which is ideal for complex chemical reactions. But also, having a small size, all these components are more concentrated. Dragonfly. This discovery puts all the pressure on this NASA mission whose launch It is planned from 2028. Dragonfly is an octocopter designed to fly over the surface of Titan, but its most important instrument in this context is its seismometer. What was expected is that this mission would measure the tides of a deep ocean. Now their mission will be to confirm whether seismic waves propagate through this viscous “hail.” In the event that the characteristic vibrations are detected, we will have confirmed that Titan is the most promising chemical laboratory in our solar system. Images | Wikipedia Matt Hardy In Xataka | NASA changes hands in the middle of the space race with China: private astronaut Jared Isaacman will be its new director

Encell has everything to house extraterrestrial life. And Europe is moving to discover it before anyone else

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When NASA’s Cassini probe sent the first images of the water vapor jet That world was not dead. It was on, and the content of an underground ocean was expelling to space. Since then, Each new satellite data He has reinforced an idea that excites astrobiologists: if there is a place beyond the earth where to look for life, it is there. Short. A new Cassini data analysis, collected almost twenty years ago, has reinforced the possibility of Encelado to meet all the conditions to house life. The European space agency is clear: Encell is already a central objective of its long -term exploration plan, and it is time to launch a mission to answer the big question at once. The ingredients for life. For life to exist as we know it, three things are needed: liquid water, energy and several basic chemical elements: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. Once all seems to have them. We know that a global saltwater ocean is hidden under its icy cortex. The energy is provided by the friction of the tides that Saturn causes and, probably, Hydrothermal sources in the seabedsimilar to fumaroles that here are full of bacteria and more complex organisms, such as worms and snails. Promising news. Thanks to the brain speakers, who launch samples to space, Cassini was able to analyze the composition of their ocean. Although most of the essential elements had already been detected, including phosphorus, a new finding between probe data has re -raised enthusiasm. A study published in Nature Astronomy Analyzes a Cassini flight from 2008. The ship crossed the brain feathers at 18 km/s. That speed, which seemed like a problem, turned out to be useful: the impact broke the molecules in a way that allowed them to identify them better. The result has been the discovery of new complex organic molecules, such as aliphatic compounds, esters, ethers and other molecules with nitrogen and oxygen. On Earth, these molecules are linked to reactions that give rise to amino acids, the basic pieces of proteins. ESA plans. With such promising scenario, Europe does not want to be left behind. In his scientific road map Voyage 2050, Encesto is already the star destination for a future mission. The idea includes an orbiter and a landing module. The orbiter would fly over the brain feathers several times with more precise instruments than Cassini. The landing would pose near the “stripes of Tigre” of the South Pole, where the geysers emerge, to directly collect the newly fallen snow. It would be the first time that a probe analyzes a world with an active ocean, although it would not reach the surface until 2058. Europe is not alone in the race. The United States also has its proposal: the mission Alcamadus orbilandermarked as a maximum priority in the Survey decadal of 2023. Your plan is very similar: orbit first and then land. China, meanwhile, already works in nuclear technology for deep space probes and Enced is among its future goals. Image | POT In Xataka | If we want to find extraterrestrial life, we already know at what point in the space we must look for: the “Terminator”

NASA ignores Harvard’s study on an alleged extraterrestrial ship: “It is an interstellar kite”

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On July 1, 2025 he will go down in history as the day that astronomers confirmed the presence of an interstellar third object In the Solar System. 3i/Atlas is, according to NASA, a kite from another star. But for Harvard Avi Loeb teacher, it could be something much more disturbing: a piece of extraterrestrial technology, possibly hostile. Wait, what? In a series of articles and a Paper scientist Not yet reviewed by pairs, Avi Loeb and its collaborators pose a hypothesis that touches science fiction. Known for his controversial position on ‘oumuamua, The first interstellar object ever discoveredwhich also described as possible alien technology, Loeb bases his new theory on a series of characteristics that he considers “anomalous” on the path and nature of 3i/Atlas. The anomalies of 3i/Atlas. Loeb Point out in your blog that the retrograde path of 3i/Atlas is inclined only about five degrees with respect to the plane in which the earth orbit. The director of the Harvard Astronomy Department estimates that the probability that this occurs by chance is only 0.2%. His career about Venus, Mars and Jupiter unusually. An orbit like this, it argues, would be ideal for a probe that would like to observe the planets of the interior solar system. On the other hand, Loeb highlights its huge size, initially estimated at 20 kilometers in diameter. According to his article, we should have seen a million objects of the size of ‘oumuamua (about 100 meters) for each object of the 3I/Atlas caliber. To top it off, the new interstellar visitor will reach its closest point to the sun (its perihelium) on October 29, 2025, at which time it will have been hidden from our view by the sun itself. The dark forest hypothesis. Loeb suggests that becoming invisible from our point of view is intentionally, since the perihelium is the optimal point to perform an inverse Oberth maneuver: a high efficiency braking to be gravitationally trapped by the solar system without being detected from the earth. To round his hypothesis, Loeb is part of this idea in the dark forest hypothesis, popularized by the author of “The problem of the three bodies”, Cixin Liu. The hypothesis, One of the explanations of the Fermi paradoxsuggests that advanced civilizations remain silent to avoid being detected by other potentially predatory civilizations. In this scenario, 3i/Atlas would be a recognition probe exploring the solar system. NASA does not believe it is an alien ship. Although Loeb’s arguments are intriguing, they face Ockham’s Navaja, who says that the simplest explanation is usually correct. In this case, the simplest explanation is that 3i/Atlas is a kite, As NASA says. And the astronomical community has more and more evidence to support this conclusion, refuting, point by point, alleged anomalies. Telescope images such as North Gemini or the Vera C. Rubin Observatory They show what a coma looks like, A diffuse gas and dust cloud surrounding the kite ice cream When heated by the sun. This should invalidate the argument of the size of 20 km, since the real core is much smaller. Loeb himself He later recognized That the elongated appearance is due to the movement of the object during the photographic exposure, not to its shape. Disassembling the Avi Loeb hypothesis. Loeb said that no specific gases were detected. However, as explained by astronomer Darryl Seligman, the object was still far from the sun when those statements were made. It is normal for comime activity (basically, sublimation of ice) is weak to those distances. It is expected that as he approaches the sun, The spectral firms of gases They become visible. Loeb’s hypothesis has been received with strong skepticism. Chris Lentott, Astronomo of Oxford, described the suggestion In Live Science as “a nonsense about stilts and an insult to the exciting work that is being done to understand this object.” This reaction is not by closure, but because the overwhelming evidence available points in another direction. The reality is that 3i/Atlas is a fascinating object, a piece of another solar system that visits us very far, and that has probably more years than the Sun. Studying its composition and trajectory will give us very valuable information about how the planets are formed in other places of the galaxy. In Xataka | These real images were unthinkable before the Webb Telescope: they are planets orbiting other stars to 130 light years Image | Gemini Observatory/Noirlab/NSF/Aura/K. Meech (Ifa/U. Hawaii); Processing: Jen Miller, Mahdi Zamani (NSF/Noirlab)

Webb telescope has been looking for extraterrestrial life for years. He just found the strongest signal so far in K2-18b

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The finding. An international team of scientists, headed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, has just made public sulfide detection or dimethyl disulfide in the atmosphere of the exoplanet K2 –18B, which has been observing the James Webb space telescope. On earth, these molecules are only produced by living organisms, mainly marine phytoplankton. It is the strongest evidence so far of a biofirma, a sign of possible extraterrestrial life, outside the solar system. To confirm it, they will take between 16 and 24 hours of observation with the Webb Telescope, according to the study published by The Astrophysical Journal Letters. What is K2-18b. It is what is called a “subneptune”, a planet of 8.6 times the dough and 2.6 times the radius of the earth that orbits a red dwarf in the habitable zone (receiving a flow of energy from its star similar to the earth). It is 124 light years from us, in Leo’s constellation. He is also a candidate for planet Hacéano, worlds that could house global oceans under hydrogen -rich atmospheres. Webb’s first observations have already detected methane and carbon dioxide, which fits with this scenario. Reasons for optimism. When the planet passes in front of its star, part of the stellar light crosses its atmosphere. Each molecule leaves a pattern in the spectrum that scientists associate with molecules. Scientists They have seen twice the same pattern since 2023 With the Miri instrument of the Webb. We are facing the first coherent biofirma on a planet outside the solar system. Life could be more common than we think of planets greater than Earth. The planets made us would enter our external life search radar, today focused on rock worlds such as superstierras. Reasons for caution. Although on earth dimethyl sulfur is biological, researchers admit that in a world under high pressure and with an atmosphere of hydrogen, it could be the result of exotic geochemical reactions. They will need laboratory experiments and models to check.

launch a super hubble dedicated to looking for extraterrestrial life

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Last summer, NASA opened a new office at the Goddard Space Flight Center dedicated exclusively to design the most ambitious telescope in history. The habitable Worlds Observatory. With an investment of 17.5 million dollars only to explore the necessary technologies to materialize it, the HWO is described as a super hubblea new generation space telescope designed to look for extraterrestrial life on other planets. And we are not talking about planets of the Solar System. This observatory of habitable worlds will be dedicated to looking for biofirms on extra -land planets similar to the earth, the exoplanets that are discovered at a habitable distance of its star. A huge space telescope. If there is a clear thing is that The HWO will have imposing dimensions. NASA is considering mirrors that could measure between 4 and 15 meters in diameter. A savage compared to 2.4 meters of Hubble and 6.5 meters from James Webb. A greater magnitude would increase its ability to capture light and details of the exoplanets, but it would also complicate their deployment, taking into account that, like the webb, it will be located 1.5 million kilometers from the earth, in the second point of equilibrium Lagrange gravitational. Starship, heats you. Bringing such a large telescope to L2 will necessarily require any of the most powerful rockets in the world. Taking into account the SLS cancellation rumorsThere are two options left: New Glenn: The new Blue Origin rocket has a 7 -meter wide cofa, much larger than the standard of 5.4. I could launch the HWO if NASA opted for a compact version of the telescope Starship: The highest and most powerful rocket in the world has a 9 -meter load bay. By the time the HWO is ready, Spacex will have the completely operational ship, even with the ability to refuel in orbit to compensate for the enormous use of propellants in takeoff If the HWO ends up being larger than the James Webb space telescope (which was launched folded in the European rocket Ariane 5), Then Starship will be virtually the best option for deployment. What can we expect from HWO. Among the instruments planned for the telescope, there will be a very high sensitivity coronographer. It will allow to block the light of the stars to focus on the planets that orbit them. In addition, it will integrate high -resolution cameras, an advanced spectroscope and a fourth instrument yet to be defined. Unlike the Webb, which focuses on infrared, the HWO will operate on the visible spectrum and cover some ultraviolet and infrared bands, hence it is seen as the spiritual successor of the Hubble telescope. When will it be ready. According to the most optimistic calculations, around 2034. But taking into account that manufacturing its mirrors will require a precision at the scale of itchometers, we can expect a slow and complex process that perhaps approaches the release date to 2040. However, the lessons learned from James Webb (which cost 10,000 million dollars and launched after numerous delays) could help reduce cost overruns and postponements of this type of scientific missions. The HWO is not, in fact, a project that just put on the table. It arises from the convergence of previous initiatives such as Habex and Luvoir, and drinks from years of experience in previous missions. Image | NASA-GODDARD In Xataka | NASA has such a simple explanation that it scares about our inability to find extraterrestrial signs

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