September 2022 – My WordPress Site

3D view of a typical simulation setup. SW density distribution (color scale), Earth magnetic field lines (red lines), and Sun magnetic field (pink lines). The bold pink arrows indicate the orientation of the IMF (Southward orientation). The green lines indicate the SW velocity stream lines. -- astro-ph.EP

Europa, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Enhanced RGB Image Of Europa Taken By Juno From PJ45

by Keith CowingSeptember 30, 2022

This Enhanced RGB image of Europa is a composition of 9h38/9h39/9h40 and 9h41

Best-fit occultation depths of individual CHEOPS visits (blue) along with their posteriors on the right. The horizontal solid and dashed lines represent the mean occultation depth of 82.4 ± 5.6 ppm. The panel on the right-side displays the best-fit posterior distribution. The green shaded regions indicate the span of the TESS Sectors 40, 41 and 54 while the brown points indicate sector-wise occultation depth. -- astro-ph.EP

Europa, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Controlled Mosaic Of Europa Taken By Juno From PJ45

by Keith CowingSeptember 30, 2022September 30, 2022

Xeno amino acids potentially change the biochemistry of protein folding (A) Combinations of peptide torsion angles (𝜙 & 𝛹: see Box 1) summarize peptide/protein secondary structure (adapted from Elsliger et al., 2012). Zones A & B are torsion-angle pairs disallowed by biophysics under strict steric considerations yet observed empirically upon careful investigation for specific combinations of side chains (discussed in Kalamankar et al., 2015). This provides one clue that the current, well-established map of secondary structure could shift or become unrecognizable if rebuilt for xeno amino acids (B) The dominant secondary structures of life on Earth, α-helices and ꞵ-sheets (first described by Linderstrøm-Lang, 1952), form and are stabilized by hydrogen bonds (blue dotted lines). These hydrogen bonds usually involve atoms in the amino acid backbone. The bonds and therefore protein structures would be obstructed or altered if peptides comprised a heterogeneous enantiomeric mixture, more than one sidechain per amino acid or longer backbones (i.e. β- γ- δ-) (C) Multiple secondary structures within a single polymerized amino acid sequence combine to form the larger, folded tertiary structure. It follows from A-C that protein structures could be unpredictably different if the fundamental building blocks (amino acids) were changed. Images were created using Mol* Viewer (Sehna et al., 2021) with PDB 4LV0 AmpC beta-lactamase in complex with m-aminophenyl boronic acid (London et al., 2014). -- q-bio.BM

Europa, Missions & Hardware, Tricorders & Sensors, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Tricorder Tech: Exploring Europa With Silicon-germanium Transistor Technology

by Keith CowingSeptember 30, 2022September 30, 2022

Taurus Magnetic Cloud viewed by Herschel and Planck -- ESA

Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

A Day At The Beach For Life On Other Worlds

by Keith CowingSeptember 30, 2022September 30, 2022

Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones

Modification Of The Radioactive Heat Budget Of Earth-like Exoplanets By The Loss Of Primordial Atmospheres

by Keith CowingSeptember 29, 2022September 29, 2022

Malononitrile

Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Predicted Diversity In Water Content Of Terrestrial Exoplanets Orbiting M Dwarfs

by Keith CowingSeptember 29, 2022September 29, 2022

Habitable Zones, Mars

New Evidence For Liquid Water Beneath The South Polar Ice Cap Of Mars

by Keith CowingSeptember 29, 2022September 29, 2022

Microfossils are contained within black chert like the ones seen here. CREDIT Provided by Erica Barlow

Europa, Imaging & Spectroscopy

First Juno Image From Europa Flyby

by Keith CowingSeptember 29, 2022September 29, 2022

Interstellar, SETI & Technosignatures

The Inferred Abundance of Interstellar Objects of Technological Origin

by Keith CowingSeptember 28, 2022September 28, 2022

Current weather in the region 9highlighted) around Lake Untersee

Astrochemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Europa, Missions & Hardware

University of Colorado Boulder’s Europa SUrface Dust Analyzer (SUDA)

by Keith CowingSeptember 28, 2022September 28, 2022