Clouds of uncertainty: Scientists claim to have spotted signs of life on Venus but sceptics prevail
Venus surface is a hellish place with temperatures well over 800 degrees Fahrenheit but it could ve been much more like Earth today, with oceans and a moderate climate
Feb 10, 2021 10:12:38 IST
A team of astronomers made a blockbuster claim in the fall. They said they had discovered compelling evidence pointing to life floating in the clouds of Venus.
If true, that would be stunning. People have long gazed into the cosmos and wondered whether something is alive out there. For an affirmative answer to pop up on the planet in the orbit next to Earth’s would suggest that life is not rare in the universe, but commonplace.
Spaceflight Insider
Laurel Kornfeld
February 6th, 2021
This image depicts the location of Clavius Crater, a rendering of water trapped in lunar soil, and the SOFIA Observatory. Image Credit: NASA
Two Earth-based studies confirm water molecules are present on the Moon, but the amounts vary depending on location and time of day, Casey Honniball of NASA’s
online seminar titled “A Tale of Lunar Water,” sponsored by the
Lunar and Planetary Institute (
LPI) in Houston, Texas.
Infrared Telescope Facility (
Apollo missions and by the former Soviet Union’s
Luna missions contain low levels of volatile elements though a few had high water contents, Honniball said. However, these samples represent only localized areas on the lunar surface and not the whole Moon.
Press release content from PR Newswire. The AP news staff was not involved in its creation.
SOFIA Begins First Series of Science Flights from Germany
February 4, 2021 GMT
Universities Space Research Association Logo (PRNewsfoto/Universities Space Research Ass)
COLUMBIA, Md., Feb. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) will conduct its first-ever series of observations from Germany in March 2021. Many of the observations seek to answer fundamental questions in astronomy, including how stars can transform galaxies and what is the origin of cosmic rays in the Milky Way galaxy.
SOFIA, a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center, DLR, recently completed scheduled maintenance and telescope upgrades at Lufthansa Technik’s facility in Hamburg, Germany. Now, the observatory will take advantage of its proximity to science teams at the Max-Planck Institute of Radio Astronomy in Bonn and the University of Cologne, which operate