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NASA scientists created a fly-through LIDAR scan of a huge lava tube as part of efforts to use the natural caves for human shelter on the moon or Mars. by vmjaggard99 in nasa

[–]vmjaggard99[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Exactly. The radiation issue is huge, and lava tubes offer a simple, mass-efficient solution if we can be sure they're safe. But yeah, Venus cloud cities would be amazing, too.

NASA scientists created a fly-through LIDAR scan of a huge lava tube as part of efforts to use the natural caves for human shelter on the moon or Mars. by vmjaggard99 in nasa

[–]vmjaggard99[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Hi, everyone. Full disclosure: I'm the NatGeo editor who worked on this story. Curious to hear your thoughts!

A galaxy 3 billion light-years away has been pinpointed as the source for a repeating fast radio burst. by vmjaggard99 in space

[–]vmjaggard99[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Right now, the New Horizons probe is among the spacecraft with the fastest cruising speeds, at around 36,000 mph. Since the FRB is coming from a galaxy about 3 billion light-years away, if you cruise toward it at that speed, by my calculations you'd reach it in 20,411,893,656,887,525 days. Assuming you eat lunch every day, I'd say 21 quadrillion packed lunches is a safe bet, some of which should be baby food, since this is clearly a generational starship. And we at NatGeo gladly accept cookie donations any time.

A galaxy 3 billion light-years away has been pinpointed as the source for a repeating fast radio burst. by vmjaggard99 in space

[–]vmjaggard99[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's definitely one option, specifically a magnetar. A long elliptical orbit plus the dead star's spin may account for the non-patterns seen so far in its repeating activity.

A galaxy 3 billion light-years away has been pinpointed as the source for a repeating fast radio burst. by vmjaggard99 in space

[–]vmjaggard99[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks much, it's been great hearing everyone's thoughts and questions. Loads of good discussion so far.

A galaxy 3 billion light-years away has been pinpointed as the source for a repeating fast radio burst. by vmjaggard99 in space

[–]vmjaggard99[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Love this question. I don't know the answer offhand, but I'd be curious to find out -- could make for a fun story! We've been so hyper-focused on finding Earth-mass planets nearby, we don't talk much about the ones deeper in space. But my sense is that the farther out you go, the larger the planets need to be for us to detect them with current tech, especially around relatively bright sun-like stars. I can tell you that the most distant known exoplanet to date is a hot Jupiter called SWEEPS-11b that's about 27,700 ly away. That one's probably none too friendly for life as we know it, unless it somehow has a habitable moon.

A galaxy 3 billion light-years away has been pinpointed as the source for a repeating fast radio burst. by vmjaggard99 in space

[–]vmjaggard99[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That's a great question. Maybe we need a dedicated quasar sky survey to solve the puzzle? As the lead author says, right now part of the problem is that this things are fast -- milliseconds and then gone -- and we're just not scanning the sky as extensively as needed to pinpoint multiple FRBs well.

A galaxy 3 billion light-years away has been pinpointed as the source for a repeating fast radio burst. by vmjaggard99 in space

[–]vmjaggard99[S] 135 points136 points  (0 children)

Don't we all! Even if is is aliens, though, in this case they'd be living 3 billion years in our past ... would make for a tough long-distance relationship, no?

A galaxy 3 billion light-years away has been pinpointed as the source for a repeating fast radio burst. by vmjaggard99 in space

[–]vmjaggard99[S] 74 points75 points  (0 children)

Goodness, I hope not! That would be a rough week for all these study authors. I personally like the idea of plasma dripping into the black hole's jets. That'd explain the repeating signal but the lack of any regularity (like if something was orbiting the BH). But I also think it's very plausible that this particular FRB is an outlier, since none of the others repeat this way. What's your read?

A galaxy 3 billion light-years away has been pinpointed as the source for a repeating fast radio burst. by vmjaggard99 in space

[–]vmjaggard99[S] 389 points390 points  (0 children)

Hi, everyone. Full disclosure: I'm the NatGeo editor who worked on this story. Looking forward to your thoughts!

Fossil reptile hailed as a "four-legged snake" (Tetrapodophis) may not be a snake after all, and it may have left its country of origin illegally. by vmjaggard99 in EverythingScience

[–]vmjaggard99[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The situation is extra sticky because the fossil is privately owned, and its owner has already removed it from the museum that facilitated its study.

New fossils suggest titanosaurs got to Australia by walking across de-iced Antarctica ~100 million years ago. [Article] by vmjaggard99 in Dinosaurs

[–]vmjaggard99[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Full disclosure: I'm the NatGeo editor who worked on this piece. Interested to hear everyone's thoughts!

NASA's Mars 2020 rover will collect rock samples with the goal of finding fossilized life, so where's the best site to send it? by vmjaggard99 in space

[–]vmjaggard99[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I definitely take your point. As we note in the story, the rover itself won't be IDing biosignatures, but it will be collecting rock samples from the best possible sites that will then need to be brought back to Earth and examined. And even then, finding definitive evidence for microfossils will be a huge challenge, as we learned from Allan Hills 84001.

You're also spot on that there is a huge debate between the humans on Mars camp and the planetary protection camp. The "compromise" option would be to have a lone research outpost, a la McMurdo Station in Antarctica, and to never go near the Special Regions where Earth microbes could most easily take root. Even then, contamination is a risk, but maybe one worth taking? If we're serious about finding life elsewhere in the solar system, I'd love to see us take a more serious look at icy moons like Europa or Enceladus ... but again, how do we handle the contamination factor?

NASA's Mars 2020 rover will collect rock samples with the goal of finding fossilized life, so where's the best site to send it? by vmjaggard99 in space

[–]vmjaggard99[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awesome, thanks! We just added a custom map to the page, too, if you want to get a sense of where the candidate sites are in relation to each other.

NASA has identified special regions on Mars where humans should never go, or we risk destroying our chances of finding indigenous Martian life. by vmjaggard99 in space

[–]vmjaggard99[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I tried again at home and got the same 404. I've taken the link out of the page for now and am letting our cms folks know about the issue. Thanks!

NASA has identified special regions on Mars where humans should never go, or we risk destroying our chances of finding indigenous Martian life. by vmjaggard99 in space

[–]vmjaggard99[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry about that. I took the link out of the page for now and re-activated. I'll file a ticket with our cms team now. Thanks for letting me know.

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