Oxygen No Longer Lost in Space

                                                                                                                                                      Astronomers have at last identified the distinct signatures of oxygen molecules in space, using observations made with the Herschel Space Observatory, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA contributions. The rarity of cosmic oxygen molecules -- the same molecules making up part of the air we breathe on Earth -- is still a mystery, but the new observations provide clues about why they had gone missing.

Herschel found the molecules in a dense patch of gas and dust adjacent to star-forming regions in the Orion nebula. Astronomers suspect that newborn stars heated nearby icy grains, releasing water, which was then converted to oxygen. In other parts of clouds, where oxygen molecules are not detected, the oxygen may be locked up in the icy grains.

The inset is an artist's concept of a collection of oxygen molecules, where two connected balls represent two oxygen atoms bound together as an oxygen molecule. The image of the Orion nebula was taken in infrared light by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

Reports claim solar storms will hit Earth

It certainly seems like the world has been under attack lately. Now that "Debtaggedon" is over, Reuters is reporting that there have been three large explosions from the Sun over the past few days, and that "sun storms" are set to hit the Earth. The U.S. government, which is pretty pressed for time as it is right now, is warning "users of satellite, telecommunications and electric equipment to prepare for possible disruptions over the next few days." Or, as National Geographic informs us: "Storms are brewing about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) away, and if one of them reaches Earth, it could knock out communications, scramble GPS, and leave thousands without power for weeks to months."

Joseph Kunches, a space weather scientist from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said that the magnetic storm that is soon to develop probably will be in the "moderate to strong level." So how afraid should we be? According to Reuters, major disruptions from solar activity, rare though they may be, have had serious impacts in the past.

In 1989, a solar storm took down the power grid in Quebec, Canada, leaving about six million people without power for several hours...

The 1859 solar storm hit telegraph offices around the world and caused a giant aurora visible as far south as the Caribbean Islands. Some telegraph operators reported electric shocks. Papers caught fire. And many telegraph systems continued to send and receive signals even after operators disconnected batteries, NOAA said on its website.

Reuters adds that according to a 2008 report by the National Research Council, a similar storm could cause up to $2 trillion in damage, globally. But before hysteria sets in, Kunches said that, "I don't think this week's solar storms will be anywhere near that." However, lest we relax too much, the International Business Times reports that solar activity is increasingly becoming a source of concern:

The NOAA predicted four extreme solar emissions which could threaten the planet this decade. Similarly, Nasa warned that a peak in the sun's magnetic energy cycle and the number of sun spots or flares around 2013 could enable extremely high radiation levels.

Apparently, the sun is approaching what's known as solar maximum—the high point in its roughly 11-year cycle of activity, according to National Geographic. Scientists anticipate stronger storms around solar max, in 2013. So while Rich Lordan from the Electric Power Research Institute said that "based on the data and the scenarios we can reasonably expect, I believe the power-delivery system can operate through a solar storm," overall the danger is becoming more critical.

New Evidence of Life On Mars:NASA Finds Traces of Water On Mars

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - NASA scientists have discovered new evidence that briny water flows on Mars during its warmest months, raising chances that life could exist on the Red Planet, the space agency said on Thursday. NASA first found signs of water on Mars more than a decade ago, but earlier indications were that any existing water would be frozen and concentrated at the poles.
Recently analyzed images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite show dark, finger-like features that extend down some slopes and crater walls on the planet during its late spring through summer, fading in the Martian winter.
"This is the best evidence we have to date of a liquid water occurring today on Mars," said Philip Christensen, a geophysicist at Arizona State University, Tempe, in a NASA panel announcing the findings in Washington.
NASA scientists believe that if there is liquid water on Mars, it would be highly salty and lie beneath the surface. That would explain why it would not freeze in the planet's frigid surface temperatures, which can fall to around 200 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 128 degrees Celsius), or evaporate in its low air pressure.
"It is more like a syrup, maybe, in how it flows," said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson, principal investigator in charge of a special camera on the Mars orbiter called a High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment.
He also is the lead author of a report on evidence of water flows published on Thursday in the journal Science.
BETTER THAN ICE
The scientists on NASA's panel stressed that liquid water is more likely to sustain life than ice, underscoring the importance of the latest discovery.
Past NASA discoveries revealed evidence of ancient shorelines and riverbanks on Mars. And analysis of gullies on the Red Planet five years ago turned up fresh mineral deposits that suggested recent water flows, but provided no categorical proof of that, scientists said.
The latest discovery is more difficult to explain away as evidence of anything but contemporary water flows, said Michael Meyer, Mars exploration program lead scientist at NASA.
Another possibility to account for the periodic darkening in the areas under examination is dust moving along the surface of the planet, McEwen said. But dust avalanches would occur at more random intervals, rather than on a seasonal basis, he said.
Scientists on the panel said the latest imaging evidence of flowing water also suggests the existence of liquid water closer to the planet's equator than previously found.
Any liquid water would likely lie beneath the surface because the atmosphere on Mars is so thin that liquid water above ground would quickly evaporate, scientists said.
Some organisms on Earth thrive underground with little access to sunlight, and the same thing could be occurring on Mars, said Lisa Pratt, biogeochemist at Indiana University, Bloomington, and a participant on the NASA panel discussing the results on Thursday.
Pratt said further research is needed at the seven sites where recurring evidence of flowing water was found.
"It is our first chance to see an environment on Mars that might allow for the expression of an active biological process, if there is present-day life on Mars," she said.

Article: Seattle Space Needle Puts Free Spaceflight Up for Grabs

If you've ever wanted to fly to space for free, here's your chance. Seattle's Space Needle and the private spaceflight company Space Adventures are teaming up to send one private citizen on a suborbital space tourist flight free of charge — a $110,000 value. The launch could take place sometime in 2012, though the date hasn't been set yet.
"Space Adventures is extremely excited to partner with the Space Needle on this campaign," said Space Adventures chairman Eric Anderson in a statement. "It is our mission to open the space frontier to the private sector, and there is no better way to energize the general public, especially our youth, about space than to offer a flight opportunity to the masses."

'Stealth' Solar Eclipse Spotted in Satellite Photos

The moon blocked part of the sun in a partial solar eclipse today (July 1) in an event caught on camera by a European satellite, even though it was largely invisible to everyone on planet Earth.

The solar eclipse peaked at about 4:40 a.m. EDT (0840 GMT), but it was only visible from an extremely remote — and uninhabited — patch of the southern Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Antarctica, south of Africa.  NASA classified the stealthy eclipse as the "eclipse that nobody sees," but the European Space Agency's Proba-2 satellite orbiting Earth managed to observe the event using a telescope called Swap.
The Proba-2 photos show the sun with a small, dark bite missing at the point where the moon blocked the star's light. The solar eclipse lasted about 90 minutes, with the moon blocking only about 9.7 percent of the sun's surface at the event's peak.