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'Lucky' MESSENGER data upends long-held idea about Venus' atmosphere
phys.org ^
| 04/21/2020
| by Jeremy Rehm, Johns Hopkins University
Posted on 04/22/2020 9:17:01 AM PDT by BenLurkin
What started as a dry run to ensure instruments on NASA's Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft worked properly later turned into a 10-year saga that resulted in a chance discovery unrelated to the mission's target planet, Mercury. It's about Venus and its atmosphere.
The team reports April 20 in Nature Astronomy that data fortuitously collected by MESSENGER reveals a sudden rise in nitrogen concentrations at about 30 miles above Venus' surface, demonstrating the planet's atmosphere isn't uniformly mixed, as expected. That finding upends an understanding about Venus' atmosphere that has prevailed for decades.
The story started in June 2007 as MESSENGER sailed above Venus for its second flyby before veering toward Mercury. Mission instrument teams took the opportunity to test their devices and collect data before the real show was set to begin some six months later.
Among the team members was David Lawrence, a nuclear physicist at APL. He was the instrument scientist for MESSENGER's neutron spectrometer, which detects neutrons set loose into space from cosmic rays colliding with molecules in a planet's atmosphere or surface. It aimed to find the telltale signs of neutrons coming from hydrogen atoms in water molecules that were suspected (and later confirmed) to be frozen in the crater shadows at Mercury's poles.
Over Venus, however, Lawrence just wanted to collect some data to verify the instrument was operating correctly. An initial check showed it worked, and the data was tabled.
But in 2010, Lawrence revisited those measurements, this time with Patrick Peplowski, another nuclear physicist at APL. Despite 50 years of sending robotic missions to Venus, including 13 atmospheric probes or landers, a lot of uncertainty about the nitrogen concentration in Venus' atmosphere, especially between 30 and 60 miles above the surface, remained.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; catastrophism; davidlawrence; globalwarminghoax; greennewdeal; immanuelvelikovsky; patrickpeplowski; science; venus
1
posted on
04/22/2020 9:17:01 AM PDT
by
BenLurkin
To: BenLurkin
Peplowski and Lawrence say this new result underscores the caution researchers need when drawing conclusions about atmospheric data, especially with the growing interest in planetary atmospheres in other solar systems.
...
Does this mean that we should be skeptical of consensus?
2
posted on
04/22/2020 9:23:38 AM PDT
by
Moonman62
(http://www.freerepublic.com/~moonman62/)
To: BenLurkin
IIRC, the surface temperature on Venus is in the 800-900 degree range. Different gases react to temperatures in their own way, so it’s not unreasonable to expect that they might stratify into layers.
3
posted on
04/22/2020 9:24:22 AM PDT
by
JimRed
(TERM LIMITS, NOW! Build the Wall Faster! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
To: Moonman62
“Does this mean that we should be skeptical of consensus?”
No. Absolutely not. And shame on you for even thinking that thought.
I’m sending this to Bill DeBlasio.
To: Moonman62
5
posted on
04/22/2020 9:28:43 AM PDT
by
BenLurkin
(The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire. Or both.)
To: 75thOVI; Abathar; agrace; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AnalogReigns; AndrewC; aragorn; ...
6
posted on
04/22/2020 9:29:51 AM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
To: JimRed
7
posted on
04/22/2020 9:30:10 AM PDT
by
Sirius Lee
(They are openly stating that they intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live.)
To: BenLurkin
This article prompted me to find the account of the Russian probe that landed on Venus in 1970. I had forgotten about Venera 7. This is from wikipedia
“The parachute opened at a height of 60 km, and atmospheric testing began with results showing the atmosphere to be 97% carbon dioxide. The parachute was initially reefed down to 1.8 square meters, opening to 2.5 square meters 13 minutes later, when the reefing line melted as designed. Six minutes after the unreefing, the parachute started to fail, resulting in a descent more rapid than planned. The parachute eventually failed completely, and the probe entered a period of freefall. As a result, the lander struck the surface of Venus at about 16.5 m/s (37 mph)
The probe appeared to go silent on impact, but recording tapes kept rolling. A few weeks later, upon a review of the tapes by the radio astronomer Oleg Rzhiga, another 23 minutes of very weak signals were found on them. The spacecraft had landed on Venus, and probably bounced onto its side, leaving the medium gain antenna not aimed correctly for strong signal transmission to Earth.
The probe transmitted information to Earth for 53 minutes, which included about 20 minutes from the surface. It was found that the temperature at the surface of Venus was 475 °C (887 °F) ± 20 °C.”
To: BenLurkin
It may be possible, within the next century or so, to start a “terraforming” of the atmosphere of Venus, by “seeding” it with several captured “dirty snowball” comets, steered to collide with the planet as it passes, and releasing airborne microorganisms to proceed with the transformation of the composition of the atmosphere, releasing the water to start its cycle of cooling the planet to a tolerable temperature range, and eventually forming oceans.
The real estate possibilities alone would be, like, opening up a whole new world.
9
posted on
04/22/2020 9:32:43 AM PDT
by
alloysteel
(Freedom is not a matter of life and death. It is much more serious than that..)
To: BenLurkin
But, but, but... this was settled science. How dare David Lawrence challenge it... how dare he!!! What an outrage.
10
posted on
04/22/2020 9:34:12 AM PDT
by
GOPJ
(Is misery and death worth the four bucks saved on the crappy waffle-iron 'made in China?)
To: BenLurkin
It says “We have more women.”
To: BenLurkin
It also says “Send more Chuck Berry. Send less Justin Bieber.”
To: Larry Lucido
13
posted on
04/22/2020 9:41:11 AM PDT
by
BenLurkin
(The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire. Or both.)
To: Moonman62
Does this mean that we should be skeptical of consensus? Of course! All the unknowns and uncertainties are what makes astronomy and planetary research so interesting.
14
posted on
04/22/2020 9:41:54 AM PDT
by
dragnet2
(Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
Lawrence knew of a 1962 paper, however, that suggested neutron spectroscopy could help determine Venus' atmospheric nitrogen concentration. Nitrogen is fairly good at scavenging loose neutrons, unlike carbon and oxygen, which are some of the worst. So on Venus, the number of neutrons an instrument detects should depend on the amount of atmospheric nitrogen. Nitrogen concentration through Venus' atmosphere. New analysis of MESSENGER data shows an uptick in nitrogen concentration around Venus' upper cloud deck roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) up, upending a long-held idea that nitrogen is distributed equally throughout. The red line is a trend line fitted to data from multiple missions, including MESSENGER's data, which was collected between 35 and 65 miles (60 and 100 km) high. Credit: Johns Hopkins APL... When they compared their models with the MESSENGER data, they found the best match was when atmospheric nitrogen made up 5% of the volume, about 1.5 times that measured lower in the atmosphere. And all of the neutrons came from a region between roughly 35 and 60 miles above the surface -- exactly where there had been the greatest uncertainty.
15
posted on
04/24/2020 10:37:45 AM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
The Immanuel Velikovsky and Velikovsky keywords, sorted, duplicates out:
- 'Lucky' MESSENGER data upends long-held idea about Venus' atmosphere [2020]
- Prophetic Utterance from Giambattista Vico [2020]
- Storms on Jupiter are disturbing the planet's colorful belts [2019]
- Baby Jupiter was likely slammed by planet 4.5 billion years ago [2019]
- How Mercury and Venus can guide our hunt for alien life on exoplanets [2019]
- The sun follows the rhythm of the planets [2019]
- Perspectives on ancient chronology and the Old Testament -- part 2 [2019]
- Ex-Mufti, Criminal Ally[Arabs aka palestinians saving Jews-it's calming] [2019]
- A Diamond the Size of Earth - is this Jupiter's core? [2018]
- Science Says: A big space crash likely made Uranus lopsided [2018]
- A big space crash likely made Uranus lopsided [2018]
- Can Venus Teach Us to Take Climate Change Seriously? (Venus CO2 96.5%, Earth CO2 0.03%!) [2018]
- 40-year mystery about rising temps on moon solved -- and it was probably the Apollo astronauts' fault [2018]
- Do these ruins prove the Biblical story of Exodus? Experts are testing ancient camps... [2018]
- Jupiter and Venus Change Earth's Orbit Every 405,000 Years [2018]
- Crafty Israelites: Iron Age Crafts at Tel Hazor [2018]
- Saturn's Rings are a Recent Addition to the Solar System, Cassini Observations Show [2018]
- Mars and Earth may not have been early neighbors [2017]
- Earth and Venus are the Same Size, so Why Doesn't Venus Have a Magnetosphere?.... [2017]
- Huge magnetic tail discovered behind Mars [2017]
- Venus wave may be Solar System's biggest [2017]
- Study aims to uncover mystery of Luxor's tomb KV55 [2016]
- Venus Express' swansong experiment sheds light on Venus' polar atmosphere [2016]
- Moons of Saturn May Be Younger Than the Dinosaurs [2016]
- Babylonians Were Using Geometry Centuries Earlier Than Thought [2016]
- Cuvier and Schaeffer's Catastrophism: [2016]
- Exiled exoplanet likely kicked out of star's neighborhood [2015]
- Patterns of Evidence: Exodus [2015]
- The Moon is Surrounded by Neon, NASA Probe Reveals [2015]
- Carl Sagan's Son Is a 9/11 Truther [2015]
- Encore Presentation of Patterns of Evidence: Exodus [2015]
- Monday, January 19th: Patterns Of Evidence: The Exodus (one day only) [2015]
- Lost in Space: Half of All Stars Are Rogues Between Galaxies [2014]
- Mega wave hit Oman's coast 4,500 years ago [2014]
- Time Machine: Dr. James Van Allen [2014]
- Astronomy: Planets in chaos. Standard ideas of Planet formation are being demolished [2014]
- Rare sarcophagus, Egyptian scarab found in Israel [2014]
- Rare clay sarcophagus found in Israel alongside Seti I scarab seal ring [2014]
- The Original Sin of Global Warming [2014]
- Weird 'Gravity Waves' in Venus Clouds Spotted by Spacecraft [2014]
- Strange Space Object Stumps Astronomers; Appears to be Asteroid but Has Six Comet-Like Tails [2013]
- Friggatriskaidekaphobiacs: Why Do So Many People Fear Friday-the-13th? [2013]
- Rogue Planets Could Form On Their Own in Interstellar Space [2013]
- Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Venus' Once Molten Surface [2013]
- Venus' Winds Are Mysteriously Speeding Up [2013]
- 'Orphan' alien planet with no parent is found near Earth [2012]
- CFBDSIR2149: An Orphaned Planet Without A Parent Star (VIDEO) [2012]
- Jupiter Has Taken a Massive Meteor Hit (So Earth Didn't Have To) [2012]
- 'Myths' Are More Plausible than Fiction [2012]
- New Planet Found in Our Solar System? [2012]
- Free-floating planets in the Milky Way outnumber stars by factors of thousands [2012]
- Freeman Dyson: Science on the Rampage [2012]
- Some Stars Capture Rogue Planets [2012]
- How Many Unbound Planets in Milky Way? [2012]
- Scientists tell of 'runaway' planets [2012]
- Many Solar System Comets May Be Sun's Stolen Goods [2012]
- How Many Loose Planets in the Milky Way? [2012]
- When Stars Play Planetary Pinball [2012]
- When straying Jupiter went on the pull [2012]
- Life spotted on Venus: Russian scientist [2012]
- Earth Must Have Another Moon, Say Astronomers [2011]
- Venus Unveiled: Spacecraft finds Earthy features on sister planet [2011]
- Giant planet ejected from the solar system [2011]
- Venus springs ozone layer surprise [2011]
- Comet's water 'like that of Earth's oceans' [2011]
- Venus Weather Not Boring After All, Scientists Discover [2011]
- NASA Finds Hydrocarbons on Saturn's Moon Hyperion [2011]
- The tsunamis of Olympia [2011]
- Baby star blasts jets of water into space [2011]
- Strongest evidence yet indicates Enceladus hiding saltwater ocean [2011]
- Sea Peoples invade: 1192-1190 BC [2011]
- Solar system edge 'bunches' in magnetic bubbles: NASA [2011]
- Stealing Israeli History [2011]
- The story behind the world's oldest museum, built by a Babylonian princess 2,500 years ago [2011]
- Who Needs a Moon? [2011]
- Mars 'remains in embryonic state' [2011]
- So Many Lonely Planets with No Star to Guide Them [2011]
- 'Free-floating' planets found with no star in sight [2011]
- Lonely Rogue Worlds Surprisingly Outnumber Planets with Suns [2011]
- The Birth & Death of Biblical Minimalism [2011]
- Mystery Planet: Is a Rogue Giant Orbiting Our Sun? [2011]
- Moon has liquid core just like Earth...reveal sensors left on surface by astronauts 40 YEARS ago [2011]
- Venus Has a Moon? It was thought to be alone, but Venus is being stalked by a "quasi-satellite." [2010]
- Israel in Canaan (Long) Before Pharaoh Merenptah? A Fresh Look at Berlin Statue Pedestal Relief... [2010]
- Venus holds warning for Earth (climate madness - smell the sulphur) [2010]
- First Alien Planet From Another Galaxy Discovered [2010]
- Comet-like tail discovered trailing planet Mercury [2010]
- Mercury found to have comet-like appearance by satellites looking at sun [2010]
- Space news: Fireballs light up Jupiter [2010]
- James P Hogan obituary [James Patrick Hogan, author and essayist, 6-27-1941 -- 6-12-2010] [2010]
- Third Jupiter Fireball Spotted -- -- Sky-Watching Army Needed? [2010]
- 'Jupiter swallowed planet 10 times the size of Earth' [2010]
- Planet Found With Comet-like Tail [2010]
- Scorched Alien Planet Has a Comet Tail (153 light-years from Earth) [2010]
- Hubble Space Telescope Captures Rare Jupiter Collision [2010]
- Anthony Wesley records another impact on Jupiter! [2010]
- Cosmic Bullet Fired by Exploding Star [2010]
- Mummified Baboons in British Museum May Reveal Location of the Land of Punt [2010]
- Neptune may have eaten a planet and stolen its moon [2010]
- DNA Shows that KV55 Mummy Probably Not Akhenaten [Smenkhare] [2010]
- Egypt reveals Tutankhamun's lineage, cause of death [2010]
- Star Keeps Magnetic Lock on Its Big Brother [2010]
- On the Fringe: Astronomers look to the Kuiper belt for clues to the solar system's history [2010]
- New species evolve in bursts - Red Queen hypothesis of gradual evolution undermined. [2009]
- Revealed: Saturn's secret 'doughnut' ring ... big enough to contain one billion Earths [2009]
- The Science Cartel vs. Immanuel Velikovsky [2009]
- "Asteroid Impacts are the Biggest Threat to Advanced Life in the Milky Way" -Stephen Hawking [2009]
- Craters on Vesta and Ceres could hold key to Jupiter's age [2009]
- Evening Lectures on Migrating Planets, Hazardous Asteroids Search [2009]
- Two Planets Collide in Deep Space [2009]
- Nasa aims to move Earth [2009]
- Mysterious bright spot found on Venus [2009]
- Bright Spot on Venus Stumps Scientists..... (No Clue) [2009]
- Hubble pictures Jupiter's 'scar' [2009]
- Jupiter Struck by Object, NASA Images Confirm [2009]
- The Star That Ate a Mars [2009]
- Neighboring planet could hit Earth...eventually! We're doomed!!! [2009]
- Earth may collide with Venus [2009]
- The Curious Case of Missing Asteroids [2009]
- Why are the sun and moon the same size in the sky? [2009]
- Were Mercury and Mars separated at birth? [2009]
- Where Did Venus's Water Go? [2008]
- Did Volcanoes Spark Life on Earth? [2008]
- Worlds in collision [planets 300 ly distant, inferred from extraordinary quantity of dust] [2008]
- Are Jupiters Hard to Come By? [2008]
- Deniers of Ancient Israelite History Exposed [2008]
- Mars' Water Appears To Have Been Too Salty To Support Life [2008]
- Origins of Myth - When Saturn was King [2008]
- Will Mercury Hit Earth Someday? [2008]
- The Chaotic Genesis of Planets [ FREE PREVIEW ] [2008]
- The Moon And The Magnetotail [2008]
- Mira: The Tale of a Giant Star... with a tail [2008]
- Did A Mega-collision Alter Venus? [2008]
- Venus' Tail of the Unexpected [2008]
- Mysterious Haze Found on Venus [2008]
- Velikovsky, Hero or Villain? Plasma Cosmology Astronomy -YouTube video [2008]
- Milky Way could hold hundreds of rogue black holes: study [2008]
- Solving Solar System Quandaries Is Simple: Just Flip-flop The Position Of Uranus And Neptune [2007]
- Did A Comet Cause The Great Flood? [2007]
- Rethinking Jupiter [2007]
- New data challenge Earth atmosphere theory [2007]
- Venus' double vortex raises new mystery [2007]
- Spacecraft Surfs Jupiter's Magnetic Tail [2007]
- The End of Eden: The Comet That Changed Civilization [2007]
- Jupiter Increases Risk Of Comet Strike On Earth [2007]
- Discovery of Vast Tail on Dying Star Promises Clues to Solar Birth [2007]
- Mystery of Tut's Father: New Clues on Unidentified Mummy [2007]
- Venus: Hothouse Planet (or Venus vs. Uniformitarianism) [2007]
- Gas Giants Jump Into Planet Formation Early [2007]
- Astronomy Picture of the Day [2007]
- Climate Catastrophes In The Solar System [2007]
- Human Remains In Ancient Jar A Mystery [2007]
- Venus Express Sees Right Down To Planet's Lead-Melting Hot Surface [2006]
- Study: Samples of comet dust show a mix (NASA's Stardust mission - comet Wild 2) [2006]
- Special Report: Ekron Identity Confirmed [ from 1998 ] [2006]
- The Sea Peoples [2006]
- Amazon River Once Flowed in Opposite Direction [2006]
- New insights into composition of giant planets [2006]
- Old Testament Dispute Continues [2006]
- Object Survives Being Swallowed by a Star [2006]
- Cassini finds evidence of giant hydrocarbon lakes on moon Titan [2006]
- Documentary Sets New Date For Exodus [2006]
- Big Bang in Antarctica -- Killer Crater Found Under Ice [2006]
- Hubble Snaps Baby Pictures of Jupiter's "Red Spot Jr." [2006]
- NASA Says Comet Fragments Won't Hit Earth (WHEW!!!) [2006]
- Death Spiral: Why Theorists Can't Make Solar Systems [2006]
- Italians Find Ancient Ur Tablets (Iraq) [2006]
- Planets in all the wrong places [2006]
- US dig uncovers King Tut's neighbours [2006]
- Moving the Orbits of Planets [2006]
- Rogue Planet Find Makes Astronomers Ponder Theory [2005]
- Planet Venus 'Fell prey to Global Warning'!!! [2005]
- Archeologist unearths biblical controversy [2005]
- Spitzer Sees the Aftermath of a Planetary Collision [2005]
- Theban Mapping Project (Valley of the Kings etc) [2005]
- Scientists Find That Saturn's Rotation Period Is A Puzzle [2005]
- Scientist: Asteroid May Hit Earth in 2029 [2004]
- Stellar encounters as the origin of distant Solar System objects in highly eccentric orbits [2004]
- New Images Reveal Clouds on Planet Uranus (Unusual weather = global warming?) [2004]
- is the Earth hollow? [2004]
- Is the Sun really hot? [2004]
- Grains Found in Ga. Traced to Asteroid [2004]
- Smenkhkhare, the Hittite Pharaoh [2004]
- New Ice-Core Evidence Challenges the 1620s age for the Santorini (Minoan) Eruption [2004]
- Probe To 'Look Inside' Asteroids [2004]
- The History of the Aramaic Language [2004]
- 50 Ancient Tombs Uncovered (1400BC, Crete) [2004]
- Books, Magazines, Movies, Music [2004]
- Battlements Found At Egypt's Ancient East Gateway [2004]
- The Oldest Americans May Prove Even Older [2004]
- Drilling Finds Crater Beneath Va. Bay [2004]
- Northern sea baffles archaeologists [2004]
- So, where did the water on Mars come from? [2004]
- Mesopotamian Climate Change (8,000 Years Ago) [2004]
- Astronomers unravel a mystery of the Dark Ages [2004]
- Reworked images reveal hot Venus [2004]
- Will We Ever Find Atlantis? [2003]
- The Battleground (Who Destroyed Megiddo? Was It David Or Shishak?) [2003]
- Digging Out The Truth Of Exodus [2003]
- Update On Deep Water Megalithic Stones and Structures Near Western Cuba [2003]
- 13th Century Tablet Could Lead To Lost Archives Of Ramses II [2003]
- Siberia Meteorite Flattens 40 Sq Miles [2003]
- The Dark Ages: Were They Darker Than We Imagined? [2003]
- Heavenly Bodies Stir Up Routine Catastrophes [2003]
- The Great Dark Spot [2003]
- Mammoth Skeleton Found In Russia's Voronzh [2003]
- Was Saul real king of Israel? (Scholars debate history from Bible) [2003]
- An Impact Event in 3114BC? The beginning of a Turbulent Millennium. [2003]
- Ethereal Explorations II (Marxist Paganism) [2002]
- Biblical Plagues and Parting of Red Sea caused by Volcano [2002]
- Evidence for Major Impact Events in the late Third Millennium BC [2002]
- Archeologists to Unearth Ancient Egyptian City [2002]
- Comets, Meteors & Myth: New Evidence for Toppled Civilizations and Bibical Tales [2002]
- Pharaohs and Kings - A Test of Time [2002]
- Did Asteroids And Comets Turn The Tides Of Civilization? [2002]
- Why I think Noah's "erets" flood occurred around 9,000 - 12,000 B.C. and ended in Turkey. [2002]
- The Revision of Ancient History - A Perspective [2002]
- 'Lost River' Could Rewrite History Books [2002]
- Going Into The Water: A Survey Of Impact Events And The Coastal Peoples Of South-East North America [2002]
- Meteor Clue To End Of Middle East Civilisations [2002]
- Evidence of ancient city found in depths off Cuba (best article yet) [2001]
- Update on Underwater Megalithic [2001]
- Comets, Meteors & Myth: New Evidence for Toppled Civilizations and Biblical Tales [2001]
- The Reality of Ancient Catastrophism [2001]
16
posted on
05/03/2020 12:44:58 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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