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April 17, 2013 - JUPITER - New analysis of observations made more than a decade ago by NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter helps identify places where Jupiter's moon Europa exposes material churned up from inside the moon. "We have found the regions where charged electrons and ions striking the surface would have done the most, and the least, chemical processing of materials emplaced at the surface from the interior ocean," said J. Brad Dalton of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, lead author of the report published recently in the journal Planetary and Space Science. "That tells us where to look for materials representing the most pristine ocean composition, which would be the best places to target with a lander or study with an orbiter." Europa is about the size of Earth's moon and, like our moon, keeps the same side toward the planet it orbits. Picture a car driving in circles around a mountain with its left-side windows always facing the mountain.

Europa's orbit around Jupiter is filled with charged, energetic particles tied to Jupiter's powerful magnetic field. Besides electrons, these particles include ions of sulfur and oxygen originating from volcanic eruptions on Io, a neighboring moon. The magnetic field carrying these energetic particles sweeps around Jupiter faster than Europa orbits Jupiter, in the same direction: about 10 hours per circuit for the magnetic field versus about 3.6 days for Europa's orbit.

So, instead of our mountain-circling car getting bugs on the front windshield, the bugs are plastered on the back of the car by a "wind" from behind going nearly nine times faster than the car. Europa has a "leading hemisphere" in front and a "trailing hemisphere" in back.

Earlier studies had found more sulfuric acid being produced toward the center of the trailing hemisphere than elsewhere on Europa's surface, interpreted as resulting from chemistry driven by sulfur ions bombarding the icy surface. Dalton and his co-authors at JPL and at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., examined data from observations by Galileo's near infrared mapping spectrometer of five widely distributed areas of Europa's surface.

The spectra of reflected light from frozen material on the surface enabled them to distinguish between relatively pristine water and sulfate hydrates. These included magnesium and sodium sulfate salt hydrates, and hydrated sulfuric acid. They compared the distributions of these substances with models of how the influxes of energetic electrons and of sulfur and oxygen ions are distributed around the surface of Europa. The concentration of frozen sulfuric acid on the surface varies greatly, they found. It ranges from undetectable levels near the center of the leading hemisphere, to more than half of the surface materials near the center of the heavily bombarded trailing hemisphere. The concentration was closely related to the amount of electrons and sulfur ions striking the surface.

"The close correlation of electron and ion fluxes with the sulfuric acid hydrate concentrations indicates that the surface chemistry is affected by these charged particles," says Dalton. "If you are interested in the composition and habitability of the interior ocean, the best places to study would be the parts of the leading hemisphere we have identified as receiving the fewest electrons and having the lowest sulfuric acid concentrations."

Surface deposits in these areas are most likely to preserve the original chemical compounds that erupted from the interior. Dalton suggests that any future spacecraft missions to Europa should target these deposits for study from orbit, or even attempt to land there. * "The darkest material, on the trailing hemisphere, is probably the result of externally-driven chemical processing, with little of the original oceanic material intact," said Dalton. "While investigating the products of surface chemistry driven by charged particles is still interesting from a scientific standpoint, there is a strong push within the community to characterize the contents of the ocean and determine whether it could support life. These kinds of places just might be the windows that allow us to do that."

The graphic below of Jupiter's moon Europa maps a relationship between the amount of energy deposited onto the moon from charged-particle bombardment and the chemical contents of ice deposits on the surface in five areas of the moon (labeled A through E). - Daily Galaxy.

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April 18, 2013 - UNITED STATES - Last week, the upcoming documentary film team behind 'Sirius' released an announcement about the scientific study of a DNA sequenced humanoid of unknown classification, known as the 'Atacama Humanoid.'

The announcement went viral immediately, quickly becoming the most popular story on the Huffington Post for three days, generating 4,300 comments, 32,000 FB 'Likes' and additional coverage by various other news agencies. The film's trailer on YouTube, has now generated a combined 1.1 million views. In response to the numerous questions raised by the film's trailer release, Dr. Steven Greer and the team behind 'Sirius' are now revealing more details about the results of the scientific studies that are documented in the film.

A DNA sample from bone marrow extracted from the specimen, was prepared, sequenced, and analyzed by a top research scientist at a prestigious American university.

A CT scan of 'Ata', from a scene from 'Sirius'

For security purposes, 'Sirius' has withheld details on the university and researcher, but will be revealing both along with additional DNA analysis results from the 'Atacama Humanoid' on or before the release of 'Sirius' on the 22nd of April.

Today, the team has elected to share the following additional 'Atacama Humanoid' conclusive findings: 'Ata' was male and survived post-birth 6 to 8 years.

Speaking specifically to Internet controversy over 'Ata,'..While it's size led many to suggest that it was an aborted fetus, bone density and epiphyseal plate studies have already concluded that this creature survived post-birth 6 to 8 years.

WATCH: "Sirius" trailer.

There will be considerably more DNA analysis results information released to the public on 'Ata,' the 'Atacama Humanoid,' as the team is calling him, between today and the 22nd.

In addition to documenting this ongoing scientific study, 'Sirius' explores the subject of UFO and ET visitation, the disclosure of secret UFO files, and the investigation of advanced energy and propulsion technologies extraterrestrial civilizations are using to travel to Earth. Based on an abundance of evidence and credible witness testimony, gathered across two decades by physician and Disclosure Project founder Dr. Steven Greer, 'Sirius' reveals how and why these energy technologies are being suppressed in favor of maintaining the current petrochemical system.

Dr. Steven Greer Examines 'Ata's' X-Rays in a scene from 'Sirius' .

'Sirius' takes the oft-ridiculed or misrepresented subject of UFOs and extraterrestrials and subjects it to an unprecedented level of scientific rigor, as evidenced by the credentials of the scientists behind the study of the 'Atacama Humanoid,' capable of spearheading the ground-breaking scientific revelation of a never-before classified intelligent species.

The 'Sirius' film premieres in Los Angeles at the prestigious Regal Premiere Cinema at LA Live on Earth Day and will be released online and in select theaters worldwide, starting April 22. - PRWeb.

To view the most recent 'Sirius' trailer and for more information, visit:

http://www.SiriusDisclosure.com

http://www.Sirius.Neverendinglight.com

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April 17, 2013 - UNITED STATES - Across the world's great deserts, a mysterious sheen has been found on boulders and rock faces. These layers of manganese, arsenic and silica are known as desert varnish and they are found in the Atacama desert in Chile, the Mojave desert in California, and in many other arid places. They can make the desert glitter with surprising colour and, by scraping off pieces of varnish, native people have created intriguing symbols and images on rock walls and surfaces.

Animal figures cut into desert varnish by Native Americans in Utah. Photograph: BWAC Images/Alamy

How desert varnish forms has yet to be resolved, despite intense research by geologists. Most theories suggest it is produced by chemical reactions that act over thousands of years or by ecological processes yet to be determined. Professor Carol Cleland, of Colorado University, has a very different suggestion. She believes desert varnish could be the manifestation of an alternative, invisible biological world. Cleland, a philosopher based at the university's astrobiology centre, calls this ethereal dimension the shadow biosphere. "The idea is straightforward," she says. "On Earth we may be co-inhabiting with microbial lifeforms that have a completely different biochemistry from the one shared by life as we currently know it."

It is a striking idea: We share our planet with another domain of life that exists "like the realm of fairies and elves just beyond the hedgerow", as David Toomey puts it in his newly published Weird Life: The Search for Life that is Very, Very Different from Our Own. But an alternative biosphere to our own would be more than a mere scientific curiosity: it is of crucial importance, for its existence would greatly boost expectations of finding life elsewhere in the cosmos. As Paul Davies, of Arizona State University, has put it: "If life started more than once on Earth, we could be virtually certain that the universe is teeming with it."

However, by the same token, if it turns out we have failed to realise that we have been sharing a planet with these shadowy lifeforms for eons, despite all the scientific advances of the 19th and 20th centuries, then we may need to think again about the way we hunt for life on other worlds. Robot spacecraft – such as the Mars rover Curiosity – are certainly sophisticated. But what chance do they have of detecting alien entities if the massed laboratories of modern science have not yet spotted them on our own planet? This point is stressed by the US biologist Craig Venter. As he has remarked: "We're looking for life on Mars and we don't even know what's on Earth!"

Cleland – working with her Colorado colleague Shelley Copley – outlined her vision of the shadow biosphere in a paper in 2006 in the International Journal of Astrobiology. Other astrobiologists have also proposed ideas along these lines. They include Chris McKay, who is based at Nasa's Ames Research Centre, California, and Paul Davies, who put forward his vision of this alternative living zone in a paper in Astrobiology in 2005.

These researchers believe life may exist in more than one form on Earth: standard life – like ours – and "weird life", as they term the conjectured inhabitants of the shadow biosphere. "All the micro-organisms we have detected on Earth to date have had a biology like our own: proteins made up of a maximum of 20 amino acids and a DNA genetic code made out of only four chemical bases: adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine," says Cleland. "Yet there are up to 100 amino acids in nature and at least a dozen bases. These could easily have combined in the remote past to create lifeforms with a very different biochemistry to our own. More to the point, some may still exist in corners of the planet."

Science's failure to date to spot this weird life may seem puzzling. The natural history of our planet has been scrupulously studied and analysed by scientists, so how could a whole new type of life, albeit a microbial one, have been missed? Cleland has an answer. The methods we use to detect micro-organisms today are based entirely on our own biochemistry and are therefore incapable of spotting shadow microbes, she argues. A sample of weird microbial life would simply not trigger responses to biochemists' probes and would end up being thrown out with the rubbish.

That is why unexplained phenomena like desert varnish are important, she says, because they might provide us with clues about the shadow biosphere. We may have failed to detect the source of desert varnish for the simple reason that it is the handiwork of weird microbes which generate energy by oxidising minerals, leaving deposits behind them.

The idea of the shadow biosphere is also controversial and is challenged by several other scientists. "I think it is very unlikely that after 300 years of microbiology we would not have detected such organisms despite the fact that they are supposed to have a different biochemistry from the kind we know about today," says Professor Charles Cockell, of the UK Centre for Astrobiology at Edinburgh University. "It is really quite unlikely," adds Cockell, whose centre will be officially opened this week at a ceremony in Edinburgh.

Ways need to be found to determine whether or not the shadow biosphere exists, says Dimitar Sasselov, professor of astronomy at Harvard University and director of the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative. "If you want a clue you can count up the amount of carbon that is emitted by living things – cows, sheep, grass, plants, forests and all the planet's bacteria. When you do, you find there is a discrepancy of around 5% when you compare the amount given off from Earth's standard biosphere and the amount you find in the atmosphere."

In other words, there is slightly too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than can be explained by the emissions of standard lifeforms on Earth. There could be an error in these calculations, of course. Alternatively, the shadow biosphere could be responsible for this excess, says Sasselov. "There is plenty of room for a shadow biosphere. That is clear. Certainly, it is not true, as some allege, that we have strong evidence to show that it does not exist. In fact, the opposite is true: we do not have good enough evidence to dismiss it."

A key point to note is that scientists – although describing the inhabitants of the shadow biosphere as weird – still assume they will be carbon-based entities. Complex chemistry based on other elements, such as silicon, is possible, they acknowledge but these alternatives cannot create the vast range of organic materials that carbon can generate. In other words, the shadow biosphere, if it exists, will almost certainly be inhabited by carbon life, albeit of an alien variety.

"Billions of years ago, life based on different types of carbon biochemistry could have arisen in several places on Earth," says Cleland. "These varieties would have been based on different combinations of bases and amino acids. Eventually, one – based on DNA and on proteins made from 20 amino acids – formed multicellular entities and became the dominant form of life on Earth. That is why we find that life as we know it, from insects to humans and from plants to birds, has DNA as its genetic code. However, other lifeforms based on different bases and proteins could still have survived – in the shadow biosphere."

A different prospect is highlighted by Sasselov, who points out that a complex organic chemical can come in two different shapes even though they have the same chemical formula. Each is a mirror-image of the other and are said to have a different chirality. "Amino acids are an example," says Sasselov. "Each comes in a right-handed version and a left-handed version. Our bodies – in common with all other lifeforms – only use left-handed versions to create proteins. Right-handed amino acids are simply ignored by our bodies. However, there may be some organisms, somewhere on the planet, that use only right-handed amino acids. They could make up the weird life of the shadow biosphere."

But how can scientists pinpoint this weird life? Microbes are usually detected in laboratories by feeding nutrients to suspected samples so they grow and expend. Then the resulting cultures can be analysed. A weird lifeform – such as one made only of proteins formed out of right-handed amino acids – will not respond to left-handed nutrients, however. It will fail to form cultures and register its existence.

One solution to this problem is being pursued by Sasselov and colleagues' Harvard Origins of Life Initiative. They are building an artificial cell – or bionic system – made only of right-handed components including right-handed DNA and right-handed ribosomes. "If there are right-handed lifeforms out there, many of them will be viruses – which will attempt to hijack the DNA of our bionic cells," adds Sasselov. "When they do that they will leave evidence of their existence. Essentially we are building honey traps to catch any right-handed viruses that might live in the shadow biosphere and so reveal their existence."

Other scientists suggest a different approach – by looking at Earth's most inhospitable ecological niches: hot vents on the seafloor, mountaintops, highly saline lakes, Antarctic ice sheets and deserts. Standard lifeforms, mainly bacteria, have been found in these places but only a few. Some niches, researchers speculate, may prove to be just too inhospitable for standard life but may just be tolerable enough to support weird life. Microscopic studies would reveal their existence while standard culture tests would show they had a different biochemistry from standard lifeforms.

Stripes of desert varnish line the canyon walls of Capitol Gorge in Utah. No laboratory has been able to re-create the phenomenon.
Photograph: Larry Geddis/Alamy

And a promising example is provided by the desert varnish proposed as a target by Cleland and backed by David Toomey in Weird Life. "No laboratory microbiologist has been able to coax bacteria or algae to make desert varnish," he states. "It is also possible that the stuff is the end result of some very weird chemistry but no one has been able to reproduce that either." So yes, these sites could provide proof of the shadow biosphere's existence, he argues.

Not surprisingly, Cleland agrees. "The only trouble is that no one has yet got round to investigating desert varnish for weird life," adds Cleland. "I confess I find that disappointing." - Guardian.

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