International Scientist finding Age of Moon

International Scientist finding Age of Moon

THE SECRET about when the mid-night romance under a full-blown moon night on earth began is out.

A heartening discovery by an international team of planetary scientists has revealed that the moon formed nearly 100 million years after the start of the solar system.

"We were excited to find a 'geological clock' for the formation time of the moon that did not rely on radiometric dating methods. This correlation just jumped out of the simulations and held in each set of old simulations we looked at." said an excited Seth Jacobson from the Observatory de la Cote d'Azur in Nice, France. The moon's age is defined on measurements from the interior of the earth combined with computer simulations of the proto-planetary disk from which the earth and other terrestrial planets formed.

The team of researchers from France, Germany and the LIS simulated the growth of the terrestrial planets (Mercury. Venus. Earth and Mars) from a disk of thousands of planetary building blocks orbiting the sun. By analyzing the growth history of the earth like planets from 259 simulations, the scientists discovered a relationship between the time the earth was impacted by a Mars-sized object to create the Moon and the amount of material added to lite earth after that impact.

"This result is exciting because in the same simulations that can successfully form Mars in only two to five million years, we can also form the Moon at 100 million years. These vastly different time-scalcs have been very hard to capture in simulations." explained Kevin Walsh from the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) Space Science and Engineering Division.

Water vapour detected around planet outside solar system

Water vapour detected around planet outside solar system

IN A QUEST for lift beyond earth, scientists at the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have detected water vapour in the atmosphere of a 'hot Jupiter' outside our solar system.

The team applied a sophisticated Doppler technique to the infra-red lo directly detect the planet and demonstrate the presence of water in its atmosphere.

The planet, named tau Boo h. orbits the nearby Mar tauBootisand belongs to a class of exotic planets called 'hot Jupiters" that are not found in our solar system.

"The detection of water vapour in tau Boo b is an exciting and important step in understanding the composition of these exotic planets." said an ecstatic John Carr. a researcher in NRL's remote sensing division.

The result also demonstrates the power of this technique for measuring water and other molecules in the atmospheres of planets- giving scientists a new cool to study the nature and evolution of extrasolar planeLs.

A 'hot Jupiter' is a massive extra-solar planet that orbits very close to its parent star. Unlike our Jupiter, which is fairly cold and has an orbital period of about 12 years, tau Boo b orbits its star every 3.3 days and is heated to extreme temperatures by its proximity lo the star.

The research team studied data collected at the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii, using the Near Infrared Fxhellc Spectrograph instrument.

By comparing the molecular signature of water to the combined light spectrum of the planet and star, the scientists were able to measure the motion of the planet as it orbits the star and establish the presence of water vapour in the planet's atmosphere.

The team also determined that the planet is six times more massive than Jupiter, said the study reported by the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Prior to this, scientists have reported detections of water for just a few other extrasolar planets.