Answered Questions

I realize everything that is said on 2012 is an internet hoax. The only concern I still have is the next solar storm in 2011 or 2012. I heard on PBS that the rays from the solar storm are blocked by our Earth's magnetic field. I also heard from another source that our magnetic field is getting weaker and it is almost not there. Do you know how well our magnetic field can protect us from the next solar storm.

Don't worry about the next solar maximum; this happens every 11 years (approximately) and is no danger to life on Earth. The small fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field are also not a concern; our magnetic field is plenty strong enough to protect us and is very unlikely to decline (or reverse) for thousands...

September 3, 2008 More

I was reading some NASA articles when I found one from 2006 (Here's the article: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/10mar_stormwarning.html), talking about a massive solar storm that will hit the earth in 2011 or 2012, it wasn't certain. My question is, it will affect the life on Earth? If yes, how? I did see in some forums that it would affect drastically the magnetic field of the Earth but...All I know about this stuff of Solar Storm is that they can mess up with satellites.

Scientists cannot predict solar storms years or even months in advance, just as we cannot predict individual hurricanes on Earth. What we can predict is the 11-year cycle of solar activity. We are currently going through the minimum activity, with the first sunspots of the new cycle having appeared early in 2008. The next...

September 2, 2008 More

NASA has announced the discovery of perchlorate in Martian soil. Couldn't the perchlorate in the samples be from the Phoenix's own thrusters which were used for braking? I base this question on the assumption that the thrusters are in fact rockets. Perhaps I'm wrong?

In their discussion with the press this week, the Phoenix team mentioned the possibility that there could be some contamination from the rocket fuel, as you suggest. Currently the interpretation of the Phoenix results is very much a work in progress. I don't expect that the mission scientists will release formal results or submit...

August 29, 2008 More

several of your astronaut's have made claim to witnessing UFOs on space flights. should NASA astronauts be ignored?

As far as I know, no NASA astronaut has claimed to have seen a UFO in space. Recently there were news reports that Edgar Mitchell, who went to the Moon in Apollo 14, believes in the reality of some reports of UFOs and alien visitors, but he does not claim to have seen...

August 28, 2008 More

I am very interested in space beyond planet Earth. My question is what is the possibility of life in our solar system other than, of course, Earth. I was just reading an article about there being a lake of liquid ethane on one of Saturn's moons. Could life derive from this substance instead of H2O? And if so, is there any predication of what that life may look or live like?

The only kind of life we know about and can study in our labs is based on liquid water. The chemistry of carbon compounds in water is well understood, and this combination clearly offers the most possibilities for the kind of complex chemical structures that are necessary for life as we know it. Perhaps...

August 27, 2008 More

Greenhouse gasses? Is it true that 98 percent of carbon dioxide emissions comes from natural processes, like volcanoes, methane trapped in oceans, etc. And is it true that humans make up for only 2% of CO2 Emissions??

No; human activity is the dominant source of CO2 emissions. There has been a major increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and the concentration is now rising at more than 1% per year. It has been estimated that 99% of current emissions are from human activity and 1% from volcanic eruptions. A good...

August 26, 2008 More

Has anyone determined if the size of planets in the "green zone" is generally uniform. Or more likely to be about the size of the Earth? Because gravity will affect the size and shape of other worldly beings. Would most extraterrestrial life be about our size, or much bigger or smaller. What can we expect?

By the "green zone" I think you mean what is more commonly called the habitable zone, the range of distances from a star within which liquid water is possible on the surface of a planet. So far we have not surveyed for the presence of Earth-size planets within the habitable zone of other stars....

August 25, 2008 More

The question I am going to ask might sound silly, but I want to know that what is actually called life or consciousness. I mean all the thing we see in this world or universe is made up of chemicals(compounds or atoms) then what is it that make this chemicals to originate into something amazing called life or intelligence.

One of the major questions in astrobiology concerns the definition of life. Today we understand that life is a very complex chemical process by which organic (carbon-based) molecules can extract energy from their surrounds and make copies of themselves in a self-sustaining way. There is nothing mystical about it. Consciousness...

August 22, 2008 More

What all measures are to be followed by the people to reduce, prevent or stop global warming? What are the future problems the earth is going to face due to global warming if it is not prevented? By what year the earth will face the hazards of global warming if no measures have been taken to prevent it? What are the current measures in progress to reduce global warming?

Climate change is a complex but critically important issue, with many implications for astrobiology. While most atmospheric and climate scientists agree on the global warming that has been taking place during the past century, their predictions of future heating are not all in agreement. The greenhouse gases that are most important are, first carbon...

August 21, 2008 More

I was reading a question here about the gradual movement of Moon away from Earth, your answer was - "Yes, the Moon is steadily (but very gradually) moving away, as the Earth steadily (but very gradually) slows its rotation due to the friction of the tides." I want to know more about this slowness of Earth's Rotation, will it slow down further and won't it impact the day/Night cycles?

Most questions about the rotation of the Earth are answered at the NASA website (http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/ask/arot.html). Currently the length of a day is increasing by 0.0015 seconds per century. The impact on the day-night cycle is thus extremely small.
David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist