BTW, the 'Thingy' is the spacecraft's low-gain omni-directional S-Band antenna. Used for low bit-rate telecommand/telemetry reception/transmission and ranging, especially if Voyager finds itself in Safe Mode

The First Dog In The Moon would know that - he's just kidding with you...

#Space #Voyager1 #SolarSystem #ExtraSolar
#SpaceExploration #NASA #JPL
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/apr/24/last-year-voyager-1-started-sending-gibberish-code-it-was-broken-in-space

Why #extrasolar Earths will also have #trees.

It seems really probable that some form of #photosynthesis — harnessing light energy into storable chemical energy — would evolve in any #life system that is orbiting a #star like our Sun.

If photosynthesis moves out of water and onto land on an Earth-like #exoplanet, as it did on our current Earth about 500 million years ago, surely some sort of tree-like form would evolve.

#astrobiology #exoplanets
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2024/03/28/why-extrasolar-earths-will-also-have-trees/

#SourceToSink movement of #dust in the #CriticalZone is what we study every day. This recent paper from Tomonori Totani describes the research possibility in source to sink transport of dust through space.

"Grains ejected by asteroid impacts from exoplanets in the Milky Way and then travelling to the Solar System" could provide evidence of #extrasolar life.

We're always fascinated by the many ways dust influences the human experience.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369465042_Solid_grains_ejected_from_terrestrial_exoplanets_as_a_probe_of_the_abundance_of_life_in_the_Milky_Way

Sadly I won’t be there in person to see for myself. I would love to see a new habitable world for the first time.

“NASA’s James Webb telescope discovers its first Earth-sized exoplanet / LHS 475 b is a rocky exoplanet roughly the same size as Earth that orbits very close to a small, dim star. And for the first time, researchers are able to study the planet’s atmosphere.”

#Extrasolar #StrangeNewWorlds

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/12/1148626359/nasa-webb-telescope-exoplanet

Terrestrial #extrasolar #planets around low-mass stars are prime targets when searching for atmospheric #biosignatures with current and near-future telescopes.

The #habitable-zone Super-Earth LHS 1140 b could hold a hydrogen-dominated atmosphere and is an excellent candidate for detecting atmospheric features.

The planet could be one of the best known targets to detect biosignature gases with #JWST or #ELT. https://astrobiology.com/2020/12/detectability-of-biosignatures-on-lhs-1140-b.html

Paper by Wunderlich et al. (2022): https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.11426