ALIEN LIFE SIGNS?

Strange object in a meteorite, lunar hut and Venusian microbes

METEORITE ANOMALY

Meteorite dealers Dave and Linda Bryant have reported finding an anomalous object in a well-known meteorite from a shower known as NWA 869, which fell in Northwest Africa sometime before 2000. This is a chondrite, made of material that dates from the birth of the Solar System, and known to be around 4.5 billion years old. NWA 869 meteorites are prized by collectors as they are small complete meteorites, not fragments of something larger that exploded in the atmosphere. While all chondrites contain nickel and iron and often have metallic flecks that glint in the light, one that the Bryants received in 2020 contained a small, regular, cylindrical feature 6mm (0.2 in) in diameter that looks like a manufactured object. The way in which it relates to the rest of the meteorite and a small piece of impact damage on the object’s surface makes it clear that the object is an integral part of the meteorite that fell with it and cannot have become fused to it on the ground.

Analysis at the University of East Anglia also shows that it is not made of the common accessory minerals usually found in meteorites, although further analysis is needed to identify its exact composition. The meteorite almost certainly comes from the remains of a planet orbiting a star that was destroyed when its sun went nova several billion years before our Solar System formed. This raises the intriguing possibility that the object is a tiny remnant of a civilisation that existed on a planet that died billions of years before our Sun even existed; but given the human mind’s propensity for pareidolia – spotting meaningful shapes in random patterns – which has given us all kinds of alleged artefacts on Mars, the chances of this are slim. Analysis of the object should be interesting. ancient-origins.net, 28 May 2021.

MOON “MYSTERY HUT”

Since January 2019 China’s Yutu 2 rover has been exploring the far side of the Moon. Last November, the rover’s cameras picked up a mysterious cubelike object on the rim of the Von Kármán crater that quickly became known as the “mystery hut”. Researchers diverted the vehicle to take a look. Yutu 2 got there on 7 January and found that the “hut” was…. a rock, and smaller than they expected it to be. It is however, shaped a bit like a rabbit, so has been named “Jade Rabbit”, as the translation of Yutu’s name is also “Jade Rabbit”. Andrew Jones, a journalist who covers the Chinese space programme for SpaceNews described the conclusion to the saga as “so underwhelming it’s brilliant.” space.com, 5 Dec 2021; cnet.com, 11 Jan 2022.

LIFE ON VENUS?

While the supposed traces of phosphine in Venus’s atmosphere have now been largely discounted as evidence of life there, the presence of ammonia in its upper atmosphere has proved to be a more stubborn anomaly. Discovered in the 1970s, it has been puzzling astronomers ever since, as they cannot come up with a convincing mechanism for its production on the planet. On Earth, ammonia is a common waste product of aquatic organisms, but with the scalding temperatures of Venus’s surface it is unlikely either water or any kind of organisms could exist there. However, further up, in the thick clouds that wreath the planet, temperatures are much more amenable to Earth-like life, and it is conceivable that microbes resembling bacteria could survive here, although it is still an extremely hostile environment as the clouds are mostly sulphuric acid.

However, a new study by researchers from Cardiff and Cambridge Universities and MIT has shown that the presence of ammonia in the clouds could set off a cascade of reactions that would neutralise the acid around the droplets, reducing the acidity of the clouds from -11 on the pH scale to zero. This is still severely acidic, but is at a level that some bacteria on Earth can tolerate, and some of these do produce ammonia to counter the acidity of their environment. The researchers say that when all the possibilities are considered, the most likely origin of ammonia on Venus is biological. “Ammonia shouldn’t be on Venus… Any gas that doesn’t belong in the context of its environment is automatically suspicious for being made by life,” says Professor Sara Seager, from MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. A number of other Venusian cloud anomalies have remained unexplained for years – the presence of oxygen; non-spherical particles; and unexpected levels of water vapour and sulphur dioxide – and microorganisms could also explain some of these. If bacteria-like organisms were the cause, the chemical reactions to produce ammonia would naturally produce oxygen. The ammonia would dissolve in the acid, transforming from a liquid droplet shape into an irregular “salt-like slurry”. “There are many other challenges for life to overcome if it is to live in the clouds of Venus,” said Dr William Bains of Cardiff University. “There is almost no water there for a start, and all life that we know of needs water. But if life is there, then neutralising the acid will make the clouds just a bit more habitable than we thought.” independent.co.uk, 21 Dec 2021.

FARTS IN A JAR

American reality TV star Stephanie Matto was rushed to hospital because she felt she was “having a stroke” after consuming three protein shakes and a huge bowl of black bean soup. Medics said it was severe wind, told her to change her diet and gave her gas suppressant medication. Up to that point, Matto had been making $200k a year from selling her farts to fans, filling up to 50 jars a week, but she said that her hospital visit “has effectively ended my business”. huffingtonpost.co.uk, 5 Jan 2022.

SINISTER ASSISTANT

When Kristin Livdahl’s 10-year-old daughter asked the family’s Alexa voice assistant for “a challenge to do”, the device replied: “Plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs.” Livdahl, shouted “No, Alexa, no!” but said her daughter was too sensible to follow the smart assistant’s suggestion, which could have resulted in severe injury or death from electrocution. Amazon issued a statement saying that it had updated Alexa to prevent the assistant recommending such activity in the future. BBC News, 28 Dec 2021.

MYSTERY BRIDGE THEFT

Police in Akron Ohio were baffled when a 58-ft (18m) long pedestrian bridge was stolen from a field where it was awaiting installation. Initially just the wooden decking was taken, then a week later the rest vanished. As the bridge was polymer-based it had no value as scrap. Shortly after, a 63-year-old man was arrested for the theft after a tip-off. It turned out that he had hired a crane to collect the bridge and move it to his own property in a neighbouring county, but he revealed no motive. independent. co.uk, 16 Dec; [AP], 20 Dec 2021.

CLOSE CALL

When gunmen opened fire on businessman Max Mqadi, 51, in Durban, South Africa, he was grateful that he was taking a call on his new iPhone 12 at the time. A bullet hit the phone and ricocheted off, instead of hitting his head and killing him. Mqadi survived and was reported to be “stable” in hospital. Metro, 10 Oct 2021.