Microbubbles Provide New Boost for Biofuel Production

A solution to the difficult issue of harvesting algae for use as a biofuel has been developed using microbubble technology pioneered at the University of Sheffield. The technique builds on previous research in which microbubbles were used to improve the way algae is cultivated.

Algae produce an oil which can be processed to create a useful biofuel. Biofuels, made from plant material, are considered an important alternative to fossil fuels and algae, in particular, has the potential to be a very efficient biofuel producer. Until now, however, there has been no cost-effective crmethod of harvesting and removing the water from the algae for it to be processed effectively.

Now, a team led by Professor Will Zimmerman in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield, believe they have solved the problem. They have developed an inexpensive way of producing microbubbles that can float algae particles to the surface of the water, making harvesting easier, and saving biofuel-producing companies time and money.

The research is set to be published in Biotechnology and Bioengineering on 26 January 2012.

Professor Zimmerman and his team won the Moulton Medal, from the Institute of Chemical Engineers, for their earlier work which used the microbubble technology to improve algae production methods, allowing producers to grow crops more rapidly and more densely.

"We thought we had solved the major barrier to biofuel companies processing algae to use as fuel when we used microbubbles to grow the algae more densely," explains Professor Zimmerman.

"It turned out, however, that algae biofuels still couldn´t be produced economically, because of the difficulty in harvesting and dewatering the algae. We had to develop a solution to this problem and once again, microbubbles provided a solution."

Microbubbles have been used for flotation before: water purification companies use the process to float out impurities, but it hasn´t been done in this context, partly because previous methods have been very expensive.

The system developed by Professor Zimmerman´s team uses up to 1000 times less energy to produce the microbubbles and, in addition, the cost of installing the Sheffield microbubble system is predicted to be much less than existing flotation systems.

The next step in the project is to develop a pilot plant to test the system at an industrial scale. Professor Zimmerman is already working with Tata Steel at their site in Scunthorpe using CO2 from their flue-gas stacks and plans to continue this partnership to test the new system.

Dr. Bruce Adderley, Manager Climate Change Breakthrough Technology, said, "Professor Zimmerman´s microbubble-based technologies are exactly the kind of step-change innovations that we are seeking as a means to address our emissions in the longer term, and we are delighted to have the opportunity to extend our relationship with Will and his team in the next phase of this pioneering research."

The research was supported by the University of Sheffield´s Knowledge Transfer Account, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. It was also supported by the Royal Society Innovation Award 2010, and the Concept Fund of Yorkshire Forward

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Sheffield.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. James Hanotu, HC Hemaka Bandulasena, William B Zimmerman. Microflotation performance for algal separation. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 2012; DOI:10.1002/bit.24449

Graphene Supermaterial Goes Superpermeable: Can Be Used to Distill Alcohol

Dr Nair with the membrane. (Credit: Image courtesy of Manchester University)

Wonder material graphene has revealed another of its extraordinary properties -- University of Manchester researchers have found that it is superpermeable with respect to water.

Graphene is one of the wonders of the science world, with the potential to create foldaway mobile phones, wallpaper-thin lighting panels and the next generation of aircraft. The new finding at the University of Manchester gives graphene's potential a most surprising dimension -- graphene can also be used for distilling alcohol.

In a report published in Science, a team led by Professor Sir Andre Geim shows that graphene-based membranes are impermeable to all gases and liquids (vacuum-tight). However, water evaporates through them as quickly as if the membranes were not there at all.

This newly-found property can now be added to the already long list of superlatives describing graphene. It is the thinnest known material in the universe and the strongest ever measured. It conducts electricity and heat better than any other material. It is the stiffest one too and, at the same time, it is the most ductile. Demonstrating its remarkable properties won University of Manchester academics the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010.

Now the University of Manchester scientists have studied membranes from a chemical derivative of graphene called graphene oxide. Graphene oxide is the same graphene sheet but it is randomly covered with other molecules such as hydroxyl groups OH-. Graphene oxide sheets stack on top of each other and form a laminate.

The researchers prepared such laminates that were hundreds times thinner than a human hair but remained strong, flexible and were easy to handle.

When a metal container was sealed with such a film, even the most sensitive equipment was unable to detect air or any other gas, including helium, to leak through.

It came as a complete surprise that, when the researchers tried the same with ordinary water, they found that it evaporates without noticing the graphene seal. Water molecules diffused through the graphene-oxide membranes with such a great speed that the evaporation rate was the same independently whether the container was sealed or completely open.

Dr Rahul Nair, who was leading the experimental work, offers the following explanation: "Graphene oxide sheets arrange in such a way that between them there is room for exactly one layer of water molecules. They arrange themselves in one molecule thick sheets of ice which slide along the graphene surface with practically no friction.

"If another atom or molecule tries the same trick, it finds that graphene capillaries either shrink in low humidity or get clogged with water molecules."

"Helium gas is hard to stop. It slowly leaks even through a millimetre -thick window glass but our ultra-thin films completely block it. At the same time, water evaporates through them unimpeded. Materials cannot behave any stranger," comments Professor Geim. "You cannot help wondering what else graphene has in store for us."

"This unique property can be used in situations where one needs to remove water from a mixture or a container, while keeping in all the other ingredients," says Dr Irina Grigorieva who also participated in the research.

"Just for a laugh, we sealed a bottle of vodka with our membranes and found that the distilled solution became stronger and stronger with time. Neither of us drinks vodka but it was great fun to do the experiment," adds Dr Nair.

The Manchester researchers report this experiment in theirScience paper, too, but they say they do not envisage use of graphene in distilleries, nor offer any immediate ideas for applications.

However, Professor Geim adds 'The properties are so unusual that it is hard to imagine that they cannot find some use in the design of filtration, separation or barrier membranes and for selective removal of water'.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided byManchester University, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. R. R. Nair, H. A. Wu, P. N. Jayaram, I. V. Grigorieva, A. K. Geim. Unimpeded Permeation of Water Through Helium-Leak-Tight Graphene-Based Membranes.Science, 2012; 335 (6067): 442 DOI:10.1126/science.1211694

Graphene 'Invisible' to Water: How the Extreme Thinness of Graphene Enables Near-Perfect Wetting Transparency

Graphene is the thinnest material known to science. The nanomaterial is so thin, in fact, water often doesn’t even know it’s there. A new study from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute shows how the extreme thinness of graphene enables near-perfect wetting transparency. The findings could help inform a new generation of graphene-based flexible electronic devices. Additionally, the research suggests a new type of heat pipe that uses graphene-coated copper to cool computer chips. (Credit: Rensselaer/Koratkar)

ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2012) — Graphene is the thinnest material known to science. The nanomaterial is so thin, in fact, water often doesn't even know it's there.

Results of the study were published in the journal Nature Materials. The findings could help inform a new generation of graphene-based flexible electronic devices. Additionally, the research suggests a new type of heat pipe that uses graphene-coated copper to cool computer chips.Engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Rice University coated pieces of gold, copper, and silicon with a single layer of graphene, and then placed a drop of water on the coated surfaces. Surprisingly, the layer of graphene proved to have virtually no impact on the manner in which water spreads on the surfaces.

The discovery stemmed from a cross-university collaboration led by Rensselaer Professor Nikhil Koratkar and Rice Professor Pulickel Ajayan.

"We coated several different surfaces with graphene, and then put a drop of water on them to see what would happen. What we saw was a big surprise -- nothing changed. The graphene was completely transparent to the water," said Koratkar, a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer. "The single layer of graphene was so thin that it did not significantly disrupt the non-bonding van der Waals forces that control the interaction of water with the solid surface. It's an exciting discovery, and is another example of the unique and extraordinary characteristics of graphene."

Results of the study are detailed in the Nature Materials paper "Wetting transparency of graphene."

Essentially an isolated layer of the graphite found commonly in our pencils or the charcoal we burn on our barbeques, graphene is single layer of carbon atoms arranged like a nanoscale chicken-wire fence. Graphene is known to have excellent mechanical properties. The material is strong and tough and because of its flexibility can evenly coat nearly any surface. Many researchers and technology leaders see graphene as an enabling material that could greatly advance the advent of flexible, paper-thin devices and displays. Used as a coating for such devices, the graphene would certainly come into contact with moisture. Understanding how graphene interacts with moisture was the impetus behind this new study.

The spreading of water on a solid surface is called wetting. Calculating wettability involves placing a drop of water on a surface, and then measuring the angle at which the droplet meets the surface. The droplet will ball up and have a high contact angle on a hydrophobic surface. Inversely, the droplet will spread out and have a low contact angle on a hydrophilic surface.

The contact angle of gold is about 77 degrees. Koratkar and Ajayan found that after coating a gold surface with a single layer of graphene, the contact angle became about 78 degrees. Similarly, the contact angle of silicon rose from roughly 32 degrees to roughly 33 degrees, and copper increased from around 85 degrees to around 86 degrees, after adding a layer of graphene.

These results surprised the researchers. Graphene is impermeable, as the tiny spaces between its linked carbon atoms are too small for water, or a single proton, or anything else to fit through. Because of this, one would expect that water would not act as if it were on gold, silicon, or copper, since the graphene coating prevents the water from directly contacting these surfaces. But the research findings clearly show how the water is able to sense the presence of the underlying surface, and spreads on those surfaces as if the graphene were not present at all.

As the researchers increased the number of layers of graphene, however, it became less transparent to the water and the contact angles jumped significantly. After adding six layers of graphene, the water no longer saw the gold, copper, or silicon and instead behaved as if it was sitting on graphite.

The reason for this perplexing behavior is subtle. Water forms chemical or hydrogen bonds with certain surfaces, while the attraction of water to other surfaces is dictated by non-bonding interactions called van der Waals forces. These non-bonding forces are not unlike a nanoscale version of gravity, Koratkar said. Similar to how gravity dictates the interaction between Earth and the sun, van der Waals forces dictate the interaction between atoms and molecules.

In the case of gold, copper, silicon, and other materials, the van der Waals forces between the surface and water droplet determine the attraction of water to the surface and dictate how water spreads on the solid surface. In general, these forces have a range of at least several nanometers. Because of the long range, these forces are not disrupted by the presence of a single-atom-thick layer of graphene between the surface and the water. In other words, the van der Waals forces are able to "look through" ultra-thin graphene coatings, Koratkar said.

If you continue to add additional layers of graphene, however, the van der Waals forces increasingly "see" the carbon coating on top of the material instead of the underlying surface material. After stacking six layers of graphene, the separation between the graphene and the surface is sufficiently large to ensure that the van der Waals forces can now no longer sense the presence of the underlying surface and instead only see the graphene coating. On surfaces where water forms hydrogen bonds with the surface, the wetting transparency effect described above does not hold because such chemical bonds cannot form through the graphene layer.

Along with conducting physical experiments, the researchers verified their findings with molecular dynamics modeling as well as classical theoretical modeling.

"We found that van der Waals forces are not disrupted by graphene. This effect is an artifact of the extreme thinness of graphene -- which is only about 0.3 nanometers thick," Koratkar said. "Nothing can rival the thinness of graphene. Because of this, graphene is the ideal material for wetting angle transparency."

"Moreover, graphene is strong and flexible, and it does not easily crack or break apart," he said. "Additionally, it is easy to coat a surface with graphene using chemical vapor deposition, and it is relatively uncomplicated to deposit uniform and homogeneous graphene coatings over large areas. Finally, graphene is chemically inert, which means a graphene coating will not oxidize away. No single material system can provide all of the above attributes that graphene is able to offer."

A practical application of this new discovery is to coat copper surfaces used in dehumidifiers. Because of its exposure to water, copper in dehumidifier systems oxidizes, which in turn decreases its ability to transfer heat and makes the entire device less efficient. Coating the copper with graphene prevents oxidation, the researchers said, and the operation of the device is unaffected because graphene does not change the way water interacts with copper. This same concept may be applied to improve the ability of heat pipes to dissipate heat from computer chips, Koratkar said.

"It's an interesting idea. The graphene doesn't cause any significant change to the wettability of copper, and at the same time it passivates the copper surface and prevents it from oxidizing," he said.

Along with Koratkar and Ajayan, co-authors of the paper are Yunfeng Shi, assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer; Rensselaer mechanical engineering graduate students Javad Rafiee, Abhay Thomas, and Fazel Yavari; Rensselaer physics graduate student Xi Mi; and Rice mechanical and materials engineering graduate student Hemtej Gullapalli.

This research was supported in part by the Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC); the National Science Foundation (NSF); and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) graphene Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI).

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided byRensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Javad Rafiee, Xi Mi, Hemtej Gullapalli, Abhay V. Thomas, Fazel Yavari, Yunfeng Shi, Pulickel M. Ajayan, Nikhil A. Koratkar. Wetting transparency of graphene. Nature Materials, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/NMAT3228

Weird world of water gets a little weirder

ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2011) — Strange, stranger, strangest! To the weird nature of one of the simplest chemical compounds -- the stuff so familiar that even non-scientists know its chemical formula -- add another odd twist. Scientists are reporting that good old H2O, when chilled below the freezing point, can shift into a new type of liquid.

The report appears in ACS' Journal of Physical Chemistry B.

Pradeep Kumar and H. Eugene Stanley explain that water is one weird substance, exhibiting more than 80 unusual properties, by one count, including some that scientists still struggle to understand. For example, water can exist in all three states of matter (solid, liquid,gas) at the same time. And the forces at its surface enable insects to walk on water and water to rise up from the roots into the leaves of trees and other plants.

In another strange turn, scientists have proposed that water can go from being one type of liquid into another in a so-called "liquid-liquid" phase transition, but it is impossible to test this with today's laboratory equipment because these things happen so fast. That's why Kumar and Stanley used computer simulations to check it out.

They found that when they chilled liquid water in their simulation, its propensity to conduct heat decreases, as expected for an ordinary liquid. But, when they lowered the temperature to about 54 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, the liquid water started to conduct heat even better in the simulation. Their studies suggest that below this temperature, liquid water undergoes sharp but continuous structural changes whereas the local structure of liquid becomes extremely ordered -- very much like ice. These structural changes in liquid water lead to increase of heat conduction at lower temperatures.

The researchers say that this surprising result supports the idea that water has a liquid-liquid phase transition.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Chemical Society.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Pradeep Kumar, H. Eugene Stanley. Thermal Conductivity Minimum: A New Water Anomaly. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2011; 111013123335006 DOI: 10.1021/jp2051867

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Scientists discover way to determine when water was present on Mars and Earth

ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2011) — The discovery of the mineral jarosite in rocks analyzed by the Mars Rover, Opportunity, on the Martian surface had special meaning for a team of Syracuse University scientists who study the mineral here on Earth. Jarosite can only form in the presence of water. Its presence on Mars means that water had to exist at some point in the past. The trick is in figuring out if jarosite can be used as a proxy for determining when, and under what conditions, water was present on the planet.

The SU scientists have done just that. In a recent study published in an October issue issue of Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Suzanne Baldwin, professor of Earth Sciences in SU's College of Arts and Sciences; and Joseph Kula, research associate and corresponding author for the study, established the "diffusion parameters" for argon in jarosite. In simpler terms, they discovered a way to use the noble gas argon, which accumulates in jarosite over time, to determine the age of the mineral and the surface conditions under which it formed.

The new study is the first in a series of experiments designed to provide a roadmap of sorts for scientists who may someday study Martian samples brought back to Earth. "Our experiments indicate that over billion-year timescales and at surface temperatures of 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) or colder, jarosite will preserve the amount of argon that has accumulated since the crystal formed," Kula says, "which simply means that jarosite is a good marker for measuring the amount of time that has passed since water was present on Mars."

Moreover, since the development of life requires water, knowing when and for how long water was present on the Martian surface has implications for the search for potential habitats harboring life, the scientists say. "Jarosite requires water for its formation, but dry conditions for its preservation," Baldwin says. "We'd like to know when water formed on the surface of Mars and how long it was there. Studying jarosite may help answer some of these questions."

Jarosite is a byproduct of the weathering of rocks exposed at the surface of a planet (such as Earth and Mars). The mineral forms when the right mixture of oxygen, iron, sulfur, potassium and water is present. Once formed, the crystals begin to accumulate argon, which is produced when certain potassium isotopes in the crystals decay. Potassium decay is a radioactive process that occurs at a known rate. By measuring the isotopes of argon trapped within the crystals, scientists can determine the age of the crystals.

However, because argon is a gas, it can potentially escape rapidly from the crystals under hot conditions or slowly over long durations at cold conditions. In order to determine the reliability of the "argon clock" in jarosite, the scientists had to determine the temperature limits to which the crystals could be subjected and still retain the argon. Using a combination of experiments and computer modeling, the team found that argon remains trapped inside the crystals for long periods of time over a range of planetary surface temperatures.

"Our results suggest that 4 billion-year-old jarosite will preserve its argon and, along with it, a record of the climate conditions that existed at the time it formed," Baldwin says. The scientists are in the process of conducting further studies on jarosite that formed less than 50 million years ago in the Big Horn Basin in Wyoming, which they hope will reveal when the minerals formed and how fast environmental conditions changed from water-saturated to dry. The results can be used as a context for interpreting findings on other planets.

Baldwin and Kula are members of the NASA-funded New York Center for Astrobiology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. The center is one of 10 such centers nationally that are part of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, located at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. Their jarosite research is funded by NASA.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Syracuse University.

Note: ScienceDaily reserves the right to edit materials for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Joseph Kula, Suzanne L. Baldwin. Jarosite, argon diffusion, and dating aqueous mineralization on Earth and Mars. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2011; 310 (3-4): 314 DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2011.08.006

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Nearby planet-forming disk holds water for thousands of oceans

ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2011) — For the first time, astronomers have detected around a burgeoning solar system a sprawling cloud of water vapor that's cold enough to form comets, which could eventually deliver oceans to dry planets.

Water is an essential ingredient for life. Scientists have found thousands of Earth-oceans' worth of it within the planet-forming disk surrounding the star TW Hydrae. TW Hydrae is 176 light years away in the constellation Hydra and is the closest solar-system-to-be.

University of Michigan astronomy professor Ted Bergin is a co-author of a paper on the findings published in the Oct. 21 edition of Science.

The researchers used the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI) on the orbiting Hershel Space Observatory to detect the chemical signature of water.

"This tells us that the key materials that life needs are present in a system before planets are born," said Bergin, a HIFI co-investigator. "We expected this to be the case, but now we know it is because have directly detected it. We can see it."

Scientists had previously found warm water vapor in planet-forming disks close to the central star. But until now, evidence for vast quantities of water extending into the cooler, far reaches of disks where comets and giant planets take shape had not emerged. The more water available in disks for icy comets to form, the greater the chances that large amounts will eventually reach new planets through impacts.

"The detection of water sticking to dust grains throughout the planet-forming disk would be similar to events in our own solar system's evolution, where over millions of years, these dust grains would then coalesce to form comets. These would be a prime delivery mechanism for water on planetary bodies," said principal investigator Michiel Hogerheijde of Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Other recent findings from HIFI support the theory that comets delivered a significant portion of Earth's oceans. Researchers found that the ice on a comet called Hartley 2 has the same chemical composition as our oceans.

HIFI is helping astronomers gain a better understanding of how water comes to terrestrial planets -- Earth and beyond. If TW Hydrae and its icy disk are representative of many other young star systems, as researchers think they are, then the process for creating planets around numerous stars with abundant water throughout the universe appears to be in place, NASA officials say.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Michigan.

Note: ScienceDaily reserves the right to edit materials for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

M. R. Hogerheijde, E. A. Bergin, C. Brinch, L. I. Cleeves, J. K. J. Fogel, G. A. Blake, C. Dominik, D. C. Lis, G. Melnick, D. Neufeld, O. Panic, J. C. Pearson, L. Kristensen, U. A. Yildiz, E. F. van Dishoeck. Detection of the Water Reservoir in a Forming Planetary System. Science, 2011; 334 (6054): 338 DOI: 10.1126/science.1208931

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Nearby planet-forming disk holds water for thousands of oceans

ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2011) — For the first time, astronomers have detected around a burgeoning solar system a sprawling cloud of water vapor that's cold enough to form comets, which could eventually deliver oceans to dry planets.

Water is an essential ingredient for life. Scientists have found thousands of Earth-oceans' worth of it within the planet-forming disk surrounding the star TW Hydrae. TW Hydrae is 176 light years away in the constellation Hydra and is the closest solar-system-to-be.

University of Michigan astronomy professor Ted Bergin is a co-author of a paper on the findings published in the Oct. 21 edition of Science.

The researchers used the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI) on the orbiting Hershel Space Observatory to detect the chemical signature of water.

"This tells us that the key materials that life needs are present in a system before planets are born," said Bergin, a HIFI co-investigator. "We expected this to be the case, but now we know it is because have directly detected it. We can see it."

Scientists had previously found warm water vapor in planet-forming disks close to the central star. But until now, evidence for vast quantities of water extending into the cooler, far reaches of disks where comets and giant planets take shape had not emerged. The more water available in disks for icy comets to form, the greater the chances that large amounts will eventually reach new planets through impacts.

"The detection of water sticking to dust grains throughout the planet-forming disk would be similar to events in our own solar system's evolution, where over millions of years, these dust grains would then coalesce to form comets. These would be a prime delivery mechanism for water on planetary bodies," said principal investigator Michiel Hogerheijde of Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Other recent findings from HIFI support the theory that comets delivered a significant portion of Earth's oceans. Researchers found that the ice on a comet called Hartley 2 has the same chemical composition as our oceans.

HIFI is helping astronomers gain a better understanding of how water comes to terrestrial planets -- Earth and beyond. If TW Hydrae and its icy disk are representative of many other young star systems, as researchers think they are, then the process for creating planets around numerous stars with abundant water throughout the universe appears to be in place, NASA officials say.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Michigan.

Note: ScienceDaily reserves the right to edit materials for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

M. R. Hogerheijde, E. A. Bergin, C. Brinch, L. I. Cleeves, J. K. J. Fogel, G. A. Blake, C. Dominik, D. C. Lis, G. Melnick, D. Neufeld, O. Panic, J. C. Pearson, L. Kristensen, U. A. Yildiz, E. F. van Dishoeck. Detection of the Water Reservoir in a Forming Planetary System. Science, 2011; 334 (6054): 338 DOI: 10.1126/science.1208931

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Supersaturated water vapor in Martian atmosphere

ScienceDaily (Oct. 10, 2011) — Analysis of data collected by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft leaves no room for doubt: the Martian atmosphere of contains water vapor in a supersaturated state. This surprising finding will enable scientists to better understand the water cycle on Mars, as well as the evolution of its atmosphere.

The research was led by a team from the Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS, CNRS / UPMC / UVSQ), in collaboration with Russian and French colleagues(1), and received support from CNES. It is published in Sept. 30, 2011 issue of the journal Science.

On Earth, water vapor tends to condense, i.e. turn into a liquid, when the temperature falls below dew point. The atmosphere is said to be 'saturated' since it cannot hold any more moisture at that temperature and pressure. The excess water vapor then condenses around suspended particles and dust, forming precipitation. However, condensation may sometimes be much slower, especially when particles and dust are scarce. Unable to condense, the excess water vapor therefore remains in the gaseous state: this is known as supersaturation. Until now, it was assumed that this phenomenon could not occur in the Martian atmosphere, although this had never been proved.

While several spacecraft have visited Mars since the 1970s, most of their instruments were focused on surface data. Because of this, they only observed the horizontal component of the Martian atmosphere. The way in which water content on Mars varies with height remained largely unexplored. The survey carried out by the SPICAM(2) spectrometer on board the Mars Express spacecraft has now made it possible to fill this gap. SPICAM can establish vertical profiles of the atmosphere using solar occultation, i.e. by observing light from the Sun as it travels through the Martian atmosphere at sunrise and sunset.

Contrary to previous belief, the researchers discovered that water vapor supersaturation is a frequent phenomenon on Mars. They even observed very high levels of supersaturation in the Martian atmosphere, up to ten times greater than those found on Earth. "This ability of water vapor to exist in a highly supersaturated state would, for example, allow to supply the southern hemisphere of Mars with water, far more efficiently than models currently predict," points out Franck Montmessin, CNRS researcher at LATMOS and SPICAM(3) project leader. Moreover, a far greater quantity of water vapor than thought may be transported high enough in the atmosphere to be destroyed by photodissociation(4). If confirmed, this phenomenon would have consequences for the whole issue of Martian water, a significant fraction of which is known to have continually escaped to space for billions of years, which partly explains today's low abundance of water on the planet(5).

The vertical distribution of water vapor is key to the study of the hydrological cycle on Mars. The hypothesis according to which the amount of water in the Martian atmosphere is limited by the saturation process therefore needs revising. This finding has major implications for the current understanding of both the climate and water transport on Mars.

Notes:

François Forget, CNRS researcher at the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD, CNRS/ENS Paris/UPMC/Ecole Polytechnique) took part in this work. Both his laboratory and LATMOS belong to the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace.This instrument is a dual ultraviolet and near infrared spectrometer, designed and produced by three laboratories (LATMOS, the Institut d'Aéronomie Spatiale in Brussels and the Space Research Institute (IKI) in Moscow), with funding from CNES.Luca Maltagliati, the lead author of this study, received a CNES grant during his post-doctorate at LATMOS.Solar radiation breaks up water molecules, releasing atoms of oxygen and hydrogen, which are then light enough to escape to interplanetary space.On Earth, the amount of water is estimated to be equivalent to a 3 kilometer-deep layer of liquid water over the whole surface of the planet. Estimates for Mars are considerably lower, although little is known about the quantity of groundwater.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by CNRS (Délégation Paris Michel-Ange), via AlphaGalileo.

Journal Reference:

L. Maltagliati, F. Montmessin, A. Fedorova, O. Korablev, F. Forget, J.- L. Bertaux. Evidence of Water Vapor in Excess of Saturation in the Atmosphere of Mars. Science, 2011; 333 (6051): 1868 DOI: 10.1126/science.1207957

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Sneaking up on the glassy transition of water

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2011) — Researchers claim to have settled a long-standing debate over the exact temperature at which water transforms into an exotic glass-like substance believed to be present in comets and other icy objects in the outer solar system, as well as in the coldest regions of Earth's atmosphere.

Rapid cooling of ordinary water or compression of ordinary ice: either of these can transform normal H2O into an exotic substance that resembles glass in its transparency, brittleness, hardness, and luster. Unlike everyday ice, which has a highly organized crystalline structure, this glass-like material's molecules are arranged in a random, disorganized way. Scientists have studied glassy water for decades, but the exact temperature at which water acquires glass-like properties has been the subject of heated debate for years, due to the difficulty of manipulating pure glassy water in laboratories.

Now, in a paper published in the AIP's Journal of Chemical Physics, physicists from the University of Pisa and the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche at the Institute for Chemical-Physical Processes (CNR-IPCF) in Pisa, Italy, claim to have put an end to the controversy. Unlike previous attempts in which scientists tried to measure the transition temperature directly, the CNR team "snuck up" on the answer by inferring the temperature from a thorough study of the dynamics of water. They examined water's behavior in bulk and at the nano-scale, at high temperatures and low, combining their own experimental results with 15 decades' worth of research by colleagues.

They also measured the glass transition temperature and the molecular behavior of water that had been doped with other materials, and used this information to set lower and upper boundaries on the transition temperature for pure water. Taken together, their evidence points to a magic number of approximately 136 Kelvin (-137 Celsius). The authors say their work supports traditional views of this phenomenon and refutes recent claims that the transition is above 160 Kelvin (-113 Celsius). The research could find uses in technology associated with food science and the cryopreservation of biological materials, as well as in the study of water in comets and on the surface of planets.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by American Institute of Physics, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal Reference:

S. Capaccioli, K. L. Ngai. Resolving the controversy on the glass transition temperature of water? The Journal of Chemical Physics, 2011; 135 (10): 104504 DOI: 10.1063/1.3633242

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Sneaking up on the glassy transition of water

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2011) — Researchers claim to have settled a long-standing debate over the exact temperature at which water transforms into an exotic glass-like substance believed to be present in comets and other icy objects in the outer solar system, as well as in the coldest regions of Earth's atmosphere.

Rapid cooling of ordinary water or compression of ordinary ice: either of these can transform normal H2O into an exotic substance that resembles glass in its transparency, brittleness, hardness, and luster. Unlike everyday ice, which has a highly organized crystalline structure, this glass-like material's molecules are arranged in a random, disorganized way. Scientists have studied glassy water for decades, but the exact temperature at which water acquires glass-like properties has been the subject of heated debate for years, due to the difficulty of manipulating pure glassy water in laboratories.

Now, in a paper published in the AIP's Journal of Chemical Physics, physicists from the University of Pisa and the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche at the Institute for Chemical-Physical Processes (CNR-IPCF) in Pisa, Italy, claim to have put an end to the controversy. Unlike previous attempts in which scientists tried to measure the transition temperature directly, the CNR team "snuck up" on the answer by inferring the temperature from a thorough study of the dynamics of water. They examined water's behavior in bulk and at the nano-scale, at high temperatures and low, combining their own experimental results with 15 decades' worth of research by colleagues.

They also measured the glass transition temperature and the molecular behavior of water that had been doped with other materials, and used this information to set lower and upper boundaries on the transition temperature for pure water. Taken together, their evidence points to a magic number of approximately 136 Kelvin (-137 Celsius). The authors say their work supports traditional views of this phenomenon and refutes recent claims that the transition is above 160 Kelvin (-113 Celsius). The research could find uses in technology associated with food science and the cryopreservation of biological materials, as well as in the study of water in comets and on the surface of planets.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by American Institute of Physics, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal Reference:

S. Capaccioli, K. L. Ngai. Resolving the controversy on the glass transition temperature of water? The Journal of Chemical Physics, 2011; 135 (10): 104504 DOI: 10.1063/1.3633242

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Scientists discover dielectron charging of water nano-droplet

ScienceDaily (June 28, 2011) — Scientists have discovered fundamental steps of charging of nano-sized water droplets and unveiled the long-sought-after mechanism of hydrogen emission from irradiated water. Working together at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Tel Aviv University, scientists have discovered when the number of water molecules in a cluster exceeds 83, two excess electrons may attach to it -- forming dielectrons -- making it a doubly negatively charged nano droplet. Furthermore, the scientists found experimental and theoretical evidence that in droplets composed of 105 molecules or more, the excess dielectrons participate in a water-splitting process resulting in the liberation of molecular hydrogen and formation of two solvated hydroxide anions.

The results appear in the June 30 issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry A.

It has been known since the early 1980s that while single electrons may attach to small water clusters containing as few as two molecules, only much larger clusters may attach more than single electrons. Size-selected, multiple-electron, negatively-charged water clusters have not been observed -- until now.

Understanding the nature of excess electrons in water has captured the attention of scientists for more than half a century, and the hydrated electrons are known to appear as important reagents in charge-induced aqueous reactions and molecular biological processes. Moreover, since the discovery in the early 1960s that the exposure of water to ionizing radiation causes the emission of gaseous molecular hydrogen, scientists have been puzzled by the mechanism underlying this process. After all, the bonds in the water molecules that hold the hydrogen atoms to the oxygen atoms are very strong. The dielectron hydrogen-evolution (DEHE) reaction, which produces hydrogen gas and hydroxide anions, may play a role in radiation-induced reactions with oxidized DNA that have been shown to underlie mutagenesis, cancer and other diseases.

"The attachment of multiple electrons to water droplets is controlled by a fine balancing act between the forces that bind the electrons to the polar water molecules and the strong repulsion between the negatively charged electrons," said Uzi Landman, Regents' and Institute Professor of Physics, F.E. Callaway Chair and director of the Center for Computational Materials Science (CCMS) at Georgia Tech.

"Additionally, the binding of an electron to the cluster disturbs the equilibrium arrangements between the hydrogen-bonded water molecules and this too has to be counterbalanced by the attractive binding forces. To calculate the pattern and strength of single and two-electron charging of nano-size water droplets, we developed and employed first-principles quantum mechanical molecular dynamics simulations that go well beyond any ones that have been used in this field," he added.

Investigations on controlled size-selected clusters allow explorations of intrinsic properties of finite-sized material aggregates, as well as probing of the size-dependent evolution of materials properties from the molecular nano-scale to the condensed phase regime.

In the 1980s Landman, together with senior research scientists in the CCMS Robert Barnett, the late Charles Cleveland and Joshua Jortner, professor of chemistry at Tel Aviv University, discovered that there are two ways that single excess electrons can attach to water clusters -- one in which they bind to the surface of the water droplet, and the other where they localize in a cavity in the interior of the droplet, as in the case of bulk water. Subsequently, Landman, Barnett and graduate student Harri-Pekka Kaukonen reported in 1992 on theoretical investigations concerning the attachment of two excess electrons to water clusters. They predicted that such double charging would occur only for sufficiently large nano-droplets. They also commented on the possible hydrogen evolution reaction. No other work on dielectron charging of water droplets has followed since.

That is until recently, when Landman, now one of the world leaders in the area of cluster and nano science, and Barnett teamed up with Ori Chesnovsky, professor of chemistry, and research associate Rina Giniger at Tel Aviv University, in a joint project aimed at understanding the process of dielectron charging of water clusters and the mechanism of the ensuing reaction -- which has not been observed previously in experiments on water droplets. Using large-scale, state-of-the-art first-principles dynamic simulations, developed at the CCMS, with all valence and excess electrons treated quantum mechanically and equipped with a newly constructed high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometer, the researchers unveiled the intricate physical processes that govern the fundamental dielectron charging processes of microscopic water droplets and the detailed mechanism of the water-splitting reaction induced by double charging.

The mass spectrometric measurements, performed at Tel Aviv, revealed that singly charged clusters were formed in the size range of six to more than a couple of hundred water molecules. However, for clusters containing more than a critical size of 83 molecules, doubly charged clusters with two attached excess electrons were detected for the first time. Most significantly, for clusters with 105 or more water molecules, the mass spectra provided direct evidence for the loss of a single hydrogen molecule from the doubly charged clusters.

The theoretical analysis demonstrated two dominant attachment modes of dielectrons to water clusters. The first is a surface mode (SS'), where the two repelling electrons reside in antipodal sites on the surface of the cluster. The second is another attachment mode with both electrons occupying a wave function localized in a hydration cavity in the interior of the cluster -- the so-called II binding mode. While both dielectron attachment modes may be found for clusters with 105 molecules and larger ones, only the SS' mode is stable for doubly charged smaller clusters.

"Moreover, starting from the II, internal cavity attachment mode in a cluster composed of 105 water molecules, our quantum dynamical simulations showed that the concerted approach of two protons from two neighboring water molecules located on the first shell of the internal hydration cavity, leads, in association with the cavity-localized excess dielectron, to the formation of a hydrogen molecule. The two remnant hydroxide anions diffuse away via a sequence of proton shuttle processes, ultimately solvating near the surface region of the cluster, while the hydrogen molecule evaporates," said Landman.

"What's more, in addition to uncovering the microscopic reaction pathway, the mechanism which we discovered requires initial proximity of the two reacting water molecules and the excess dielectron. This can happen only for the II internal cavity attachment mode. Consequently, the theory predicts, in agreement with the experiments, that the reaction would be impeded in clusters with less than 105 molecules where the II mode is energetically highly improbable. Now, that's a nice consistency check on the theory," he added.

As for future plans, Landman remarked, "While I believe that our work sets methodological and conceptual benchmarks for studies in this area, there is a lot left to be done. For example, while our calculated values for the excess single electron detachment energies are found to be in quantitative agreement with photoelectron measurements in a broad range of water cluster sizes -- containing from 15 to 105 molecules -- providing a consistent interpretation of these measurements, we would like to obtain experimental data on excess dielectron detachment energies to compare with our predicted values," he said.

"Additionally, we would like to know more about the effects of preparation conditions on the properties of multiply charged water clusters. We also need to understand the temperature dependence of the dielectron attachment modes, the influence of metal impurities, and possibly get data from time-resolved measurements. The understanding that we gained in this experiment about charge-induced water splitting may guide our research into artificial photosynthetic systems, as well as the mechanisms of certain bio-molecular processes and perhaps some atmospheric phenomena."

"You know," he added. "We started working on excess electrons in water clusters quite early, in the 1980s -- close to 25 years ago. If we are to make future progress in this area, it will have to happen faster than that."

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Georgia Institute of Technology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal Reference:

Robert N. Barnett, Rina Giniger, Ori Cheshnovsky, Uzi Landman. Dielectron Attachment and Hydrogen Evolution Reaction in Water Clusters. The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 2011; 110603091014098 DOI: 10.1021/jp201560n

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Properties of 'confined' water within single-walled carbon nanotube pores clarified

ScienceDaily (June 23, 2011) — Water and ice may not be among the first things that come to mind when you think about single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), but a Japan-based research team hoping to get a clearer understanding of the phase behavior of confined water in the cylindrical pores of carbon nanotubes zeroed in on confined water's properties and made some surprising discoveries.

The team, from Tokyo Metropolitan University, Nagoya University, Japan Science and Technology Agency, and National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, describes their findings in the American Institute of Physics' Journal of Chemical Physics.

Although carbon nanotubes consist of hydrophobic (water repelling) graphene sheets, experimental studies on SWCNTs show that water can indeed be confined in open-ended carbon nanotubes.

This discovery gives us a deeper understanding of the properties of nanoconfined water within the pores of SWCNTs, which is a key to the future of nanoscience. It's anticipated that nanoconfined water within carbon nanotubes can open the door to the development of a variety of nifty new nanothings -- nanofiltration systems, molecular nanovalves, molecular water pumps, nanoscale power cells, and even nanoscale ferroelectric devices.

"When materials are confined at the atomic scale they exhibit unusual properties not otherwise observed, due to the so-called 'nanoconfinement effect.' In geology, for example, nanoconfined water provides the driving force for frost heaves in soil, and also for the swelling of clay minerals," explains Yutaka Maniwa, a professor in the Department of Physics at Tokyo Metropolitan University. "We experimentally studied this type of effect for water using SWCNTs."

Water within SWCNTs in the range of 1.68 to 2.40 nanometers undergoes a wet-dry type of transition when temperature is decreased. And the team discovered that when SWCNTs are extremely narrow, the water inside forms tubule ices that are quite different from any bulk ices known so far. Strikingly, their melting point rises as the SWCNT diameter decreases -- contrary to that of bulk water inside a large-diameter capillary. In fact, tubule ice occurred even at room temperature inside SWCNTs.

"We extended our studies to the larger diameter SWCNTs up to 2.40 nanometers and successfully proposed a global phase behavior of water," says Maniwa. "This phase diagram (see image) covers a crossover from microscopic to macroscopic regions. In the macroscopic region, a novel wet-dry transition was newly explored at low temperature."

Results such as these contribute to a greater understanding of fundamental science because nanoconfined water exists and plays a vital role everywhere on Earth -- including our bodies. "Understanding the nanoconfined effect on the properties of materials is also crucial to develop new devices, such as proton-conducting membranes and nanofiltration," Maniwa notes.

Next up, the team plans to investigate the physical properties of confined water discovered so far inside SWCNTs (such as dielectricity and proton conduction). They will pursue this to obtain a better understanding of the molecular structure and transport properties in biological systems.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by American Institute of Physics, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

New insights on an old material will enable design of better polymer batteries, water purification

ScienceDaily (June 19, 2011) — Designing new materials depends upon understanding the properties of today's materials. One such material, Nafion ©, is a polymer that efficiently conducts ions (a polymer electrolyte) and water through its nanostructure, making it important for many energy-related industrial applications, including in fuel cells, organic batteries, and reverse-osmosis water purification. But since Nafion was invented 50 years ago, scientists have only been able to speculate about how to build new materials because they have not been able to see details on how the molecules come together and work within Nafion.

Now, two Virginia Tech research groups have combined forces to devise a way to measure Nafion's internal structure and, in the process, have discovered how to manipulate this structure to enhance the material's applications.

The research is published in the June 19 issue of Nature Materials in the Letters article, "Linear coupling of alignment with transport in a polymer electrolyte membrane," by Jing Li, Jong Keun Park, Robert B. Moore, and Louis A. Madsen, all with the chemistry department in the College of Science and the Macromolecules and Interfaces Institute at Virginia Tech.

Nafion is made up of molecules that combine the non-stick and tough nature of Teflon with the conductive properties of an acid, such as battery acid. A network of tiny channels, nanometers in size, carries water or ions quickly through the polymer. "But, due to the irregular structure of Nafion, scientists have not been able to get reliable information about its properties using most standard analysis tools, such as transmission electron microscopy," said Madsen, assistant professor of physical, polymer, and materials chemistry.

Madsen and Moore, professor of physical and polymer chemistry; Madsen's post-doctoral associate Jing Li; and Moore's Ph.D. student Jong Keun Park, of Korea, were able to use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)to measure molecular motion, and a combination of NMR and X-ray scattering to measure molecular alignment within Nafion. "We were looking at water molecules inside Nafion as internal reporters of structure and efficiency of conduction," said Madsen. "The new feature we discovered is the locally aligned aggregates of polymer molecules in the material. The molecules align like strands of dry spaghetti lined up in a box. We can measure the speed (diffusion) of the water molecules and the direction they travel within those structures, which relates strongly to the alignment of the polymer molecule strands."

The researchers observed that the alignment of the channels influenced the speed and preferential direction of water motion. And a startlingly clear picture presented itself when the scientists stretched the Nafion and measured its structure and water motion.

"Stretching drastically influences the degree of alignment," said Madsen. "So the molecules move faster along the direction of the stretch, and in a very predictable way. These materials actually share some properties with liquid crystals -- molecules that line up with each other and are used in every LCD television, projector, and screen."

These relationships have not been previously recognized in a polymer electrolyte, Madsen said.

The ability to observe motion and direction, and understand what is happening within Nafion, has implications for using the material in new ways, and for designing new materials, the researchers write in the Nature Materials article. Ion-based applications could include actuator devices such as artificial muscles, organic batteries, and more energy efficient fuel cells. A water-based application would be improved reverse osmosis membranes for water purification.

Madsen and Moore started this collaborative project shortly after they arrived at Virginia Tech (Madsen in 2006, Moore in 2007), and they are furthering their work together by investigating new polymeric materials using their unique combination of analysis techniques.

"Alignment provides for a better flow of the molecules through the polymer," Madsen said.

The research is supported by Madsen's National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. His research focuses on improving advanced polymers for fuel cells and reverse-osmosis water purification by combining detailed analysis of these materials with theoretical understanding. The research is also supported by the US Army Research Office under Ionic Liquids in Electro-Active Devices (ILEAD) Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) grant.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Virginia Tech, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal Reference:

Jing Li, Jong Keun Park, Robert B. Moore and Louis A. Madsen. Linear coupling of alignment with transport in a polymer electrolyte membrane. Nature Materials, June 19 2011 DOI: 10.1038/NMAT3048

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Herschel Telescope Spots a Star Spewing Powerful Water Jets into Interstellar Space

Herschel Telescope Spots a Star Spewing Powerful Water Jets into Interstellar Space | Popular Science@import "/files/css/6edcefdeec368e2924b9d287beacf12b.css";@import "/files/css/33f6b7ecb4513ed2fe6c670880a27187.css"; home Login/Register Newsletter Subscribe RSS GadgetsComputersCamerasSmartphonesSmart TVsVideo GamesMore From Our Partner: CEAGCarsConceptsHybridsElectric CarsAuto DIYMore From Our Partner: DriversideScienceFuture of the EnvironmentEnergyHealthPopSci Eco TourTechnologyMilitaryAviationSpaceRobotsDIYProjectsHacksToolsAuto DIYMore From Our Partner: Toolmonger GalleriesVideosColumnsThe GrouseSex FilesGreen Dream How It WorksAuto DIYFeatures Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Reddit Print Email Herschel Telescope Spots a Star Spewing Powerful Water Jets into Interstellar Space By Clay Dillow Posted 06.16.2011 at 1:39 pm 25 Comments
A Protostar and its Polar Jets NASA/Caltech

Researchers looking for signs of life elsewhere in the universe often start by looking for one key ingredient necessary to complex life as we know it: water. And just 750 light-years away, they’ve found quite a bit of it spewing from the poles of a young, sunlike star that is blasting jets of H2O into interstellar space at 124,000 miles per hour.

This discovery is interesting on a number of levels. For one, it indicates that throughout the universe young protostars could be distributing vast quantities of water, potentially seeding life elsewhere. But it also sheds some light on the formation of our own sun, and the role water may have played in its formation and in the formation of our own planet.

Related ArticlesGalaxy Closeup Reveals Best-Ever Snapshot of Black Hole Jets Herschel Returns First Science Results: Stunning Image of a Giant Gas Bubble Sheds Light on Massive Star FormationHerschel Telescope Captures Star Formation In Never-Before-Seen Corner of Deep SpaceTagsTechnology, Clay Dillow, esa, herschel telescope, life, protostars, Space, star formation, waterThe star was discovered by ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory, whose eyes were able to pierce the dense cloud of gas and dust that is feeding the star’s formation. There, Herschel saw light signature indicative of hydrogen and oxygen, and in following those traces found that these atoms are forming water on and around the star. But as the molecules move through the star and are injected into the massive jets of gas spewing from the poles, the heat and pressure vaporize the water into jets of gas.

Only when the gas jets are far enough away from the star do they rapidly cool and turn back into liquid. At this point, the water droplets are essentially bullets of water moving something like 80 times faster than the average round fired from a rifle. And there’s a lot of them. The amount of water ejecting from the star is equal to the amount that flows through the Amazon every second, researchers say.

Astronomers think this water-spewing stage is short, but that it is also something every protostar goes through. If so, that means water could be scattered all over the universe. And that’s an interesting thought indeed.

[National Geographic]

Previous Article: Dextre, the Space Station's Robotic Arm, Will Try its Hand at Satellite RefuelingNext Article: Video: Introducing Kilobot, a Swarm Robot Cheap Enough to Actually Swarm 25 Comments Link to this comment quist 06/16/11 at 2:10 pm

this is phenomenal. Wow

Link to this comment EPB6190 06/16/11 at 2:15 pm

So it wasnt just comets that brought water to planet earth. It was your friendly neighborhood star the sun!

Link to this comment drchuck1 06/16/11 at 2:14 pm

very cool

Link to this comment Turbo Two Tone 06/16/11 at 2:26 pm

The Intergalactic Car Wash, or should I say Planet Wash?

"We use High powered Jets of Oceans of water to blast those pesky, stuck on life forms completely away! Leaving you with a planet clean and ready for your population!"

Sounds like something straight out of the Hitchhikers Guide.

No wonder why Ford always needed a towel!

Link to this comment topstop 06/16/11 at 2:36 pm

No, quite hot actually.

Link to this comment Lord Elliot the... 06/16/11 at 2:55 pm

This is amazing. Enormous steam jets shooting out of a star. Wow.
-Spouting a fountain of nonsense since 1995-

Link to this comment dahiteman 06/16/11 at 3:17 pm

Am I the only one that realized that water is more basic than rock. Come on people. This planet didn't start as a giant rock that accumulated water. It started a a giant water ball that accumulated rock...like the gas planets further out. I figured this out when they said they had discoverd water much further down in the earth than was thought possible. Our planet is saturated to the core with it. Stars are hydrogen. The most abundant element because it is the most basic. To get water you only need to add an O. Early on I thought that the planet started as rock and hydrogen, and the abundant volcanos stirred up enough lightening to turn hydrogen into water. Then, I realized if we had gas planets, why can't we have water planets. A water planet would collect rock which would build a core until it gained enough mass to heat itself. Core melts. Creates magnetic field. Water vaporizes. Creates atmosphere. Incredibly simple.

Link to this comment Zabazoom 06/16/11 at 3:23 pm

can you imagine the permit process they had to go thew to get that fountain built.

Link to this comment GTO 06/16/11 at 4:10 pm

@dahiteman

If our planet was made entirely of water and rock was added over time, then the planet would not exist.

Without the solid core of the earth surrounded by the molten iron, the earth would not generate a magnetic field strong enough to hold an atmosphere on the earth, let alone water. The sun would blast everything off of the planet like what happened with mars.

Link to this comment pdxwebdev 06/16/11 at 4:14 pm

@GTO, didn't he cover that by saying the rock collected and formed a core?

@Zabazoom Don't think for a second that there wont be interplanetary zoning laws.

Link to this comment dahiteman 06/16/11 at 4:18 pm

The earth would have a core by the time the atmosphere was created. The core would promote the atmosphere. If a gas planet can exist, why can't a water planet? This question is not for GTO. Someone with actual knowledge about why this could not be.

Link to this comment B.V. 06/16/11 at 4:55 pm

I think typically you see gas planets existing further from the sun, and rocky planets closer to the sun...

Which makes me think that gasses might be swept out by solar energy if they are close enough.

If this were true, it could be a reason for why a water planet could not have existed at the distance from the sun where the earth exists...

I'd imagine before there could be a water planet, there would have to be a cloud of water that slowly condensed into a ball.

If close enough to the sun, this "space fog" could be dispersed before it has a chance to form into a water planet.

I don't have any evidence... just a possible explanation for why it "couldn't" be.

Interesting concept though...

Link to this comment JediMindset 06/16/11 at 5:24 pm

@dahiteman

interesting...i never thought about it that way. makes sense. but it still needs a solid/rocky core in order to keep it intact. we only perceive things in 3 states(solid,gas,and liquid) what if there were other states that we couldn't see?

Link to this comment macmansa 06/16/11 at 8:24 pm

@Jedimindset

actually there are FOUR states of mater solid,liquid,gas, and PLASMA just correcting

Link to this comment dex drako 06/16/11 at 9:28 pm

we already have "water" planets they're called neptune and uranus the ice giant.

@B.V.

there's a problem with this idea and that is we've found countless gas giants closer there their stars then any planet in this system. many beleive our own gas giants form close to the star then get thrown out to where they are now.

Link to this comment dahiteman 06/16/11 at 9:40 pm

Think of earth as one giant comet, mostly composed of frozen water and some rocky material also. As water is spewed out from a star some would fall back down like a fountain, some would fall into orbit as comets (frozen water). Those would slowly gather to form a large frozen planet like Jupiter's moon. It would then collect rocky material which would settle to the core and once there was sufficient mass it would heat up. The outside frozen so as to not lose to much mass to solar wind and the core is molten and slowly generating a magnetosphere to protect the melting ice from the sun. Then the water vaporizes. This regulates the temperature of the atmosphere. The chemical bonds that are most capable of maintaining energy levels become the most common. That last sentence sums up existence for stars, planets, molecules, and....wait for it....life. There is your meaning of life people. Sorry its not that exciting but it gave us the cosmos and all of the life forms in it, including you. I'm rambling. I'll stop now.

Link to this comment JediMindset 06/16/11 at 10:11 pm

@macmansa
oh yeah i forgot that one.

Link to this comment Aldrons Last Hope 06/17/11 at 2:05 pm

This is a very insightful discovery. I always thought that the earth getting its water from comets was too farfetched. I mean the amount of water on the planet...it would have taken billions of comets hitting earth to create the oceans. But this is amazing...young stars create their own water for their solar system.

Can't wait 'till they spy young planets forming. Then we can put the water v rock debate to rest.

Link to this comment drchuck1 06/17/11 at 2:12 pm

@dahiteman...sorry, just because you dream up something in your great mind does not make it possible, especially since you have no evidence to back it up, we all have great minds, some know it's limitations and some don't, dreaming up fantasies are fun but you should know the diffrence between that and a real hypothesis

Link to this comment drchuck1 06/17/11 at 2:19 pm

@Aldrons Last Hope...your typical rubish...really? billions of comets? how much water does an average comet have? how much water is on earth? great math you have with your guessing game...they have imaged young solar systems developing, no water jets from their stars observed...nicely done, you and dahiteman should go on a date

Link to this comment dahiteman 06/17/11 at 2:42 pm

Wow. Chuck is a bitter little man. Do you feel smarter now chuck? Does it make you feel better when you TRY to put others down? I, for one, am impressed with you insight. Thank you for enlightening us with your wisdom.

Link to this comment Dr. Luck 06/17/11 at 2:45 pm

@macmansa & @Jedimindset

Actually, there are currently FIVE known and accepted states of matter; the fifth being Bose–Einstein condensates.

Also just correcting :-)

Link to this comment drchuck1 06/18/11 at 2:10 am

@dahiteman...you are just another hypocrite, don't want to be called out on nonsense? too bad

Link to this comment argon_picnic 06/18/11 at 5:53 am

Yeah dahiteman who do you think you are Mr. Big Shot!

Link to this comment --HyperNova-- 06/19/11 at 9:24 pm

I must be fooling myself, but is the above image showing the death of star an artistic rendition or an entirely real image produced by a telescope.

Sorry, I've somehow misplaced my glasses.

Anyways, without stars life would not be possible. The general study in it should remarkably bring new theories and matters to look about.

Thank you, HyperNova

To comment, please Login. Popular TagsTechnology NASA International Space Station robots Burt Rutan Peter Diamandis space DARPA Airbus A380 Mars UAV global warming Boeing satellites All Tags All Photos All Videos Photo GalleriesRSS LinkTechnologyArchive Gallery: Our Favorite Vintage SubmersiblesArchive Gallery: PopSci's Most Sensational World War II HeadlinesGallery: Gems From GE's Archives+ More Photo Galleries

138 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.

Popular Science+ For iPad

Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page

Download Our App

Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing

Follow Us On Twitter

Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed

July 2011: Future Energy

In this issue, plans to power the future, with fission, fusion, and perhaps a drop of petroleum.

Plus: a leaping speedboat, an all-weather Ferrari, an Iron Man palm-gun, and the hottest pepper in the world.

Read the issue here.

How It Works
PopSci Eco Tour
DADS & GRADS GIFTGUIDE

Popular on Popsci Most Viewed TechnologyGallery: Gems From GE's ArchivesArchive Gallery: PopSci's Most Sensational World War II HeadlinesArchive Gallery: Our Favorite Vintage SubmersiblesEdison-Era Inventions Emerge From the Vaults of General ElectricWhen The Sun Unleashed Its Recent Plasma Blast, Earth Got LuckyVideo: This Morning There Was a Massive Solar ExplosionStop Rummaging for Your Phone and Check Texts, Emails on Cell-Connected WatchesFuture Shocks: Predictions From the World's Foremost Film PrognosticatorIceland's Citizens Are Writing Its New Constitution OnlineHerschel Telescope Spots a Star Spewing Powerful Water Jets into Interstellar Space Most Commented TechnologyPocket Particle Accelerators Like This One Could Bring Safer Nuclear Power to NeighborhoodsIceland's Citizens Are Writing Its New Constitution OnlineSuperheating the Hulls of Seagoing Ships Could Reduce Drag for Super-Efficient SailingVideo: This Morning There Was a Massive Solar ExplosionHerschel Telescope Spots a Star Spewing Powerful Water Jets into Interstellar SpaceVideo: Airbus Offers a Peek at the Translucent Future of Passenger Air TravelChina's International High Speed Rail Network Begins to Take Shape in AsiaRichard Clarke: China is Planting Digital Bombs Throughout the U.S. Power GridEdison-Era Inventions Emerge From the Vaults of General ElectricWhen The Sun Unleashed Its Recent Plasma Blast, Earth Got Lucky Most Emailed TechnologyWith an Artificial Memory Chip, Rats Can Remember and Forget At the Touch of a ButtonWorld's First Coins With QR Codes Will Start Circulating in the Netherlands Next WeekArchive Gallery: Going Deep With Vintage SubmersiblesArchive Gallery: Our Favorite Vintage SubmersiblesPocket Particle Accelerators Like This One Could Bring Safer Nuclear Power to NeighborhoodsVideo: Introducing Kilobot, a Swarm Robot Cheap Enough to Actually SwarmHerschel Telescope Spots a Star Spewing Powerful Water Jets into Interstellar SpaceDextre, the Space Station's Robotic Arm, Will Try its Hand at Satellite RefuelingToday in Pretty Space Pics: A Glowing Close-Up of a Cosmic Collision's AftermathChina's International High Speed Rail Network Begins to Take Shape in Asia Name Address 1   City State STATE Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware DC Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York N. Carolina N. Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island S. Carolina S. Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington W. Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Zip Code Email Today on PopSci.com When The Sun Unleashed Its Recent Plasma Blast, Earth Got Lucky54803561In the Future, Your Clothes Will Clean the Air, Generate Power and Save Your Life54138562Video: Master Bladesmith Bob Kramer Visits PopSci to Show Off His Chops54443563In Brazil, an Explosion in Computing Power is Revolutionizing Weather Prediction54377564The Top 10 New Species of 201154406565Archive Gallery: PopSci Lends a Hand to the Disabled54360566As the Army Fights the Mississippi River, Who Is Winning?54339567As Congress Fusses Over Climate Semantics, the U.S. Faces a Weather Satellite Gap54381568How L.A. Noire Rebuilt 1940s Los Angeles Using Vintage Extreme Aerial Photography 54231569Is the Ending of the Shuttle Program a Setback for Space Science, Or a New Opportunity?536385610Bodies In Motion: Exploring the Human Limits of Future Travel 532995611Hackintosh Guide: It's Never Been Easier To Build a Mac541215612 Footer Menu SubscribeRenew SubscriptionCustomer ServiceSite MapAbout UsContact UsAdvertisingPrivacy PolicyTerms of UseAbuseRSS FeedsPS Showcase

 

Copyright © 2009 Popular Science

A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://sb" : "http://b") + ".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js' %3E%3C/script%3E")); COMSCORE.beacon({ c1:2, c2:"6035029", c3:" ", c4:" ", c5:"", c6:"", c15:" " });

View the original article here