NASA`s new proposed budget gets a boost to explore for extraterrestrial life

We're going to Europa! US committee assigns $18.5 billion to fund NASA's search for alien life and a mission to Jupiter's moon
--US House Appropriations Committee has revealed its budget for Nasa
--It directs NASA to start an 'Ocean Worlds Exploration Program'
--This would search for life in the solar system - such as on Europa
--However, it cuts Earth Science funding, drawing criticism from the agency

By JONATHAN O'CALLAGHAN FOR MAILONLINE
May 20, 2015

Nasa's latest budget is set to include a greater emphasis on the search for life and also fund a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa in 2022. In a draft bill, the agency has been told to start a new Ocean Worlds Exploration Program that would hunt for life in the outer solar system. But the budget proposals also include cuts for the Earth Science and private spaceflight programs, drawing criticism from both Nasa and the White House.

The bill, which can be viewed online, was drawn up by the US House Appropriations Committee and will be considered today. If passed, it will give the agency $18.529 billion of funding up to September 2016 - an increase of $519 million from last year.

Excitingly, there is a large emphasis on searching for life both in our own solar system and beyond, with multiple missions planned.

[...]

The bill proposes $140 million for a robotic mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa - $110 million above what was requested. It directs Nasa to achieve a launch ‘no later than 2022’ on its upcoming Space Launch System rocket.


The goal of the Ocean Worlds Exploration Programme would be to ‘discover [existing] life’ on one of the solar system’s outer moons. These include Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus, in addition to Europa, which are thought to have vast reservoirs of water - and possibly life - under their surface (illustrated) Img credit: NASA

A further $86 million  is intended for the Ocean Worlds Exploration Program, with a goal to ‘discover [existing] life’ on one of the solar system’s outer moons. These include Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus, in addition to Europa, which are thought to have vast reservoirs of water - and possibly life - under their surface.


Observations of Europa and other moons have heavily suggested there are vast reservoirs of liquid water underground waiting to be explored. It is theorized that the conditions in these environments could be suitable for life to survive. Img credit: NASA

[...]

While the budget doesn’t say specifically what sort of mission should be mounted, the money will be useful for researching methods to peer, or even travel beneath, the surfaces of these worlds.

The more primitive Europa Clipper mission, meanwhile, will have the goal of flying past Europa multiple times to evaluate the ocean believed to be underground.

It may even fly through ejected plumes from the moon, and Nasa is also looking at various proposals to include a lander that could analyse the surface. This could be useful in working out, for example, if it is possible to ‘melt’ the surface, which a future lander could do to explore underneath.
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Discovery of new stone tools could REWRITE what we know about early human history, now with the world`s oldest tools pushes homo genus date back to 3.3-million-years

World's oldest tools could rewrite early human history: 3.3-million-year-old stones predate Homo by 700,000 YEARS
--3.3 million-year-old tools were found in the badlands of north-west Kenya
--They are thought to have been made by our distant cousins to crack nuts
--Find pushes the known date of handheld tools back by 700,000 years
--It adds to growing belief that pre-humans exhibited ‘human-like’ behaviour

By SARAH GRIFFITHS FOR MAILONLINE
May 20, 2015

The use of stone tools by our ancient ancestors was, until now, thought to have originated with the Homo genus around 2.6 million years ago. But the discovery of a collection of implements in Kenya, which predate this by a staggering 700,000 years, could rewrite what we know about early human history.

Researchers believe the 3.3-million-year-old stones - including anvils, hammers and cores - were made by a undetermined hominin species which had a 'strong grip and good motor control'.


The use of stone tools by our ancient ancestors was, until now, thought to have originated with the Homo genus around 2.6 million years ago.But the discovery of a collection of implements (one pictured) in Kenya, which predate this by a staggering 700,000 years, could rewrite what we know about early human history. Img credit: MPK-WTAP

Stone-tool culture associated with Homo has been dated back to around 2.6 million years ago and this was based on evidence found in Ethiopia.

In particular, artefacts were found near the remains of one of the earliest Homo fossils, Homo habilis, also known as 'the handy man', and this culture is described as Oldowan.

WHO MADE THE ANCIENT TOOLS?
While the researchers said they can't currently be sure who made the tools, an earlier find of a skull suggests it may have been Kenyanthropus platytops - a hominin living 3.3 million years ago.

This is because the skull was found in 1999 less than a mile (1km) from the tool site.
The precise family tree of modern humans is contentious, and so far, no one knows exactly how K. platyops relates to other hominin species, although Kenyanthropus predates the earliest known Homo species by a half a million years.

This species could have made the tools, or the toolmaker could have been some other species from the same era, such as Australopithecus afarensis, or an as-yet undiscovered early type of Homo, the researchers say.

The new tools, unearthed from the Lomekwi 3 site next to Lake Turkana in Kenya, predate these Oldowan tools by around 700,000 years, according to lead researcher Sonia Harmand from Stony Brook University in New York.


Professor Harmand and colleagues from Hebrew University in Jerusalem said the collection, which additionally includes worked cobbles, is more primitive than that found in Ethiopia but would have been made by a group with the 'cognitive capabilities of early relatives of humans.' Img credit: Nature

[...]

The finds add to a growing belief that pre-human forms exhibited ‘human’ behaviour and seem to challenge the notion that our most direct ancestors were the first to bang two rocks together to create a new 'technology'.

The tools are the first piece of evidence that an even earlier group of proto-humans may have had the thinking abilities needed to figure out how to make sharp-edged tools and mark ‘a new beginning to the known archaeological record’ according to the study, published in the Nature journal.

‘The whole site’s surprising, it just rewrites the book on a lot of things that we thought were true,’ said Chris Lepre of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Rutgers University, a co-author of the paper who precisely dated the artefacts.

Professor Sonia Harmand and her colleagues from Hebrew University in Jerusalem said the collection includes anvils, hammer stones, worked cobbles and cores (two example cores are pictured with a flake)


Stone-tool culture associated with Homo dates back around 2.6 million years. This stems from artefacts found near the remains of one of the earliest Homo fossils, Homo habilis, also known as 'the handy man', in Ethiopia. This culture is described as Oldowan and a traditional Oldowan 'chopper' is pictured. Img credit: Wikimedia Commons/Locutus Borg

[...]

WHY IS THE FIND IMPORTANT?
The find of more than 100 tools adds to a growing belief that pre-human forms exhibited ‘human’ behaviour and seem to challenge the notion that out most direct ancestors were the first to bang two rocks together to create a new technology.

They were crafted long before modern humans, probably by some sort of human ancestor and push the known date of handheld tools back by 700,000 years.

The tools are the first piece of evidence that an even earlier group of proto-humans may have had the thinking abilities needed to figure out how to make sharp-edged tools and mark ‘a new beginning to the known archaeological record’ according to the study.

THE COMPLEX EVOLUTION OF MAN
55 million years ago - First primitive primates evolve
15 million years ago - Hominidae (great apes) evolve from the ancestors of the gibbon
8 million years ago - First gorillas evolve. Later, chimp and human lineages diverge
5.5 million years ago - Ardipithecus, early ‘proto-human’ shares traits with chimps and gorillas
4 million years ago - Australopithecines appeared. They had brains no larger than a chimpanzee's
2.8 million years ago - LD 350-1 appeared and may be the first of the Homo family
2.7 million years ago - Paranthropus, lived in woods and had massive jaws for chewing
2.3 million years ago - Homo habalis first thought to have appeared in Africa
1.8 million years ago - Homo ergaster begins to appear in fossil record
1.6 million years ago - Hand axes become the first major technological innovation
800,000 years ago - Early humans control fire and create hearths. Brain size increases rapidly
400,000 years ago - Neanderthals first begin to appear and spread across Europe and Asia
200,000 years ago - Homo sapiens - modern humans - appear in Africa
40,000 years ago - Modern humans reach Europe

...

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Experts claim to find preserved skin tissue on a 2 MILLION-year-old fossil - that would be the oldest in the world folks

Have scientists unearthed the world's oldest human SKIN? Preserved tissue found on a 2 MILLION-year-old fossil, expert claims
-South African anthropologists believe they have found preserved skin that belonged to an early human species known as Australopithecus sediba
-It could be the oldest soft tissue ever found for an early human species
-Scientists say they also discovered food particles in the teeth of the fossils
-The fossils were discovered in Malapa Nature Reserve near Johannesburg
By RICHARD GRAY FOR MAILONLINE
May 8, 2015

[Fossilized] skin belonging to a prehistoric human ancestor that lived two million years ago is thought to have been discovered among the remains of six skeletons.

Anthropologists believe they have found the preserved skin tissue of an early human species known as Australopithecus sediba in an ancient cave near Johannesburg, in South Africa. It could be the oldest example of human soft tissue to ever be found and is set to reveal new details about what this now extinct species of human was like.


Thin layers of 'organic' material thought to be skin was found attacked to the cement like rock from which this skull Australopithecus sediba was removed by anthropologists at the Malapa site in South Africa (credit AFP/Getty)

Scientists who have been leading the excavation, which began with the discovery of the remains of a 4ft 2 inch tall male juvenile in 2008, believe they have also found the remains of the ancient humans' last meals still preserved in their teeth. They say seeds and other food particles that became stuck in the creatures' teeth have been preserved.

Professor Lee Berger, an anthropologist at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, who has been leading the excavation, said: 'We found out this wasn't just a normal type of rock that they were contained in - it was a rock that was preserving organic material.

'Plant remains are captured in it - seeds, things like that - even food particulates that are captured in the teeth, so we can see what they were eating. 'Maybe more remarkably, we think we've found fossil skin here too.'

Professor Berger, who made his comments in an interview with the Naked Scientists, discovered the first remains of Australopithecus sediba in 2008 after his son Matthew stumbled upon a [sic] fossilised bone in the Malapa Nature Reserve near Johannesburg.

They later excavated an almost complete skull, together with shoulder bones, a hand, wrist bones and ankle bones. Professor Berger announced the discovery to the world in 2010.
He described the early human as a new species that he called Australopithecus sediba and is thought to be a transitional species between earlier Australopithecus species and early Homo species...

[...]

AUSTRALOPITHECUS SEDIBA - A PIGEON-TOED CLIMBER
Research on the fossils of Australopithecus sediba have given an unprecidented insight into what these early human ancestors were like.

The fossils, which were studied by scientists across the world, show a mixture of primitive features and of more advanced features typical of later human species.

It has a narrow upper rib cage while the modern human's thorax is uniformly cylindrical. The cone-shaped rib cage allowed the early hominin to move its shoulder blades so it could climb trees. However, this prevented A. sediba from swinging its arms, meaning that walking and running was much more difficult. It had a slim waist similar to modern humans but feet which turned sharply inwards.

A. sediba had the same number of lumbar vertebrae as a modern man and a similar curvature of the lower back. However, its back was longer and more flexible than that of modern humans.
They had longer arms than we do with curved fingers, which would have made them adept at climbing.


Australopithecus sediba is thought to have lived in South Africa around 1.9 million to 2 million years ago at around the same time as other early humans were evolving across the African continent (Credit: Leo Delauncey/MailOnline)

The researchers also hope to find out whether, if it is soft tissue, it had been dried or soaked in water as it was preserved in the rock.

The remains of plants and insects have also been found preserved in the cement-like breccia alongside the skeletons.

It is thought that sediment in the bottom of a pool of water may have helped to protect the organic material from bacteria that would have caused them to rot and break down.
Professor Berger and his team are now trying to create a live laboratory on top of the site so they can continue working on the fossils while they are still in the ground without damaging them.

The laboratory will also have a platform that will allow members of the public to look down into the site where the remains are being excavated...

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Researchers to drill 5,000 feet below the surface of vast Mexican crater in bid to find out what killed the dinosaurs

DAILYMAIL
By MARK PRIGG FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
April 13, 2015

Researchers plan to drill 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the surface of the Chicxulub crater in Mexico to try and answer the question of how the dinosaurs died out. The core they hope to retrieve will allow them to look back in time 10 million to 15 million years into the past. It could help uncover exactly what happened to create the crater - and if it killed off the dinosaurs.

'The Chicxulub impact crater has been a remarkable scientific opportunity for the 20 years since it's been discovered,' Sean Gulick, of The University of Texas at Austin Institute for Geophysics, told Livescience.

An international team of scientists met last week in Mérida, Mexico, located within the 125-mile-wide (200 kilometers) Chicxulub crater, to discuss their plans for the drilling project, slated to start in spring 2016.

They believe that when a big rock smashes into Earth at high enough velocities, the collision causes the crust temporarily to act like a liquid, first forming a so-called transient crater (like the indentation that forms on a lake surface after a rock is thrown in), and the center rebounds, or splashes, upward and then outward.

'We think the peak ring is the record of the material that rebounded and splashed outward,' Gulick told Live Science. All of these ideas are based on models and aren't necessarily what happened. 'We've never gotten a rock back from a peak ring to know if that's correct,' Gulick said.

A VAST IMPACT SITE
The impact site is believed to be the 125 mile (200km) wide Chicxulub crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.

When the six-mile-wide (10km) asteroid hit what is now Mexico approximately 66 million years ago, dinosaurs were experiencing environmental upheaval, which left them vulnerable.
Previous researcher has questioned the theory that a global firestorm accompanied the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs.

A team of researchers has found that heat near the impact site would not have been sufficient to ignite plants. It suggests our understanding of the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs may not be as complete as thought. Previous researcher has questioned the theory that a global firestorm accompanied the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs. A team of researchers has found that heat near the impact site would not have been sufficient to ignite plants.

It suggests our understanding of the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs may not be as complete as thought. The team of researchers from the University of Exeter, University of Edinburgh and Imperial College London recreated the immense energy that would have been released from the asteroid impact 66 million years ago.


Further away from the impact site in Mexico (shown), in places like New Zealand, the heat could have lasted up to seven minutes and caused some localised fires. But the theory that a global firestorm accompanied the asteroid impact is not correct, according to the scientists. (credit: Mailonline)

They found that the intense but short-lived heat near the impact site could not have ignited live plants, challenging the idea that the impact led to global firestorms. These firestorms have previously been considered a major contender in the puzzle to find out what caused the mass extinction of life on Earth 66 million years ago.

The impact site is believed to be the 125 mile (200km) wide Chicxulub crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.

A heat pulse in the surrounding the area lasted for less than a minute followed the impact.
While this was too short to ignite live plant material nearby, the effects of the impact further away could have been sufficient to set some material alight. The researchers said as far away as New Zealand, the heat would have been less intense but longer lasting, heating the ground for seven minutes - enough to ignite live plant matter.

But nearer the site such a scenario was unlikely, pouring water on the global firestorm theory.
The experiments carried out in the laboratory showed that dry plant matter could ignite, but live plants including green pine branches, typically do not. 'By combining computer simulations of the impact with methods from engineering we have been able to recreate the enormous heat of the impact in the laboratory,' said Dr Claire Belcher from the Earth System Science group in Geography at the University of Exeter.

'This has shown us that the heat was more likely to severely affect ecosystems a long distance away, such that forests in New Zealand would have had more chance of suffering major wildfires than forests in North America that were close to the impact. 'This flips our understanding of the effects of the impact on its head and means that paleontologists may need to look for new clues from fossils found a long way from the impact to better understand the mass extinction event.'

Plants and animals are generally resistant to localised fire events - animals can hide or hibernate and plants can re-colonise from other areas, implying that wildfires are unlikely to be directly capable of leading to the extinctions. If, however, some animal communities - particularly large animals - were unable to shelter from the heat, they may have suffered serious losses.

It is unclear whether these would have been sufficient to lead to the extinction of species.
'This is a truly exciting piece of inter-disciplinary research,' said Dr Rory Hadden from the University of Edinburgh. 'By working together engineers and geoscientists have tackled a complex, long-standing problem in a novel way. 'This has allowed a step forward in the debate surrounding the end Cretaceous impact and will help Geoscientists interpret the fossil record and evaluate potential future impacts.

'In addition, the methods we developed in the laboratory for this research have driven new developments in our current understanding of how materials behave in fires particularly at the wildland-urban-interface, meaning that we have been able to answer questions relating to both ancient mass extinctions at the same time as developing understanding of the impact of wildfires in urban areas today.'