NASAさんのインスタグラム写真 - (NASAInstagram)「“Originality is the thing.”- Lester Young “Hello, I’m Prabal Saxena, an early-career researcher who studies exoplanets, ocean worlds and habitability. A lot of astronomers are obsessed with water. I certainly am, and so are a bunch of scientists I work with. When we think about other planets, we ask so many questions about water that it almost seems a little unhealthy. The biggest one we ask is, “does the water on this planet exist in a way which may support life?” “One thing I’ve been thinking about more recently is how different “ocean worlds” can be. The inestimable jazz player Lester Young wasn’t talking about planets then, but really nailed it when he said ‘originality is the thing.’ Just check out this first image of Pluto, a dwarf planet.” “This second image is just a sample of ocean worlds that I put together. It shows how different these places can be. These objects are all real images (taken either by NASA missions/observatories or the Gemini Planet Imager) of planets taken with no enhancement of colors. “Without knowing anything about these planets, you can already tell they are each incredibly unique.” “Some of these worlds are basically atmosphere-less ice balls with oceans buried underneath (like Europa or Enceladus), while others are shrouded in thick or multi-layered haze dominated atmospheres (like Titan and Pluto). The surface and oceans are all different too! “ “Some are believed to be really briny or may have other compounds that act as ‘anti-freezes’ (like on Ceres or Pluto). Others have evidence of recent activity on the surface that suggest that an underlying ocean is modifying the surface (Triton). “Some even have living things consuming, swimming in and surfing on the water like our own planet. “ “Finally, there are those planets where we are only just beginning to glimpse their features with current observations, like Eris and exoplanets. As we get more detailed observations of these and other worlds in the future, I’m sure we’ll continue to be surprised and amazed at these original worlds.” Image credits: NASA/Apollo 17, NASA/JPL/University of Arizona, NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute, NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science」8月25日 22時31分