The seventh month of the year has placed our feet on the ground in terms of astronomy, in the most abrupt way. The confirmation that Mars is more uninhabitable than previously thought, and the news that life is not possible on the seven terrestrial planets that orbit the star Trappist-1 have sat scientists like a jug of cold water, since he adventure of finding places with the possibility of life is one of the next achievable challenges for astronomers.
However, the actuality of the stars has also brought good news, and in a much closer environment: our own solar system; Because they barely have waves, the lakes of Titan are a quite acceptable place to make a possible landing, and is that moons, like this one of Saturn, are strong candidates in which to find traces of life .
But it is enough to look at our own satellite to marvel. In July, we also discovered that the Moon contains a lot of water, which is found in ancient magma deposits inside it, and that it could have been carried away by the asteroid impact before the Moon completely solidified.
In addition, in July we enjoyed other fascinating news about our universe, such as the discovery of one of the brightest galaxies, or the smallest star in the known universe, located 600 light years from Earth.
And about how our universe works, also on an infinitesimal scale, we know more about particles with properties that seem like science fiction. Like the Majorana fermions, whose existence has been confirmed this month, and which are, at the same time, matter and antimatter. It has been baptized as the angel particle.
A catastrophic landslide in Antarctica
As we learn more about the cosmos, nearby, on our own planet, we mourn events that could have serious consequences for sustaining life on Earth as we know it . In July, a huge block of ice from Antarctica, weighing a trillion tons, broke loose. Its area of 6,000 square kilometers is the equivalent of the community of Cantabria, or 10 cities such as Madrid . It had been “hanging by a thread” for months, and scientists feared its detachment, which had been waiting for weeks. It finally happened between Monday, July 10, and Wednesday, July 12, 2017.
Although this detachment is a natural event and a priori, it will not have serious immediate consequences in the natural environment or in the marine ecosystem, it makes us reflect on the significant reduction of the Antarctic ice sheet , due to the high temperatures of the planet , and that is expected to continue to increase. The consequences of climate change, with a clear human factor involved, are changing the Antarctic ecosystem.
During the month of July we have verified that nature is exciting and terrifying , both outside our planet and on it. But the interior of our body also houses phenomena that we still do not understand. Although, fortunately, science is getting closer and closer to unraveling these mysteries. In July we discovered that most of the human genome is ‘junk DNA’. In addition, we can say that, in a certain way, drinking coffee lengthens life, or so a study by the Annals of Internal Medicine has suggested in this period, which identifies a link between daily coffee intake and reduced risk of death.
New milestones related to medicine promise to improve and extend the lives of millions of people . A nanosensor that measures our state of health has surprised us this July; in addition, the development of a drug capable of restoring memory to patients who have suffered a brain injury and the editing, for the first time, of genes from human embryos.
Image: NASA
