If you’re not a fan of broccoli yet, let’s start loving it now, because it turns out he’s been promoted to chief scientific associate.
Through a biological process, almost all cells can expel harmful substances from themselves. Like algae, broccoli detoxifies by converting them into gases during the methylation process. This kind of biological activity could mask aliens, if this gas could be felt and measured in the atmospheres of other planets, he writes. space.
If clusters of atoms and molecules of this type of gas are detected in the atmosphere of the exoplanet, we will strongly expect that there is alien life on the planet.
Gas components are in the measurable infrared range, so James web The space telescope’s Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRSpec) instrument can capture it and show whether Foreigner Such gas forms around a star or planet.
Astronomers focus particularly on bromomethane research. If this toxic (an ingredient in pesticides), ozone-depleting gas exists around an alien planet, we can be almost certain that there are living organisms on or near that planet. Methane often comes from biological sources (think lots of curses for cows). Bromomethane is a good material for detecting living matter because it does not stay in the atmosphere for long. If it is present, it can be measured, and then it was recently released by a potential organism.
Michaela Leung, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Riverside A in a study of broccoli However, it does not hide the fact that the gas is not necessarily released by a living organism (it could have been caused by a volcanic eruption), but that it is more likely.
By the way, this isn’t the first time that broccoli has shown scientific activity. It has long been known that Roman cauliflower (or pagoda cauliflower) owes its decorative appearance to its fractal arrangement. fractals v Infinitely complex and detailed geometric figures, their borders and surfaces wrinkled and torn. In fractals, the same details are repeated almost endlessly.
So it’s time to look at broccoli differently – it knows more than we do.
(Cover Photo: (Shannon Vanress/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
