Search for new life forms

Amar Chandel Man today knows quite a lot about the moon and planets like Mars. But there are still several dark corners of the earth about which he knows next to nothing. The icebreaker Oden, operated by the Swedish Maritime Administration, that carries 30 researchers to the Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Ocean

Prof Yash Pal

Search for new life forms
Amar Chandel

Man today knows quite a lot about the moon and planets like Mars. But there are still several dark corners of the earth about which he knows next to nothing. One such inaccessible area is the Gakkel Ridge under the frozen Arctic Ocean between Greenland and Siberia. The most rugged terrain on earth has been separated from the rest of the eco-system for tens of millions of years. Hot magma spews out of the earth’s mantle there in geyser-like eruptions of very hot, mine-rich fluids and the temperature is way too hot for life as we know it to exist there, but there are reasons to believe that totally unknown life forms have spawned there. These may include exotic sea creatures and new varieties of plants and animals, which may also provide clues to the origin of life on the planet.

Associate Scientist Hanumant Singh examines his new “Camper” — the CAMera and samPlER sled—a tethered, remotely operated vehicle that was specially developed for research under the Arctic ice cap. (Photos: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

A 30-member international team of geophysicists, biologists, engineers, chemists and other deep-sea specialists is currently headed towards this fearsome place on a 40-day mission to send robotic probes under the ice shelf to navigate and map this surreal world, where the bottom water hasn’t had oxygen for 17 million years. It is led by Robert Reves-Sohn, a geophysicist from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (US). This is the first search for life in the depths of the high Arctic.

The robotic probes are so sophisticated that they may be later used to develop similar instruments for future hunt for life on Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter. That is why NASA is backing the $ 5.5-million project, which started on July 1. Europa also features volcanic activity beneath an icy surface.

Two of the three robotic vehicles are designed to navigate untethered under the ice. These two robots, named Puma and Jaguar, costing about $450,000 each, will descend to about 5,000 metres and work 5 to 6 metres off the bottom, photographing and taking samples.

The robots cannot surface through the ice and be retrieved if there are problems.

Interestingly, these sophisticated machines have been developed by Indian-born scientist Hanumant Singh who had his early education in Chandigarh (St John’s School and Punjab Engineering College). The environment there is so hostile that the robotic probes may not survive, but that is a risk well worth taking, says Hanumant Singh. “Steep rocky cliffs and peaks, enormous pressures and vent fluids hot enough to melt the very thermometers meant to detect them make it the most rugged terrain on the planet. But the best science is usually high risk,” he adds.

The progress of the unique endeavour can be tracked online at http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu.

In the latest depatch posted on July 4, Lonny Lippsett writes: “In the Arctic Ocean, the fastest route between two points is not a straight line. Tuesday night, we were about 100 nautical miles from our first destination. We could be there by dawn (if there were a dawn up here), and if Oden sailed fast and straight. But neither fast nor straight are possible in an ice-covered ocean.

“Instead, the ship’s crew continually looks to steer the ship away from thick ice, seeking thinner ice that Oden can break more easily, or cracks between ice floes called ‘leads’, or best of all, isolated patches of open ocean”.

Oden, the Swedish icebreaker ship in which they are headed towards the Gakkel Ridge, actually climbs on top of the ice and uses its own weight to break up the ice packs as it travels.

After making a hole in the ice, the submersible Puma will be sent down to detect if there are any hydrothermal vents in the area. If there are, the Jaguar will be despatched to take pictures. Finally, the SUV-sized tethered vehicle Camper will be lowered to the sea floor to collect rocks, sediments and, hopefully, living creatures.

While most other autonomous underwater vehicles look like torpedoes, since they have to work in open water, the new robots rather resemble helicopters that can hover and move vertically.

THIS UNIVERSE 
PROF YASH PAL

How are dark matter and dark energy related, and is there conclusive proof for existence of either?

We are treading a field here where indication, if not evidence, for existence of these forms of matter is accumulating, all of it coming from study of astronomy and cosmology. Scientists used to making discoveries through planned experiments in their laboratories are intrigued and somewhat frustrated.

They find it hard to propose generally acceptable theories to explain the concerned astronomical observations, nor can they test them through any laboratory experiments. I will attempt to give a sketch of some of the observations that have produced the present stir — in simple words using concepts familiar to high school students. Off hand it seems that dark matter and dark energy might not have a common origin and could be discussed separately.

First the dark matter. One of the first indications for existence of mass much greater than the visible mass in galaxies came from the study of variation of rotation velocity of stars as a function of their distance from centres of galaxies.

It was found through such studies of these rotation curves that the rotations velocity at the outer edges of the galaxies did not drop as would be expected if the brightness in the disc of the galaxy were representative of the mass distribution of stars and gas in the galaxy.

It seemed that Newtonian dynamics was being violated. Stars seemed to be moving much faster than expected. That was the beginning of the hypothesis there might be significant of matter not visible through its interaction or light emission of any kind that populated the galaxy environment including its halo.

We will talk more about this subject next week.