Astronomy or biology?

The role of biology in astronomical phenomena and processes was first discussed extensively by us in the period from 1979-1982. The two sections reproduced below are the concluding chapters of `Space Travellers' which we published in 1981. The ideas discussed here have turned out to be forerunners to several recent developments in astrobiology. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Polar Ring Currents on the sun During a Polar Magnetic Field Reversal

We have studied the variations of the height of polar crown prominences according to daily observations of the Sun at the Kodaikanal Observatory (India) during 1905–1975. Polar ring filaments at latitudes 60°–80° are related to the polar magnetic field reversal. A double decrease of the height of polar ring filaments was found in the course of their migration from 40°to the poles. We estimated the limiting height of the equilibrium of polar ring filaments from the stability condition of a strong electric current. We found that the transition from large-scale to small-scale ring filaments reduces the critical height of the stability for the prominences. A model of an inverse-polarity filament was used.     

Titan's atmospheric engine: an overview

Heating occurs in Titan's stratosphere from the absorption of incident solar radiation by methane and aerosols. About 10% of the incident sunlight reaches Titan's surface and causes heating there. Thermal radiation redistributes heat within the atmosphere and cools to space. The resulting vertical temperature profile is stable against convection and a state of radiative equilibrium is established. Equating theoretical and observed temperature profiles enables an empirical determination of the vertical distribution of thermal opacity. A uniformly mixed aerosol is responsible for most of the opacity in the stratosphere, whereas collision-induced absorption of gases is the main contributor in the troposphere. Occasional clouds are observed in the troposphere in spite of the large degrees of methane supersaturation found there. Photochemistry converts CH₄ and N₂ into more complex hydrocarbons and nitriles in the stratosphere and above. Thin ice clouds of trace organics are formed in the winter and early spring polar regions of the lower stratosphere. Precipitating ice particles serve as condensation sites for supersaturated methane vapor in the troposphere below, resulting in lowered methane degrees of supersaturation in the polar regions. Latitudinal variations of stratospheric temperature are seasonal, and lag instantaneous response to solar irradiation by about one season for two reasons: (1) an actual instantaneous thermal response to a latitudinal distribution of absorbing gases, themselves out of phase with the sun by about one season, and (2) a sluggish dynamical response of the stratosphere to the latitudinal transport of angular momentum, induced by radiative heating and cooling. Mean vertical abundances of stratospheric organics and aerosols are determined primarily by atmospheric chemistry and condensation, whereas latitudinal distributions are more influenced by meridional circulations. In addition to preferential scavenging by precipitating ice particles from above, the polar depletion of supersaturated methane results from periodic scavenging by short-lived tropospheric clouds, coupled with the steady poleward march of the continuously drying atmosphere due to meridional transport.     

Mantle processes during ocean formation：Petrologic records in peridotites from the Alpine－Apennine ophiolites

Mantle peridotites were early exposed at the sea-floor of the Jurassic Tethys derived from the subcontinental mantle of the Europe-Adria system. During continental rifting and oceanic spreading, these lithospheric peri-dotites were percolated via diffuse reactive porous flowby melt fractions produced by near-fractional melting of the upwelling asthenosphere. Ascending melts inter-acted with the lower lithosphere, dissolving pyroxenes and precipitating olivine, and crystallized at shallower levels in the mantle column causing melt impregnation.Subsequent focused porous flow formed replacive dunitechannels, cutting the impregnated oeridotites, which were conduits for upward migration of MORB-type liq-uids. Melt migration produced depletionlrefertilization and significant heating of the percolatedlimpregnated mantle, i.e the thermochemical erosion of the litho-sphere. Impregnated and thermally modified lithos-pheric mantle was cooled by conductive heat loss dur-ing progressive lithosphere thinning and was intrudeaby MORB magmas, which formed Mg-rich and Fe-richgabbroic dykes and bodies. Alpine-Apennine ophiolitic peridotites record the deep-seated migration of melts which changed their compositions and dynamics during the rift evolution. The thermochemical erosion of the lithospheric mantle by the ascending asthenospheric melts, which induces significant compositional and rhe-ological changes in the lower lithosphere, is a major process in the evolution of the continent-ocean transi-tion towards a slow spreading oceanic system.