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Sorry for the lateness of the episode, we were rather ambitious with this one. Thom and Alan get access to a sound stage and get to actually record the podcast in the same room for the first time. In recent news there seems to be some pop-culture discoveries, the Eye of Sauron and Spongebob and Patrick have been found in the deep sea. Finally, we try not to get too depressed about ocean warming and deep-sea mining buy considering our own energy budgets.
The topic for this double episode is, as ever, the deep sea. But this time we are talking about the deep sea… Innnnnn Spaaaaaaaace! It turns out there is deep sea outside of earth in our solar system in the ice-covered moons of the gas giants. How likely are they to contain deep-sea life completely independent from the life that originated on earth? Thom chats with astrobiologist Kevin Peter Hand, author of Alien Oceans: The search for life in the depths of space, and director of NASA’s Ocean Worlds Lab. What are the best candidates for alien life in our solar system? What could that life be like and why does our own deep ocean provide a perfect test bed?
Astrobiologist Kevin Hand summarising the search for life in our solar system
It turns out that the early versions of the vehicles which may some day explore these ocean worlds are already in development. Thom chats with Casey Machado, Research Engineer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution about the Orpheus AUV, the first generation of such vehicle and a new asset to the exploration of our own deep ocean.
The Orpious AUV
Feel free to get in touch with us with questions or you own tales from the high seas on:
podcast@armatusoceanic.com
We are also on
Twitter: @ArmatusO
Facebook: ArmatusOceanic
Instagram: @armatusoceanic
Read the show notes and find out more about us at:
www.armatusoceanic.com
Links
Undersea volcano looks like the Eye of Sauron
Spongebob and Patrick at almost 2000 m
Temperature impact on deep-sea biodiversity
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The buoyant rover for under ice exploration
Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space
The very bad day, the loss of Nereus
Glossary
Astronomical unit - the distance between the Earth and the Sun
AUV: Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
Hadal - Areas more than 6000 m deep, mainly the deep-ocean trenches
K strategist - an organism that has few offspring but invests a lot of resources and energy into them, e.g. whale
Molar concentration - one mole (6.02214076×1023 particles) of substance in a litre of solution.
R strategist - an organism that has many 'cheap' offspring, e.g. salmon
ROV – Remotely Operated Vehicle
Credits
Theme – Hadal Zone Express by Märvel
Logo images:
Taste of the Ocean on Europa's Surface - NASA, public domain
Orpheus AUV - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute