Evidence of Life on Cassiopeia HD 219134 b June 2021
NASA scientists have been receiving data from the exoplanet orbiting HD 219134 solar system in the Cassiopeia constellation, 21 light years from Earth.
Mary Casio, an unknown, elderly stargazer fulfilled her lifelong dream to leave her terraced home in the mining town of Barnsley, South Yorkshire to see Cassiopeia for herself in 2016.
Celebrated by composer and musician Hannah Peel in her opus “Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia” Mary’s fate had become unknown after she passed Alpha Centauri, but it turns out she'd made it to HD 219134 b and become an amateur botanist, making the study of the planet’s flora her life’s work.
Health workers were dumbfounded after her departure in 2016 when they found that she had disappeared from her room, which had been locked from the inside and NASA scientists were equally dumbfounded when they started to receive Mary’s data last year.
NASA astrobiologist, Beatrice Armstrong (also from Barnsley, South Yorkshire) said:
Oh aye, we were dumbfounded alreet, ‘appen our lass has discovered alien life - on another planet. We thought summat were up wi’ computer but it turns out this discovery challenges everything we think we know about evolution. We was a bit flummoxed at first, but by eck we’re reet chuffed with the data. Beatrice Armstrong
What scientists know from Mary’s data
A single plant species, categorised as Mary Casio Aquae Nympha "Gumfettle", seems to dominate HD 219134 b supported by symbiotic microbial life.
The planet’s thin atmospheric envelope was thought to be unable to support life, but scientists have been forced to rethink this supposition based on Mary’s data.
Conventional taxonomies have proved unfit for categorising the species as there is no fossil evidence of evolution in the sense we understand it on Earth.
Habitat
A largely rocky planet with frequent volcanic activity, HD 219134 b offers little habitat outside the deep ravines which offer shade and a cooler atmosphere from the normally searing temperatures of the planet’s surface.
Within the shade a unique ecosystem has developed supporting microbial life which help in the mineralisation of decomposing plant material to create a soil from which the plants absorb nutrients through adventitious roots.
Rare minerals (similar to those used in mobile phones on Earth) are conserved through this process which creates a self supporting ecosystem where there is no waste.
Biology
The plants are able to synthesise water from the planet’s mainly Hydrogen atmosphere and excess water is secreted in volume to create shallow pools in which the plants appear to ‘swim’.
They are able to photosynthesise without chlorophyl having appeared to adapt to the specific wavelength of light emitted by the planet’s sun, HD 219134.
The plants are also bioluminescent and although there appears to be no evolutionary advantage to this, at least in terms of our theory of natural selection, there is an eerie beauty to the pools of light in the shadows of the mountains.
Lifecycle
Plants live in colonies and seem to work harmoniously in the use of available habitat. It’s thought that this enables more successful reproduction.
Plants are stoloniferous and produce runners which, when fully mature, combine with two or more runners from other mature plants to produce a single bulb.
Bulbs are quick to mature from their parent nodes as the parent plants remain temporarily stationary in the mineral soil to enable feeding. When mature, the nascent plant detaches to join the colony.
Plants may live up to 5 Earth years (5,475 of the planet’s orbits) and decompose quickly due to the action of the microbial detritivores which share their habitat.
Images from HD 219134 b
After NASA began receiving image data of Mary’s work in 2019 the detail and beauty of the images has dazzled scientists across the world.