4
POPS"Will We Soon find Life in the Heavens?" 'let's hope there's intelligent life somewhere up in Space 'cos there's bugger all down here on earth" continues In the coming months, two new tools will greatly expand astrobiologists' capacity to hear and see other promising signs of life. Later this summer, the nonprofit SETI Institute, named with the acronym for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, will begin listening for alien broadcasts on the new $50 million Allen Telescope Array. A spread of 42 radio dishes in California's Cascade Mountains, the array is the first such facility built specifically to listen for E.T. "We're looking for life that's clever enough to hold up its side of the conversation," says Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute. The array, half funded by Microsoft mogul Paul Allen, will search for alien signals at a clip "hundreds to thousands times faster" than current SETI projects, says Shostak.
1
POPSMicrobes Could Travel from Venus to Earth So our first life may have come from Venus or, you guessed, Mars. This gives greater credence to the book "Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus." (The book needs all the credibility it can get)
11
POPSArctic Scientists Explore a "Lost" 26-Million-Year-Old Ecosystem “The origin of life discussion comes up because the rocks that are exposed on this very slow spreading ridge are not volcanic, but instead come directly from Earth’s mantle,” says geochemist Susan Humphris. “The chemistry is very much like the volcanism that occurred on the primordial Earth. If you are thinking about origins of life, you’d like to have an area that is the closest analog to what was happening on the early Earth.”
14
POPSCan the Martian arctic support extreme life? While the possibility for ET seems to grow with new extremophile discoveries on Earth, the truth is there's no evidence that life ever evolved on Mars or if it even exists today. But if there were past or present life on the red planet - a big if - scientists speculate it would likely be similar to some extreme life on Earth - microscopic and hardy, capable of withstanding colder-than-Antarctica temperatures and low pressures.
1
POPSalien talks next week Section of Integrative Biology Dr. Jessica Gurevitch Stony Brook University (SUNY) “Alien species, extinctions, and working towards a general theory of invasion.” 2:00 p.m. - MBB 1.210 Host: Dr. Norma Fowler
0
POPSThe Astrobiology Roadmap # Astrobiology recognizes a broad societal interest in its endeavors, especially in areas such as achieving a deeper understanding of life, searching for extraterrestrial biospheres, assessing the societal implications of discovering other examples of life, and envisioning the future of life on Earth and in space. # The intrinsic public interest in astrobiology offers a crucial opportunity to educate and inspire the next generation of scientists, technologists and informed citizens; thus a strong emphasis upon education and public outreach is essential.
0
POPSVirtual Planetary Laboratory The Virtual Planet Laboratory (VPL) is a team of scientists who are building computer simulated Earth-sized planets to discover the likely range of planetary environments for planets around other stars. These simulated environments allow us to visualize what these planets look like from space to help future missions recognize signs of possible life in the spectra of planetary atmospheres and surfaces. VPL findings will directly influence the development of future space missions designed to look for habitable planets around other stars by allowing them to distinguish between planets with and without life.
1
Pops
Newest Clips
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Print
Save
Turn on live update