Extraterrestrial Life (no UFOs)
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Overcoming Bias : Pondering PanspermiaPondering Panspermia Over the last few days I’ve neglected my duties to obsessively browse the last seven years of three journals: Astrobiology, International Journal of Astrobiology , and Origins of Life . In the process I’ve become converted to a more expansive version panspermia – life ...
Calvin Smith
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2 weeks ago
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Overcoming Bias : A Galactic GardenA Galactic Garden In August I wrote : A few years ago PCW Davies persuasively argued that Earth life more likely started on Mars. Last year, Napier and coauthors argued that comets are an even more likely source: A single comet of radius 10 km and 30% volume fraction of clay contains ...
Calvin Smith
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2 weeks ago
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NASA - Exoplanet House of HorrorsAstronomers may be closer than ever to discovering a planet that’s habitable like our own, but along the way they’ve discovered some very scary exoplanets – places where conditions are far too harsh for life as we know it to exist. We’ve rounded up some of the most frightening, deadly ...
Calvin Smith
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3 weeks ago
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Detecting Life-Friendly MoonsForty years ago, the Apollo astronauts traipsed across our Moon, making it "inhabited" for the first time – albeit for only two and half hours. A bona-fide habitable moon has never been found, but astronomers are considering how we might find one around distant stars. "I think exomoons are ...
Calvin Smith
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3 weeks ago
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Searching for Alien Life, on EarthIf you spend an afternoon walking along the muddy shore of Mono Lake, with the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada mountains looming majestically in the background, you’ll no doubt discover, as others have before, that it is a place of bizarre natural beauty. But if you spend your afternoon ...
Calvin Smith
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6 weeks ago
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Islands of Life Across Space and TimeFirst Quantitative Evaluation of Planetary Habitability A new study by the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo shows the first quantitative evaluation of planetary habitability . The study identifies some potential habitats in the solar system and also shows how the habitability of our ...
Calvin Smith
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6 weeks ago
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The discovery of new Earths is imminent, UD astronomer saysHarry Shipman, Annie Jump Cannon Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware, told the audience for his lecture, “Seeking New Planets,” on Saturday evening, Sept. 26, that one of his purposes was to “stretch your minds.” And that he did during his high-energy presentation ...
Calvin Smith
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6 weeks ago
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Comet Dust Harbors Life's Building Blocks / Science NewsA building block of proteins found in samples from an icy comet’s halo suggests that the ingredients of life could have hitched a ride to early Earth, researchers reported August 16 at a meeting of the American Chemical Society. “The early Earth was bombarded with comets and meteorites,” says ...
Calvin Smith
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7 weeks ago
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Laser technique has implications for detecting microbial life forms in Martian iceAn innovative technique called L.I.F.E. imaging used successfully to detect bacteria in frozen Antarctic lakes could have exciting implications for demonstrating signs of life in the polar regions of Mars, according to an article published in the current issue of Astrobiology. Michael ...
Calvin Smith
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7 weeks ago
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New 'Drake equation' for alien habitatsA mathematical equation that counts habitats suitable for alien life could complement the Drake equation, which estimates the probability of finding intelligent alien beings elsewhere in the galaxy.
Calvin Smith
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2 months ago