Latest Extraterrestrial life Stories
A technique that allows radio astronomers to combine observations made simultaneously by multiple arrays has yet to detect any signs of extraterrestrial broadcast signals, Australian researchers have confirmed. In a study posted online May 29 and scheduled for publication in the Astronomical Journal, experts at the Curtin University International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research used very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) to examine Gliese 581, a star which is orbited by planets...
Lee Rannals for RedOrbit.com Carbon, a building block for creating life, has been detected in a Martian meteorite that landed on Earth, according to a Carnegie Institution for Science study. The researchers were able to detect strong evidence that complex carbon chemistry has taken place on Mars. "These findings show that the storage of reduced carbon molecules on Mars occurred throughout the planet's history and might have been similar to processes that occurred on the ancient...
WASHINGTON, May 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA-funded research on Mars meteorites that landed on Earth shows strong evidence that very large molecules containing carbon, which is a key ingredient for the building blocks of life, can originate on the Red Planet. These macromolecules are not of biological origin, but they are indicators that complex carbon chemistry has taken place on Mars. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Researchers from the...
Lee Rannals for RedOrbit.com Astronomer Jill Tarter, who has been heading up the SETI Institute for 35 years, will be giving up the reigns of the alien hunting organization to a colleague. Tarter will be succeeded by SETI Institute Physicist Gerry Harp as Director of the Center for SETI Research. Tarter says she will be focusing her time on fundraising for the work as the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI within the scientific organization. “For many years working at the SETI...
SAN MATEO, Calif., May 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A NASA-inspired competition is challenging citizen scientists to build hardware for collecting microorganisms at the edge of space. Citizen scientists can win cash prizes up to $10,000 in the High Altitude Astrobiology Challenge, announced Saturday by Citizens in Space, a project of the United States Rocket Academy. If successful, their work may help stop a future epidemic. Citizens in Space project manager Edward Wright announced...
The idea of discovering a new form of life has not only excited astronomers and astrobiologists for decades, but also the wider public. The notion that we are the only example of a successful life form in the galaxy has, for many, seemed like an unlikely statistic, as we discover more and more habitable planetary bodies and hear yet more evidence of life's ability to survive in extreme conditions. A new essay, published May 8 in the online, open-access journal PLoS Biology, examines what...
Lee Rannals for RedOrbit.com [ Watch the Video ] Light from a "super-Earth" planet that lies beyond our solar system has been detected for the first time by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. NASA said that although the planet, 55 Cancri e, is not habitable, meaning it is unable to support life, the detection is a monumental step towards searching for signs of life on other planets. "Spitzer has amazed us yet again," Bill Danchi, Spitzer program scientist at NASA Headquarters in...
Sensors would punch into soil, run range of tests A Washington State University astrobiologist is leading a group of 20 scientists in calling for a mission to Mars with "a strong and comprehensive life detection component." At the heart of their proposal is a small fleet of sensor packages that can punch into the Martian soil and run a range of tests for signs of ancient or existing life. They call the mission BOLD. It's both an acronym for Biological Oxidant and Life Detection and a...
The Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE) proposal to study the moons of Jupiter is leading the pack of proposed missions. The mission would launch in 2022 to study Jupiter's moons and determine whether any of them are capable of supporting life. JUICE, according to BBC News, is waiting for a European space committee to meet and discuss the mission, along with other contenders, in May. The spacecraft in the mission would study three of Jupiter's Galilean moons, using gravity of the large...
Craters made by asteroid impacts may be the best place to look for signs of life on other planets, a study suggests. Tiny organisms have been discovered thriving deep underneath a site in the US where an asteroid crashed some 35 million years ago. Scientists believe that the organisms are evidence that such craters provide refuge for microbes, sheltering them from the effects of the changing seasons and events such as global warming or ice ages. The study suggests that crater sites...
Latest Extraterrestrial life Reference Libraries
Astrobiology is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published monthly by Mary Ann Liebert Inc. It is the official journal of the Astrobiology Society. As of May 2012, the editor-in-chief is Sherry L. Cady, PhD (Portland State University, Department of Geology). Astrobiology is the leading international journal for astronomers, biologists, chemists, geologists, microbiologists, paleontologists, and planetary scientists designed to advance our understanding of life’s origin, evolution, and...
Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 - December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer who pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and science in general. He is less well known for his skepticism. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Sagan attended the University of Chicago, where he received a bachelor's degree (1955) and a master's degree (1956) in physics, before earning his doctorate (1960) in astronomy and astrophysics. He taught at Harvard University...
Xenobiology -- Xenobiology (or exobiology, or astrobiology) is the term for a speculative field within biology which considers the possibility of, and possible nature of, extraterrestrial life. It also necessarily includes the concept of artificial life, since any life form might naturally evolve elsewhere, could conceivably come out of a laboratory using a future technology. It might be difficult to tell whether a truly strange life form had in fact arisen in space, or was designed much...
Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) -- SETI (pronounced SEH-tee) stands for for Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. Interstellar travel is a common theme in science fiction stories, but the obstacles to such journeys are in practice enormous. An alternative approach to interstellar exploration is to survey the sky in hopes of finding transmissions from a civilization on a distant planet, but such an effort has obstacles as well. Overview Visiting another...
Panspermia -- Panspermia is a theory (more directly described as a hypothesis, as there is no compelling evidence yet available to support or contradict it) that suggests that the seeds of life are prevalent throughout the universe and life on Earth began by such seeds landing on Earth and propagating. The theory has origins in the ideas of Anaxagoras, a Greek philosopher. An important proponent of the theory was the British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle. There is some evidence to...
