Saturn’s mysterious X-rays, Mercury’s molten core and Earth’s extremophiles

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - When it comes to mysterious X-rays from Saturn, the ringed planet may act as a mirror, reflecting explosive activity from the Sun, according to scientists using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. See http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0505/26sunxrays/.
g Abodes - Scientists using a high-precision planetary radar technique have discovered that Mercury probably has a molten core. The finding is an important step in understanding how planets form and evolve. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload
&name=News&file=article&sid=2320mode=thread&order
=0&thold=0.
g Life - One of the key motivations for revisiting the probability of life elsewhere in the universe is the surprising proclivity of life in hostile places on Earth. New findings suggest that modern organisms may possess useless DNA fragments today that once saved their ancestors’ lives in extreme environments. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload
&name=News&file=article&sid=1461
mode=thread&. Note: this story is from 2005.
g Intelligence - There's a new incentive to doing good things for others: It makes you happier, according to a new study. See http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070503_doing_good.html.
g Message - When talk turns to SETI, there’s one question that’s as common as catfish: "We’re not broadcasting to the aliens; so what makes you think they’ll be broadcasting to us?" See http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_transmit_060525.html.
g Cosmicus - While recognizing that many of the driving forces behind human space flight are social and political, rather than narrowly scientific, it seems clear that science has been, and will continue to be, a major beneficiary of having people in space. What, after all, is the alternative? We can either stay at home, sending a few robot spacecraft to our neighboring planets, and continuing to gaze at the more distant universe across light years of empty space, or we can get ourselves out among the planets and, eventually, the stars. In which alternative future would we learn the most about this universe and our place within it? See http://www.star.ucl.ac.uk/~iac/spaceflight.html.
g Learning - Here’s a neat interactive Web site for kids: “Are Humans All Alone in the Universe?” In the program, kids get to search for ET — and learn some principles of science along the way. See http://jvsc.jst.go.jp/universe/et_e/index_e.htm.
g Imagining - Like first contact stories? Then be sure to read Murray Leinster’s short story "Proxima Centauri," published in the March 1935 issue of Astounding Stories.
g Aftermath - If SETI is successful in detecting an extraterrestrial civilization, it will raise the question of whether and how humanity should attempt to communicate with the other civilization. How should that decision be made? What should be the content of such a message? Who should decide? The same questions would apply to proposals that signals be sent in the absence of detection, in the hope that they might be detected by an extraterrestrial civilization. See http://www.iaanet.org/p_papers/seti.html. Note: This paper was presented in October 1995.