Tuesday, February 03, 2009

How planets’ atmospheres respond to super-summer day and Slime World

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 Abodes - What would happen if, for a single day, the sun's light and heat were amplified a thousand times? While this sounds like the setup for a classic tale of science fiction, astronomers know of one planet that experiences just such a climate extreme. Now, thanks to NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have measured how this planet's atmosphere responds to a super-summer day. See article.
g Life - At the most recent NASA Astrobiology Science Conference, a panel of scientists discussed different types of planets where alien life might be found. In part one of this series, Seth Shostak reviews the search for extrasolar planets, and Tori Hoehler describes a place of “colorful microbial goo” called Slime World. See article.
g Cosmicus - A retired Air Force major general could soon be heading up the US space agency after being tapped by president-elect Barack Obama to take over the helm of NASA, a transition team source said. See article.
g Learning - Two centuries after Charles Darwin's birth on Feb. 12, 1809, people still argue passionately about his theory of evolution. See article.

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2 comments:

Chase A.M. said...

Awesome finds on the articles. How do you find all of them? Look forward to future posts.

Rob Bignell said...

Glad you're enjoying the blog, Dr. Think. I took a look at your blog and found the Discovery article on infant chimps intriguing.