Saturday, May 08, 2010

Mars undergoing climate change and communicating between two alien species

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - Mars is a very windy place — so windy, in fact, that bright, oxidized Martian soil is being scoured away by Martian winds and dust devils to reveal darker, sub-surface soil with the end result of making the whole planet warmer. Mars is experiencing its own brand of climate change. See article.
g Life - Scientists have discovered a microbe living deep in former copper mines that contains one of the smallest genomes ever reported. The ultra-small microbe can teach astrobiologists about how small life can be, and will help us understand how to search for tiny microbes on other worlds. See article.
g Cosmicus - Later this year, a human-like robot will become a resident of the International Space Station (ISS). Robonaut 2 will join the ISS crew in order to test how the robot operates in weightlessness. In the future, robots like Robonaut could help humans perform science experiments in space and explore the surface of other worlds, like Mars. See article.
g Aftermath - In the absence of knowledge of physical and cultural clues, communication between two species can be almost impossible — almost. See article.

Get your SF book manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

2 comments:

Ryan Shulman said...

The concept of interstellar communication is impossible. It would have to be indirect; but even so, by the time another species has recieved it the race that has developed it might have advanced dramatically. By the time it is sent back, a culture may have been destroyed, altered beyond recognition or even moved away.

Rob Bignell said...

Difficult but not impossible. And that is assuming we're only talking about radio rather than some unimagined communication method (in much the same way that in 1910 instant global communication was deemed "impossible" because satellites had not been imagined). I will concede that the great advantage of detecting an alien civilization via radio simply will be knowledge that other sentient creatures exist beyond our world - any benefits from any actual communication won't be seen for decades, if not centuries.