Alien Life

Regional variations in Titan’s sand dunes and Planetary Lake Lander update

2012-01-31T07:00:00.000-08:00

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 - A new analysis of radar data has revealed regional variations in the sand dunes of Saturn's moon Titan. See article.
g Intelligence - Memories in our brains are maintained by connections between neurons called "synapses." But how do these synapses stay strong and keep memories alive for decades? Neuroscientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have discovered a major clue from a study in fruit flies: Hardy, self-copying clusters or oligomers of a synapse protein are an essential ingredient for the formation of long-term memory. See article.
g Cosmicus - A team of scientists has traveled to remote Laguna Negra in the central Andes of Chile to test technologies that could one day be used to explore the lakes of Titan. While the Planetary Lake Lander (PLL) is positioned in its summer home, researchers study the geology of the Leguna Negra basin. See article.

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Clues about alien life in underwater caves and graphene’s superpermeability

2012-01-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

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 - Scientists have developed a new method to measure cold plasma above the Earth, and have revealed more cold, charged ions in Earth’s upper altitudes than previously imagined. See article.
g Life - Discoveries made in some underwater caves by Texas &M University at Galveston researchers in the Bahamas could provide clues about how ocean life formed on Earth millions of years ago, and perhaps give hints of what types of marine life could be found on distant planets and moons. See article.
g Cosmicus - Wonder material graphene has revealed another of its extraordinary properties - University of Manchester researchers have found that it is superpermeable with respect to water. See article.

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Origin of life’s building blocks and when humans left Africa

2012-01-29T07:00:00.000-08:00

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 - Geologists have determined that a half-mile-wide crater in California's Death Valley was formed by a volcanic explosion much more recently than previously thought. Their research also indicates that another, similar explosion could still occur at the site. See article.
g Life - A new study is helping to establish the origin of the carbohydrates that form the building blocks of life. See article.
g Intelligence - A new study, using genetic analysis to look for clues about human migration over sixty thousand years ago, suggests that the first modern humans settled in Arabia on their way from the Horn of Africa to the rest of the world. See article.

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Kepler discovers 11 new planetary systems and how viruses evolve

2012-01-28T07:00:00.000-08:00

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 - NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered 11 new planetary systems hosting 26 confirmed planets. The discoveries nearly double the number of verified planets and provide new data in the search for habitable, extrasolar worlds. See article.
g Life - Researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) have demonstrated how a new virus evolves, shedding light on how easy it can be for diseases to gain dangerous mutations. The findings appear in the current issue of the journal Science. See article.
g Cosmicus - Physicists have built an accurate model of part of the Solar System inside a single atom. See article.

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Origin of life’s building blocks and exploring the lakes of Titan

2012-01-27T07:00:00.000-08:00

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 - New research offers insight into how a massive volcanic eruption in Russia could have contributed to the greatest mass extinction known on Earth. See article.
g Life - Organic chemists at the University of York have made a significant advance towards establishing the origin of the carbohydrates (sugars) that form the building blocks of life. See article.
g Cosmicus - A team of scientists has traveled to remote Laguna Negra in the central Andes of Chile to test technologies that could one day be used to explore the lakes of Titan. Astrobiology Magazine's Expeditions Editor, Henry Bortman, provides a first-hand account of their progress. See article.

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Pluto with rings and atomic X-ray laser

2012-01-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

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 - Like other bodies in the outer Solar System, Pluto may have have rings orbiting it. Finding these rings could be important for the safety of NASA's New Horizons mission - currently en route to the tiny world. See article.
g Life - Since its discovery 150 years ago, scientists have puzzled over whether the winged dinosaur Archaeopteryx represents the missing link in birds' evolution to powered flight. Much of the debate has focused on the iconic creature's wings and the mystery of whether - and how well - it could fly. See article.
g Intelligence - A 33,000-year-old dog skull unearthed in a Siberian mountain cave presents some of the oldest known evidence of dog domestication and, together with an equally ancient find in a cave in Belgium, indicates that modern dogs may be descended from multiple ancestors. See article.
g Cosmicus - Scientists working at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have created the shortest, purest X-ray laser pulses ever achieved, fulfilling a 45-year-old prediction and opening the door to a new range of scientific discovery. See article.

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Life’s respiration within ice and a history of Martian rover advancement

2012-01-25T07:00:00.000-08:00

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 - In July 2011, a rare Martian meteorite fell to Earth - the first in about 50 years. The meteorite could hold clues to the history of the Martian environment and the potential for life on the red planet. See article.
g Life - A new study shows that two types of bacterium found at the bottom of glaciers show signs of respiration while living in ice. See article.
g Cosmicus - NASA Mars rovers have come a long way in terms of size and capability since the rebirth of Red Planet surface exploration just 15 years ago – spanning from 1997 to 2012. NASA's newest rover, Curiosity, is scheduled to touch down on Mars in August. See article.

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Modeling clouds of Earth’s past to better understand alien worlds and mysterious ring of carbon monoxide gas orbits young star

2012-01-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Astronomers have detected a mysterious ring of carbon monoxide gas around a young star. The ring is part of the star's planet-forming disk and it lies at a distance similar to that of the Earth from the Sun. See article.
g Abodes - The pattern of clouds on Earth is largely determined by the arrangement of the continents below. Now, astronomers are modeling the clouds at different periods in Earth’s past to better understand what alien worlds might look like. See article.
g Life - More than half of the 19,232 species newly known to science in 2009, the most recent calendar year of compilation, were insects - 9,738 or 50.6 percent - according to the 2011 State of Observed Species report released Jan. 18 by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University. See article.
g Cosmicus - Last summer, scientists observed a comet as it flew into the Sun. The comet's scorching end provided a new way to estimate the size and mass of these objects. See article.

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How mechanisms crucial to life might have arisen and no element is unique to Moon anymore

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

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 - The last mineral thought to have been unique to the Moon has been discovered in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia. See article.
g Life - Scientists have discovered that two mechanisms crucial to life could have arisen in the hostile environment of volcanic-hydrothermal flow channels. See article.
g Message - Aliens will be glad to know that if ever they need to find an apartment here on Earth, someone has got them covered. In 2005, a company called Deep Space Communications Network beamed the first commercial transmission of a Web site into space. See article.

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Two new circumbinary planet systems and life evolving in a freshwater environment

2012-01-22T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - ESO's VISTA telescope, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, has captured a striking new image of the Helix Nebula. This picture, taken in infrared light, reveals strands of cold nebular gas that are invisible in images taken in visible light, as well as bringing to light a rich background of stars and galaxies. See article.
g Abodes - Astronomers announced the discovery of two new transiting “circumbinary” planet systems - planets that orbit two stars. The study provides new information about the diversity of worlds that exist in the universe. See article.
g Life - Most scientists who study the origin of life assume that it occurred in the ocean. But a minority view is that ions in seawater may interfere with prebiotic chemistry, making a freshwater environment more likely. See article.
g Message - How scientifically accurate was the ultimate astrobiology film, “Contact”? See article.

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Key step in evolution of life replicated and could the Death Star really destroy a planet?

2012-01-21T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:g Stars - Scientists have long struggled to detect the dim dwarf galaxies that orbit our own galaxy. So it came as a surprise when a team of astronomers using Keck II telescope's adaptive optics has announced the discovery of a dwarf galaxy halfway across the universe. See article.
g Abodes - Research shows that greenhouse gases are disrupting Earth's glaciation. Heat trapped in the atmosphere could delay the next ice age by tens of thousands of years. See article.
g Life - Biologists have long wondered how sing-celled organisms on the Earth began forming multicellular clusters some 500 million years ago. Now, scientists have replicated this key step in the evolution of life. See article.
g Cosmicus - Researchers pose the question, could a small moon-sized battle station generate enough energy to destroy an Earth-sized planet? See article.

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Potential habitability of 55 Cancri AB star system and why life began to produce oxygen

2012-01-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of planets orbiting 55 Cancri? See article.
g Abodes - New observations of the rocky exoplanet, 55 Cancri e, suggest it may be wetter than previously believed. See article.
g Life - By analyzing protein folds from organisms representing every domain of life, a team of scientists has assembled a timeline of “protein history” that could explain why life began to produce oxygen on Earth. See article.
g Intelligence - Based on a hominid molar, scientists from Germany, Bulgaria and France have documented that great apes survived in Europe in savannah-like landscapes until seven million years ago. See article.

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Why life began to produce oxygen and doubts about the Late Heavy Bombardment

2012-01-19T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - A new Hubble Space Telescope image centers on the 100-million-solar-mass black hole at the hub of the neighboring spiral galaxy M31, or the Andromeda galaxy, the only galaxy outside the Milky Way visible to the naked eye and the only other giant galaxy in the local group. See article.
g Abodes - Data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter may cast doubt on theories that the early Earth was pummeled by impacts during a period known as the Late Heavy Bombardment. The study has important implications in understanding life's origins on our planet and the habitability of Earth. See article.
g Life - By analyzing protein folds from organisms representing every domain of life, a team of scientists has assembled a timeline of “protein history” that could explain why life began to produce oxygen on Earth. See article.
g Intelligence - A new study co-authored by a University of Florida researcher examines the first extinct North American primate with a toe bone showing features associated with the presence of both nails and a grooming claw, indicating our primate ancestors may have traded their flat nails for raised claws for functional purposes. See article.
g Cosmicus - The Phobos-Grunt spacecraft, which was meant to travel to a moon of Mars and back, has crashed back to Earth. See article.

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How world’s axial tilt might prevent life and facial evolution

2012-01-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:g Stars - Astronomers using the partially completed ALMA observatory have found compelling evidence for how star-forming galaxies evolve into 'red and dead' elliptical galaxies, catching a large group of galaxies right in the middle of this change. See article.
g Abodes - Gravitational interactions between red dwarf stars and habitable planets could erase a world's axial tilt, which moderates global temperatures and creates seasons, before life gets a chance to develop. See article.
g Life - Scientists have revealed details about the life that inhabits one of the world's most extreme deep-sea volcanic vents. See article.
g Intelligence - UCLA biologists working as "evolutionary detectives" studied the faces of 129 adult male primates from Central and South America, and they offer some answers in research published Jan. 11, in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The faces they studied evolved over at least 24 million years, they report. See article.
g Cosmicus - New maps produced by the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal features at the Moon's northern and southern poles in regions that lie in perpetual darkness. See article.

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Three smallest known planets orbiting a distant star and increasing the complexity of a molecular machine

2012-01-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

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 - With data from Kepler, astronomers have discovered the three smallest known planets orbiting a distant star. All three planets are thought to be rocky like Earth, and the smallest is roughly the size of Mars. See article.
g Life - Scientists have demonstrated how just a few small, high-probability mutations increased the complexity of a molecular machine more than 800 million years ago. See article.
g Message - Here’s a fascinating talk with Jill Tarter, director of the Center for SETI Research and the inspiration behind Jody Foster’s character in the movie “Contact.” Find out about the tools and technologies being developed for a multigenerational effort to search for other advanced civilizations beyond our solar system here; scroll to “Listening for the Long Term.”
g Cosmicus - A team of scientists has traveled to remote Laguna Negra in the central Andes of Chile to test technologies that could one day be used to explore the lakes of Titan. Astrobiology Magazine's Expeditions Editor, Henry Bortman, provides a first-hand account of their progress. See article.

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Reversing strategy for hearing ETI and how part of Vesta ended up on Earth

2012-01-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

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 - Data from the Dawn spacecraft could help astrobiologists understand how pieces of the asteroid Vesta ended up on planet Earth. See article.
g Life - LSU's Chris Austin recently discovered two new species of frogs in New Guinea, one of which is now the world's tiniest known vertebrate, averaging only 7.7 millimeters in size - less than one-third of an inch. It ousts Paedocypris progenetica, an Indonesian fish averaging more than 8 millimeters, from the record. Austin, leading a team of scientists from the United States including LSU graduate student Eric Rittmeyer, made the discovery during a three-month long expedition to the island of New Guinea, the world's largest and tallest tropical island. See article.
g Message - Here’s why the world's biggest search should reverse its strategy — and why the first signal we hear will probably come from an extremely powerful civilization extremely far away. See article.

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Ring system discovered and new culprit in Earth's greatest mass extinction event

2012-01-15T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - A team of astrophysicists from the University of Rochester and Europe has discovered a ring system in the constellation Centaurus that invites comparisons to Saturn. See article.
g Abodes - Scientists have discovered a new culprit that was likely involved in Earth's greatest mass extinction event some 250 million years ago. New research shows that mercury from volcanic eruptions may have been involved in rapid climate change and species loss on our planet. See article.
g Intelligence - Drinking alcohol leads to the release of endorphins in areas of the brain that produce feelings of pleasure and reward, according to a study led by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco. See article.

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Supernova mystery solved and links between dusty disks and planet formation

2012-01-14T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:g Stars - Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have solved a longstanding mystery of the type of star, or so-called progenitor, which caused a supernova seen in a nearby galaxy. The finding yields new observational data for pinpointing one of several scenarios that trigger such outbursts. See article.
g Abodes - With help from the Subaru telescope, researchers are gaining a new understanding of the links between dusty disks and planet formation. The data could aid in the search for new worlds around distant stars. See article.
g Message - "Surely one of the most marvelous feats of 21st-century science would be the firm proof that life exists on another planet. In that case, the thesis that life develops spontaneously when the conditions are favorable would be far more firmly established, and our whole view of the problem of the origin of life would be confirmed." Stanley Miller and Harold Urey wrote in 1959. Unfortunately, their dream has not been realized, and as we begin this new millennium the question of whether life exists beyond the Earth remains unanswered. However, there are reasons for optimism that in the not-too-distant future we may have an answer. See article. This article is from 2001.

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High planet population and genetic molecules predating DNA and RNA

2012-01-13T11:48:00.001-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of TZ Arietis, a M-type star less than 15 light years from Earth? See article.
g Abodes - New research indicates that planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception in our galaxy. If planets are common in the Milky Way, it could increase the likelihood that habitable worlds exist somewhere beyond our own solar system. See article.
g Life - Researchers studying the origin of life are investigating genetic molecules that could have pre-dated DNA and RNA. See article.
g Learning - Astrobiology Magazine welcomes the addition of the Pale Blue Blog, a unique collection of individual bloggers who voice their opinions on matters concerning life's potential on planets beyond our solar system. See article.

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Searching for Tatooine in Kepler-16 System and analyzing cosmic radiation for ETI’s signals

2012-01-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Wolf 424 AB, the home of Babel in the “Star Trek”? See article.
g Abodes - Astrophysicists have suggested where an Earth-type planet could exist in the two-star, Kepler-16 System. See article.
g Message - Here’s an interesting proposal: Search for extraterrestrial intelligence by analyzing cosmic radiation for signals. See article.
g Cosmicus - Opportunity will spend the coldest part of the Martian winter at an outcrop of rock named in honor of the late Ronald Greeley. See article.

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New model of Titan's atmosphere and methane cycle and the ‘100 Year Starship Study’ conference

2012-01-11T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Gliese 1, an M-type star some 14 light years from Earth? See article.
g Abodes - A new computer model of Titan's atmosphere and methane cycle is helping scientists explain phenomena such as rainstorms and methane lakes on the intriguing moon. See article.
g Cosmicus - At the recent "100 Year Starship Study" conference, scientists discussed the challenges that humankind faces in our quest for interstellar travel. See article.

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New hydrothermal vent species discovered and Laguna Negra expedition update

2012-01-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Ross 614 AB, a binary of M-type stars less than 14 light years from Earth? See article.
g Abodes - A team of scientists has traveled to remote Laguna Negra in the central Andes of Chile to test technologies that could one day be used to explore the lakes of Titan. Astrobiology Magazine's Expeditions Editor, Henry Bortman, provides a first-hand account of their progress. See article.
g Life - Communities of species previously unknown to science have been discovered on the seafloor near Antarctica, clustered in the hot, dark environment surrounding hydrothermal vents. See article.

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Underestimating extinction rates and new image of Omega Nebula

2012-01-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - A new image of the Omega Nebula, captured by ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), is one of the sharpest of this object ever taken from the ground. It shows the dusty, rose-colored central parts of this famous stellar nursery and reveals extraordinary detail in the cosmic landscape of gas clouds, dust and newborn stars. See article.
g Life - Predictions of the loss of animal and plant diversity around the world are common under models of future climate change. But a new study shows that because these climate models don't account for species competition and movement, they could grossly underestimate future extinctions. See article.
g Message - Several big hunts are seeking radio and laser emissions from other civilizations. From Project Phoenix to SETI@home, here's a complete rundown of recently conducted searches.

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Rethinking how fish evolved to walk on land and 'The Quest for Extraterrestrial Intelligence'

2012-01-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:g Life - A new study could rewrite our understanding of how ancient fish evolved to walk on land. See article.
g Message - Here’s a classic I stumbled across online: Carl Sagan’s 1978 article “The Quest for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.” Few other pieces so eloquently capture the essential, human purpose behind astrobiology and SETI. See article.
g Cosmicus - Using powerful magnets to levitate fruit flies can provide vital clues to how biological organisms are affected by weightless conditions in space, researchers at The University of Nottingham say. See article.

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Seeking rocky moons that may support life and potential habitability of Kruger 60 AB

2012-01-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Kruger 60 AB, a binary of M-type stars about 13 light years from Earth? See article.
g Abodes - Rocky moons that orbit gas giant planet and reside in the habitable zone of their star could contain the seeds of life. Thanks to new research, finding those moons just got a little easier. See article.
g Message - Interstellar communication took a giant leap forward a few years ago when a Ukrainian space center sent several messages across the cosmos hoping to reach extraterrestrials 30-40 light years away. See article. Note: This article is from 2003.

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ExoPlanet Sat may examine Alpha Centauri for planets and SETI pioneers

2012-01-06T07:00:00.001-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of LaCaille 8760, a K-type star about 13 light years from Earth? See article.
g Message - Book alert: Here’s an oldie but goodie worth picking up — “SETI Pioneers: Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” by David W. Swift. This instructive book (by a University of Hawaii sociologist) compiles Q&A interviews with 17 researchers, mostly American, who are involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. While the field, which did not attract attention from scientists until 1959, remains a fledgling discipline, it now draws physicists, astronomers, electrical engineers, chemists and an aerospace physician into its orbit. Scientists featured here discuss current methods used to investigate ETI, and others they hope to develop, but general readers will most likely value the impact of their personalities — modest, open, thoughtful, occasionally waggish — above talk of technicalities.
g Cosmicus - SA recently selected 20 small satellites to fly as auxiliary cargo aboard rockets that are planned to launch in 2011 and 2012. The CubeSats include the ExoPlanetSat, which will aid in the search for Earth-like planets by monitoring a single star. See article.

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Searching the moon for alien artifacts and evolutionary fauna waves

2012-01-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Luyten’s Star, an M-type star just slightly more than 12 light years from Earth? See article.
g Life - A new study has identified six distinct, consecutive waves of “evolutionary faunas” over the last 65 million years on Earth. The findings could help scientists understand how climate change will affect the future of life's evolution. See article.
g Message - Two researchers have suggested that high-resolution images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter should be examined for anomalies that could be evidence of alien artifacts on the Moon. See article.

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Head-first evolution and why “Are we alone?’ is THE question

2012-01-04T07:00:00.002-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Tau Ceti, the nearest G-type star (other than Sol) to Earth? See article.
g Abodes - A groundbreaking study led by University of Miami (UM) scientist Shimon Wdowinski shows that earthquakes, including the recent 2010 temblors in Haiti and Taiwan, may be triggered by tropical cyclones (hurricanes and typhoons), according to a presentation of the findings at the 2011 AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco. See article.
g Life - The history of evolution is periodically marked by explosions in biodiversity, as groups of species try out a wide range of shapes and sizes. With a new analysis of two such adaptive radiations in the fossil record, researchers have discovered that these diversifications proceeded head-first. See article.
g Intelligence - Chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas and bonobos make more sophisticated decisions than was previously thought. Great apes weigh their chances of success, based on what they know and the likelihood to succeed when guessing, according to a study of MPI researcher Daniel Haun, published Dec. 21 in the online journal PLoS ONE. The findings may provide insight into human decision-making as well. See article.
g Message - If we are not alone in the Universe, why have we never picked up signals from an extraterrestrial civilization? Known as the Fermi paradox after physicist Enrico Fermi, who first posed the question, this long-standing puzzle remains one of the strongest arguments against the existence of intelligent aliens. See article.
g Cosmicus - Are we alone? For space exploration, that is THE great question. It is one of the fundamental questions for all mankind, an existential query that could answer — or create — basic questions about the fundamental nature of existence. See article.

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Mining Death Valley for microbes and NASA probes in Lunar orbit

2012-01-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What’s the potential habitability of NLTT 47754, a G-type star about 64 light years from Earth? See article.
g Life - Nevada, the "Silver State," is well-known for mining precious metals. But scientists Dennis Bazylinski and colleagues at the University of Nevada Las Vegas do a different type of mining. They sluice through every water body they can find, looking for new forms of microbial magnetism. See article.
g Intelligence - Many animals produce alarm calls to predators, and do this more often when kin or mates are present than other audience members. So far, however, there has been no evidence that they take the other group members' knowledge state into account. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and the University of St. Andrews, Great Britain, set up a study with wild chimpanzees in Uganda and found that chimpanzees were more likely to alarm call to a snake in the presence of unaware than in the presence of aware group members, suggesting that they recognize knowledge and ignorance in others. See article.
g Cosmicus - NASA celebrated the New Year by completing a space agency first and announcing that its two Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft are in lunar orbit. For NASA, the announcement was a fulfillment of the space agency’s New Year’s wish. NASA will use GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B to study Earth’s closest neighbor, the moon. See article.

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Finding water on distant worlds and China’s ambitious five-year plan for space exploration

2012-01-02T07:00:00.001-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of DX Cancri, a M-type star less than 12 light years from Earth? See article.
g Abodes - The bottom line is that we don't know how Earth got tanked-up with its water supply. So how might we begin to guess what's happening on worlds thousands of light-years away? See article.
g Cosmicus - Broadening its challenge to the United States, the Chinese government on Thursday announced an ambitious five-year plan for space exploration that would move China closer to becoming a major rival at a time when the American program is in retreat. See article.

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A New Year's Resolution

2012-01-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

As the new year begins, let us all make a resolution: We will work to make humanity a truly space-faring race. For the past half-century, we’ve ventured into space as if children wading a few feet into a great ocean. But there are other islands out there — and now is the time to swim.

This blog is dedicated to one event that very well may compel us to becoming a space-faring race: contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. It is a serious site; you won’t find a discussion of UFOs and the Fifth Dimension’s denizens here. Instead, it updates readers daily of the latest scientific advances in a number of fields related to the multidisciplinary study of astrobiology.

Its sections are loosely arranged around the now famous Drake equation, developed by astronomer Frank Drake, who conducted the first modern search for extraterrestrial life in 1960. The equation seeks to determine the number of technological civilizations that might exist among the stars:

R * FP * NE * FL * FI * FC * LN = N

In the equation, R is the mean rate of star formation averaged over the lifetime of the galaxy; FP the fraction of stars with planetary systems; NE the mean number of planets per system with environments suitable for the origin of life; FL the fraction of such planets on which life does develop; FI the fraction of such planets on which intelligent life rises during the lifetime of the local sun; FC the fraction of planets on which advanced technical civilizations rises; L the lifetime of this technical civilization; and N the number of advanced technical civilizations emitting detectable radio signals.

This blog’s sections and the general topics addressed in each one include:
g Stars - Cosmology and astronomy, which affect our understanding of the mean rate of star formation averaged over the lifetime of the galaxy and the fraction of stars with planetary systems, or R and FP in the equation
g Abodes - Geology and Earth climate, which helps us grasp the mean number of planets per system with environments suitable for the origin of life, or NE in the equation
g Life - Biology, especially the evolution of life, as well as chemistry and other sciences that advance our understanding of the fraction of such planets on which life does develop, or FL in the equation
g Intelligence - How homo sapiens and, more generally, intelligence evolves, to help us determine the fraction of such planets on which intelligent life rises during the lifetime of the local sun, or FI in the equation
g Message - A discussion of our attempts to communicate with our other intelligences, to increase our knowledge of the fraction of planets on which advanced technical civilizations rises, or FC in the equation
g Cosmicus - Humanity's climb to the status of a space-faring civilization, a necessary step to increase the lifetime of this technical civilization, or L in the equation; the term “cosmicus” comes from the father of Russian astronautics, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who envisioned humanity becoming “homo cosmicus” or a space-faring civilization — we will become “homo cosmicus” when the first human is born, lives, grows old and dies in space, returning to Earth only as a visitor
g Learning - Science education, as humanity's future and astrobiology's success depends upon a science-literate youth and public; it also is a necessary step to increase the lifetime of this technical civilization, or L in the equation
g Imagining - This section consists of musings on the possibilities of science fiction aliens as science fiction offers a literary portal for us to examine elements of the Drake Equation; I’ll primarily focus on “Star Trek,” the most popular and serious of the science fiction genre
g Aftermath - Looking beyond the Drake Equation is perhaps the most important question that will face humanity in the century ahead: “What will happen after we make contact with aliens?”; this section offers the latest speculations

I hope each of you will return daily to stay current with astrobiology — and that it may inspire you to work toward cosmicus.

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How soon until an Earth analog is discovered and potential habitability of Epsilon Indi ABC

2011-12-31T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Epsilon Indi ABC, a nearby star system popular in science fiction tales? See article.
g Abodes - Last week, NASA heralded the discovery of the first two Earth-sized planets orbiting a star similar to the sun. That followed NASA's tantalizing announcement only two weeks before that scientists had discovered a planet roughly twice the size of Earth orbiting at a habitable distance around a sun-like star. While none of these planets meet all the conditions for habitability, it may not be long until Kepler scientists discover one that does. See article.
g Message - In 1961 the Drake Equation launched the search for other civilizations among the stars. How does it look today? What is the chance of finding aliens? See article.

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Large volumes of water beneath Martian surface and temporal aspects of the Drake Equation

2011-12-30T18:19:00.001-08:00

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 - Radar probing of the Phlegra Montes region on Mars suggests large volumes of ice water sit below the surface. See article.
g Message - Here’s an interesting paper, The Temporal Aspect of the Drake Equation and SETI”, which critically investigates some evolutionary aspects of the famous Drake equation. Note: This paper is a few years old.
g Cosmicus - Five days after a failed launch, the Russian Soyuz rocket system has been pressed back into service. See article.
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Marooned Mars probe falling back to Earth and potential habitability of GJ 1061

2011-12-29T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of GJ 1061, an M-type star less than 12 light years from Earth? See article.
g Abodes - A team of scientists has successfully plotted changes in the Earth's axis through laboratory measurements. See article.
g Cosmicus - Russia's marooned Mars probe Phobos-Grunt, currently stuck in orbit, is headed for a mid-January plunge into Earth's atmosphere, and more than two dozen pieces of the huge spacecraft could survive the fall, scientists say. See article.

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Complex hydrocarbons on Pluto and searching for alien artifacts on the Moon

2011-12-28T12:39:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Groombridge 34, a binary less than 12 light years from Earth? See article.
g Abodes - New data from the Hubble Space Telescope indicates that complex hydrocarbon and/or nitrile molecules may be present on the surface of Pluto. See article.
g Message - Arizona State University's professor Paul Davies—a theoretical physicist and cosmologist now working on astrobiology — and Robert Wagner—Research Technician at the School of Earth & Space Exploration — have published a scientific paper calling for the search of alien artifacts on the Moon. See article.
g Cosmicus - Researchers have created a new type of optical device small enough to fit millions on a computer chip that could lead to faster, more powerful information processing and supercomputers. See article.

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Two deep fried Earth-sized planets and fossil of single-celled ancestors discovered

2011-12-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

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 - Two Earth-sized planets have been discovered around a dying star that has passed the red giant stage. This discovery, published in the science journal Nature, may shed new light on the destiny of stellar and planetary systems, including our solar system. See article.
g Life - Evidence of the single-celled ancestors of animals, dating from the interval in Earth's history just before multicellular animals appeared, has been discovered in 570 million-year-old rocks from South China by researchers from the University of Bristol, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, the Paul Scherrer Institute and the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. See article.
g Cosmicus - Imagine if the next coat of paint you put on the outside of your home generates electricity from light - electricity that can be used to power the appliances and equipment on the inside. A team of researchers at the University of Notre Dame has made a major advance toward this vision by creating an inexpensive "solar paint" that uses semiconducting nanoparticles to produce energy. See article.

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Incredibly distant and productive galaxy discovered and brain reading

2011-12-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - A team of scientists using NASA’s Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes announced they have discovered that one of the most distant galaxies known is churning out stars at a shockingly high rate. See article.
g Abodes - According to a new NASA study, climate change will modify plant communities over almost half of the Earth's land surface. See article.
g Intelligence - At UCLA's Laboratory of Integrative Neuroimaging Technology, researchers use functional MRI brain scans to observe brain signal changes that take place during mental activity. They then employ computerized machine learning (ML) methods to study these patterns and identify the cognitive state - or sometimes the thought process - of human subjects. The technique is called "brain reading" or "brain decoding." See article.

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Determining what the Star of Bethlehem might have been and origin of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere

2011-12-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - For centuries, astrologers, astronomers and mathematicians have studied and posited theories about the Star of Bethlehem, questioning if it was really a star at all. Was it a supernova, a comet, a conjunction of planets, the birth of a new star or something entirely different? See article.
g Abodes - Based on studies of rock cores, geoscientists have determined that oxygen did not appear in Earth's atmosphere in a single event. See article.
g Cosmicus - The computer assisted design (CAD) tools that made it possible to fabricate integrated circuits with millions of transistors may soon be coming to the biological sciences. See article.

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Link between cosmology and the emergence of life, and our world’s rising nitrogen level

2011-12-24T10:40:00.001-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Struve 2398, a trinary just 12 light years from Earth? See article.
g Abodes - Among the 'footprints left on Earth's climate by humans is an over-abundance of available nitrogen. Scientists are now trying to determine how this disruption in the nitrogen balance will affect the future of life on Earth. See article.
g Cosmicus - Recently, Theoretical Physicist Marcelo Gleiser, the Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy Dartmouth College, was asked to give an opening lecture at an international conference on astrobiology, linking cosmology to the emergence of life on Earth and other planetary platforms. His conclusion: We, and any other alien creature that might exist, are products of the same laws of physics and chemistry that operate across the cosmos. See article.

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Planets that are 50% diamond and potential habitability of 61 Cygni AB

2011-12-23T12:34:00.001-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of 61 Cygni AB, a binary less than 12 light years from Earth? See article.
g Abodes - A new study suggests that terrestrial planets containing up to 50 percent diamond could exist in the Milky Way. However, such planets would not provide habitats for life as we know it. See article.
g Message - In late 1997, after almost 40 years of operation, the Ohio State University Radio Observatory and its "Big Ear" radio telescope — which picked up the famous “Wow!” signal — ceased operation. The land on which the observatory was sitting (owned by the Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio) was sold in 1983 to land developers who later claimed their rights to develop the property. The telescope was destroyed in early 1998. Here’s a Here's Web page memorial to Big Ear.

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Update on astrobiologusts’ mission to Laguna Negra and a history of SETI

2011-12-22T16:41:00.001-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Lacaille 9352, a star about 10 light years from Earth? See article.
g Abodes - A team of scientists has traveled to remote Laguna Negra in the central Andes of Chile to test technologies that could one day be used to explore the lakes of Titan. Astrobiology Magazine's Expeditions Editor, Henry Bortman, provides a first-hand account of their progress. See article.
g Message - How did the SETI program come to be? For a timeline of the program’s history, see article.

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Two Earth-size planets discovered around distant star and modifying the Drake Equation

2011-12-21T13:06:00.001-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - A new study on the effects of solar storms on the Moon could help astrobiologists understand atmospheric loss on planets without global magnetic fields. See article.
g Abodes - NASA's Kepler mission has discovered two Earth-size planets orbiting a distant star. The planets are too close to their sun to be in its habitable zone, but they are they smallest exoplanets ever confirmed around a sun-like star. See article.
g Message - Should we modify the Drake Equation to account for civilizations which actually engage in deliberate interstellar transmission? See article.
g Cosmicus - Sensorbots equipped with biogeochemical sensors could open a new chapter in ocean exploration. See article.

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Possibility of silicon-based life and dust avalanches on Mars

2011-12-20T15:21:00.001-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Another erroneous doomsday theory for 2012 is that a supernova explosion could harm life on Earth. Astronomers can say with certainty that there is no threatening star close enough to hurt Earth. See article.
g Abodes - Dust avalanches around impact craters on Mars appear to be the result of the shock wave preceding the actual impact, according to a new study. See article.
g Life - Bruce Dorminey, science journalist and author of "Distant Wanderers: The Search for Planets Beyond the Solar System," interviews NASA astrochemist Max Bernstein about the possibility of silicon-based life. See article.
g Cosmicus - The Russian Space Agency is now preparing an ambitious program of lunar exploration. Russia's new lunar mission, Luna-Glob, is scheduled for launch in 2014 or 2015. See article.

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Exploring Titan’s lakes with an Earth analog and principles behind evolution of multicellular organisms

2011-12-19T15:07:00.001-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of the nearby star system Sirius AB?
g Abodes - A team of scientists has traveled to remote Laguna Negra in the central Andes of Chile to test technologies that could one day be used to explore the lakes of Titan. Astrobiology Magazine's Expeditions Editor, Henry Bortman, provides a first-hand account of their progress. See article.
g Life - New research is helping scientists understand the principles behind the evolution of multicellular organisms. See article.
g Imagining - Could Star Trek’s Caretaker of The Original Series’ “Shore Leave” fame actually evolve? Unfortunately, we know almost nothing about his race with the exception that it is very advanced technologically and quite disciplined mentally. We also know that it appears human, which virtually eliminates it from the realm of possibility, as the parallel evolution on another planet of homo sapiens is extremely unlikely. However, the Caretaker’s kind may not be humanoid at all. Indeed, his race employs machinery that can nearly instantaneously create items based on the readings of one’s thoughts. It’s similar to what the Squire of Gothos and The Next Generation’s Q can do. However, the squire and the Q can achieve this instantaneously, the squire through a machine and the Q through an omnipotent understanding of the universe. Both the squire and the Q also are energy beings. Might the caretaker as well be one (though of a different race than the squire or the Q) and merely took on human form for the landing party’s sake?

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Potential consequences of discovering ETI and habitability of Luyten 726-8 A/UV Ceti

2011-12-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Luyten 726-8 A/UV Ceti, a star less than 10 light years from Earth? See article.
g Imagining - Star Trek’s very first alien, the Talosians, pose quite an evolutionary challenge: Their heads are oversized because of large, powerful brains capable of telepathy and even mind control of others. First off, a brain of that size must demand a lot of energy. This is somewhat addressed through the large arteries and veins apparent on their bald heads; their frail bodies also indicate fewer cells below the neckline for oxygen-carrying blood to support. But they probably also need greater lung capacity to cycle more oxygen into their bodies as well as a larger heart for pumping that oxygen-laden blood to and through the brain. Their bodies don’t indicate larger lungs, however. Another problem with their head/brain size is giving birth. The enormity of the head is limited by the size and shape of the pelvis — and their human shape and gait indicates they couldn’t give birth to an infant with a head any larger than ours. A possibility is that their the brain primarily develops outside of the womb; perhaps they grow in their telepathic powers as they age. Another possibility: They are not born naturally but artificially created, indicating a separation from among the most basic instincts – mating. The Talosians, after all, are fairly unimaginative creatures, dependent upon probing the minds of others for new experiences! As for their telepathic and power of illusion capabilities, we’ll just have to presume that somehow their brain lobes have evolved sections capable of connecting and interacting across the medium of air with another creature’s neurons.
g Aftermath - Here’s an intriguing article that is frequently referenced in astrobiology papers by astronomer Ivan Almar: : "The Consequences of a Discovery: Different Scenarios". This article is from 1995.

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Interview with ‘Time Travel: Beyond the Science Fiction’ authors and potential habitability of Lalande 21185

2011-12-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Lalande 21185, a star less than 10 light years from Earth? See article.
g Abodes - A new study could help scientists understand how the elements that make up our bodies and our planet were created. See article.
g Message - What sort of signal would satisfactorily announce an extraterrestrial intelligence as detected by radio-emission or light reception? For an opinion article on what sort of signal is a SETI hit, click here.
g Cosmicus - Here’s an interview with the authors of the new science book “Time Travel: Beyond the Science Fiction”.

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Microbes that can live in Mars-like conditions and what bees tell us about how our brains work

2011-12-16T12:33:00.001-08:00

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 - Researchers are moving a step closer to solving one of the greatest murder mysteries of all time. It happened roughly 200 million years ago, marking the boundary between the Triassic and Jurassic periods, and the crime scene was the entire planet. In their quest to solve this ancient mystery, a team of scientists has been combing the coast of Northern Ireland for evidence. See article.
g Life - Researchers have discovered microbes that thrive in an environment that is, in some ways, "Mars-like." The microorganisms were found within a lava tube, and tolerate temperatures near freezing, low levels of oxygen, and absence of organic food. See article.
g Intelligence - A new study on swarms of bees could teach us about how our brains work. See article.
g Message - The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) is once again searching for signals of extraterrestrial intelligence. New targets for ATA will include exoplanet candidates discovered by NASA's Kepler space telescope. See article.
g Cosmicus - A new harpoon may help NASA grab samples from a speeding comet. See article.
g Aftermath - For some provocative reading, pick up “Sharing the Universe” by Seth Shostak. SETI scientist Shostak almost single-handedly is outlining social and political issues that will arise once we make contact with extraterrestrials.

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Is Vesta a small planet and habitability of Barnard’s Star

2011-12-15T10:35:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Barnard’s Star, the second closest solar system to Earth? See article.
g Abodes - NASA's Dawn spacecraft spent the last four years voyaging to asteroid Vesta - and may have found a planet. See article.
g Aftermath - Given the plethora of New Age/UFOlogy Web sites about alien contact, it’s refreshing to find one that’s serious. Try the “extraterrestrial intelligence, implications following first contact” entry at astrobiologist David Darling’s site “The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy, and Spaceflight”. It includes some links and a mini reference list.

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Curiosity already running scientific experiments and Alpha Centauri's habitability

2011-12-14T15:24:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Could extraterrestrial life exist on a planet in the Alpha Centauri solar system? See article.
g Abodes - Following a successful launch on November 26th, NASA's new Mars rover is already returning important scientific data. The Curiosity rover is monitoring space radiation from inside its capsule, which will aid in planning future human missions to the Red Planet. See article.
g Cosmicus - The Phobos-Grunt probe has been trapped in low Earth orbit for more than a month. Now, it is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere in early January. See article.

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Hints of the God particle and Martian subsurface could be ideal for life

2011-12-13T15:19:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Two teams of scientists at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva say they detected 'tantalizing hints' of the elusive Higgs boson, or 'God particle,' but no definitive proof. See article.
g Abodes - A new study indicates that extensive regions of the sub-surface of Mars could contain water and be at comfortable temperatures for terrestrial – and potentially Martian – microbes. See article.
g Aftermath - Here’s an intriguing short story for you to look up: Frederick Pohl’s “The Day after the Day the Martians Came.” It examines racial prejudice and raises an interesting point about how we might react to one another following alien contact. Pohl’s story is anthologized in the classic “Dangerous Visions,” edited by Harlan Ellison.

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Testing technology to explore Titan’s lakes

2011-12-12T20:38:00.001-08:00

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 - A team of scientists has traveled to remote Laguna Negra in the central Andes of Chile to test technologies that could one day be used to explore the lakes of Titan. Astrobiology Magazine's Expeditions Editor, Henry Bortman, provides a first-hand account of their progress. See article.
g Imagining - Could "Star Trek"'s Alfa 177 canine exist? Setting aside the facial features that show the canine is an Earth-descended vertebrate, the answer is yes. The Alfa 113 biome the Enterprise crew visits is cold but dry, perhaps a summer plain set below a great continental ice sheet. In cold climates, life forms need to be compact and/or covered in thick hair or fat; this is so with this creature. In addition, the canine's short legs indicate it need not worry about snowdrifts. Based on the creature's canine teeth and jaw structure, it must be a predator; considering the canine's size, it likely preys on creatures no larger than rats - and rodents are quite abundant on the tundra. A lack of claws indicates it doesn't burrow, however, which probably would be necessary in such a climate. Perhaps caves in the area or other creature's burrows provide shelter. As for the antenna upon its head, I'll withhold speculation!
g Aftermath - Here’s one futurist’s thoughts about what will happen to humanity when we make first contact with aliens. I offer this site not for its scientific rigor but as an example of something all of us who care about astrobiology should consider: What are the trends in popular culture about first contact? Such thinking will greatly influence public reaction when first contact actually does occur. See article.

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First 3D views of Vesta and how little we’ve truly thought about first contact

2011-12-11T20:50:00.000-08:00

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 - NASA has released a new video of the Dawn spacecraft gliding over asteroid Vesta in 3-D. See article.
g Imagining - Another early “Star Trek” alien is the Exo III android makers. We really don’t know what the android creators (aka “the Old Ones”) looked like, but we can presume by the way human duplicates were created with the android-making machine that they appear like Ruk (click here and then on “Ruk is shot by phaser”). Their height indicates that the planet’s gravity is slightly lighter than Earth’s, and there isn’t a discernable difference in the way humans step on this world. Possibly the savanna grass was taller than in our Africa (their hominid shape indicates a primate-oriented evolution). The whitish pallor probably is due to the lack of sunlight (though not the cold, as that also would make their bodies more compact); the aliens did go underground when a global ice age gripped their world. One interesting question is if they possessed the ability to build androids, why didn’t they just leave their planet when its habitability was lowered? Perhaps some religious or cultural belief prevented them from considering or pursuing space travel; possibly they developed the android-making machine when residing underground. While the show’s creators did a good job of making the Old Ones evolutionarily sound given the world’s climate of the past several eons, the aliens fall short on the Earth vertebrate factor: It’s highly unlikely that the exact facial arrangements as those of Earth’s vertebrates when first leaving the water for land would be so exactly duplicated.
g Aftermath - Though an older Web posting, “After Contact, Then What?” shows how little we’ve thought about this question. See article.

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Nearby habitable solar systems and Voyager enters cosmic purgatory

2011-12-10T10:49:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What stars nearby Earth might contain planets conducive to supporting life? See article.
g Abodes - New research into Earth's climate history suggests that there is the potential for rapid climate changes this century if global warming is not abated. Drastic changes could include multiple meters of sea level rise and significant ice sheet loss in Greenland and Antarctica. See article.
g Cosmicus - NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region between our solar system and interstellar space. See article.

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Minerals deposited by water on Mars and why being smarter doesn’t pay off

2011-12-09T12:27:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Wolf 359, the third closest star system to Earth? See article.
g Abodes - NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found bright veins of a mineral, apparently gypsum, deposited by water. The discovery could have implications in understanding the potential for life in Mars' past. See article.
g Intelligence - A new study indicates that, due to evolutionary tradeoffs, being smarter may not be better for human beings. See article.
g Cosmicus - Most people don't take it literally when they're told to shoot for the moon — but thinking small isn't Naveen Jain's way. The 52-year-old Internet entrepreneur is a co-founder of Moon Express Inc., one of several companies in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, in which privately funded teams will try to put robots on the moon by 2016. See article.

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Potential habitability of tidally lock words and nearby star Ross 154

2011-12-08T15:08:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Ross 154, a star less than 10 light years from Earth?
g Abodes - Planets that are tidally locked, with the same side always facing their sun, could end up with climates that spiral out of control. See article.
g Message - Science fiction author David Brin offers a copy of his 1983 article .“Xenology: The Science of Asking Who’s Out There”. While two decades old, the information is still relevant and offers a good overview of fundamental astrobiological questions.

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Early Earth in deep-freeze and designing amateur radio telescope dedicated to SETI

2011-12-07T14:56:00.000-08:00

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 - A circulation model of Earth's climate some 2.8 billion years ago indicates that the planet may have been more prone to catastrophic glaciation than previously believed. See article.
g Message - The search for extraterrestrial life need not be limited to the government or scientists. Don’t believe it? Then check out this Web site, “Amateur SETI: Project BAMBI (Bob and Mike’s Big Investment),” which describes the design and construction of a 4 GHz amateur radio telescope dedicated to SETI, See article.
g Aftermath - There’s a neat transcription of a video conference interview with Dr. Frank Drake (whose famous equation this site is organized after), conducted by the class members of Penn State’s "Space Colonization” class. Drake touches on a variety of SETI topics, including the philosophical implication of extraterrestrial contact. Note: The interview took place in 2001.

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First planet orbiting in habitable zone of its parent star found and how SETI works

2011-12-06T13:02:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Ross 128, a star about 10 light years from Earth? See article.
g Abodes - Kepler has confirmed its first planet orbiting in the habitable zone of its parent star. The planet, Kepler-22b, is the smallest yet found to orbit in this region around a star similar to our sun. See article.
g Message - Just exactly how does SETI work? See primer.

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New Habitable Exoplanets Catalog and primer for decoding messages from extraterrestrials

2011-12-05T15:57:00.000-08:00

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 - The Planetary Habitability Laboratory has created the Habitable Exoplanets Catalog, which assesses the habitability of exoplanets with the right size and orbit to be considered suitable for life. See article.
g Cosmicus - When the Mars Science Laboratory rover ‘Curiosity" lands on Mars in August 2012, its SAM instrument will "follow the carbon" to better understand the past and present habitability of our planetary neighbor. See article.
g Aftermath - Will we ever find a primer for decoding messages from extraterrestrials? Recently, anthropologists who gathered for a major conference in Atlanta heard some news that will be sobering for SETI enthusiasts: it may be much more difficult to understand extraterrestrials than many scientists have thought before. See article.

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Eighteen new extrasolar planets discovered and potential habitability of Procyon AB

2011-12-04T12:28:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Procyon AB, home of Star Trek’s legendary Andorians? See article.
g Abodes - Astronomers have announced the discovery of 18 new extrasolar planets. The planets are helping to increase our knowledge of the diversity of worlds in our universe. See article.
g Message - Want to get a sense of SETI’s history and varying projects? Jodrell Bank Observatory offers an easy to follow yet informative primer.

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How long-duration space travel affects living organisms and the fictional alien seaswallower

2011-12-03T12:14:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Ez Aquarii ABC, a star about 11 light years from Earth? See article.
g Abodes - Earth's magnetic field has flipped its polarity many times throughout history. Based on geologic and fossil records, it seems that such a polarity reversal would have no dramatic effects for life on Earth. See article.
g Cosmicus - New research shows that in space, a microscopic worm develops from egg to adulthood in the same way as it does on Earth. The results could help astrobiologists understand how long-duration space travel affects living organisms. See article.
g Imagining - In Prof. Joan Slonczewski’s “Biology 103: Biology in Science Fiction” class at Kenyon College, her students, using astrobiological principles, attempted to create a number of plausible alien civilizations and worlds as a class project. Here’s one, called the seaswallower.

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Planet 1.6 times Earth’s size discovered and potential habitability of Epsilon Eridani star system

2011-12-02T12:06:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of planets in the Epsilon Eridani star system? See article.
g Abodes - Using observations from both space and Earth-based telescopes, a new planet that is only 1.6 times the radius of Earth. See article.
g Message - "If we want to find evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, we must work out an observational strategy for detecting this evidence in order to establish the various physical quantities in which it involves,” according to the paper “Detectability of Extraterrestrial Technological Activities.” “This information must be carefully analyzed so that it is neither over-interpreted nor overlooked and can be checked by independent researchers.” Read the entire paper online. See article. Note: This paper was presented in 1992.
g Learning - NASA and the Library of Congress have established the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA-Library of Congress chair in Astrobiology at the Library’s scholarly research organization, the John W. Kluge Center in Washington. The chair is named for the late Nobel Laureate and founding director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, Baruch “Barry” Blumberg. See article.

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Natural nuclear reactors lead to life and how plants grow in space

2011-12-01T11:59:00.000-08:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Ross 248, a star just 10 light years from Earth? See article.
g Abodes - In the first study of its kind, scientists have used the oldest minerals on Earth to reconstruct the composition of our planet's atmosphere just 500 million years after its formation, finding that it shares much closer characteristics to present-day conditions that previously thought. See article.
g Life - Natural nuclear reactors have arisen on Earth and possibly on other planets. The radiation and energy released by these reactors would have had complex effects on any developing life. See article.
g Message - Here are some moving excerpts from the written testimony submitted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Department of Astrophysics and Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History, to the "Life in the Universe" hearings held by the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics in 2001. See article.
g Cosmicus - An experiment aboard the shuttle Discovery is helping astrobiologists understand how plants adapt to living in space. See article.

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Subsurface ocean of magma beneath Io’s surface and new thinking in the search for ETI

2011-05-18T20:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of DENIS 1048-3956, an M-type star about 13 light years from Earth? See article.
g Abodes - New data analysis from NASA's Galileo spacecraft has revealed a subsurface ocean of magma beneath the surface of Jupiter's moon Io. See article.
g Message - Searches for extraterrestrial intelligence are about to expand into new realms, thanks to new advances in technology — and new thinking. See article.

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Dwarf planet covered in water ice and aiming radio telescope at Kepler’s found planets

2011-05-17T20:23:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:g Stars - How does the G-type star Gliese 314 A compare to our own sun? See article.
g Abodes - A new study shows that the dwarf planet Haumea and one of its satellites are covered in water-ice due to tidal forces between them and the heat of radiogenic elements. See article.
g Life - A new study is helping scientists understand how certain yeasts developed their ability to ferment sugar. This process of ethanol production is a key step in making products like wine. The work is providing new information about the mechanisms that link evolution and environment. See article.
g Message - So far, NASA's Kepler space telescope has identified 1,235 possible extrasolar planets. Now, astronomers are aiming a radio telescope at the most Earth-like ones to see if they can detect advanced civilizations that might call these planets home. See article.
g Cosmicus - r the first time, scientists have demonstrated a version of the Doppler effect at an extremely small level - the rotation of an individual molecule. Rotational Doppler effect is used to determine the rotational velocity of planets and could now help study the properties of molecules. See article.

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How hot Jupiters flipped their orbits and exploring Canadian lakes to prepare for Mars

2011-05-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Kapteyn’s Star, a M-type star less than 13 light years from Earth? See article.
g Abodes - A rare number of hot Jupiter planets orbit their stars in a direction opposite to the star's rotation. This violates basic ideas of planet and star formation. Now, new research may explain how these planets flipped their orbits. See article.
g Message - In 1961, astronomer Frank Drake wrote the equation that put the search for alien civilizations on a scientific footing and launched the modern SETI movement. How do the numbers look today? See article. This article is from 2002.
g Cosmicus - How can the exploration of a Canadian lake, using deep-water submersibles, help NASA plan for the human exploration of Mars? See article.

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New ways of finding rogue worlds and visualizing microbial interactions

2011-05-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

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 - Some planets that roam the galaxy without a star to call home still may be able to host life. Finding such rogue planets is difficult, but new research suggests these wandering worlds could be detected by their atmospheric auroras. See article.
g Life - Scientists have developed a new method to visualize microbial interactions. The research could have numerous implications in studying microbial life on Earth and beyond. See article.
g Aftermath - Could humanity ever relate to an alien species? Consider the questioning context of these online speculations about why "Star Trek is human centered?" The latter is an interesting question, possibly creating a situation dealing with a prejudice on the behalf of the writers and producers. However, would a series completely dedicated to another species, such as the Romulans, be successful in a television market? Is it possible that the reasons it wouldn’t be might indicate humanity may care little about an alien species other than as a potential threat? See article.

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Methane sources on Mars and creating a believable alien species

2011-05-14T14:10:00.000-07:00

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 - New images of the Nili Fossae region are helping scientists understand unique geological features in the area. Methane in Mars' atmosphere is enhanced over Nili Fossae, leading some scientists to believe that the gas is produced there. The origins of the Mars methane could be geological or perhaps even biological. See article.
g Life - A new book outlines the history, origin and evolution of the nematode, or roundworm. Nematodes have been around for at least 400 million years, play a key role in soil biology and help support much of the planet and animal life on Earth. See article.
g Imagining - No longer can a science fiction writer create a goo-dripping alien just because a story line requires an adversary from another planet to drop in on our unsuspecting world. The average reader is not going to buy into the B-rated movies of old; it takes more than an actor in a rubber mask for them to suspend their disbelief and enjoy a story or novel. Bringing an alien species into a novel requires a bit of planning and thought on the part of the writer. See column.

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Nanoparticle food sources and potential habitability of Teegarden’s Star

2011-05-13T15:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of Teegarden’s Star, an M-type star a little more than 12 light years from Earth? See article.
g Life - New research has helped locate the source of iron that bacteria and tiny plants on the ocean floor use to survive. Deep sea hydrothermal vents release pyrite nanoparticles that are so small they become dispersed in the ocean to form a potential food source for life in the deep sea. See article.
g Message - When the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft were launched in 1977, they each included a gold-plated phonograph record (a "golden record") of natural sounds, greetings in human voices, and a variety of music. The record cover has symbolic instructions that show how to use and understand the record, though scientists still debate whether other civilizations will be able to decipher them. For info on Voyager’s golden record, see article.

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Deeper understanding of a diverse range of organisms and how SETI works

2011-05-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:g Stars - What is the potential habitability of YZ Ceti, a M-type star about 12 light years from Earth? See article.
g Life - By analyzing seawater, scientists have unlocked information that may lead to a deeper understanding of a diverse range of organisms. See article.
g Message - Just how does SETI work? Here’s a good primer.

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One of the earliest minerals formed in solar system discovered and calculating the Hoyle state

2011-05-11T19:48:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - After decades without success, scientists have now calculated the Hoyle state. The Hoyle state is an energy-rich form of the carbon nucleus and is the key to understanding the fusion reaction that leads from helium gas to carbon. Without this type of carbon nucleus, life might not exist. See article.
g Abodes - Scientists have discovered a new mineral, krotite, which is one of the earliest minerals formed in our solar system. The finding could help astrobiologists understand how the Solar System formed and evolved, leading to conditions for a habitable Earth. See article.
g Cosmicus - India is moving towards formally joining a me¬ga global initiative aimed at co¬nstructing the world’s lar¬ge¬st and most sensitive radio telescope that will help expl¬ore unknown territories in science. See article.

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Calculating the Hoyle state and 2016 astrobiology mission options

2011-05-10T12:45:00.000-07:00

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 - El Niño and its partner La Niña, the warm and cold phases in the eastern half of the tropical Pacific, play havoc with climate worldwide. Predicting El Niño events more than several months ahead is now routine, but predicting how it will change in a warming world has been hampered by the short instrumental record. An international team of climate scientists has now shown that annually resolved tree-ring records from North America, particularly from the Southwest, give a continuous representation of the intensity of El Niño events over the past 1100 years and can be used to improve El Niño prediction in climate models. See article.
g Life - After decades without success, scientists have now calculated the Hoyle state. The Hoyle state is an energy-rich form of the carbon nucleus and is the key to understanding the fusion reaction that leads from helium gas to carbon. Without this type of carbon nucleus, life might not exist. See article.
g Intelligence - Computer networks that can't forget fast enough can show symptoms of a kind of virtual schizophrenia, giving researchers further clues to the inner workings of schizophrenic brains, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Yale University have found. See article.
g Cosmicus - Three science investigations of interest to astrobiology are being considered for a 2016 NASA mission: to look at Mars' interior; study an extraterrestrial sea on Titan; or study a comet's nucleus in detail. See article.

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Mars’ deep fractures and tourist trips around the Moon

2011-05-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

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 - Newly released images from the European Space Agency's Mars Express show Nili Fossae, a system of deep fractures around the giant Isidis impact basin. Some of these incisions into the Martian crust are up to 500 m deep and probably formed at the same time as the basin. See article.
g Life - In 250 million years of insect evolution, the appearance of new wings is unprecedented. Transformations and losses of wings, yes, but additions, never. A team has shattered this belief by providing proof that the exuberant helmet of Membracidae, a group of insects related to cicadas, is in fact a third pair of profoundly modified wings. See article.
g Intelligence - Sleeping worms have much to teach people, a notion famously applied by the children's show "Sesame Street," in which Oscar the Grouch often reads bedtime stories to his pet worm Slimy. Based on research with their own worms, a team of neurobiologists at Brown University and several other institutions has now found that "Notch," a fundamental signaling pathway found in all animals, is directly involved in sleep in the nematode C. elegans. See article.
g Message - From the archives: Should we modify the Drake Equation to account for civilizations which actually engage in deliberate interstellar transmission? See article.
g Cosmicus - Fifty years after the first American astronaut rocketed into space, one commercial spaceflight company is hoping to push the envelope even further, with tourist trips around the moon. And now they plan to use a bigger spaceship. See article.
g Learning - The second issue of the Astrobiology Graphic Novel is now available! Download the pdf or the mobile app! Issue #2 maintains the look and feel of the first issue, but this time the novel chronicles the history of our exploration of Mars. See article.

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Solar system’s oldest minerals and microbes on the Moon

2011-05-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

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 - In the May-June issue of the journal American Mineralogist, a team of scientists announced the discovery of the new mineral krotite, one of the earliest minerals formed in our solar system. It is the main component of an unusual inclusion embedded in a meteorite (NWA 1934), found in northwest Africa. These objects, known as refractory inclusions, are thought to be the first planetary materials formed in our solar system, dating back to before the formation of Earth and the other planets. See article.
g Life - New research is helping astrobiologists understand the end-Permian extinction, a dramatic biological crisis that profoundly affected the history of life on Earth. However, the new data indicates that this major extinction event may not have been catastrophic for some organisms. See article.
g Message - Recent discussions within the SETI community have thoroughly explored the issue of whether people with access to radio telescopes should send powerful signals to alien civilizations without some process of prior international consultation. In particular, those exchanges have focused on the question of "Active SETI." See article.
g Cosmicus - There has been a long-lived bit of Apollo Moon landing folklore that now appears to be a dead-end affair: microbes on the Moon. See article.

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Titan’s underground ocean and what we’ll learn about ourselves by finding ETI

2011-05-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

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 - Oddities in the rotation of Saturn's largest moon Titan might add to growing evidence that it harbors an underground ocean, researchers suggest. See article.
g Life - Over 100 million years ago, the understory of forests was dominated by plants from the class Equisetopsida. Now, only one genus from this once-diverse group survives. Now, scientists believe that the horsetail may be the oldest genus of land plant on Earth today. See article.
g Intelligence - Computer networks that can't forget fast enough can show symptoms of a kind of virtual schizophrenia, giving researchers further clues to the inner workings of schizophrenic brains, researchers have found. See article.
g Message - What are the chances that an alien signal has been sent our way just at the right moment to splash upon our antennas during that brief interval? If the extraterrestrials beam their broadcasts to the whole galaxy (or at least a big chunk of it), the chances are 100 percent. See article. This article is from 2007.
g Cosmicus - China's state-run news outlets report that preparations of the country's first space station module, called Tiangong-1, are in full swing for a launch in the second half of this year and will be followed by an unpiloted spacecraft. See article.
g Aftermath - Are we alone? Aliens on Earth from the Epicurean Greek philosophers more than 2000 years ago to fiction writers of the late 19th century, people have speculated about the possibility that there might be other worlds which are home to alien life. Yet it is only with the gigantic telescopes and interplanetary probes of the space age that we finally have a realistic hope of answering the question. As we learn more about our own planet and the evolutionary history of terrestrial life we feel a stronger urge than ever to put it into context. Embarking on the search for extraterrestrial life pushes our technology and scientific understanding to the limits, but the quest is one we should not shirk. Finding life beyond our own planet would teach us things about ourselves we might never otherwise learn. See article.

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How much SETI really costs and space-time vortex around Earth proven

2011-05-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

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 - On Nov. 8, 2011, the asteroid 2005 YU55 will be making a relatively close flyby of Earth. There is no threat of a collision between the asteroid and our planet, but its approach will provide scientists with a close-up view of a 400-meter-wide space rock. See article.
g Life - The cactus is teaching scientists about the evolution of plant communities all over the world. See article.
g Message - SETI, the international organization which handles the search for electromagnetic transmissions from civilizations on distant planets, will shut down soon due to lack of funding. Sure, more pragmatic objectives have to be taken into consideration when budgeting, but heck a measly $2.5 million? If you’re not really sure what $2.5 million really means for SETI, then here’s a really well put together infographic by microcosmologist, which puts into perspective the sum across other sectors of the U.S. budget and other corporations. See article.
g Cosmicus - Results of the NASA's Gravity Probe B indicate that there is a space-time vortex around Earth and that its shape precisely matches the predictions of Einstein's theory of gravity. See article.
g Learning - Two summer graduate courses from Montana State University will help teachers learn about the organisms and ecology of Yellowstone National Park's extreme environments, including the Park's connection to current research in astrobiology. See article.
g Aftermath - Within the scientific community, the question is no longer whether extraterrestrial life exists, but if ET is smart enough to do long division — and the United States and other world governments already have detailed secret plans for first contact. My apologies in advanced for Popular Mechanic’s lurid title, but the reporting is sound. See article. This article is from 2004.

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Mourning SETI’s shut down and commercial spaceflight craft passes key test

2011-05-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - A spiral galaxy with a dramatic lopsided shape is featured in contrasting views from two telescopes. See article.
g Abodes - Pumice, the rock used remove dry skin from feet, could have been responsible for the birth of life on Earth, scientists have claimed. See article.
g Life - Rice originated in China, a team of genome researchers has concluded in a study tracing back thousands of years of evolutionary history through large-scale gene re-sequencing. Their findings, which appear in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), indicate that domesticated rice may have first appeared as far back as approximately 9,000 years ago in the Yangtze Valley of China. Previous research suggested domesticated rice may have two points of origin -- India as well as China. See article.
g Message - I understand priorities must be set and all spending must be looked at with a critical eye. Still, it is a bit sad that the giant array of radio telescopes in California that are used to search for extraterrestrial life have been closed due to lack of funding. It’s like we’re saying, “ET, we’ve been disconnected. Don’t bother to phone.” See article.
g Cosmicus - A private spaceship built to carry space tourists on suborbital flights for the company Virgin Galactic passed a major glide test flight while flying over California's Mojave Desert on May 4: The spacecraft tested out the novel system it will use when re-entering Earth's atmosphere. See article.
g Learning - Book alert: You may have to really scour used book stores for this one: 1976’s “ETI: The First Encounter” considers the consequences to man's view of himself and his world of the first proven contact — when it comes — with beings from another planet. Edited by James L. Christian, this book led the way in reflecting on the next stage in man's gradual self-discovery. See the table of contents and ISBN number.
g Aftermath - As SETI's scientists plan for their first contact with other worlds, who better to consult with than anthropologists, who specialize in encounters with exotic cultures? And thus, over the past several years the SETI Institute has repeatedly brought together anthropologists and scholars from other disciplines, in an attempt to bridge the gap between humans and extraterrestrials. See article.

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Looking for aliens in all the exotic places and convergent evolution in lichens

2011-05-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

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 - A phenomenon known as “magnetic reconnection” is responsible for much of the space weather that affects Earth. NASA is now preparing a new mission dedicated to studying this dynamic magnetic system and its influence on our planet. See article.
g Life - New research has outlined a case of convergent evolution in two lichen species from separate continents. The study is helping scientists understand mechanisms behind the evolution of life. See article.
g Intelligence - The human eye long ago solved a problem common to both digital and film cameras: how to get good contrast in an image while also capturing faint detail. See article.
g Message - The sad shut down of SETI due to lack of funding brings a major halt to the search for aliens, unplugging the voice and ears which have been doing the search until now. But perhaps we should start thinking outside the box, and start looking for aliens in more exotic places. See article.
g Learning - NASA has made available for the public a new online collection of images of our solar system and locations on Earth where astrobiology researchers travel to conduct field research.
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Finding Mars in Morocco and what aliens would find of they ran into the Voyager probes

2011-05-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

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 - From the deepest past to the present day, the deserts of Morocco provide a panorama of life’s history on Earth and give us insight for our investigations of Mars. See article.
g Life - Box jellyfish may seem like rather simple creatures, but in fact their visual system is anything but. They've got no fewer than 24 eyes of four different kinds. Now, researchers reporting online on April 28 in Current Biology, have evidence revealing that four of those eyes always peer up out of the water, regardless of the way the rest of the animal is oriented. What's more, it appears that those eyes allow the jellies to navigate their way around the mangrove swamps in which they live. See article.
g Intelligence - It's one thing to recognize your childhood home when you see it in a photograph and quite another to accurately describe or draw a picture of it based on your recollection of how it looked. A new report published online in Current Biology, offers some of the first clear evidence that monkeys, like humans, have the capacity for both forms of memory. See article.
g Message - The chances of aliens finding Voyager 1 and 2 in the emptiness of space are small. If they do, the two spacecraft could speak volumes about their planet of origin - Earth. See article.

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Voyager probes set to leave solar system and Star Trek’s Kaylar

2011-05-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Astronomers from Wales and the Netherlands, in collaboration with five schools, have used eight telescopes simultaneously to study the strange behaviour of an X-ray binary star system. See article.
g Life - Two groups of small fish, one from a Caribbean island and one from the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, exhibit some of the fastest rates of evolution known in any organism, according to a new study. See article.
g Intelligence - Changes in brain anatomy and the resulting ability to fully exploit electric signal space did indeed lead to rapid speciation, according to a new study. See article.
g Message - The search for extraterrestrial life need not be limited to the government or scientists. Don’t believe it? Then check out this Web site, “Amateur SETI: Project BAMBI (Bob and Mike’s Big Investment),” which describes the design and construction of a 4 GHz amateur radio telescope dedicated to SETI. See article.
g Cosmicus - NASA's twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft are the longest continuously-operating spacecraft in deep space. They have provided invaluable information about the nature of our solar system and the planets it contains. See article.
g Imagining - Could the Kaylar, a Star Trek alien from “The Original Series’ pilot episode, “The Cage,” exist? Like the Gorn, this alien appears to be drawn from our nightmares and hence serves a more dramatic effect than offering any speculation on exobiology. A tall humanoid with intriguing jaw features, skinny legs and broad shoulders, the Kaylar on Rigel VII is reminiscent of a barbarian warrior or an ogre. Brushing aside the nearly impossible parallel evolution between Earth and the Kaylar’s home world for such a creature to come about, there are a couple of possible ways that it could have gained its great height and skinny legs. Its planet might have lighter gravity, which means an indigent alien wouldn’t fall as hard as we do on Earth; hence the supporting legs would not need to be as strong to hold up a little more weight than the typical human. In addition, we might speculate that as a humanoid, the Kaylar shared a similar primate evolution as humans, so possibly the savannah grass of its continental cradle simply was taller than on the African plain during the past few million years; that would have given taller proto-Kaylar an evolutionary advantage. Still, the Kaylar appears to be an unlikely alien.
g Aftermath - From the archives: There’s a neat transcription of a video conference interview with Dr. Frank Drake (whose famous equation this site is organized after), conducted by the class members of Penn State’s "Space Colonization” class. Drake touches on a variety of SETI topics, including the philosophical implication of extraterrestrial contact. The interview took place in 2001.

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Earth-sized planet dense as lead and the search for ETI down under

2011-05-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Were spinstars the universe's first polluters? The imprints of fast rotating massive stars have been found in the Milky Way's bulge. See article.
g Abodes - New observations of '55 Cancri e' indicate that the planet is 60 percent larger in diameter than Earth, but eight times more massive. The data also indicates that 55 Cancri e orbits so close to its star that it is baked to a temperature of 4,900 degrees F. See article.
g Life - Amphibian declines around the world have forced many species to the brink of extinction, are much more complex than realized and have multiple causes that are still not fully understood, researchers conclude in a new report. See article.
g Intelligence - Could veterans of war, rape victims and other people who have seen horrific crimes someday have the traumatic memories that haunt them weakened in their brains? In a new study, UCLA life scientists report a discovery that may make the reduction of such memories a reality. See article.
g Message - What are our friends south of the equator doing in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence? After all, the Northern Hemisphere only covers half of the galaxy. See article.

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Bacteria that don’t need oxygen and 3-D map of ancient universe

2011-04-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - The largest-ever three-dimensional map of the distant universe has been created using the light of the brightest objects in the cosmos. See article.
g Abodes - A team of scientists led by Rice University has figured out why the Colorado Plateau - a 130,000-square-mile region that straddles Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico - is rising even while parts of its lower crust appear to be falling. The massive, tectonically stable region of the western United States has long puzzled geologists. See article.
g Life - Exotic bacteria that do not rely on oxygen may have played an important role in determining the composition of Earth's early atmosphere, according to a theory that a researcher is testing in the scalding hot springs of a volcanic crater in Siberia. See article.
g Message - Science fiction author David Brin offers a copy of his 1983 article “Xenology: The Science of Asking Who’s Out There”. While two decades old, the information is still relevant and offers a good overview of fundamental astrobiological questions.
g Cosmicus - A technique that astronomers use to parse starlight might also be useful in assessing skin blots that may become cancerous. See article.
g Imagining - Could Star Trek’s Caretaker of The Original Series’ “Shore Leave” fame actually evolve? Unfortunately, we know almost nothing about his race with the exception that it is very advanced technologically and quite disciplined mentally. We also know that it appears human, which virtually eliminates it from the realm of possibility, as the parallel evolution on another planet of homo sapiens is extremely unlikely. However, the Caretaker’s kind may not be humanoid at all. Indeed, his race employs machinery that can nearly instantaneously create items based on the readings of one’s thoughts. It’s similar to what the Squire of Gothos and The Next Generation’s Q can do. However, the squire and the Q can achieve this instantaneously, the squire through a machine and the Q through an omnipotent understanding of the universe. Both the squire and the Q also are energy beings. Might the caretaker as well be one (though of a different race than the squire or the Q) and merely took on human form for the landing party’s sake?

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Different scenarios for what’ll happen after first contact and Voyager probes return unsettling data

2011-04-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - More than 30 years after they left Earth, NASA's twin Voyager probes are now returning data from the edge of the Solar System. With each passing day they are beaming back a message that, to scientists, is both unsettling and thrilling. See article.
g Abodes - NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has discovered the total amount of atmosphere on Mars changes as the tilt of the planet's axis varies. This process could affect the stability of any liquid water, if it exists on the Martian surface. See article.
g Life - We already know about numerous extremophiles, microbes that can live in incredibly extreme conditions, which would easily kill almost every other creature. There are bacteria which survive in extremely high or low temperatures, in substances with an extreme pH, surrounded by nothing but solid rock, in the depths of the ocean, and so on. But now, researchers have found a different kind of resistance for bacteria: the ability to survive at a gravitational force 400.000 times bigger than normally on Earth. See article.
g Intelligence - People who have strokes are often left with moderate to severe physical impairments. Now, thanks to a glove developed at McGill, stroke patients may be able to recover hand motion by playing video games. The Biomedical Sensor Glove was developed by four final-year McGill Mechanical Engineering undergrads under the supervision of Professor Rosaire Mongrain. See article.
g Message - Looking for a club to join? Try The SETI League. The league’s site has a lot of great information for everyone from the beginner to accomplished technogeek.
g Cosmicus - Scientists are preparing to launch a spider habitat into space to observe their activities in microgravity. The research will help astrobiologists understand how life from Earth adapts to the space environment. See article.
g Learning - Author Marc Kaufman spoke about the origins of his new book, "First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth," with Astrobiology.com today. See article.
g Imagining - Among the more famous alien races from “Star Trek” are the Gorn, bipedal reptilians who are much larger and stronger than humans. The Gorn are an unlikely alien species but a splendid example of how we so often portray extraterrestrials based not on scientific principles but our own psychology — like the insect alien, most humans naturally find the reptilian alien repulsive. For science fiction, it’s a good choice to create suspense: creatures out of our nightmares that we keep going back to out of a fascination over what frightens us. But could the Gorn evolve on another world? Probably not. The most troubling feature of the Gorn is the remarkable parallel evolution that would have to occur on Gorn Prime to Earth for a few billion years, at least up to our Age of Dinosaurs. Also disconcerting is the Gorn’s snout; this adds weight to the head and with a large brain size creates excessive and unbalanced weight for the neck muscles to hold up. Another problem is the Gorn’s slow movements; certainly a species that evolved to intelligence would have to move a little faster, or it could not succeed in hunting. A caveat here is that its lack of agility may in part have propelled it to intelligence, as it needed to outthink faster moving prey. Some “Star Trek” fans have speculated that Gorn Prime possesses a harsh environment and a relatively high local gravity (1.4 Gs!), which accounts for the Gorn’s increased strength and endurance levels. This seems unlikely, though, as the Gorn then would be able to move swiftly on the asteroid presented in the episode, which Kirk shifts about on as if it were Earth normal gravity.
g Aftermath - Here’s an intriguing article that is frequently referenced in astrobiology papers: "The Consequences of a Discovery: Different Scenarios" by astronomer Ivan Almar.

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What SETI is (or was) searching for and Star Trek’s Talosians

2011-04-28T16:35:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - A cutting-edge experiment hunting for antimatter galaxies and signs of dark matter that was very nearly cancelled is finally poised to voyage into orbit aboard the next-to-last space shuttle mission. See article.
g Abodes - Greenhouse gases have increased more frequently in Earth's history than previously believed. Fluxes involved a significant exchange of carbon between surface reservoirs and the atmosphere. Higher levels of CO2 affect nutrient uptake by planets, which could cause problems as the modern climate continues to heat up. See article.
g Life - Fifty million-year-old fossils from ancestors of today's dugongs are helping scientists understand the temperature and composition of the waters in which they swam. The study is providing new information about climate change events, both ancient and modern. See article.
g Intelligence - Researchers at Brown University have found that specific genetic variations can predict how persistently people will believe advice they are given, even when it is contradicted by experience. See article.
g Message - What sort of signal would satisfactorily announce an extraterrestrial intelligence as detected by radio-emission or light reception (if SETI were searching anymore for alien signals, that is)? See article.
g Cosmicus - As suborbital jaunts to space promise to become available soon to anyone with a couple hundred thousand dollars to spare, I can tell those considering a trip: You're in for a wild ride. See article.
g Imagining - Star Trek’s very first alien, the Talosians
, pose quite an evolutionary challenge: Their heads are oversized because of large, powerful brains capable of telepathy and even mind control of others. First off, a brain of that size must demand a lot of energy. This is somewhat addressed through the large arteries and veins apparent on their bald heads; their frail bodies also indicate fewer cells below the neckline for oxygen-carrying blood to support. But they probably also need greater lung capacity to cycle more oxygen into their bodies as well as a larger heart for pumping that oxygen-laden blood to and through the brain. Their bodies don’t indicate larger lungs, however. Another problem with their head/brain size is giving birth. The enormity of the head is limited by the size and shape of the pelvis — and their human shape and gait indicates they couldn’t give birth to an infant with a head any larger than ours. A possibility is that their the brain primarily develops outside of the womb; perhaps they grow in their telepathic powers as they age. Another possibility: They are not born naturally but artificially created, indicating a separation from among the most basic instincts – mating. The Talosians, after all, are fairly unimaginative creatures, dependent upon probing the minds of others for new experiences! As for their telepathic and power of illusion capabilities, we’ll just have to presume that somehow their brain lobes have evolved sections capable of connecting and interacting across the medium of air with another creature’s neurons.
g Aftermath - Here’s one common man’s musings on the consequences for society if extraterrestrial intelligence is discovered: "Inevitably society would change should extraterrestrial intelligence be discovered. The question is to what extent. We might react in the same way we did with the new millennium when it was imminent, but it proved to be much ado about almost nothing. The same may be true for the discovery of one or more extraterrestrial civilizations. On the other hand, the extreme opposite is a scenario where all of our worst fears are fulfilled." See article.

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SETI puts ET on hold and ‘First Contact’ author discusses his book

2011-04-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - The first stars in the universe may have been extraordinarily fast spinners, whirling at more than a million miles per hour, scientists say. See article.
g Abodes - By studying life in the scalding hot springs of a volcanic crater in Siberia, a team of scientists has discovered bacteria that produce and consume carbon monoxide. The findings could provide new insight into the evolution of Earth's early atmosphere. See article.
g Life - New research shows that water molecules could actually influence the structure of DNA. The finding could provide clues about how DNA originated, and how it functions in modern cells. See article
g Intelligence - When deprived of sleep, parts of the human brain may doze off, secretly snatching moments of slumber even as people seem to be awake. See article.
g Message - Budget cuts have forced the SETI Institute in California to shut down its famous search for extraterrestrial life, reports the San Jose Mercury News. The institute can no longer afford to operate its Allen Telescope Array, which has been scanning outer space for sign of communication since 2007. As a result, it's been in what the institute calls "hibernation" since April 15. See article.
g Cosmicus - As the 10th anniversary of American businessman Dennis Tito’s groundbreaking flight nears, SPACE.com caught up with the space pioneer to chat about his experience - and the prospects for private spaceflight going forward. See interview.
g Learning - Marc Kaufman, author of First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth talks about his book in today’s Washington Post.
g Imagining - A short entry today on the early “Star Trek” alien Balok: Creatively speaking, this alien was a disappointment compared to the previously presented Alfa 117 canine and salt vampire. Balok only possesses two real visual differences from humans: He’s shorter and possesses more child-like features (teeth and facial). As to the first trait, of height, Balok may come from a planet with heavier gravity than Earth. Or perhaps there was shorter grass on the savanna (his hominid frame indicates a primate-styled path to intelligence), so height actually may be an evolutionary disadvantage on his world. Possibly his planet is slightly cooler, as that would encourage stockier traits, though the shapes of his nostrils don’t indicate his kind regularly breathes cold air, nor does the Enterprise crew note or physically show that they’re on a cold ship. As to the second trait, of child-like features, presumably it holds some evolutionary advantage (after all, adults even in smaller mammals appear much more angular in their faces than their infants), though not enough hints were provided to offer speculation. Any ideas out there?
g Aftermath - Could Martian research samples carry diseases? Certainly this is an issue for the first time we make contact with extraterrestrial life, whether it is intelligent or microbial. See article.

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Size of Mars’ atmosphere changes and Star Trek’s ‘The Old Ones’

2011-04-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

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 - NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has discovered the total amount of atmosphere on Mars changes dramatically as the tilt of the planet's axis varies. This process can affect the stability of liquid water if it exists on the Martian surface and increase the frequency and severity of Martian dust storms. See article.
g Life - Brilliant gold- and silver-colored beetles have given optics researchers new insights into the way biology can recreate the appearance of some of nature's most precious metals. See article.
g Imagining - Another early “Star Trek” alien is the Exo III android makers. We really don’t know what the android creators (aka “the Old Ones”) looked like, but we can presume by the way human duplicates were created with the android-making machine that they appear like Ruk. Their height indicates that the planet’s gravity is slightly lighter than Earth’s, and there isn’t a discernable difference in the way humans step on this world. Possibly the savanna grass was taller than in our Africa (their hominid shape indicates a primate-oriented evolution). The whitish pallor probably is due to the lack of sunlight (though not the cold, as that also would make their bodies more compact); the aliens did go underground when a global ice age gripped their world. One interesting question is if they possessed the ability to build androids, why didn’t they just leave their planet when its habitability was lowered? Perhaps some religious or cultural belief prevented them from considering or pursuing space travel; possibly they developed the android-making machine when residing underground. While the show’s creators did a good job of making the Old Ones evolutionarily sound given the world’s climate of the past several eons, the aliens fall short on the Earth vertebrate factor: It’s highly unlikely that the exact facial arrangements as those of Earth’s vertebrates when first leaving the water for land would be so exactly duplicated.

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Eavesdropping on alien radio transmissions close to impossible – yet emissions from radio aurora of Jupiter-like planets detectable with radio telescopes

2011-04-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Astronomers have identified what appears to be a cosmic smoking gun for a historic supernova explosion, a find that may also help with the search for elusive dark energy in the universe. See article.
g Abodes - A new study shows that emissions from the radio aurora of Jupiter-like planets should be detectable with radio telescopes. The finding means that detecting exoplanets that orbit at large distances from their star could now be easier to find. See article.
g Life - A new study indicates that the Earth could recover from rising CO2 emissions faster than previously thought. Fifty-six million years ago, during a period of rising temperatures and atmospheric CO2, the Earth increased its ability to pull carbon from the air and sped up the planet's recovery. See article.
g Message - Eavesdropping on alien radio transmissions may be close to impossible, says a team of researchers who think alien signals would be indistinguishable from interstellar noise. See article.
g Imagining - Could "Star Trek"'s Alfa 177 canine exist? Setting aside the facial features that show the canine is an Earth-descended vertebrate, the answer is yes. The Alfa 113 biome the Enterprise crew visits is cold but dry, perhaps a summer plain set below a great continental ice sheet. In cold climates, life forms need to be compact and/or covered in thick hair or fat; this is so with this creature. In addition, the canine's short legs indicate it need not worry about snowdrifts. Based on the creature's canine teeth and jaw structure, it must be a predator; considering the canine's size, it likely preys on creatures no larger than rats - and rodents are quite abundant on the tundra. A lack of claws indicates it doesn't burrow, however, which probably would be necessary in such a climate. Perhaps caves in the area or other creature's burrows provide shelter. As for the antenna upon its head, I'll withhold speculation!

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Evolution of a super-brain and Star Trek’s Thasians

2011-04-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Astronomers using NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer may be closer to knowing why some of the most massive stellar explosions ever observed occur in the tiniest of galaxies. See article.
g Abodes - Poisonous carbon monoxide gas has been discovered in the atmosphere of the dwarf planet Pluto, after a worldwide search that lasted nearly two decades, according to a new study that also detected the planet's atmosphere extending much higher above the surface than previously thought. See article.
g Intelligence - Could the evolution of the human mind, and its ability to create a potentially infinite variety of thoughts, be attributed to the formation of a “super-brain”? One theory about this collective mind centers around and event that took place in Africa no later than 75,000 years ago. See article.
g Imagining - An early “Star Trek” alien is the Thasians, who serve a deux ex machina role in one episode. The Thasians apparently are a noncorporeal life form that gave a human child incredible powers of telekinesis. Such capabilities, as exhibited by the child (now a 17-year-old teenager) appear to stem from within his own physical being, however. The Thasians themselves also are dependent on the physical reality of a spacecraft for traveling beyond their planet. Of course, how a noncorporeal life form might exist is beyond our physical science, though one might suspect it is an organized pattern of electrical impulses, somehow held together and organized without use of a physical platform (such as our brain cells) — though their powers can be transferred to such a platform, as occurs with the boy. Most likely the Thasians did not evolve as noncorporeal life forms but instead, being eons ahead of us in technology, rely on machines (using teleportation-like technology) to do their work; their own beings might be interfaced with such machines so a mere concentrated thought can command it. The Thasians, thus feeling encumbered by physical form, shifted to another dimension — again, more fiction than reality — where the very nature of that space allows the beings (electrical patterns) to remain organized, and perhaps better able to communicate with their machines. Of course, too little was said about the Thasians in the episode, though the boy did note that the Thasians do not “feel” or “touch” in the same way that humans do.
g Aftermath - How will humanity react when we receive our first interstellar phone call from ET? Though not a new piece, SETI astronomer Seth Shostak offers some intriguing thoughts.

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Scientists’ booming interest in astrobiology and first contact’s effect on religion

2011-04-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Did the early universe have just one spatial dimension? See article.
g Abodes - A computer modeling study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that at deep Earth pressures and temperatures, longer hydrocarbons may be formed from the simplest one, the methane molecule. See article.
g Message - Want to help SETI discover alien life? If you haven’t already done so, download the free SETI at Home software. Using Internet-connected computers, the program downloads and analyzes radio telescope data on your desktop when it is idle. The program has been so successful in plowing through data that other scientific researchers, especially in medicine, are adopting it to their fields. Here’s the program.
g Cosmicus - The Florida space coast is expecting near-record crowds to flock to Cape Canaveral to watch the space shuttle Endeavour launch on its last voyage April 29. See article.
g Learning - There's no good evidence to date that life exists, or ever has existed, on worlds beyond the Earth — so it might seem odd that the field of science known as astrobiology is booming. Over the past decade or so, hundreds of biologists, geologists, chemists and astronomers have conducted research and attended conferences on astrobiology around the world, and NASA even has an Astrobiology Institute at its Ames Research Center in California. See article.
g Aftermath - The discovery that alien life exists would mean that we are not the center of the universe. While most religions now recognize that the Earth is just a lump of rock, they still believe that we human beings are the most important thing in creation, that we occupy a special place in God's plan. The existence of aliens would seem to make this implausible especially if they are more advanced than we are (on all levels, intellectually, spiritually) This would mean that God has acted in the development of the aliens in a way he did not act in ours, which in turn would mean that we do not occupy the paramount role in God's creation, which is a fundamental idea in religions. See article.

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Would ETI listen to our music and identifying most important questions for extreme environment researchers

2011-04-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - A whirlpool-like spiral galaxy is being distorted by the gravitational pull of a neighbor in a new photo from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. See article.
g Abodes - Astronomers have found that Jupiter-like worlds around other stars push shock waves ahead of them. Like Earth's magnetic 'bow-shock', these planetary 'shocks' can protect the atmospheres of giant planets from their star's damaging emissions. See article.
g Life - From the interior of desert rocks to hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean, life has adapted to extraordinary environments. And yet many such species are threatened by human activities and changing climate. Today, the European Commission's international Coordination Action for Research on Life in Extreme Environments (CAREX) project launched its roadmap identifying the most important questions for extreme environment researchers to address. See article.
g Message - Would extraterrestrials like to listen to our music? A new collaboration between science and music has created musical messages that might one day be sent to alien worlds. See article.

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Planet of the black leaves and setting sights on Phobos and Deimos

2011-04-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

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 - According to a new study, Earth-like alien planets with multiple suns may host trees and shrubs that are black or gray instead of the more familiar green. See article.
g Life - Paleontologists from the American Museum of Natural History and the Chinese Academy of Sciences announce the discovery of Liaoconodon hui, a complete fossil mammal from the Mesozoic found in China that includes the long-sought transitional middle ear. The specimen shows the bones associated with hearing in mammals -- the malleus, incus, and ectotympanic -- decoupled from the lower jaw, as had been predicted, but were held in place by an ossified cartilage that rested in a groove on the lower jaw. The new research, published in Nature this week, also suggests that the middle ear evolved at least twice in mammals, for monotremes and for the marsupial-placental group. See article.
g Intelligence - Scientists seeking to understand the origin of the human mind may want to look to honeybees - not ancestral apes - for at least some of the answers, according to a University of Colorado Boulder archaeologist. See article.
g Message - Recent discussions within the SETI community have thoroughly explored the issue of whether people with access to radio telescopes should send powerful signals to alien civilizations without some process of prior international consultation. In particular, those exchanges have focused on the question of "Active SETI." See editorial. This piece is from 2005.
g Cosmicus - The two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, are in the sights of planners of both human and robotic spaceflights. See article.

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Evidence that other planets can support life and fifty Solutions to Fermi's Paradox

2011-04-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

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 - Scientists are finding ever more evidence that Mars and many other planets may support life. See article.
g Life - Humpback whales have their own version of the hit single, according to a study reported online April 14 in Current Biology. At any given time within a population, male humpbacks all sing the same mating tune. But the pattern of the song changes over time, with the new and apparently catchy versions of the song spreading repeatedly across the ocean, almost always traveling from west to east. See article.
g Intelligence - An international team of scientists has developed a way to predict how much a person can learn. See article.
g Message - Book alert: In response to Enrico Fermi's famous 1950 question concerning the existence of advanced civilizations elsewhere, physicist Stephen Webb in “If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens... Where Is Everybody? Fifty Solutions to Fermi's Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life” critically examines 50 resolutions to explain the total absence of empirical evidence for probes, starships, and communications from extraterrestrials. He focuses on our Milky Way Galaxy, which to date has yielded no objects or signals that indicate the existence of alien beings with intelligence and technology. His comprehensive analysis covers topics ranging from the Drake equation and Dyson spheres to the panspermia hypothesis and anthropic arguments. Of special interest are the discussions on the DNA molecule, the origin of life on Earth, and the threats to organic evolution on this planet (including mass extinctions). Webb himself concludes that the "great silence" in nature probably results from humankind's being the only civilization now in this galaxy, if not in the entire universe. This richly informative and very engaging book is recommended for most academic and public library science collections. See reviews.

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Looking for organisms that barley need water and odds of picking up an alien signal

2011-04-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

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 - All life as we know it needs water. But what organisms can survive when water is all but unavailable? To find out, one scientist is looking at soil from two of the driest places on Earth. See article.
g Life - Successful blueprints are recycled by evolution, a new study suggests. See article.
g Message - What are the chances that an alien signal has been sent our way just at the right moment to splash upon our antennas during that brief interval? If the extraterrestrials beam their broadcasts to the whole galaxy (or at least a big chunk of it), the chances are 100 percent. See article. This article is from 2006.
g Cosmicus - A huge, unmanned British space plane is on pace to start launching payloads into Earth orbit in less than a decade — provided it can pass a crucial engine test in June, its designers say. See article.

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Photosynthetic microbial mats in Antarctica and ‘The Biology of Star Trek’

2011-04-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

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 - A new analysis of the well-known Allende meteorite could change prevailing theories about the nature of some asteroids and the formation of planets like Earth. The results indicate that asteroids with molten cores may be abundant in space, and they even could have given the Earth its oceans See article.
g Life - Photosynthetic microbial mats forming large conical structures up to half a meter tall have been discovered by astrobiologists in Lake Untersee, Antarctica. See article.
g Cosmicus - A new federal spending bill represents a cut to NASA's funding, but a lessening of restrictions on how the agency spends that money for the rest of this year. See article.
g Imagining - Browse the local used bookstores for this volume, which examined the scientific plausibility of many alien creatures in “Star Trek”: “To Seek Out New Life: The Biology of Star Trek.” Published about a decade ago, Athena Andreadis' book makes a good read, boosted by her background as a molecular biologist and neurosurgeon. See review.

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Calcium carbonate crystal eyes and what sort of signal is a SETI hit

2011-04-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Astronomers across the globe can now sift through hundreds of millions of galaxies, stars and asteroids collected in the first bundle of data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission. The data is invaluable for astrobiologists seeking to understand the nature of our universe and the potential for habitable planets other than our own Earth. See article.
g Life - Scientists have discovered a simple mollusk that may use eyes made of a calcium carbonate crystal to spot predators. The finding provides a new example of how evolution leads to unique traits for life. See article.
g Intelligence - Recording people belting out an old Motown tune and then asking them to listen to their own singing without the accompanying music seems like an unusually cruel form of punishment. But for a team of scientists, this exact Karaoke experiment has revealed what part of the brain is essential for embarrassment. See article.
g Message - What sort of signal would satisfactorily announce an extraterrestrial intelligence as detected by radio-emission or light reception? For an opinion article on what sort of signal is a SETI hit, click here.

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Titan-like worlds around red dwarfs and social and political issues that will arise once we make first contact

2011-04-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - New images from space reveal a photogenic, yet puzzling, look at tangled cosmic filaments that may be shaped by interstellar sonic booms throughout our galaxy. See article.
g Abodes - A new study says that worlds that orbit red dwarfs, and even rogue planets with no stars to call home, might have surface oceans loaded with organic compounds. Like the seas of liquid methane on Saturn’s moon Titan, such environments are speculated to have the potential for alien life. See article.
g Life - The movie Jurassic Park got one thing right: Those velociraptors hunted by night while the big plant-eaters browsed around the clock, according to a new study of the eyes of fossil animals. See article.
g Intelligence - Africa is the birthplace of human languages, two new studies suggest. See article.
g Aftermath - For some provocative reading, pick up “Sharing the Universe,” by Seth Shostak, at your local bookstore. SETI scientist Shostak almost single-handedly is outlining social and political issues that will arise once we make contact with extraterrestrials.

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Galaxies evolved earlier than thought and Martians bearing diseases

2011-04-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - The first galaxies may have formed much earlier than thought, a new study suggests — just 200 million years or so after the universe's birth. See article.
g Abodes - Astronomers have a new way of identifying close, faint stars. The technique should help in the hunt for extrasolar worlds because these hard-to-see stars could be home to the easiest-to-see planets. See article.
g Life - Birds are known more for their senses of vision and hearing than smell, but new research suggests that millions of years ago, the winged critters also boasted a better sense for scents. See article.
g Aftermath - Could Martian research samples carry diseases? See article. This article is from 2004.

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Inferring the Big Bang in the far future and a nonrandom alphabet of amino acids

2011-04-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Clever astronomers in 1 trillion C.E. could still infer the Big Bang and today's leading cosmological theory, known as "lambda-cold dark matter" or LCDM. They will have to use the most distant light source available to them - hypervelocity stars flung from the center of Milkomeda. See article.
g Abodes - A new study shows that melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are contributing more to rising sea levels than other sources, such as mountain glaciers and ice caps. Studying these sheets is important, because if they collapse they could dramatically change the level of the oceans globally. See article.
g Life - An interesting research paper recently published in the Journal Astrobiology and asks, "Did Evolution Select a Nonrandom Alphabet of Amino Acids?" See article.
g Aftermath - Given the plethora of New Age/UFOlogy Web sites about alien contact, it’s refreshing to find one that’s serious. Try the “extraterrestrial intelligence, implications following first contact” entry at astrobiologist David Darling’s site See “The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy, and Spaceflight”. It includes some links and a mini reference list.

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Titan not so geologically active and the shuttles’ final resting places

2011-04-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

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 - Have the surface and belly of Saturn's smog-shrouded moon, Titan, recently simmered like a chilly, bubbling cauldron with ice volcanoes, or has this distant moon gone cold? In a newly published analysis, a pair of NASA scientists analyzing data collected by the Cassini spacecraft suggest Titan may be much less geologically active than some scientists have thought. See article.
g Life - The evolution and diversification of the more than 300,000 living species of flowering plants may have been "jump started" much earlier than previously calculated, a new study indicates. See article.
g Intelligence - A study published by two researchers found that pigeons recognize a human face's identity and emotional expression in much the same way as people do. See article.
g Learning - NASA unveiled the final flight plans for its three retiring space shuttles on Tuesday, assigning two to museums in Washington, D.C., and California, and keeping the third at its launch and landing site in Florida. A fourth, prototype orbiter will also go to a new home in New York. See article.
g Aftermath - Here’s an intriguing short story for you to look up: Frederick Pohl’s “The Day after the Day the Martians Came.” It examines racial prejudice and raises an interesting point about how we might react to one another following alien contact. Pohl’s story is anthologized in the classic “Dangerous Visions,” edited by Harlan Ellison.

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Kepler Mission examines stars and why haven’t we colonized Mars?

2011-04-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - NASA's Kepler Mission has detected changes in brightness in 500 sun-like stars, giving astronomers a much better idea about the nature and evolution of the stars. See article.
g Abodes - Micro-meteorites may have caused the climates of Earth and Mars to cool four billion years ago. These tiny meteorites could have bombarded the planets, making it difficult for life to survive during this early period in the Solar System.. See article.
g Life - Move over, newts and salamanders. The mouse may join you as the only animal that can re-grow their own severed limbs. Researchers are reporting that a simple chemical cocktail can coax mouse muscle fibers to become the kinds of cells found in the first stages of a regenerating limb. See article.
g Message - It's great to see the reputable National Geographic take the search for extraterrestrial life seriously. See article. This article is from 2004.
g Cosmicus - Why haven’ we colonized Mars yet? See article.

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Space travel may break our hearts and examining the Fermi Paradox

2011-04-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

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 - Observations from ESA's GOCE satellite have provided the best ever map of Earth's gravity. The research could further our understanding of the Earth. See article.
g Life - Pumice, the rock used remove dry skin from feet, could have been responsible for the birth of life on Earth, scientists have claimed. See article.
g Message - If you’re not familiar with Astriobiology.com’s “Great Debates” series, you’ll want to head right away to their Web site. The discussions draw upon experts in the astrobiology field. The Fermi Paradox (“If there’s intelligent life out there, then why haven’t we heard from them?” is examined in six parts here.
g Cosmicus - Astronauts on missions to the Moon and Mars will face many challenges to their health. New research shows that cosmic radiation experienced beyond the safety of Earth's magnetic field could damage arteries in our hearts, putting astronauts at risk on long-duration missions. See article.

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