Life around black smokers and into the universe’s hidden corners

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - Scientists from Princeton University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan have agreed to collaborate over the next 10 years, using new instrumentation on the Hawaii-based Subaru Telescope to peer into hidden corners of the nearby universe and ferret out secrets from its distant past. See article.
g Abodes - Scientists studying life around "black smokers" deep below the Pacific Ocean have discovered unique organisms that can survive in one of the harshest environments on Earth. The habitat may also provide information about how life could survive on other locations in the solar system. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a neat classroom activity: “Alien Safari.” New from NASA PlanetQuest, Alien Safari can be used in your classrooms or informal education settings to help kids discover some of the most extreme organisms on our planet, and find out what they are telling astrobiologists about the search for life beyond Earth. See article.
g Aftermath - Book alert: The authentic discovery of extraterrestrial life would usher in a scientific revolution on par with Copernicus or Darwin, says Paul Davies in “Are We Alone?: Philosophical Implications of the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life.” Just as these ideas sparked religious and philosophical controversy when they were first offered, so would proof of life arising away from Earth. With this brief book (160 pages, including two appendices and an index), Davies tries to get ahead of the curve and begin to sort out the metaphysical mess before it happens. Many science fiction writers have preceded him, of course, but here the matter is plainly put. This is a very good introduction to a compelling subject. See reviews.

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Best hopes for finding extraterrestrials and extremophile primer

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the habitable zone of the nearby red dwarf Gliese 581, which boasts three planets?
g Abodes - If we ever do find extraterrestrial life in the solar system, it's probably much more likely to look like a few cells than a walking-and-talking green man. Nonetheless, finding any kind of life beyond Earth would be extraordinary. Here are our best hopes.
g Life - The 410 million-year-old skull and jaws of a fish may yield important information about the origin and evolution of vertebrates on Earth. See article.
g Cosmicus - There is fierce debate over the direction humanity should take when exploring the solar system. One argument claims that a “one step at a time” approach is essential, with moon bases being the next key step. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a neat primer (for kids) to understanding extremophiles and how an understanding of them affects astrobiology: “Brave New Biosphere”.
g Aftermath - Freelance writer Mark Pendergrast examines the folly of the Anthropic Principle in a Vermont newspaper op-ed. See article. Note: This column is from 2005.

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First ground-based detection of thermal emissions from extrasolar planets and could lifeforms like the Thasians exist?

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - Determining the habitability of red dwarf systems could help reveal how likely extraterrestrial life is to exist, as red dwarfs make up a majority of all the stars in the galaxy. See article.
g Abodes - Two independent groups have made the first ground-based detection of thermal emissions from extrasolar planets. The studies open a new frontier for monitoring alien worlds from Earth, and also paves the way for further observations of extrasolar atmospheres. See article.
g Life - The intense radiation around Jupiter will complicate possible future missions to the moon Europa. A new project plans to create a "radiation weather map" that will help pinpoint regions where astrobiologically-relevant molecules may survive. See article.
g Message - It’s a quite old news story, but the issues raised remain relevant and greatly underexamined: If E.T. phones our home, will it be safe to answer? See article. Note: This article is from 1996.
g Cosmicus - The Universities Space Research Association has announce NASA's recent selection of a team of scientists from USRA's Lunar and Planetary Institute and the Johnson Space Center to be one of seven initial members of NASA's Lunar Science Institute 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 - Here’s an intriguing article that is frequently referenced in astrobiology papers: “"The Consequences of a Discovery: Different Scenarios", by astronomer Ivan Almar. Note: This article dates from 1995.

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Planets around binaries and looking for extrasolar biosignatures

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - A new study suggests that planets may easily form around binary star systems. The finding is helping astronomers narrow down the best locations in the universe to search for extrasolar planets. See article.
g Abodes - The methane found on Mars could be a sign of life on the red planet. Researchers are devising an instrument to measure the isotopic abundances that could distinguish a biological origin from a geological one. See article.
g Life - The prospect of finding extraterrestrial life is no longer the domain of science fiction or UFO hunters. Rather than waiting for aliens to come to us, we are looking for them. We may not find technologically advanced civilizations, but we can look for the physical and chemical signs of fundamental life processes: “biosignatures.” See article.
g Message - The Earth's radio emission is now comparable to or stronger than the Sun's. So for aliens looking in the radio frequency, we should be the brightest spot in the solar system. See article. Note: This article is from 2005.

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When we’ll know where there are planets that support life and science under attack again in Texas

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - Frenzied star-making in the Milky Way Galaxy starting about 2400 million years ago had extraordinary effects on life on Earth. Harvests of bacteria in the sea soared and crashed in a succession of booms and busts, with an instability not seen before or since. According to new results published by Henrik Svensmark of the Danish National Space Center in the journal Astronomische Nachrichten, the variability in the productivity of life is closely linked to the cosmic rays, the atomic bullets that rain down on the Earth from exploded stars. They were most intense during a baby boom of stars, many of which blew up. See article. Note: This article is from 2006.
g Abodes - Sorry, folks: you probably won’t be picking up an extraterrestrial pen pal before you die. But way before that, we’ll know where the planets are that could support life, says Saint Mary’s University astronomy and physics professor Rob Thacker. See article.
g Life - A pair of Scripps Research Institute scientists has taken a significant step toward answering that question. The scientists have synthesized for the first time RNA enzymes that can replicate themselves without the help of any proteins or other cellular components, and the process proceeds indefinitely. See article.
g Learning - It isn't just evolution under attack in Texas. A member of the committee writing the standards for a new Earth and Space Sciences course in Texas public schools, notes that the creationist members of the Texas BOE have also placed young earth creationists on that committee. See article.
g Imagining - Some distant planets could support alien life. But what might this life be like? The only example that scientists have is life on Earth, which needs carbon-based chemicals and water. There may be alien life forms based on different chemicals - some of these could be so strange that we would not recognise them. But astronomers are looking for Earth-like planets, so scientists have imagined aliens based on water and carbon. See article.

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How tidal heating determines planet habitability and ‘Fifty Solutions to Fermi's Paradox’

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - A star must live in a relatively tranquil cosmic neighborhood to foster planet formation, say astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. A team of scientists came to this conclusion after watching intense ultraviolet light and powerful winds from O-type stars rip away the potential planet-forming disks around stars like our sun. See article.
g Abodes - As it orbits a star, a planet can be squeezed and flexed by intense gravitational forces. In this podcast, Brian Jackson explains how this "tidal heating" can help determine whether a planet will have life. See article.
g Life - One of life's greatest mysteries is how it began. Scientists have pinned it down to roughly this: Some chemical reactions occurred about 4 billion years ago — perhaps in a primordial tidal soup or maybe with help of volcanoes or possibly at the bottom of the sea or between the mica sheets — to create biology. See article. See article.
g Intelligence - Making money comes naturally to some people - specifically to men exposed to high levels of testosterone before they were born. That, at least, is the conclusion of a study published this month by John Coates of the University of Cambridge and his colleagues. 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.
g Cosmicus - The Mars Science Laboratory rover may be retargeted to land near a methane vent on Mars to specifically seek direct evidence of current Martian life. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a useful Web site for educators about microbial life and its role in astrobiology, created by Sarah Bordenstein of the Marine Biological Laboratory: “Microbial Life and Astrobiology”.
g Imagining - Could the Oankali of Octavia E. Butler’s “Xenogenesis” trilogy really use human genes to continue their species? For a biologist’s analysis, click here. The answers may surprise you.
g Aftermath - How is the search for life elsewhere reflected culturally in symbols that we recognize daily? One signpost invented to characterize the 'state of the Internet' is the occasional change in the logo of the world's most popular search engine. How that doodle has come to recognize astrobiology seems to violate conventional wisdom on what is meant by tinkering with one's cherished brand recognition. See article. Note: This article is from 2004.

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Habitable zone for Epsilon Eridani and alien cloud creatures

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars -What is the habitable zone for the nearby star Epsilon Eridani? New information about the star shows where three possible planets in this young star system might exist.
g Abodes - According to new research, two rare meteorites found in Antarctica are from an ancient asteroid with a crust similar to that of Earth's continents. The samples are the oldest example of rock with such a composition, and shed light on the materials of the early solar system. See article.
g Life - We're one step closer to self-sustaining chemical replicators, similar to what would have existed a few billion years ago, before true cells evolved. See article.
g Intelligence - The lineages of humans and chimpanzees, our closest relatives, diverged from one another about 4.1 million years ago, according to a new estimate that is said to be far more precise than previous ranges for this critical evolutionary moment. See article.
g Message - The first episode of “I Love Lucy” was broadcast sometime on Oct. 15, 1951. About 0.0002 seconds later, the signal glided over the rooftops of the farthest city suburbs, and headed into space. It’s still going. Every day, that first installment passes through an additional 4 thousand trillion trillion trillion cubic kilometers of the cosmos. Given that stars in our galactic neighborhood are separated by about 4 light-years, it’s easy to figure that roughly 10 thousand star systems have been exposed to “I Love Lucy” in the past five decades. That may suggest a high Nielson rating, but the chance that extraterrestrials are now hooked on 1950s television is low. See article.
g Cosmicus - In this op-ed, former astronaut Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin explains why "We should reach for the moon." See article.
g Learning - Dana Backman was staffing one of the walk-by tables in a gizmos and gadgets “Share-a-thon” session at the National Science Teachers Association’s annual convention in St. Louis last month. Her demo showed how an inexpensive photocell could detect both visible light from a flashlight, and invisible near-infrared radiation from a TV remote-control unit, which is one of the four activities in her SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) Active Astronomy kit. As hundreds of teachers filed by during two hours, she hawked my wares and handed out teacher guide on CD-ROMs plus web address cards to those who lingered for a conversation. And then things got interesting … See article.
g Imagining - Could “cloud creatures” exist on alien worlds? Here’s one writer’s speculations.
g Aftermath - High-tech telescopes on the ground and in space that perform daunting astronomical peep shows in a search for Earth-like worlds aim to answer one of humankind's most monumental questions: “Are we alone?” There is on-going deliberation relating to the societal, philosophical and religious fallout that stems from resolving such a stellar inquiry. See article.

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Geophysical energy source on Enceladus and how soon we might detect an alien signal

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - The jets of icy particles and water vapor issuing from the south pole of Enceladus are evidence for activity driven by some geophysical energy source. See article.
g Life - By tweaking chemical strands of RNA, researchers have taken another step towards understanding how life may have first evolved on our planet. See article.
g Message - If extraterrestrials are out there, signals that would prove their existence are cascading over your body right now. Needless to say, you don’t notice. The challenge for SETI researchers is to build an instrument that will. Rising to the challenge, the SETI Institute and others are developing new search strategies and telescopes, encouraging some scientists to speculate that a signal detection will occur in the next decade or two. See article.
g Cosmicus - MIT faculty and students will play substantial roles on two of the seven teams that NASA selected to be part of its virtual Lunar Science Institute, aimed at addressing key questions about lunar science in preparation for the resumption of human visits to the moon about a decade from now. See article.
g Learning - How are key concepts of astrobiology treated in science fiction? See article. Note: This article is from 2001 and intended to be used as part of a classroom lesson.
g Aftermath - Book alert: In “Cosmic Company,” Seth Shostak and Alex Barnett ponder the possibility of aliens visiting the Earth, as well as the consequences of receiving a signal from the cosmos proving we're neither alone, nor the most intelligent life forms. They explain why scientists think life might exist on other worlds, and how we might contact it. Shostak and Barnett, experienced writers of popular astronomy, provide an accessible overview of the science and technology behind the search for life in the universe. See article.

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The new science of geobiology and ‘The Rare Earth’

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - The dust that condensed to form the sun, the Earth and the stuff of human bodies has long been thought to have originated in violent explosions of giant stars. But these explosions - called supernovae - can't account for all the dust in the cosmos. See article. Note: This article is from 2006.
g Abodes - An average galaxy contains a hundred billion stars. We suspect there are perhaps a hundred billion galaxies in the universe. Although this is an educated guess (only 1 billion galaxies are known, for instance), even being off by several factors of ten still means that there is a vast supply of stars out there. Of this immense population, how many stars have planets? How many of these planets have the necessary ingredients and the right conditions for life? See article. Note: This article is from 1999.
g Life - It's new science - so new that its name, “geobiology”, has barely taken hold - and it's brimming with notions that only a few years back would have been laughed off as lurid science fiction. See article.
g Cosmicus - The University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey, which has discovered 70 percent of all known near Earth objects, is about to begin operating a new telescope. The Mount Lemmon telescope will increase survey productivity, helping to identify potentially hazardous objects like asteroids and comets on collision courses with Earth. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a neat classroom activity courtesy of NASA: “The Rare Earth.” How special are the circumstances that have allowed complex life, like animals and plants, to develop on Earth? In this activity, students systematically investigate the time frame for complex life to develop on Earth..See article.

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Methane on Mars and maintaining strategic dialogue with extraterrestrials

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - Plumes of methane, a gas typically produced on Earth by cow digestion, flatulence and rice paddies, were reported on Mars by scientists today, raising the tantalizing possibility that life may dwell beneath the planet's inhospitable surface. See article.
g Life - How life began: This problem really permeates much of humankind, societies and cultures past and present. Some have evoked a supreme being to explain the origin of life; others look to the scientific method to provide answers. Regardless of the position, there have been at least two extremely exciting discoveries or reports that really change the nature of the game. The first one is the discovery of planets around nearby stars. There are other solar systems in space. The other is the discovery of the possibility that life existed on Mars. See article.
g Message - You don’t have to leave Earth to find intelligent life on other worlds. All you have to do is tune in ... at the right time ... on the right frequency ... in the right direction ... with the right spectrometer ... using the most powerful supercomputer on this planet. See article. Note: this article is from 2004.
g Cosmicus - Researchers have developed an incredibly strong and versatile building material using simulated lunar rock. The technology could be used to build colonies for human explorers and scientists using resources that are already available on the moon. See article.
g Imagining - Incredibly it’s been four decades since Federation Starship NCC-1701, better known as the Enterprise, first ignited its matter-antimatter engines and coasted into the dark spaces of the galaxy to seek out new life. See article.
g Aftermath - What are the challenges to comprehension in initiating and maintaining strategic dialogue in highly uncertain situations — such as with extraterrestrials? See article.

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Rock varnish as a Martian habitat and plasma-based lifeforms

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - A new study has suggested that rock varnish could provide a niche habitat for microbial life onMars and in other extraterrestrial environments devoid of liquid water. See article.
g Life - Researchers have made steps toward understanding how life originated by synthesizing RNA enzymes that can replicate themselves without the help of additional molecules. See article.
g Message - Book alert: If you are interested in how researchers plan to search the heavens for signs of intelligent life, you should have “SETI 2020” on your bookshelf. Written by Ronald D. Ekers (editor), D. Kent Cullers and John Billingham, “SETI 2020: is a remarkably comprehensive study of how scientists busy with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence should direct their efforts between now and the year 2020. Distilling the work of dozens of top SETI experts, astronomers and technology mavens, this book gives an overview of the problem of finding evidence for extraterrestrial technologies, and how to best address it. New radio telescopes consisting of large arrays of relatively small antennas are proposed and detailed. So are new types of antennas that can survey the entire sky at once. Of particular interest is the extensive treatment of optical SETI — the search for signals beamed our way using high-powered, pulsed lasers or their equivalent. A book that's interesting for both the layman and the technically sophisticated, “SETI 2020” is the definitive publication in this fascinating field.
g Cosmicus - MIT faculty and students will play substantial roles on two of the seven teams that NASA selected to be part of its virtual Lunar Science Institute, aimed at addressing key questions about lunar science in preparation for the resumption of human visits to the moon about a decade from now. See article.
g Imagining - You’ve heard of carbon-based and silicon-based lifeforms in science fiction. But what about plasma-based life? Is it plausible? See article.
g Aftermath - In the next two dozen years, the Allen Telescope Array will parse the nearest thousand light-years of space. If there are other occupants of this galactic neighborhood, we could turn up a signal. But then what? Would the discovery be put under wraps, either voluntarily or by government edict? If we found a signal, would you know? See article. Note: This article is from 2006.

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Lunar Science Institute and how proof of extraterrestrial intelligence might affect humanity’s ‘world’ view

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - Scientists may have traced a link between a dark eclipsed moon and cold weather. The key is volcanic eruptions, highlighting the interconnections between the geology, climate and life on Earth. See article.
g Life - How life takes shape is a mystery. Butterfly or baby, cells organize themselves into tissues, tissues form organs, organs become organisms. Over and over, patterns emerge in all living creatures. Spiders get eight legs. Leopards get spots. Every nautilus is encased in an elegant spiral shell. See article.
g Cosmicus - NASA has selected seven academic and research teams as initial members of the agency's Lunar Science Institute. See article. For related story, see “University of Colorado at Boulder selected for two lunar research grants totaling $11 million”.
g Learning - NASA has a Facebook page designed for students in grades 9-12 and higher education. The page is updated daily, excluding weekends and holidays. It features information for students regarding competitions, feature articles, podcasts, videos and more. See article.
g Aftermath - How would proof of extraterrestrial intelligence affect humanity’s “world” view? Astronomer Steve Dick discusses the matter in this transcribed Smithsonian Institute lecture, from 2000.

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Simulation of life on Mars and real-time evolutionary changes

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - Astronomers have observed the motions of 28 stars orbiting the Milky Way’s most central region, which has helped them to study the supermassive black hole lurking there. See article.
g Abodes - Scientists have developed a simulation of Mars, which indicates that some form of lifecould exist below the surface of the Red Planet. See article.
g Life - For the first time scientists have observed in real-time evolutionary changes in one species driven by competition for resources from another. See article.
g Cosmicus - The success of a robotic drilling mission to search for subsurface life has demonstrated that robotic core sampling combined with remote laboratory analysis is both technically feasible and could be used for life detection on Mars. See article.
g Aftermath - Finding out that we are alone in the universe or a suburb of a huge village of other star folk - either alternative is mind boggling. See article. Note: This article is from 2003.

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Asteroids orbiting white dwarfs and how space explorers might determine what happened to an extinct alien race

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - New observations of chewed-up asteroids around old dead stars called white dwarfs bolster the idea that the Earth and other rocky planets in our solar system are far from alone in the universe. See article.
g Abodes - If aliens sent a probe to Earth in search of life, their best target would be the tropics, where life is dense. But on other nearby worlds, tropics are hard to come by. Most likely, if we find life elsewhere in our solar system, we'll find it in ice. See article.
g Life - Diatoms are an abundant type of plankton in the ocean that play a big role in carbon cycling on Earth. Trends in diatom numbers throughout time can tell scientists a great deal about the climate history of Earth – a history that may need to be rewritten. See article.
g Message - Is there any good reason to look for intelligently generated extraterrestrial emissions in the spectrum at Pi GHz or 3.141... GHz. See article.
g Cosmicus - The co-founder of a rocket launch firm has proposed an audacious plan to send astronauts on a one-way trek to Mars using a pair of tethered U.S. space shuttles that would parachute to the Martian surface. See article.
g Learning -It's 110 degrees at the end of July here in the badlands around the border of North Dakota and Montana as the pickaxes swing down against the Hell Creek rock. The volunteers who have braved rattlesnakes and scorpions to work here in the swirling dust may look as if they are in prison, but they are in a time machine, traveling back 65 million years by excavating through rock. And if these volunteers are lucky, they can keep bones they find..See article. Note: This article is from 2006.
g Aftermath - How might explorers determine what happened to an extinct alien race based on the clues they left behind on their home planet? See article.

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New interstellar chemical discoveries and Russia’s robotic mission to Mars

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - New images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveal 14 young, runaway stars plowing through regions of dense interstellar gas, creating brilliant arrowhead structures and trailing tails of glowing gas. See article.
g Abodes - From Area 51 to those mysterious crop circles, human beings have had a number of reasons to wonder if we’re not alone in the universe. If/when we do find life on another planet, will they be friendly like our lovable long-necked E.T., or will they come to consume all of Earth's resources, only to be defeated by a bat-wielding Joaquin Phoenix and a glass of water? Well it appears that were closer than ever to knowing the truth, as new chemical discoveries by the Hubble Space Telescope has launched a breakthrough in the finding of extraterrestrial life. See article.
g Cosmicus - Russia is pushing forward on a robotic mission to Mars dubbed Phobos-Grunt — now seemingly on a countdown clock that ticks away for an October launch. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a neat classroom activity courtesy of NASA: Who Can Live Here? Students explore the limits of life on Earth to extend their beliefs about life to include its possibility on other worlds.
g Imagining - Speculation about aliens has typically been left to science fiction authors, science fiction readers and Hollywood writers and directors. But what if we apply what we have learned about life on Earth to speculate about what alien life forms might be like? Here’s a primer.
g Aftermath - Alien encounters and science fiction permeate pop culture, but what would it really mean if scientists found life beyond Earth? If even a single-celled organism on another planet was discovered, for many, this would be the last thread of evidence proving that life is simply chemistry. See article. Note: This article is from 2003.

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First drop of liquid ever observed on an extraterrestrial surface and a larger galaxy than once thought

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - New measurements of how quickly our galaxy is rotating have led a team of Harvard astrophysicists to conclude that our galaxy is 50 percent more massive than previously thought, and likely does have four arms. See article.
g Abodes - The Huygens probe has captured an image of what may be the first drop of liquid ever observed on an extraterrestrial surface. See article.
g Message - Is there life "out there"? If so, is it intelligent life? One way we can address the issue is to make a reasoned guess, based upon everything we know about astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and a host of other disciplines. Many years ago the radio astronomer Frank Drake did just this, combining all the "knowledge" in the form of a mathematical equation now named for him: The Drake Equation. See article.
g Cosmicus - Scientists recently conducted field tests in Hawaii of equipment and rovers to be used on the moon. The goal was to demonstrate how astronauts might prospect for lunar resources and make their own oxygen. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a good website that gives an general overview of astrobiology for kids: “Astrocentral.”See article.
g Aftermath - Book alert: Science fiction writers have given us many fine novels contemplating humankind's first contact with intelligent extraterrestrials. But our nonfiction world has not thought much about what to do if we are actually faced with this situation. In “Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” Jean Heidmann, chief astronomer at the Paris Observatory (and self-styled bioastronomer), offers a book on the subject that is at once serious and fun. Heidmann's obvious joy in raw speculation - all of it grounded in real science - is contagious. If aliens send us a message from many light years away, for example, how should we respond? Heidmann reviews the protocols established in the SETI Declaration and then offers his own suggestion: send them the entire contents of the Encyclopedia Britannica. See article.

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International Year of Astronomy and how an alien visit might influence the world’s religions

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - With the VISIR instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have mapped the disc around a star more massive than the Sun. The very extended and flared disc most likely contains enough gas and dust to spawn planets. It appears as a precursor of debris discs such as the one around Vega-like stars and thus provides the rare opportunity to witness the conditions prevailing prior to or during planet formation. See article. Note: This article is from 2006.
g Abodes - It has long been thought that climate change brought about the extinction of the Paleo-Americans and large animals such as mammoths, mastodons and saber-toothed tigers about 12,900 years ago when the planet stopped emerging from the Ice Age.Instead, it reverted to glacial conditions for another 1500 years. Scientists are now more seriously considered what was previously a highly controversial hypothesis - that an extraterrestrial event caused this turn of events. See article.
g Learning - The year 2009 is being recognized as the International Year of Astronomy (IYA). It marks the four hundredth anniversary of the year 1609 when Galileo Galilei used the then newly-invented telescope to observe astronomical objects after publishing his discoveries in his work “Sidereus Nuncius.” See article.
g Aftermath - How will an alien visit influence the world’s religions? Here’s one common man’s view.

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Understanding planetary formation and astrobiology’s goals

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - Astronomers are now studying the evolution of planets by studying dead stars. These stars are littered with the remnants of asteroids – providing information about the building materials of planets. Understanding planetary formation is essential in determining where to look for habitable worlds beyond our solar system. See article.
g Abodes - In the “Star Wars” movies fictional planets are covered with forests, oceans, deserts, and volcanoes. But new models from a team of MIT, NASA, and Carnegie scientists begin to describe an even wider range of Earth-size planets that astronomers might actually be able to find in the near future. See article.
g Cosmicus - After decades of work, researchers made rat stem cells, built the first memristor and watched a language evolve like an organism. But none of those accomplishments impressed us as much as the breakthroughs on this list. See article.
g Learning - In the 1990s, scientists coined the term "astrobiology" to refer to the study of life in space. During a 2003 radio broadcast of Earth and Sky, scientist Bruce Runnegar discussed the goals of this fascinating field. See article.
g Imagining - How common are other civilizations in the universe? This question has fascinated humanity for centuries, and although we still have no definitive answer, a number of recent developments have brought it once again to the fore. Chief among these is the confirmation - after a long wait and several false starts - that planets exist outside our solar system. See article. My apologies in advance for the Web site that I found this otherwise credible article on.
g Aftermath - The statement that extraterrestrial intelligence exists or doesn’t can have the parallel statement that God exists or doesn’t. Some people say there’s already sufficient evidence of existence for both. If you set aside abductions and miracles, it’s true that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence for either. However, if and when humanity ever detects evidence of an extraterrestrial intelligence, it will break the symmetry of these two statements and, in fact, that evidence will be inconsistent with the existence of God or at least organized religions. See article. Note: This article is from 2004.

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Life on very unearthly planets and when we may first meet extraterrestrials

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - Scientists are expanding the search for extraterrestrial life - and they've set their sights on some very unearthly planets. See article.
g Life - Deep inside the Frasassi cave system in Italy and more than 1,600 feet below the Earth's surface, divers found filamentous ropes of microbes growing in the cold water, according to a team of Penn State researchers. See article.
g Intelligence - Our eyes constantly flit around, but rather than producing a shaky image like that in a jostled video camera, we perceive a coherent scene. The mechanism behind our steady view has mystified scientists for decades. Now researchers have identified what could be the brain circuit responsible. See article. Note: This article is from 2007.
g Message - Finding intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is not out of the question, but it may not happen in our lifetimes. See article.
g Cosmicus - Nearly 40 years after the U.S. flag was planted on the moon, a global rush to the final frontier has some pondering property rights out there. See article.
g Imagining - Like first contact stories? Then be sure to read Jack McDevitt’s novel, The Hercules Text, published by Ace in 1986.
g Aftermath - An Outside Context Problem or an OCP is any problem outside given organization or society experience, with an immediate, ubiquitous and lasting impact upon an entire culture or civilization — such as first contact with extraterrestrials. See article.

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Atmospheric oxygen’s link to lifeforms’ size and Spirit celebrates fifth anniversary

Atmospheric oxygen’s link to lifeforms’ size and Spirit celebrates fifth anniversary
Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - The European Mars Science & Exploration Conference: Mars Express and ExoMars was held at the end of 2007. Here are some interviews with selected experts on some hot topics. See article.
g Life - New research has found important links between the evolution of life and the geological evolution of Earth. The study shows that increases in the maximum size of organisms on our planet may be linked to increases in atmospheric oxygen. See article.
g Message - A technique used to discover the small rocky world that was announced last year also could be used to detect a transmitter with the power of your local TV station at a distance of a hundred light-years, even if the alien broadcasters weren’t beaming our way. See article.
g Cosmicus - Happy anniversary, Spirit! That's right—against all odds, NASA's plucky Spirit rover has officially been on the Red Planet for five years. Its twin, Opportunity, will celebrate the same five-year milestone on Jan. 24. See article.
g Imagining - Many problems faced the development of astrobiology as a credible science when it was first named in 1958. The most basic of these problems was skepticism on the part of many scientists of the time. The ideas of astrobiology touched too closely with science fiction to be considered seriously. The idea of life on Mars was definitely science fiction: H. G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" and Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" attested to that. And Gregory Benford and David Brin in “Heart of the Comet” have since addressed the idea of life being seeded on Earth by comets. Why would anyone take these ideas seriously as science? See article.

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The privatization of SETI and the RNA-DNA link

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - Astronomers at the University of Rochester are pointing to three nearby stars they say may hold "embryonic planets" — a missing link in planet-formation theories. See article. Note: This article is from 2007.
g Life - Researchers have unlocked new clues about how ancient organic molecules may have first combined to form biologically useful strands of RNA. This single-stranded precursor to DNA is essential for living cells, and some scientists believe the first life on Earth may have been RNA-based rather than DNA-based. See article.
g Message - The privatization of SETI has resulted in global participation in signal detection and analysis activities by a wide range of non-professionals. The SETI community welcomes this grass-roots support, every bit as much as the optical observing community honors the significant scientific contributions of the world's amateur astronomers. However, as SETI observatories spring up on college campuses and in home gardens worldwide, a need emerges for establishing rigorous signal verification protocols and stringent standards of proof. See article. Note: This article from 1999.
g Learning - Book alert: Is there anybody out there? Is ET trying to phone home? In the past decade or so, astrobiology has come of age. Once regarded as a laughing stock - physicists turned Roswell freaks - astrobiologists are increasingly greatly in number. Their subject is one of the few that has actually seen an increase in funding in recent years. Astrobiology blends astronomy, chemistry, and biology to search for amino acids and other building blocks of life. Practitioners seek new planets beyond our solar system, to seek out new life forms, to boldly go... Questions are posed, such as whether all life must be carbon based, whether only Earthlike planets can support life, and whether there "can be life, Jim, but not as we know it." “Astrobiology: A Brief Introduction”, by Kevin W. Plaxco and Michael Gross, is probably the first serious yet accessible book written on the subject. Plaxco is a chemist, Gross a molecular biologist and popular science writer.

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A language for SETI communication and what is xenology?

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Message - Since there is a general agreement that the laws of nature are the same everywhere in our universe, it follows that mathematics must be universal and therefore it must be the same for every intelligent being in the universe. So, a language for SETI communication based on mathematics can be constructed. But the fact that mathematics has turned out to be so strictly entangled with material reality also establishes very sharp limitations to its efficacy for our purposes and the need of an integration with (at least) a pictorial language. See article.
g Cosmicus - What is “xenology” and how will our growing understanding of the field send us to the stars? See article. Note: This article, by science fiction writer David Brin, is from the early 1980s.
g Learning - As more than 130 countries celebrate the International Year of Astronomy, the Vatican also turned its gaze toward the heavens. See article.
g Aftermath - Here’s an intriguing entry from the “Interdisciplinary Encyclopeadia of Religion and Science”: “Extraterrestrial Life”. It discusses the consequences of alien contact from a Catholic perspective.

Earth-like planet forming 424 light years away and NASA report on Columbia

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - An Earth-like planet is likely forming 424 light-years away in a star system called HD 113766, say astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. See article. Note: This article is from 2007.
g Message - Since the invention of the radio, humans have been broadcasting signals into outer space. Other civilizations in our galaxy might be doing the same. They might even be deliberately sending out signals to find other civilizations. Someone out there may even be beaming a signal directly at the Earth. See article.
g Cosmicus - Poor design of their pressure suits led the seven astronauts aboard the Columbia space shuttle to black out almost immediately as the craft started breaking apart during reentry in 2003, and they were probably killed by the violent contortions, a NASA panel said Tuesday. See article.
g Learning - What textbooks are college students reading in “Astrobiology 101” courses around the nation? See article.

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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‘Intelligent Life in the Universe’ and technological manifestations that would make an advanced extraterrestrial civilization detectable

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Intelligence - Book alert: “Intelligent Life in the Universe”, by Peter Ulmschneider, addresses all scientists and others interested in the origins, development and fate of intelligent species in the observable part of our universe. In particular, the author scrutinizes what kind of information about extraterrestrial intelligent life can be inferred from our own biological, cultural and scientific evolution and the likely future of mankind. The first part of the book provides the necessary background information from space and life sciences, thus making the book also accessible to students and the scientifically educated public.
g Message - What technological manifestations would make an advanced extraterrestrial civilization detectable? See article. Note: This paper was written in 1992.
g Cosmicus - Long-term thinking is always a tough sell, particularly in an age as frenetic as ours, but missions like EPOXI fit into the gradual accretion of exoplanetary knowledge that will build the foundation for far more remarkable discoveries. See article. Note: This article is from May 2008.
g Learning - To be sure, researchers have long studied the origins of life on Earth and searched for signs of it on other planets. But until recently those enterprising scientists lurked at the fringes of their fields. No longer. See article. Note: This article is from 2004.