Techdirt. Stories filed under "et"

Techdirt. Stories filed under "et" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "et"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 13 May 2013 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Life On Other Planets Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101020/11575411511/dailydirt-life-other-planets.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101020/11575411511/dailydirt-life-other-planets.shtml abundant in the universe, but there's not that much hard evidence (yet!). Here are just a few astronomical discoveries that might encourage researchers to look for signs of life a bit more carefully.

Exoplanets have been discovered circling some extremely old, metal-poor stars, creating interesting curiosities that might expand the theories of how planets form. These exoplanets might not harbor any kind of life... or we may want to get a bit more creative about how we envision life on other worlds. [url]
A free-floating planet named CFBDSIR2149 is not orbiting a star, and it's only one of about two dozen or so known examples of a starless planet. This rogue planet is relatively young compared to the Earth, and some spectroscopic measurements suggest this planet's temperature is about 430° Celsius -- a bit too warm for our tastes (but maybe not for aliens?). [url]
Within our own solar system, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected spurts of water from Saturn's moon Enceladus. This evidence leads to some speculation of a habitable zone on some icy moons where microbes might be able to survive. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

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]]> http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101020/11575411511 Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Life On Other Worlds Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101215/03531112286/dailydirt-life-outside-earth.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101215/03531112286/dailydirt-life-outside-earth.shtml several theories for how life might have come about, but it's difficult to design experiments to narrow down these options. In the meantime, researchers continue to look for clues and evidence for life that didn't originate on our planet. Here are just a few examples that could one day lead us in the right direction.

Meteorite fragments found in Sri Lanka *might* contain extra-terrestrial fossils -- if you kinda squint and tilt your head, the algae-like fossils support a panspermia theory for the origin of life. This isn't the first time a peer-reviewed journal has published a story like this, and it won't be the last. The real question is when will these papers actually be convincing to skeptics.... [url]
In 1996, a rock named ALH84001 made a lot more headlines when scientists claimed that it might contain evidence of life from Mars in the form of microfossils. Since then, the ALH84001 debate seems to have settled on the view that those small fossils weren't necessarily created by ET life, and the media hoopla re-affirmed that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." [url]
Maybe we'll see evidence of life outside our solar system by looking for evidence of asteroid mining operations around other stars -- if we see unusual amounts of dusty debris, it could mean intelligence life has been exploring for interplanetary resources. It might be hard to determine the difference between natural and unnatural debris, though. [url]
NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered that Mars once had an environment suitable for life. This is an important find, and it raises questions of why Mars doesn't seem to have ubiquitous life now. [url]

In just our galaxy, there could be 10 billion other planets that are similar to our own Earth. Gas giant exoplanets the size of Jupiter are easier to find, but they might not be as common as small rocky planets like ours. [url]

The Habitable Exoplanets Catalog has a list of 7 planets that might support life, and this list has only just started to be compiled. A lot of these exoplanets are "super-Earth" sized, and it's tough to know much about their atmospheres with current telescopes. [url]

Tau Ceti is a star system just 12 light years away that seems to have similar characteristics to our solar system. Astronomers are guessing that there may be 5 rocky planets in orbit around Tau Ceti, and that star is about twice as old as our Sun, so there would have been plenty of time for life to arise (but also to perish). [url]

ATLAST is a space-based telescope specifically designed to look for signs of life on other planets, but it's only in the concept stage -- with vague plans to launch sometime before 2032. Directly observing exoplanets and their atmospheres could tell us more about how unique our Earth is and how lonely we might be in the universe. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101110/19005911803 Thu, 6 Sep 2012 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Detecting Signs Of Life Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100923/04513211135/dailydirt-detecting-signs-life.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100923/04513211135/dailydirt-detecting-signs-life.shtml thought they might have found evidence of life that wasn't from Earth, but upon further analysis, those discoveries weren't so clear cut. Still, the search for ETs is on-going, and here are just a few links on some ways to find alien friends.

Spectroscopic biosignatures could be detected in light reflections off of alien planets. Reflected sunlight is polarized when it bounces off the Earth, and plant life on Earth absorb specific bands of light -- so alien worlds may exhibit similar phenomena (if only we could detect it). [url]
In the 1970s, there was some speculation that cellulose could be detected in interstellar space. However, it's not so easy to figure out how to detect biopolymers in the vast vacuum of space. [url]
The Drake Equation estimates how many alien civilizations might exist in our galaxy. It's just an estimate, and there are a lot of unknown variables... [url]
Moqui marbles are unusual spherical rocks that have a rusty iron oxide exterior and a sandy interior -- and were formed with the help of microorganisms. So if we find similar rocks on other worlds, we might be able to infer that extra-terrestrial microbial life also exists. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100923/04513211135 Tue, 17 May 2011 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: ET Could Phone Home... But Would We Know It? Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110131/11442912897/dailydirt-et-could-phone-home-would-we-know-it.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110131/11442912897/dailydirt-et-could-phone-home-would-we-know-it.shtml

Funding for the Allen Telescope Array has been cut -- so its ability to help search for signs of extraterrestrial life is coming to an end -- unless more funding is raised. The telescope array could potentially be saved by a combination of donations and money from the US Air Force, but it could also just go into hibernation and never wake up again. [url]

The Green Bank Telescope is trying to pick up the slack by looking for signs of life on 86 specific planetary systems. NASA's Kepler space telescope identified these 86 systems as being possibly Earth-like. [url]

Mass spectrometry could detect life on Mars more reliably using lasers. Lasers, is there nothing you can't improve? [url]

To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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