Transcript Life in Outer Space

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Is the Sun the only star with life around it?
There are millions of planets orbiting stars in
our galaxy, one of them must contain life
Exploration around other stars
About 100 found
Planets with similar environments to Earth
may sustain life
Explorations of Mars and Europa
Future explorations will give better results
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Astrobiology uncovering new organisms
Life prominent in certain zones on Earth
Some similar environments are bottom of
frozen lakes and Earth’s crust
New microorganisms found in Idaho; called
methanogens and live 700ft below Earth’s
crust
Gives us ideas of what to look for in similar
places
Very similar to Earth
Viking Landers sent in 1970’s
Discovered that it is cold, has a thin atmosphere
and no water
 Viking Landers executed Labelled Release tests
 Nutrients dropped into Mars soil; tested for
changes and checked if they were organically
induced
 Positive results were acquired
 Some scientists were sceptical and rejected the
idea of life on Mars; believed that oxides caused
chemical reactions in soil
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In 1996 NASA discovered life on Martian
meteorite ALH84001
Found fossilised bacteria and organic
chemicals
Scientists again did not believe it and
rejected it; believed they were non-living
minerals
Both these observations needed more insight
and research
The Mars Global Explorer showed dense
atmosphere and water in past
Jupiter’s sixth largest moon
In 1995 a Galilean probe took pictures of surface
There are cracks in the ice
There are probably oceans below the ice
 Geothermal heat and tidal pumping keep water
from turning into ice
 May be thermal vents at the bottom of oceans
 Gravitational pulls from Jupiter and other moons
also produce warmth
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Similar to Arctic Sea and Lake Vostok in
Antarctica
 Lake Vostok lies under 15,000ft of ice
 Microbes found in freshwater ice
 This means there may also be life in Europa’s
oceans
 Only question is: “How do they survive without
light?”
 Could be similar to methanogens which do not
need light
 National Research Council advises NASA to
explore Europa
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“Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence”
This organization began in 1959
Searching for extraterrestrial life by means of
microwave radios
 First proposed by Giuseppi Cocconi and Philip
Morrison
 In early 1960’s Frank Drake conducts first
microwave radio search
 Project Ozma did not acquire any results but got
others interested
 Soviet Union dominated SETI; searched the sky
instead of stars
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Bernard Oliver introduces Project Cyclops in late 1970’s;
analyzed science and technology issues in SETI
 SETI was now growing and radio astronomers conducted
searches
 Some projects include: Planetary Society’s Project META,
UCLA’s SERENDIP Project and observations at Ohio State
University
 There were new programs at NASA’s Ames Research Center
and at Jet Propulsion Laboratory(JPL)
 Created a joint search; Ames does Targeted Search on stars
and JPL searches sky
 In 1988 NASA funds the idea and in 1992 observations begin
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In one year Congress ends funding from NASA
SETI Institute continues with private funding
Lots of long-term projects such as: SERENDIP(Search for
Extraterrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed
Intelligent Populations) and observations at SETI Australia
Center
 Australian’s brought SERENDIP technology to do
experiments
 Future goals include building an array of telescopes known
as Allen Telescope Array
 Large radio arrays will also be built
 This is just the beginning; people believe SETI will find
something
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We should first search our own solar system
before the rest of the galaxy
More organizations like SETI
Should stop being brainwashed by the media
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Life On Europa. (n.d.). In Astrocentral. Retrieved December 10,
2011, from http://www.astrocentral.co.uk/lifeoneuropa.html
Life On Mars. (n.d.). In Astrocentral. Retrieved December 10, 2011,
from http://www.astrocentral.co.uk/lifeonmars.html
SERENDIP. (n.d.). In The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence at
UC Berkeley. Retrieved December 10, 2011, from
http://seti.ssl.berkeley.edu/serendip
SETI 101. (n.d.). In SETI Institute. Retrieved December 10, 2011,
from http://www.seti.org/node/662
The Search For Life In Outer Space. (n.d.). In Astrocentral.
Retrieved December 10, 2011, from
http://www.astrocentral.co.uk/life.html
Williams, D. R. (2006, December 18). Viking Mission To Mars. In
NASA. Retrieved December 10, 2011, from
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html
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