Monthly Archives: April 2016

The Future of Humans on Mars

Posted on April 27, 2016 by clharrell

Humans inhabiting Mars has been a much debated topic amongst engineers, astronomers, and scientists for decades. Stories of manned missions to Mars can be found in film, books, and other forms of popular culture. The notion of colonizing Mars is often accompanied by the imminent doom of our home planet. However, in order for a […] Continue reading →

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What If Extremophiles Were Not First?

Posted on April 27, 2016 by andyastronomer

A recent and exciting discovery for scientists is the existence of extremophiles. Extremophiles are organisms that thrive in environments previously thought to not support life. Currently, the prevailing thought is that the first forms of life were some form of extremophile – potentially thermophiles. However, what if most extremophiles (or all of them for that […] Continue reading →

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A ~Record~ of Life on Earth

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Gabi Grys

Before sending the Voyager spacecraft off into space in 1977, Carl Sagan and his team insisted on including a “bottle” to send off into the “cosmic ocean.” This message to potential intelligent life in the universe is contained in the Voyager record, a 12 inch golden record meant to encapsulate life on Earth. The record […] Continue reading →

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The Fermi Paradox

Posted on April 27, 2016 by evinske

To be, or not to be? Is that really the question? According to the Fermi Paradox, it’s a perfectly valid one. The Fermi Paradox, coined after Enrico Fermi, is a theory that addresses life elsewhere in the universe as a probable reality. The only issue is, however, that no other forms of life (that we […] Continue reading →

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Time and Interstellar Travel

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Ahmed A

Time can be lost. Time can be wasted. Time can be saved. Time can be valuable. Time is of the essence. Perhaps a less known is the fact that time can be dilated! What exactly does this mean? It means that differences of elapsed time for someone traveling at high velocity or in the vicinity […] Continue reading →

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The Fermi paradox: Is there life out there?

Posted on April 27, 2016 by samihahplanet

Source: Youtube Channel Kurzgesagt The Fermi paradox is summarized in the video above. At a bare minimum, the Fermi paradox is the paradox of the Drake equation supposedly estimating a large number of possible planets in our Galaxy harboring life, yet no such evidence of intelligent life has been discovered. There are many possible speculations for why […] Continue reading →

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How Astronomical Are Our Chances of Finding Extraterrestrial Life?

Posted on April 27, 2016 by harperastronomyblog

I’ve always thought that we weren’t alone in the world–and my Astronomy class has really helped to confirm my thoughts. After studying the Drake Equation, it seems almost certain that intelligent life and life that could eventually communicate with us must exist. After all, the Earth is only 4.6 billion years old–a baby compared to […] Continue reading →

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SETI – The “Wow!” Signal Today

Posted on April 27, 2016 by solarsystemjoe

Although SETI institute was founded in 1984, the search for extraterrestrial life concerned scientists for many years prior.  In 1977, Ohio State’s Big Ear radio telescope heard exactly what it had been searching for: the “Wow!” signal.  The radio telescope was attempting to detect radio waves around the three-star system, Chi Sagittarii, when it detected radio […] Continue reading →

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Bootstrapping Space Industry

Posted on April 27, 2016 by jgarrett9

In 2012, Philip Metzger and some of his colleagues from the Kennedy Space Center worked on a paper theorizing how we could “bootstrap” our way across the Solar System. The first step of their plan was to get materials to the Moon’s surface. From there, development of the industry would continue as the field of robotics has… Continue reading →

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Propulsion Methods for Space Travel

Posted on April 26, 2016 by Alex Pratte

One of the biggest problems that we have when it comes to interstellar travel is that we don’t have a spaceship that can go fast enough to get us where we want to go in a reasonable time. Luckily, we have some really smart scientists trying to come up with ways to make a really […] Continue reading →

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