Category Archives: Aliens

The (Possible) Oceans of Europa

Among all of Earth’s unique aspects and characteristics, the presence of water may be the most significant. Water is necessary to life as we know it; from humans ourselves down to microscopic organisms, all living things need water to survive. It is no wonder, then, that life in the Solar System is exclusive to Earth; […] Continue reading

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Voyager 1 and the Golden Records

Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made object from Earth (Space.com). Voyager 1 is a space probe, launched in 1977 with the mission to explore the outer planets of the Solar System. Voyager 2, its twin probe, was actually launched first, with a slower, more meandering trajectory past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Voyager 1 soon […] Continue reading

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Life Beyond Earth

There have been many recent discoveries that suggest life exists beyond Earth. Some of these include new findings on Enceladus (a small moon of Saturn), exoplanets, and even Mars. Enceladus NASA’s Cassini spacecraft collected data that allowed us to simulate the geochemistry of phosphorus in the ocean. This study helped us reach some interesting conclusions […] Continue reading

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We Come in Peace! (If you can Find Us)

It’s a common theme for me within this class to fixate on the possibility of life beyond Earth, and I’m glad to do that once again with today’s blog post. I want to respond to the book’s claim that life on Mars is an “extraordinary claim”. While it’s true the bold assertion like the one […] Continue reading

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Scale and Travel Times

At this very moment, the Voyager 1 spacecraft is hurtling through space at about 61,500 km/h each and every hour, carrying it ever further from our Solar system which it left 18 years ago. But despite this staggering speed, it would still take Voyager more than 75,000 years to reach the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. […] Continue reading

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blog post 07

The Fermi Paradox is the conflict between the lack of evidence of extraterrestrial life and high estimates for its existence. The main explanation people have come up with for this paradox is that intelligent life is rare. Using this explanation, it makes sense why there would be many places with rudimentary life, but without intelligent […] Continue reading

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Astrobiology – Indicators of Life on Other Worlds

Astrobiology studies the past, present, and future of life in the universe. One facet of this interdisciplinary field is considering the possibility of life on other planets or worlds. Scientists utilize research in biology, chemistry, astronomy, and cosmology to help determine if life could exist elsewhere in the universe, and if so, how we can […] Continue reading

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Where is Everyone?

The Fermi Paradox was developed in 1950 by the Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi. The paradox itself refers to the notion that if there is an extremely high possibility of life outside of Earth, then why have humans not discovered evidence of other intelligent life forms. This could be for a multitude of different reasons such […] Continue reading

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Alien civilizations. How many are there?

Throughout my life, I have always been curious of what lies beyond our sky and more importantly who lies there? After discussing the Drake Equation in class and also the probabilities and alignments necessary for there to be life, I am going to address this topic. According to the Guardian, scientists say that the amount […] Continue reading

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Extremophiles (Post 7)

Extremophiles are types of organisms that can survive in abnormal or extreme conditions. The picture above is a popular tourist destination in Yellowstone National Park known as “Grand Prismatic Spring.” The spring is extremely hot at 160 degrees Fahrenheit but it is famous for its vibrant colors. These colors are actually caused by a type […] Continue reading

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