Category Archives: Aliens

Fermi Paradox

So let’s say there’s intelligent life in the galaxy outside of Earth. We don’t have the technology to visit them and our ability to search for them is limited. Centuries […] Continue reading

Posted in Aliens | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Fermi Paradox

Extremophiles in the Berkeley Pit

In Butte, Montana there is a toxic waste site, the Berkeley Pit, which has been discovered to be the home of various extremophiles. Some of these have even been identified to possibly produce anti-cancer agents and anti-inflammatories. The Berkeley Pit is a lake that is filled with about forty thousand gallons of acidic, metal contaminated […] Continue reading

Posted in Aliens | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Extremophiles in the Berkeley Pit

The Smallest Bears in the Universe

  Water Bears These little guys are a part of a special group of organisms called extremophiles. While their name may be a bit misleading, water bears (or moss piglet) measure about 1.5mm long and can live in some of the harshest conditions. This ability to survive in places where most living things would find unbearable separates […] Continue reading

Posted in Aliens, Class | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on The Smallest Bears in the Universe

Where are the aliens?!

Many years ago, the possibility that aliens exist always seemed fictional. Although this possibility seemed negligible, there always seemed to be the hope for their existence. Humans have sworn through time to have seen UFOs, or extraterrestrial life, trying to … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Aliens, Class | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Where are the aliens?!

Why Have They Not Visited?

The Drake Equation allows us to estimate the number of civilizations in our own Milky Way Galaxy. Even if conservative numbers are used for each of the factors in the equation, the equation yields a value in the hundreds or even thousands for the number of civilizations in the galaxy. With the numbers of galaxies […] Continue reading

Posted in Aliens | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Why Have They Not Visited?

The Fermi Paradox

The galaxy is a pretty big place.  With around 400 billion stars, it seems very likely that some of those stars have planets that can support life, that some of those planets have intelligent life, and maybe some of that intelligent life becomes space-faring.  Even if we say the chance of a star having a […] Continue reading

Posted in Aliens, Space Travel | Tagged , , | Comments Off on The Fermi Paradox

The Constant Search For Life

In this past week, three new planets have been discovered in Kepler’s habitable zone. These three planets are announced to potentially host life. This may or may not be true, but the thought of finding planets slightly larger than earth that are in the Goldilocks zone is exciting in itself. For me, this is what […] Continue reading

Posted in Aliens, Historical, Instruments, Space Travel | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on The Constant Search For Life

And It All Leads Up To The Now

This semester we have studied everything from the creation of the universe to black holes to microscopic bacteria living on the bottom of the ocean floor. The range of topics covered in this class has helped round my view of the beginnings of time up until now and clarified many common misconceptions ranging from tides […] Continue reading

Posted in Aliens, Galaxies, Historical, Light, Physics, Space Travel, Stars, Universe | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on And It All Leads Up To The Now

Solving a ‘Universal’ Delimma

For those of you who are not familiar with the Fermi Paradox, it is “the apparent contradiction between the high probability extraterrestrial civilizations’ existence, and the lack of contact with such civilizations”.  There are many people out there convinced that life on other worlds doesn’t exist, but let me ask you this: what makes us […] Continue reading

Posted in Aliens, Galaxies, Space Travel, Universe | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Solving a ‘Universal’ Delimma

On the Hunt

During class recently we have been talking a lot about the Drake Equation and extraterrestrial life. Tying all of the various topics that we have discussed together has been this concept of “astrobiology.” Class over the past couple weeks was the first time that I had ever heard the term astrobiology (that could be my […] Continue reading

Posted in Aliens | Tagged , , | Comments Off on On the Hunt