Fermi Paradox

Posted on May 1, 2021 by laineroberts

Do you believe in aliens? With over 4,000 planets outside of our solar system and likely many many more, it seems almost crazy not to. Using the Drake Equation, astronomers estimate the probability of alien life outside of our solar system. Depending on the scientist’s opinions and research, this number can vary greatly but often indicates that it is probable that there is in fact life outside of our solar system. The Fermi Paradox, however, addresses the fact that there is a contradiction between the estimates of probable alien life and the complete lack of any evidence of alien life. According to the Fermi paradox, if there are in fact many Earth like planets in the universe that have developed intelligent life, the Earth should have already been visited by some form of alien life or at least received communications from other forms of life similar to the ones that we have sent out into space in the past. What do you think? Does the fact that we have no evidence to prove the existence of alien life prove that aliens are not real or was Fermi being too pessimistic in his theory? Is there any possibility that there is evidence of alien life visiting our planet long before we came into existence, but we have failed to recognize it because we see it as an ordinary aspect of life on earth?

Aliens come to visit Earth “To Serve Man” in the Twilight Zone!
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What Life on Titan Would Look Like

Posted on May 1, 2021 by jagobillot

Titan is a world that fits many criteria for a world that could host life. Because it has temperatures at about -290 degrees celsius on the surface, life would most likely be extremophile microbes below the methane surface. But an organism living entirely off of methane did not seem likely to me originally, until I ran into the methane ice worm.

methane ice worm picture

This alien looking creature is a 2-inch long worm that lives on the sea floor in the gulf on Mexico. They feed and survive on bacteria within the methane. So not only is there a possibility of microbes surviving in the subterraneous methane deposits on Titan, there could be scary alien worms too!

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Theia

Posted on May 1, 2021 by dayanel123

For my last blog post I have decided to blog about something close to home. The Theia impact is also called the Big Splash, and is a hypothesis as to how we got our moon. The theory is that a mars-sized planetesimal impacted our proto-earth in its early life. This massive impact essentially shredded Theia to bits, and also forced Earth to eject a substantial amount of its mass. Gravity then went to work and thus began the formation of our moon. There currently are a few key indicators that the Theia event did indeed happen. The following is points that support Theia, and is directly copied from Wikipedia:

“Earth’s spin and the Moon’s orbit have similar orientations.
The Earth-Moon system contains an anomalously high angular momentum. Meaning, the momentum contained in the Earth’s rotation, the Moon’s rotation, and the Moon revolving around the earth is significantly higher than the other terrestrial planets. A giant impact may have supplied this excess momentum.
Moon samples indicate that the Moon was once molten down to a substantial, but unknown, depth. This may have required more energy than predicted to be available from the accretion of a body of the Moon’s size. An extremely energetic process, such as a giant impact, could provide this energy.
The Moon has a relatively small iron core. This gives the Moon a lower density than the earth. Computer models of a giant impact of a Mars-sized body with the Earth indicate the impactor’s core would likely penetrate the Earth and fuse with its own core. This would leave the Moon with less metallic iron than other planetary bodies.
The Moon is depleted in volatile elements compared to the earth. Vaporizing at comparably-lower temperatures, they could be lost in a high-energy event, with the Moon’s smaller gravity unable to recapture them while the earth did.
There is evidence in other star systems of similar collisions, resulting in debris disc.
Giant collisions are consistent with the leading theory of the formation of the Solar System.
The stable-isotope ratios of lunar and terrestrial rock are identical, implying a common origin.”

By Wikipedia
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Culmination Post

Posted on May 1, 2021 by lorenzchen14

Milky Way Galaxy over Chile

In the culminating post for this class, I just wanted to write about how my understanding of astronomy has changed. I have obviously gained a greater appreciation for our Solar System as a whole, and learning a little about the magnitudes and sizes of objects in space puts some things into perspective for me. The Milky Way could have potentially 400 billion stars, and that still impresses me. The class showed me how relatively insignificant we are in comparison to everything else out there, especially with respect to the time scale. At most, I will live to be 100 years old, and this doesn’t even register as a rounding error on the history of the Earth. But the course also showed me how much unknown is out there. It is a little weird to think that we do not know the reasons behind the geological processes of Pluto for example. I would have assumed given the capabilities of NASA that we would have discovered these processes by now.

I am however, very excited for the future of space exploration. I still remember seeing the cover of a special edition of a magazine showing a space shuttle. The title read something like, “the End of an Era”. At a pretty young age, I was sad because it seemed humans no longer wanted to explore like during the Apollo missions. But now, with the potential of manned Mars missions and Martian helicopters, I am hopeful that we make some shocking explorations in the future!

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Conan the Bacterium, a potential Martian?

Posted on April 30, 2021 by lorenzchen14

Conan the Bacterium, also known as Dionococcus Radiodurans

Evolution, as far as we know, has always been pushing the limits of adaptability, allowing organisms to survive in the harshest of environments. Life that is extremely adaptable to almost all living environments are called extremophiles, hence their name. Scientists have recently hypothesized that some of Earth’s most resilient microbes may be able to survive the environment of Mars. The best candidate thus far is a microbe dubbed “Conan the Bacterium“. Conan the Bacterium, also known as Deinococcus radiodurans, is the most radiation resistant organism found. It is able to survive radiation doses that would kill a human thousands of times over. In the lab, Deinococcus radiodurans has been shown to survive gamma rays similar to doses received 30 cm below Mars, and survive cold temperatures of -79 degrees celsius. But this kind of durability that Deinococcus radiodurans shows is not all that rare.

An entire family of archaea called Halobacteriaceae are also extremely adaptable. Members of these organisms have already been shown to survive lab conditions that mimc some of the radioactive living conditions of Mars. Another family of organisms that could also potentially do well on Mars are called the methanogens. These organisms live anywhere from the gut of intestines to the permafrost of the Arctic. These microbes do not need light, or oxygen. They can survive cold temperatures as well as high levels of UV and radiation. All these organism have certain adaptations that prevents cellular damage from high energy wavelengths. For me, what is eye opening is that these organisms evolved on Earth, on a planet with relatively stable living conditions. Yet, they are so versatile and so adaptable. I could only imagine the type of organisms could potentially be found on Mars and evolved on the red planet.

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Titan

Posted on April 30, 2021 by brianknapp

Titan is the largest of Saturn’s moons, and one of the biggest moons in our solar system period, 50% larger than our own moon. In my opinion, it’s also one of the coolest. While it’s not exactly the prettiest to look at, kind of just being a grosser and hazier version of Saturn minus the rings, it more than makes up for its appearance with its fascinating chemical makeup.

Titan, from Wikipedia

Titan actually has a very thick atmosphere, with a pressure more intense than our own by nearly 50%. Like Earth’s atmosphere, Titan’s is also made up of mostly nitrogen gas, although Titan has 97% compared to our almost 80%. That’s about where the similarities end. Probably the most interesting thing about Titan is that it has bodies of liquid on its surface. It has rivers and oceans just like you would expect from such a world. However, these oceans aren’t made of water like back home. The rivers run full of liquid methane! I imagine it smells horrendous down there, but I would die as soon as I was exposed, considering Titan is a toasty -300 degrees Fahrenheit.

I’d like to shout out the Huygens probe from the Cassini mission for touching down on the surface in 2004, and telling us pretty much all we know about this cool place. Without it, we’d probably just think it was some garden variety Jovian moon (not a term I thought I’d ever use). But, if there’s one thing I learned this semester, it’s that space can always surprise you, so in a way, Titan is actually par for the course. Here’s hoping we find more cool worlds the longer we look.

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The Golden Record

Posted on April 30, 2021 by brianknapp

In 1977, a cool year for space enthusiasts and film buffs, NASA launched two spacecrafts known as Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. These crafts passed by Jupiter and Saturn, taking advantage of their alignment at that time. Voyager 2 also flew by Uranus and Neptune, and is now traveling across the vast expanse of interstellar space.

Images of the Golden Records, from The New Yorker

On board each of the probes is a golden phonographic record, carrying the sounds of Earth. The records are essentially time capsules, containing images, popular and traditional music, sounds of nature, and greetings in various languages, all from Earth. This was done in hopes that maybe an advanced alien civilization would find it, and be able to learn a thing or two about the place we call home. To paraphrase Carl Sagan, it’s a bit like a message in a bottle tossed into the cosmic ocean. Images on the record itself are diagrams, each containing some important piece of information about us or the technology we use. For example, the large asterisk-like depiction in the bottom left is a pulsar map, showing the location of our solar system in relation to 14 different pulsars in the galaxy (A pulsar is a highly magnetized spinning star that emits radiation in a very particular way). Without going into too much detail, an advanced alien civilization would know all about pulsars, and therefore would know how to find our solar system based on this information.

The golden records are jam-packed with information about Earth, and have a lot to teach alien civilizations about us. However, it’s not likely they will ever get the chance, as both probes aren’t heading very close to any star, at least not for a long time. But maybe that’s for the best! Who knows what might happen if an ~unfriendly~ race of aliens with superior technology knew exactly where to find us…

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The Diversity of The Solar System

Posted on April 30, 2021 by thestarstudent
Our Solar System from Science Explorers

After being in ASTR 2110, my biggest takeaway is probably the intense diversity that exists in our own solar system. Everything here is all made from the same protoplanetary disk, yet we have small terrestrial dwarf planets, medium sized terrestrial planets, and gas giants. How can the same material that made Venus’ thick atmosphere also make Pluto’s heart-shaped glacier or Saturn’s hexagon-shaped storm? How can that material make me? Our solar system is a complex and beautiful place to call home, and I’m so happy I know more about it. A lot of time people like to say we’re made of star stuff, but now I think I prefer to consider myself made of Mercury’s craters, Venus’ gasses, Earth’s oceans, Mars’ rocks, Jupiter’s clouds, Saturn’s rings, Uranus’ ice, and Neptune’s methane.

Signing off for now – TheStarStudent 🙂

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Extremophile Viability in Space

Posted on April 30, 2021 by thestarstudent
Sulfolobus solfataricus from Kenyon College’s Microbewiki, Haloterrigena hispanica from Frontiers in Microbiology, and Termotoga neapolitana from Alchetron (three of the four extremophiles tested in the experiment)

In 2014, a group of scientists studied the viability of four different types of extremophiles in space-like conditions. These conditions that replicated an experience on Mars included extreme low temperatures, levels of UV radiation, humidity, and low pressure. The extremophiles in the experiment were Sulfolobus solfataricus from Solfatara volcano in southern Italy that can live in a high temperature low pH environment, Haloterrigena hispanica from Fuente de Piedra in southern Spain that can live in a highly saline environment, Thermotoga neapolitana from a black smoker in the bay of Naples in Italy that can survive a high temperature environment without oxygen, and Geobacillus termantarcticus from Mt. Melbourne (a volcano) in Antarctica that can survive high temperatures. Generally, all the extremophiles had good resistance to the temperature simulation, and fine resistance to the UV radiation, humidity, and pressure simulations. This experiment indicates the possibility for life to survive Mars. While this life may not include humans, it is still exciting to know. The possibility of extraterrestrial life seems to increase every day!

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Supermassive Blackholes and the Milky Way

Posted on April 29, 2021 by derrick37027

In 1993, radio engineer Karl Janksy was recording 20.5 MHz radio waves when he noticed something strange. He could clearly classify majority of the waves received into either distant or nearby thunderstorms. However, there was a third type of static that he could not explain. Janksy put on his detective hat and, after many months of research, he determined that this strange, unexplained frequency appeared to be emitted from the center of our galaxy. Without the proper equipment and technology to further research this phenomenon, the mystery of these frequencies remained unsolved, until 2020, where Dr. Andrea Ghez and Dr. Reinhard Genzel, provided strong enough evidence to sufficiently claim that a supermassive blackhole existed at the center of the Milky Way.

Supermassive blackhole at the center of galaxy Messier 87

The blackhole at the center of our galaxy has a mass estimated to be about 4.1 million times the mass of our Sun. It was discovered by tracking the uncharacteristic movement of a nearby star, S2. From this information, we were able to estimate this supermassive blackhole size. Furthermore, we can extend this to claim that almost every large galaxy will have a supermassive blackhole at it center. Whilst it’s unclear what exactly we should do with this information, I believe that these masses are the key to understanding and learning more about the origins and formation of our galaxy and universe.

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