Tag Archives: Biology

Blog 7 – Where did life on Earth come from?

Many people, myself included, may have assumed that life developed here on Earth and evolved from there. However, other promising theories suggest that life may have originated elsewhere and then traveled to Earth on meteorites. These theories are called panspermia theories. Although space is a very harsh vacuum environment, experiments have determined that a number […] Continue reading

Posted in Aliens, Class | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Blog 7 – Where did life on Earth come from?

The Effect of Living in Space

While I think that studying space and astronomy is super awesome, I honestly am not sure I can imagine anything worse than living in space for an extended period of time. As we discussed in class, living in space (or at least in orbit) is essentially like being in constant free fall. You know that stomach […] Continue reading

Posted in Space Travel | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on The Effect of Living in Space

The Effect of Living in Space

While I think that studying space and astronomy is super awesome, I honestly am not sure I can imagine anything worse than living in space for an extended period of time. As we discussed in class, living in space (or at least in orbit) is essentially like being in constant free fall. You know that stomach […] Continue reading

Posted in Space Travel | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on The Effect of Living in Space

Life from Earth, elsewhere

In class, we have discussed the possibility that life on Earth did not originate on Earth, but came to Earth on an asteroid or other impactor. But another idea is that the inverse is true: Later impacts on Earth sent life to other locations in the Solar System. Recent simulations suggest that some of the… Continue reading

Posted in Class, Historical, Science, Universe | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Life from Earth, elsewhere

The origins of life and the Drake equation

In using the Drake equation to discuss and estimate the probability of non-Earth life in our universe, one factor we estimated was the probability of life developing on a given planet in the habitable zone. The problem with making such an estimate as students in an Astronomy 201 course, of course, is that we all… Continue reading

Posted in Class, Historical, Physics, Science, Universe | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on The origins of life and the Drake equation