Tag Archives: blog9

Extremophiles Aiding the Search For Extraterrestrial Life

Posted on April 26, 2014 by joshkphilips

Image Source About six months ago, scientists retrieved samples of water that are nearly two billion years old from the depths of a mine in Timmins, Ontario. They are now attempting to determine whether or not any life exists within the liquid. If in fact lifeforms are present within the water, this would be yet […] Continue reading →

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Lovers of the Extreme

Posted on April 25, 2014 by paanvaannd

<Image from this post from here> The discovery of extremophiles within the last few decades has expanded the amount of worlds viable for some sort of life, and has greatly increased the chance of life being found elsewhere within our galaxy, let alone our own solar system.  Extremophiles are microorganisms on Earth that live, and … Continue reading Lovers of the Extreme → Continue reading →

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Warp Drive

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Leigh

Before we can achieve interstellar travel like it appears in science fiction, scientists must make huge leaps and develop a way to exceed the speed of light, as well as a way to work around the issue of spacetime and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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The Pioneer Plaque and the Objectification of Men in Inter Galactic Space

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Asad Pabani

The Pioneer plaques are a pair of gold-anodized aluminium plaques which were put on board the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecrafts in the early 1970s. They contain on them a pictorial message of the civilization that exists on Earth in case either of these spacecrafts are intercepted by intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy […] Continue reading →

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Extremophiles Under the Sea and in Space

Posted on April 20, 2014 by hollyreichert

Life can be found everywhere on Earth, even in extreme environments.  The organisms that live here are called extremophiles and rely on things other than oxygen for survival.  Hydrothermal events are an example of extreme environments in which extremophiles have been found.  At the bottom of the ocean, temperatures and pressures are so high that […] Continue reading →

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Warp Drive: Science Fiction or Future Reality?

Posted on April 20, 2014 by gradytlynch

This video segment explores the possibilities of creating a warp drive spacecraft that isn’t bound by the cosmic speed limit of lightspeed. The idea highlighted in the video is that fluctuations in spacetime itself would propel the spacecraft, as opposed to the spacecraft propelling itself through space. This complex theoretical process is described in the […] Continue reading →

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Fusion Propulsion

Posted on May 2, 2013 by kevinm387

Here is an interesting ted talk on fusion propulsion. Fusion propulsion would be just about the only way humans would be able to achieve interstellar space travel. Unfortunately, this possibility is still a long way off, as the speaker Jason Cassibry points out, but the concept is still there. Scientists have long been working on […] Continue reading →

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Extremo-cool-creatures

Posted on May 1, 2013 by sharpew

Extreomophiles are mircobes that can survive in ‘extreme’ environments. Our knowledge of these life forms forces us to reconsider the possibility of life on other planets because environments that seem inhospitable to us humans are actually hospitable for these extremophiles. There are several known types of extremophiles: thermophilies that can withstand extremely high temperatures, psychrophiles that can […] Continue reading →

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The Drake Equation, revisited

Posted on April 29, 2013 by astrdylan

The Drake Equation, as we’ve discussed in class in the most recent unit, is a formula intended to project an estimate of how many intelligent societies could exist in the universe. The formula multiplies a series of interdependent variables–the rate of formation of Sun-like stars, the number of planets in a habitable zone per solar … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Earth like Planets

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Elizabeth Merriman

It is interesting to think about the existence of extrasolar planets. Now that we are starting to find a lot of giants, the new thing is finding Earth like planets. Recently, Kepler has found three Earth-like planets. I am anxious … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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