Tag Archives: life

Extremophiles, and What They Mean For Life in Space

Posted on April 14, 2020 by phildowd

Extremophiles are organisms on Earth that thrive in extreme environment that most other organisms wouldn’t be able to survive in. They are found in places that at a glance, seem unlivable, places like inside volcanoes, or deep in the ocean under extreme pressures. So why do these extremophiles matter when thinking about space? The ideaContinue reading “Extremophiles, and What They Mean For Life in Space” Continue reading →

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The Drake Equation

Posted on April 14, 2020 by emily

The Drake equation, also known as the Green Bank equation, is used to yield the number of technically advanced civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy. The equation uses astronomical, biological, and psychological factors to determine this number. The formula was first discussed in 1961 at a conference on the “search of extraterrestrial intelligence”, formulated largelyContinue reading “The Drake Equation” Continue reading →

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How Life Could Start and Exist on Europa

Posted on April 4, 2020 by gabezharovtothemoon

Although our understanding of the evolutionary process is deep, the exact time and process through which the first life forms on Earth arose is still not entirely clear. The panspermia hypothesis speculates that life exists throughout the universe and is distributed through asteroids, comets, and space dust, and that life on Earth was brought fromContinue reading “How Life Could Start and Exist on Europa” Continue reading →

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Could There be Life on Europa?

Posted on March 29, 2020 by phildowd

Europa is one of Jupiter’s Galilean moons, meaning it’s one of the four largest moons that orbit Jupiter. What makes it particularly special is that it is considered one of the most likely places in our solar system (outside of Earth) that might contain life. Now, at a glance, it seems like that shouldn’t beContinue reading “Could There be Life on Europa?” Continue reading →

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Big Planets’ Moons and Life Outside “Habitability”

Posted on March 29, 2020 by remieri

Astrobiology has long relied on the concept of a “habitable zone”, that is a zone around a star that is the right distance from said star to hold liquid water, and therefore life. This concept is absolutely valuable, especially insofar as it allows us to classify new exoplanets and identify potential exoplanets that may hostContinue reading “Big Planets’ Moons and Life Outside “Habitability”” Continue reading →

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Blog #4: Statistics Behind Our Solar System

Posted on March 9, 2020 by John Harrington

A concept that has always intrigued me is the possibility of life on Earth. It seems like every topic we cover reveals another statistical improbability that has allowed life to exist on Earth at all. For example, we are just far enough from the sun that we have an atmosphere, but not so far fromContinue reading “Blog #4: Statistics Behind Our Solar System” Continue reading →

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Resilient Life on Earth Increases Possibility of Extraterrestrial Life

Posted on April 27, 2019 by dayvon

Believe it or not, there are organisms on Earth that can survive unimaginable conditions! These beings are called extremophiles, and they’re nothing short of amazing. One example is the tardigrade, which can live in the most extreme heat, cold, dehydration and radiation. The simple fact that these organisms exist give us reason to believe that … Continue reading Resilient Life on Earth Increases Possibility of Extraterrestrial Life → Continue reading →

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Methane-Based Life

Posted on April 27, 2019 by Jonathan Roberts

Is liquid water necessary for life to form? If judging strictly from the only life we know, of course. However, humanity’s exploration of the universe has just begun, and we can’t say for sure what lies beyond Earth. Other worlds within our solar system have organic compounds that life could possibly evolve from. In particular, … Continue reading Methane-Based Life → Continue reading →

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Adaptive Archaea

Posted on April 25, 2019 by epiphany9

Discovered in 1970, Archaea might be the least well-known of the three domains of life (the others being Bacteria and Eukaryota), but it is a fascinating and diverse group of organisms and quite possibly the first on Earth. Like bacteria, archaea are unicellular, prokaryotic organisms, meaning that they lack nuclei and other membrane-bound organelles in […] Continue reading →

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The Case for Tardigrades

Posted on April 25, 2019 by IanO12

I can’t remember if it was Cosmos or Planet Earth, but it was narrated by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. My roommate and I were watching it before bed, and it was fascinating. Almost the entire episode was dedicated to tardigrades, more colloquially known as water bears. These microscopic animals are uncannily resilient. Like, scarily so. According […] Continue reading →

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