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Tag Archives: life
Silicon based life
The silicon atom has been discussed as the basis for an alternative biochemistry system, since silicon is in the same group of periodical table as carbon and shares many chemical properties with carbon. As silicone-based chemicals are much more stable than equivalent hydrocarbons in a sulfuric-acid-rich environment that is found in many locations in the…
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Posted in Class
Tagged astro201, astrobiology, Biochemistry, blog9, chemistry, life
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Is Anybody Out There?
While eating lunch with some colleagues in 1950, Enrico Fermi made an innocent yet profound comment about life in the universe. As a well-known physicist, Fermi knew that the universe was old enough to possibly have other life present, especially within the Milky Way. If this was the case, there was an obvious question –… Continue reading Is Anybody Out There?
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The Toughest Creature in the World
In the early 1700s, several different scientists examining the components of water and water habitats came across a miniscule creature …
Posted in Science, Space Travel
Tagged astro201, blog8, extremophile, life, tardigrade, water bear
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Other Life in our Solar System?
Through the use of computer modeling, a team of NASA scientists have confirmed that Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede, contains water under its icy top layers. New modeling that takes into account salinity of the planet’s water suggests that below the surface … Continue reading →
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Posted in Aliens
Tagged astro201, blog6, Ganymede, life, Solar System, Solar System: Moons
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The Search for Life and the (Not So) Habitable Zone
The question of other life in the Universe is one that has long plagued scientists and astronomers. The pure size of it makes it supposedly statistically probable that if life can happen on Earth, then it can (and probably does/has) happen elsewhere. Because the only type of life that we know is our own, scientists […]
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Posted in Universe
Tagged astro201, blog4, Habitable Zone, life
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The Future of Exploration
Through everything that I have learned in this class, I find myself most interested in the prospects for finding life elsewhere in the galaxy in the future. Given everything that we now know about solar system formation and the galaxy, it does not seem entirely unlikely that we are alone here on Earth. Microbial life […]
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Tagged astro201, blog10, exploration, life
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Solutions to the Fermi Paradox
Ever since Enrico Fermi first posed the infamous Fermi Paradox, people have been coming up with potential solutions to answer why humanity has yet to come into contact with other intelligent life. While nobody can definitively claim to have found the answer to Fermi’s question, the Steven Webb from the University of Florida has published […]
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Tagged astro201, blog9, fermiparadox, life, Life Elsewhere
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What is Next?
Learning about the solar system and our entire universe has made me more curious about astronomy. At the beginning of the semester, I had trouble wrapping my head around the vastness of the universe. The number of stars, planets, and galaxies is unbelievable, especially because there is still so much that we don’t know. Although […]
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Extremophiles
The presence of extremophiles makes the possibility of life off Earth way more likely. In our solar system alone, there are many places humans could not live but extremophiles could. Even on Venus it is possible that extremophiles could live in the upper atmosphere (though that’s about it for Venus). Unfortunately, finding life in the […]
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SETI Institute
The existence of life outside of planet Earth is one of the greatest mysteries, but the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute is trying to solve it. Given our understanding about life and the vastness of the universe, it is not unreasonable to believe that there is life out there somewhere. So far, scientists have […]
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