Tag Archives: life

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 […] Continue reading

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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 […] Continue reading

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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 […] Continue reading

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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 […] Continue reading

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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 […] Continue reading

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The Solar System is in us

The solar system is an amazing place filled with a vast spectrum of unique objects, and the most notable of them all is us. We and everything else in the solar system are comprised of the same materials that came from the same place, but only we have grown and developed to appreciate that fact. […] Continue reading

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Thermococcus gammatolerans: The “hottest” thing alive

This rare microbe is the most radiation resistant organism known to man. Discovered in 2003 living inside of a hydrothermal vent at the bottom of the pacific ocean off the coast of California, this little guy is capable of withstanding over 30,000 grays (a Gray is the absorption of one joule of such energy by […] Continue reading

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The Future Looks Bright

<Video from post from here> Around a century ago, humanity thought we had finally conquered the final frontier – Antarctica. It was quite unfathomable for many to think that we could ever leave the confines of Earth, but within a matter of three and a half decades we succeeded in building the first aircraft, retrofitting … Continue reading The Future Looks Bright Continue reading

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Lovers of the Extreme

<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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Life in the Periphery

Sedna is a dwarf planet existing outside of the Kuiper Belt; in itself that makes it fairly distinct as there is only one other dwarf planet existing beyond the Kuiper Belt and that was only discovered in late March. The other thing that makes Sedna interesting is that it has ultra-red material which is indicative … Continue reading Life in the Periphery Continue reading

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