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Subject: Space
the original "powers of 10" short film, like the one on page 2:
...and this is a great animation clip too: :-)
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...and this is a great animation clip too: :-)
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It’s life, but not as we know
HOPE of finding ET-style life on other worlds has got a massive boost after scientists discovered microbes in a deadly poisonous ARSENIC lake.
NASA researchers - amazed that anything could thrive in the toxic liquid - will unveil their dramatic conclusions tomorrow.
They say the microbes prove a second form of life started on Earth in environments previously thought too hostile.
Geobiologist Dr Felisa Wolfe-Simon made the breakthrough discovery during two years probing Mono Lake in California's Yosemite National Park - which has one of the highest natural concentrations of arsenic on Earth.
She will be among NASA-backed experts explaining the findings. Others include ecologist James Elser, who researches the possibility of ET creatures on other planets.
Scientists looking for life on Mars and Saturn's largest moon Titan will also speak.
Basic forms of life found before all rely on phosphorous to exist.
Astrobiologist Dr Lewis Dartnell, of the Centre for Planetary Sciences in London, said yesterday: "This is exciting. If these organisms use arsenic in their metabolism, it demonstrates that there are other forms of life to those we knew of."
It opens up the possibility that Extra Terrestial aliens like the one from the 1982 movie CAN exist in the solar system.
News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery, Thursday Dec. 2, 2 p.m. EST, Live on NASA TV: www.nasa.gov
www.thesun.co.uk
Well, 1 step closer :)
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HOPE of finding ET-style life on other worlds has got a massive boost after scientists discovered microbes in a deadly poisonous ARSENIC lake.
NASA researchers - amazed that anything could thrive in the toxic liquid - will unveil their dramatic conclusions tomorrow.
They say the microbes prove a second form of life started on Earth in environments previously thought too hostile.
Geobiologist Dr Felisa Wolfe-Simon made the breakthrough discovery during two years probing Mono Lake in California's Yosemite National Park - which has one of the highest natural concentrations of arsenic on Earth.
She will be among NASA-backed experts explaining the findings. Others include ecologist James Elser, who researches the possibility of ET creatures on other planets.
Scientists looking for life on Mars and Saturn's largest moon Titan will also speak.
Basic forms of life found before all rely on phosphorous to exist.
Astrobiologist Dr Lewis Dartnell, of the Centre for Planetary Sciences in London, said yesterday: "This is exciting. If these organisms use arsenic in their metabolism, it demonstrates that there are other forms of life to those we knew of."
It opens up the possibility that Extra Terrestial aliens like the one from the 1982 movie CAN exist in the solar system.
News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery, Thursday Dec. 2, 2 p.m. EST, Live on NASA TV: www.nasa.gov
www.thesun.co.uk
Well, 1 step closer :)
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Before this discovery all life was based on 6 elements: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. Everything we know about life was based on these 6 elements, but now they discovered the toxic arsenic can also be an element in stead of phosphorus. If arsenic can be an element a lot more is possible.
Extraterrestrial life doesn't have to be intelligent, it can also be bacteria etc. But if we consider the possibility extraterrestrial life is intelligent, we still think like humans do and we travel, but that doesn't mean other species likes to travel too. That was 1 example, there can be a million other reasons why we haven't met extraterrestrial life. Thinking in Fermi's Paradox is, in my eyes, a person shortage and a lack of understanding size and numbers (for example measuring distance in lightyears etc). To understand what this discovery can mean you have to think outside your box.
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Extraterrestrial life doesn't have to be intelligent, it can also be bacteria etc. But if we consider the possibility extraterrestrial life is intelligent, we still think like humans do and we travel, but that doesn't mean other species likes to travel too. That was 1 example, there can be a million other reasons why we haven't met extraterrestrial life. Thinking in Fermi's Paradox is, in my eyes, a person shortage and a lack of understanding size and numbers (for example measuring distance in lightyears etc). To understand what this discovery can mean you have to think outside your box.
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A New Online Database of Habitable Worlds.
posted Dec 1, 2011 10:16 PM by Abel Mendez Torres [ updated Dec 5, 2011 10:17 AM ]
The Habitable Exoplanets Catalog, a new online database of habitable worlds.
The database suggests over 15 exoplanets and 30 exomoons as potential habitable candidates.
Scientists are now starting to identify potential habitable exoplanets after nearly twenty years of the detection of the first planets around other stars. Over 700 exoplanets have been detected and confirmed with thousands more still waiting further confirmation by missions such as NASA Kepler. Most of these are gas giants, similar to Jupiter and Neptune, but orbiting very dangerously close to their stars. Only a few have the right size and orbit to be considered suitable for any life.
Now the Planetary Habitability Laboratory (PHL) of the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo (UPR Arecibo) presents a new assessment of the habitability of these worlds as part of its Habitable Exoplanets Catalog (HEC). The catalog not only identifies new potential habitable exoplanets, including exomoons like the Pandora world in the movie Avatar, but also ranks them according to various habitability indices.
“One important outcome of these rankings is the ability to compare exoplanets from best to worst candidates for life”, says Abel Méndez, Director of the PHL and principal investigator of the project.
The catalog uses new habitability assessments like the Earth Similarity Index (ESI), the Habitable Zones Distance (HZD), the Global Primary Habitability (GPH), classification systems, and comparisons with Earth past and present. It also uses data from other databases, such as the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia (exoplanet.eu), the Exoplanet Data Explorer (exoplanets.org), the NASA Kepler Mission (kepler.nasa.gov), and other sources.
According to Méndez, “New observations with ground and orbital observatories will discover thousands of exoplanets in the coming years. We expect that the analyses contained in our catalog will help to identify, organize, and compare the life potential of these discoveries.”
The catalog lists and categorizes exoplanets discoveries using various classification systems, including tables of planetary and stellar properties. One of the classifications divides them into eighteen mass and thermal categories, creating a table similar to a periodic table for exoplanets. Additional resources of the catalog will include scientific visualizations and stellar maps of exoplanets. Various undergraduate students participated in the project.
Only two confirmed exoplanets so far match the criteria for habitability in the catalog, Gliese 581d and HD 85512b, both still marginally Earth-like. However, the catalog identifies over 15 exoplanets and 30 exomoons as potential habitable candidates. Future observations with new instruments, such as the proposed NASA Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF), will be necessary to confirm the suitability for life of any of these candidates.
"I hope this database will help increase interest in building a big space-based telescope to observe exoplanets directly and look for possible signatures of life," says Jim Kasting, an expert on planetary habitability science from Penn State.
The catalog is available now online at the PHL website phl.upr.edu. A poster will be presented at the First Kepler Science Conference from December 5th to 9th, 2011 in NASA Ames, Moffet Field, California.
The PHL is a research and educational virtual laboratory dedicated to studies of the habitability of Earth, the Solar System, and exoplanets. The PHL is managed by the UPR Arecibo with the international collaboration of scientists from various institutions including NASA and SETI.
Image Caption: This "periodic table" of exoplanets, including confirmed and NASA Kepler candidates, divide most of the known exoplanets into six mass and three temperatures groups (18 categories total). Exoplanets in the Hot Zone are too close to their parent star to have liquid water. Those in the Warm Zone have the right distance for liquid water. Water can only exist as ice for those in the Cold Zone. Mercurians are low mass bodies, similar to Mercury and our Moon, that are only able to have an atmosphere in the Cold Zone (i.e. Titan). Subterrans are comparable to Mars, Terrans to Earth, and Superterrans are up to 10 times as massive as Earth, a category with no comparable examples in the Solar System. Neptunians are similar in mass to Neptune and Uranus, and Jovians to Jupiter and Saturn, or larger. So far, only eight Terrans and eight Superterrans can be considered potential habitable candidates out of the over 1,600 exoplanets represented in this figure. These are identified and ranked in detail with various habitability assessments on the Habitable Exoplanet Catalog, which actually shows how much Earth-like are these exoplanets.
Features of the Habitable Exoplanets Catalog
- Updated list of habitable worlds ranked by similarity with Earth.
- Habitability assessments.
- Exoplanets statistics.
- Planetary habitability theory (metrics and classifications).
- Full database of known exoplanets.
- Plots of stellar and planetary properties.
- Stellar maps of exoplanets.
- Scientific visual representations of exoplanets.
- Educational media.
- Links to additional resources.
NASA's Kepler Mission Confirms Its First Planet in Habitable Zone of Sun-like Star
Updates on Exoplanets during the First Kepler Science Conference
So... they found potentially a real life namekusei? :P
Yeh indeed :D Or more like King Kai's planet, only a lot larger ;)
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Would be great to discover a planet with its own civilisation, all stuff connected with religion would be just great...I wonder if there would be any interplanetary treaties, for example The Catholic Church agreeing with Cilohtac Church that their God is the same one...;-)
I am absolutely sure that an advanced and highly intelligent civilisation exists in our Universe. The strongest evidence is that they have not yet contacted us. :D
Would be great to discover a planet with its own civilisation,
It's always nice to think of these things but also what would be best for us. If they are like humans were in the time of the colonizations, and much more advanced as we are now, maybe we wouldn't be that happy if they find us. What humans (read: colonizers) have done to civilizations that they considered as less inferior ....... ;)
ll stuff connected with religion would be just great
I think it would be hilarious if the aliens are little blue men with heads 2 times the bodysize, 4 legs with enormous feet, 6 arms with only 3 fingers on each hand, and they aren't carbon based, but their religion tells them the one and only god created them to his own image ;P
It's always nice to think of these things but also what would be best for us. If they are like humans were in the time of the colonizations, and much more advanced as we are now, maybe we wouldn't be that happy if they find us. What humans (read: colonizers) have done to civilizations that they considered as less inferior ....... ;)
ll stuff connected with religion would be just great
I think it would be hilarious if the aliens are little blue men with heads 2 times the bodysize, 4 legs with enormous feet, 6 arms with only 3 fingers on each hand, and they aren't carbon based, but their religion tells them the one and only god created them to his own image ;P
LINK
Nice program to travel through space. Unfortunetly most stars and planet systems are generated by program. Anyway it still great to go anywhere You want (yes it's whole visible space inside) without moving yer ass from a chair ;)
Needs quite strong PC to run without freezing/errors but it's always worth to try it in my opinion.
Nice program to travel through space. Unfortunetly most stars and planet systems are generated by program. Anyway it still great to go anywhere You want (yes it's whole visible space inside) without moving yer ass from a chair ;)
Needs quite strong PC to run without freezing/errors but it's always worth to try it in my opinion.