100,000 Galaxies. Each one contains Billions upon Billions of stars. Each star could have planets, leading to countless possibilities of variation and the potential for life. But would we see the signs of civilization from Earth? Could a highly advanced civilization control the entire population of stars in their galaxy and harness that energy for their industry? Would they alter their stellar environment enough that we could see them? This is exactly the line of questioning that led astronomers to look at over 100,000 different nearby galaxies in mid-infrared emission to see some potential signs of Alien life. In these...
Since the Huygens probe dropped down to the surface of Saturn’s largest moon Titan, astronomers have pondered the idea of life on the distant world. With a liquid cycle not unlike Earth’s water cycle in form, but consisting of frigid liquid hydrocarbons, could a new variation of life exist, not as we know it? Jonathan Lunine, director for Cornell’s Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, is an expert on Saturn’s Moons and is a scientist on the Cassini-Huygens mission, which originally discovered the Methane-Ethane lakes on Titan a decade ago. Given a grant to study non-aqueous life, he needed help....
Fitting it should fall on a Monday – so we should call this a motivation Monday post. This won’t be about me per se. I’m not going to spend two hours writing about my life, expecting you to read every minute detail and be captivated. The truth is, even though its been interesting and even hilarious at times, I haven’t really lived a life that’s any more captivating than anyone else’s. I’ve had fun, and I’ve taken risks, and I’ve made mistakes, and I’ve loved and lost time and time again. Even though every single person can say the same,...
You have to see this incredible feature on Mars, showing some of the best High-Res photos and milestones from the mission. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/09/science/space/curiosity-rover-28-months-on-mars.html As you look through the images, remember that you are looking at another world. It feels foreign, yet oddly familiar. You almost want to reach out and just grab a handful of sand. It makes you realize that we are not the center of the Universe. There are likely Billions of worlds similar to Mars, with Dunes and Soil and Skies and Mountains, except those world may not be so barren. They may be lush and alive, dominated...
You need to see this animation. It’s an amazing picture showing the Hubble Ultra Deep Field and the small patch of sky Astronomers had to aim at in order to photograph it. The moon is there for comparison. The patch of sky is about the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. Courtesy of gfycat.com, it really puts things in perspective. The crazy part is that if you look in any direction in the universe, in patches of sky as small as this one, you see the exact same thing. There are more galaxies in the Universe than we...
