AT SBI4U Life in Outer Space

Extraterrestrials, Society & Media

Exploration Is the Sun the only star with life around it? There are millions of planets orbiting stars in our galaxy, one of them must contain life Exploration around other stars About 100 found Planets with similar environments to Earth may sustain life Explorations of Mars and Europa Future explorations will give better results

Exploration(cont’d) Astrobiology uncovering new organisms Life prominent in certain zones on Earth Some similar environments are bottom of frozen lakes and Earth’s crust New microorganisms found in Idaho; called methanogens and live 700ft below Earth’s crust Gives us ideas of what to look for in similar places

Mars Very similar to Earth Viking Landers sent in 1970’s Discovered that it is cold, has a thin atmosphere and no water Viking Landers executed Labelled Release tests Nutrients dropped into Mars soil; tested for changes and checked if they were organically induced Positive results were acquired Some scientists were sceptical and rejected the idea of life on Mars; believed that oxides caused chemical reactions in soil

Mars(cont’d) In 1996 NASA discovered life on Martian meteorite ALH84001 Found fossilised bacteria and organic chemicals Scientists again did not believe it and rejected it; believed they were non-living minerals Both these observations needed more insight and research The Mars Global Explorer showed dense atmosphere and water in past

Europa Jupiter’s sixth largest moon In 1995 a Galilean probe took pictures of surface There are cracks in the ice There are probably oceans below the ice Geothermal heat and tidal pumping keep water from turning into ice May be thermal vents at the bottom of oceans Gravitational pulls from Jupiter and other moons also produce warmth

Europa(cont’d) Similar to Arctic Sea and Lake Vostok in Antarctica Lake Vostok lies under 15,000ft of ice Microbes found in freshwater ice This means there may also be life in Europa’s oceans Only question is: “How do they survive without light?” Could be similar to methanogens which do not need light National Research Council advises NASA to explore Europa

SETI “Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” This organization began in 1959 Searching for extraterrestrial life by means of microwave radios First proposed by Giuseppi Cocconi and Philip Morrison In early 1960’s Frank Drake conducts first microwave radio search Project Ozma did not acquire any results but got others interested Soviet Union dominated SETI; searched the sky instead of stars

SETI(cont’d) Bernard Oliver introduces Project Cyclops in late 1970’s; analyzed science and technology issues in SETI SETI was now growing and radio astronomers conducted searches Some projects include: Planetary Society’s Project META, UCLA’s SERENDIP Project and observations at Ohio State University There were new programs at NASA’s Ames Research Center and at Jet Propulsion Laboratory(JPL) Created a joint search; Ames does Targeted Search on stars and JPL searches sky In 1988 NASA funds the idea and in 1992 observations begin

SETI(cont’d) In one year Congress ends funding from NASA SETI Institute continues with private funding Lots of long-term projects such as: SERENDIP(Search for Extraterrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations) and observations at SETI Australia Center Australian’s brought SERENDIP technology to do experiments Future goals include building an array of telescopes known as Allen Telescope Array Large radio arrays will also be built This is just the beginning; people believe SETI will find something

Conclusion We should first search our own solar system before the rest of the galaxy More organizations like SETI Should stop being brainwashed by the media

Bibliography Life On Europa. (n.d.). In Astrocentral. Retrieved December 10, 2011, from http://www.astrocentral.co.uk/lifeoneuropa.html Life On Mars. (n.d.). In Astrocentral. Retrieved December 10, 2011, from http://www.astrocentral.co.uk/lifeonmars.html SERENDIP. (n.d.). In The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence at UC Berkeley. Retrieved December 10, 2011, from http://seti.ssl.berkeley.edu/serendip SETI 101. (n.d.). In SETI Institute. Retrieved December 10, 2011, from http://www.seti.org/node/662 The Search For Life In Outer Space. (n.d.). In Astrocentral. Retrieved December 10, 2011, from http://www.astrocentral.co.uk/life.html Williams, D. R. (2006, December 18). Viking Mission To Mars. In NASA. Retrieved December 10, 2011, from http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html

Image Bibliography cdn.zmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/SETI1.jpg nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/spacecraft/viking_lander_model.jpg peacesymbols.org/svg/art/opencl.part.org/laurent_little_green_alien-800px.png upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/ALH84001_structures.jpg/300px-ALH84001_structures.jpg upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Europa-moon.jpg/275px-Europa-moon.jpg www.thewatcherfiles.com/images/alien3.jpg www.universogp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/250px-Mars_Valles_Marineris.jpeg