Extra-terrestrial life: Is there anybody out there? Dr Martin Hendry University of Glasgow Reach for the Stars

Is there Anybody Out There? Extra-Solar Planets Life in the Solar System? Searching for Life

Life in the Solar System

Runaway Greenhouse Effect

Formation of the Moon: Impact from Mars-sized planetesimal during first aeon.

Impact energy = 1 million million megatons 5 billion cubic miles of the crust sprayed into space Atmosphere ejected into space Ring of ejecta coalesces into Moon

Is there life on Mars?…

Mars 2004:  Mars Express ( + Beagle 2)  Spirit + Opportunity

Jan 23 rd 2004: Mars Express Orbiter detects water ice at the South Pole of Mars.

Jan 23 rd 2004: Mars Express Orbiter detects water ice at the South Pole of Mars.

Jan 23 rd 2004: Mars Express Orbiter detects water ice at the South Pole of Mars. H2OH2O CO 2 Visible light

Water on Mars Images suggest flowing water on Mars in the past Mars Earth

2mm

The moons of Jupiter

Isaac Newton: 1642 – 1727 AD The Principia:

The tidal pull of the Moon on the Earth

Galileo’s Moons

Inside Europa Could there be life?…..

The stars are VERY far away. The nearest star (after the Sun) is about 40 million million km from the Earth. It takes light more than 4 years to travel this distance.. If the distance from the Earth to the Sun were the width of this screen, the nearest star would be in Paris !!!! EXTRA-SOLAR PLANETS

Wobbling stars: the key to finding extra-solar planets Planets and stars orbit their common centre of mass Planets are too faint to see directly - so stars wobble but

The Sun’s “wobble”, due to Jupiter, seen from 30 light years away = width of a 5p piece in Baghdad

Doppler Shift

Star Laboratory

The origin of spectral lines

Absorption e -

Emission e -

Star Laboratory

51 Peg – the first new planet

What have we learned about exoplanets? Highly active, and rapidly changing, field Aug 2000: 29 exoplanets

What have we learned about exoplanets? Highly active, and rapidly changing, field Aug 2000: 29 exoplanets 2004: ~120 exoplanets

What have we learned about exoplanets? Highly active, and rapidly changing, field Aug 2000: 29 exoplanets Up-to-date summary at Now finding planets at larger orbital semimajor axis 2004: ~120 exoplanets

1. The Doppler wobble technique will not be sensitive enough to detect Earth-type planets (i.e. Earth mass at 1 A.U.), but will continue to detect more massive planets Looking to the Future

1. The Doppler wobble technique will not be sensitive enough to detect Earth-type planets (i.e. Earth mass at 1 A.U.), but will continue to detect more massive planets 2. The ‘position wobble’ (astrometric) technique will detect Earth-type planets – Space Interferometry Mission in 2009 (already done with HST in Dec 2002 for a 2 x Jupiter-mass planet) Looking to the Future

1. The Doppler wobble technique will not be sensitive enough to detect Earth-type planets (i.e. Earth mass at 1 A.U.), but will continue to detect more massive planets 2. The ‘position wobble’ (astrometric) technique will detect Earth-type planets – Space Interferometry Mission in 2009 (already done with HST in Dec 2002 for a 2 x Jupiter-mass planet) 3. The Kepler mission (launch 2007?) will detect transits of Earth-type planets, by observing the brightness dip of stars (already done in 2000 with Keck for a 0.5 x Jupiter-mass planet)

1. The Doppler wobble technique will not be sensitive enough to detect Earth-type planets (i.e. Earth mass at 1 A.U.), but will continue to detect more massive planets 2. The ‘position wobble’ (astrometric) technique will detect Earth-type planets – Space Interferometry Mission in 2009 (already done with HST in Dec 2002 for a 2 x Jupiter-mass planet) 3. The Kepler mission (launch 2007?) will detect transits of Earth-type planets, by observing the brightness dip of stars (already done in 2000 with Keck for a 0.5 x Jupiter-mass planet) Looking to the Future There was a (rare) transit of Mercury on May 7 th 2003, and a (very rare) transit of Venus on June 8 th 2004

4. NASA: Terrestrial Planet Finder ESA: Darwin Looking to the Future } ~ 2015 launch These missions plan to use nulling interferometry to ‘blot out’ the light of the parent star, revealing Earth-mass planets

4. NASA: Terrestrial Planet Finder ESA: Darwin Looking to the Future } ~ 2015 launch These missions plan to use nulling interferometry to ‘blot out’ the light of the parent star, revealing Earth-mass planets Follow-up spectroscopy will search for signatures of life:- Spectral lines of oxygen, water carbon dioxide in atmosphere Simulated ‘Earth’ from 30 light years ESP

What will TPF look for?….

Earth from 30 lyrs

Is there anybody out there?…. ….if there isn’t, it seems a terrible waste of space !!!! a terrible waste of space !!!!