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Category: alien life

NASA Rover Uncovers Rare Organic Molecules on Mars

“We think we’re looking at organic matter that’s been preserved on Mars for 3.5 billion years,” said Dr. Amy Williams. [ https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/30462/nasa-rover-unc…les-mars-2](https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/30462/nasa-rover-unc…les-mars-2)

Does Mars contain the building blocks for life as we know it? This is what a recent study published in Nature Communications hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated whether the surface of Mars could preserve evidence for life as we know it using experiments from one of its rovers. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand how and where to search for past evidence of life as we know it and comes as NASA is working to return samples from the surface of Mars.

For the study, the researchers examined data obtained from NASA’s Curiosity rover, which has been exploring Gale Crater on Mars since 2012. Recently, it used its cache of scientific instruments to identify more than 20 organic molecules from 3.5-billion-year-old Martian clays. These included a first-time identification of DNA precursors and specific chemicals that are delivered to planets via meteorites.

Cosmic Strings — Cracks in the Fabric of the Universe

Cosmic strings may be ultra-thin defects in spacetime—relic “cracks” from the early universe. How we’d detect them, what they mean for physics, and how aliens might exploit them.

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Watch my exclusive video Settling Saturn’s Rings: https://nebula.tv/videos/isaacarthur–… SFIA Merchandise: https://isaac-arthur-shop.fourthwall… 🌐 Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net ❤️ Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur ⭐ Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-a… 👥 Facebook Group: / 1,583,992,725,237,264 📣 Reddit Community: / isaacarthur 🐦 Follow on Twitter / X: / isaac_a_arthur 💬 SFIA Discord Server: / discord Credits: Cosmic Strings – Cracks in the Fabric of the Universe Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images Chapters 0:00 Intro — Cracks in the Fabric of the Universe 6:11 From Defects to Cosmic Strings 13:31 Civilizations and Cosmic Strings: Tools, Traps, and Temptations 19:43 Nebula 20:39 Cousins, Confusions, and What a Discovery Would Mean.

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Credits:
Cosmic Strings – Cracks in the Fabric of the Universe.
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur.
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images.

Chapters.
0:00 Intro — Cracks in the Fabric of the Universe.
6:11 From Defects to Cosmic Strings.
13:31 Civilizations and Cosmic Strings: Tools, Traps, and Temptations.
19:43 Nebula.
20:39 Cousins, Confusions, and What a Discovery Would Mean.

Roger Penrose — Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Life and Mind?

If the deep laws of the universe had been ever so slightly different human beings wouldn’t, and couldn’t, exist. All explanations of this exquisite fine-tuning, obvious and not-so-obvious, have problems or complexities. Natural or supernatural, that is the question.

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‘Interstellar glaciers’: NASA’s SPHEREx maps vast galactic ice regions

NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) mission has mapped interstellar ice at an unprecedented scale. Covering regions in our Milky Way galaxy more than 600 light-years across, the ice was found inside giant molecular clouds—vast regions of gas and dust where dense clumps of matter collapse under gravity, giving birth to stars. A study describing these findings was published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal.

One of SPHEREx’s main goals is to map the chemical signatures of various types of interstellar ice. This ice includes molecules like water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide, which are vital to the chemistry that allows life to develop. Researchers believe these ice reservoirs, attached to the surfaces of tiny dust grains, are where most of the universe’s water is formed and stored. The water in Earth’s oceans —and the ices in comets and on other planets and moons in our galaxy—originates from these regions.

“These vast frozen complexes are like ‘interstellar glaciers’ that could deliver a massive water supply to new solar systems that will be born in the region,” said study co-author Phil Korngut, the instrument scientist for SPHEREx at Caltech in Pasadena, California. “It’s a profound idea that we are looking at a map of material that could rain on nascent planets and potentially support future life.”

Planets need more water to support life than scientists previously thought

Unfortunately for science fiction fans, desert worlds outside our solar system are unlikely to host life, according to new research from the University of Washington. Scientists show that an Earth-sized planet needs at least 20 to 50% of the water in Earth’s oceans to maintain a critical natural cycle that keeps water on the surface.

Scientists believe that there are billions of planets outside our solar system. More than 6,000 of these exoplanets are confirmed, but only some of them are candidates for life. The search for life has focused on planets in the “habitable zone,” a sweet spot that is neither too close nor too far from a central star. Planets in this zone are considered viable because they can maintain liquid surface water.

“When you are searching for life in the broad landscape of the universe with limited resources, you have to filter out some planets,” said lead author Haskelle White-Gianella, a UW doctoral student of Earth and space sciences.

Lawrence Krauss — Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Consciousness?

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That the universe is fine-tuned for life, with multiple physical laws required to be within small ranges, is generally accepted. But can we then make the additional argument that the universe is somehow required to contain consciousness? Such a conclusion may not follow. But the key question is this: Is consciousness wholly contingent or somehow special?

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Lawrence Maxwell Krauss is a Canadian-American theoretical physicist and cosmologist who is a Foundation Professor of the School of Earth and Space Exploration, and director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University.

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Martin Rees — Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Life and Mind?

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If the deep laws of the universe had been ever so slightly different human beings wouldn’t, and couldn’t, exist. All explanations of this exquisite fine-tuning, obvious and not-so-obvious, have problems or complexities. Natural or supernatural, that is the question.

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Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, is a British cosmologist and astrophysicist. He has been Astronomer Royal since 1995 and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge from 2004 to 2012. He was President of the Royal Society between 2005 and 2010.

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Sean Carroll — Why Fine-tuning Seems Designed

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If all is random and our universe is the only universe, the chance existence of human awareness would seem incredible. Because the laws of physics would have to be so carefully calibrated to enable stars and planets to form and life to emerge, it would seem to require some kind of design. But there are other explanations.

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Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. His research focuses on fundamental physics and cosmology.

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