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Archive for the ‘alien life’ category: Page 4

Jan 28, 2024

New Discovery ‘Keeps Hope Alive’ to Find Signs of Life on Mars, Scientists Say

Posted by in category: alien life

NASA scans of Mars’ Jezero Crater confirm lake sediment layers that could contain evidence of ancient microbial life on the red planet.

Jan 24, 2024

Methane pulses on Mars possibly driven by atmospheric pressure changes

Posted by in category: alien life

New research shows that atmospheric pressure fluctuations that pull gases up from underground could be responsible for releasing subsurface methane into Mars’s atmosphere; knowing when and where to look for methane can help the Curiosity rover search for signs of life.

“Understanding Mars’s variations has been highlighted by NASA’s Curiosity team as the next key step towards figuring out where it comes from,” said John Ortiz, a graduate student at Los Alamos National Laboratory who led the research team. “There are several challenges associated with meeting that goal, and a big one is knowing what time of a given sol (Martian day) is best for Curiosity to perform an atmospheric sampling experiment.”

The paper was published Jan. 22 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

Jan 24, 2024

The Best Neighborhoods for Starting a Life in the Galaxy

Posted by in category: alien life

Planets may fare better in open areas, like the suburbs, instead of densely populated “urban” areas, said Jessie Christiansen, an exoplanet scientist at Caltech.


Some neighborhoods in the Milky Way may be better suited for making habitable planets than others.

Jan 22, 2024

The Invisible Dance Of Particles

Posted by in categories: alien life, mathematics, particle physics

In 1,827, botanist Robert Brown studied pollen particles’ motion as they were suspended in water. These little grains seemed to jitter around randomly. Brown performed as variety of tests on them and realized that all small particles, not just pollen, exhibited the same motion when suspended in water. Something other than the presence of life was causing these little particles to move around. Mathematicians took note and quickly developed a theory describing this process and named it Brownian Motion in his honor.

This theory has expanded well beyond its original context and become a beautiful subfield of mathematics called Stochastic Processes. Nowhere was this influence illustrated better than in 1905 when Albert Einstein used the theory of Brownian Motion to verify the existence of atoms. The makeup of our universe’s tiniest particles was highly debated at the time, and Einstein’s work helped solidify atomic theory.

Wow, that’s quite the leap! In order to understand how we got from pollen grains to confirming atomic theory, we’re going to have to learn some background about Brownian Motion. In this article, I’ll spend some time talking about the basics. This includes some cool videos that demonstrate the patterns of Brownian Motion and the statistics going on behind the scenes. We’ll then dive into Einstein’s version which came as one of his extremely influential series of papers in 1905. There’s a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get started!

Jan 21, 2024

New Findings From the James Webb Telescope Suggests That Life Could Have Existed Much Earlier Than Previously Thought

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New findings from the James Webb Space Telescope reveal a surprising abundance of oxygen in the early Universe. Researchers discovered that oxygen levels in galaxies surged within 500–700 million years following the Universe’s birth, reaching levels comparable to those in contemporary galaxies. This suggests that the essential elements for life were present much earlier than previously believed.

In the early Universe, shortly after the Big Bang, only light elements such as hydrogen, helium, and lithium existed. Heavier elements like oxygen were subsequently formed through nuclear fusion reactions within stars and dispersed into galaxies, primarily through events like supernova explosions. This ongoing process of element synthesis, unfolding over the vast expanse of cosmic history, created the diverse elements that constitute the world and living organisms around us.

Jan 20, 2024

Aliens Use Black Holes as Quantum Computers?

Posted by in categories: alien life, computing, quantum physics

In a recent study, a team of researchers at Max Planck Institute for Physics proposed that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations may be using black holes as quantum computers. No matter how advanced a civilization may be, we are all bound by the laws of quantum physics and gravity. So, if aliens are indeed out there, they could be using the geometry of spacetime around a black hole which behaves like a quantum computer. And, as if that weren’t enough, quantum computing is also immune to decryption, making it the perfect tool for secure communication. Roger Penrose, famously proposed that it is possible to extract limitless energy from a black hole by tapping into its Ergosphere. This is a region just outside the event horizon, where matter falling into the black hole forms a disk that spins at nearly the speed of light and emits massive amounts of radiation. Several researchers now suggest that this may be the ultimate power source for advanced civilizations. Subscribe to Science Time: https://www.youtube.com/sciencetime24 #science #shorts #space

Jan 19, 2024

The Fermi Paradox Explained

Posted by in categories: alien life, existential risks

If there is a high probability of alien life, why has none tried to make contact?

Jan 19, 2024

The Unsettling Explanation Of The Dark Forest Hypothesis: Why Aliens Haven’t Made Contact

Posted by in categories: alien life, existential risks

You have probably heard of the Fermi Paradox, but if you haven’t, here it is in a nutshell: Given the high probability that alien life exists out there in the universe (bearing in mind the vastness of space and that we keep finding planets within habitable zones) why has nobody got in touch yet? If there are so many other civilizations out there, possibly at far more advanced stages than we are because of how long the universe has dragged on, surely at least one would send out messages or probes, or do what we are doing: Desperately searching for signs of life?

Answers to the paradox range from the optimistic to the downright frightening. It could be that we simply haven’t been looking long enough, nor emitting our own traceable signatures for aliens to find us yet. Or it could be that no aliens will ever make it to the point where they are able to make contact with other species, destroying themselves long before they get to the kind of tech required to do so.

Jan 19, 2024

Astrophysicists explore links between atmospheric oxygen and detecting extraterrestrial technology on distant planets

Posted by in categories: alien life, physics

In the quest to understand the potential for life beyond Earth, researchers are widening their search to encompass not only biological markers, but also technological ones. While astrobiologists have long recognized the importance of oxygen for life as we know it, oxygen could also be a key to unlocking advanced technology on a planetary scale.

In a new perspective published in Nature Astronomy, Adam Frank, the Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester and the author of The Little Book of Aliens (Harper, 2023), and Amedeo Balbi, an associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Roma Tor Vergata, Italy, outline the links between and the potential rise of advanced technology on distant .

“We are ready to find signatures of life on alien worlds,” Frank says. “But how do the conditions on a planet tell us about the possibilities for intelligent, technology-producing life?”

Jan 16, 2024

Two potentially habitable planets found orbiting distant star

Posted by in category: alien life

The TOI-700 star system is home to four planets, including two in its habitable zone that could host liquid water.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA recently announced the discovery of a new, Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of a nearby star called TOI-700. We are two of the astronomers who led the discovery of this planet, called TOI-700 e is just over 100 light-years from Earth — too far away for humans to visit — but we do know that it is similar in size to Earth, likely rocky in composition and could potentially support life.

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