The Arecibo Message: Humanity’s Greeting to the Cosmos

Posted on April 27, 2019 by Sam Bianco

To this day, one of humanity’s most loaded questions remains unanswered: are we alone in this universe? Though we have yet to detect the presence of any extraterrestrial civilizations, that has not stopped humanity from attempting to make contact with whatever else might be out there.

Globular Cluster Messier 13. Image Source: Wikipedia

The most famous attempt to communicate humanity’s existence to the cosmos was a 3-minute binary transmission made in 1974 from Puerto Rico, a United States territory in the Caribbean. The broadcast was made using a planetary radar transmitter on the Arecibo radio telescope, and it was directed towards a globular cluster called Messier 13 (M13). The cluster contains about a third of a million stars, and the message’s senders hoped that an interstellar civilization ready to accept our transmission might be among these many star systems. However, M13 is near the edge of the Milky Way and lies at a whopping distance of about 25,000 light years. This means that it will take around 25,000 years for our message to actually reach the cluster, never mind the time it might take for us to actually receive a reply.

The Arecibo message encoded. Image Source: SETI Institute

The Arecibo message was the most powerful transmission ever purposefully beamed into space; it was equivalent in strength to a 20 trillion watt broadcast in all directions. The message includes 1679 bits that are meant to be arranged into a rectangular grid of 73 rows and 23 columns. These numbers were chosen because they are both prime, and presumbably, the extraterrestrials would recognize the significance. Once the aliens deciphered the message, they would have discovered the above image (though it carried no color information). Among other things, the picture represents DNA structure, a human stick figure, our solar system, the Arecibo radio dish, and eight biochemicals that define life on Earth.

Though the chances of receiving a reply to the Arecibo message are very slim, the project allowed us to more fully understand the complexities of communicating across time, space, and cultures.

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Extremophiles 101

Posted on April 27, 2019 by alfredprah

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Extremophiles produce some of the color at the Grand Prismatic Spring

Wikipedia defines “an extremophile as an organism that thrives in physically or geochemically extreme conditions that are detrimental to most life on Earth.” This means that if extremophiles were your classmates, they will totally be the cool kids in the class. Not only are extremophiles able to survive in extreme conditions; actually, many of them wouldn’t survive in supposedly “normal, moderate environments.”

What are some of these extreme conditions? Examples are highly acidic systems, highly alkaline systems, low temperatures, high temperatures, extreme UV radiation and high salinity, among others. What piques my interest as well as that of many Astrobiologists, is the fact that some of these environments that these extremophiles survive on are similar to those known to exist on other planets. This means we could have a good idea of how to prepare for some of the planets that we may someday explore, or to even decide if visiting the planet is a reasonable expedition in the first place.

Of all the extremophiles, Thermophiles are my favorite. As a matter of fact, I  am planning a trip to the Yellowstone National Park because of this organism. These organisms produce some of the color at the Grand Prismatic Spring in the park! Wikipedia defines a Thermophile as “an organism that thrives at relatively high temperatures, between 41 and 122 °C (106 and 252 °F).” Many thermophiles are archaea. “Archaea” refers to microbes that have no cell nucleus, and the first observed archaea were extremophiles, living in harsh environments such as hot springs and salt lakes.

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Chroococcidiopsis Aboard EXPOSE-R2

Posted on April 27, 2019 by richardficek
Wikipedia – Location of the Astrobiology EXPOSE-E and EXPOSE-R Facilities on the International Space Station

Chroococcidiopsis was sent aboard EXPOSE-R2 as part of the Biofilm Organisms Surfing Space (BOSS) experiment on July 24, 2014. Its goal was to test the hypothesis that “microorganisms grown as biofilms, hence embedded in self-produced extracellular polymeric substances, are more tolerant to space and Martian conditions compared to their planktonic counterparts” (or, put simply, to determine whether microorganisms, such as Chroococcidiopsis, can survive under Martian conditions longer than planktonic counterparts). Final results of the experiment are still being gathered, however, it was determined that strains of Chroococcidiopsis did show more tolerance to Martian conditions compared to their planktonic counterparts; the complete conclusion, per Wikipedia, states that

“Dried biofilms of three desert strains of Chroococcidiopsis showed overall higher viability [of survival under Martian conditions] and lower amounts of DNA damage when compared to [their] planktonic counterpart[s], and were consistent with ground Mars simulation experiments. The strains tested were CCMEE 029 from the Negev Desert, where they live beneath the surface of rocks (endoliths) and strains CCMEE 057 and CCMEE 064 from the Sinai Desert where they are both enndoliths and hypoliths (within rocks or on the ground sheltered beneath rocks).”

Overall, the results of BOSS are promising as scientists continue to search for organisms that could potentially inhabit other planets.

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Extremophile: Chroococcidiopsis

Posted on April 27, 2019 by richardficek
Wikipedia – Chroococcidiopsis thermalis

Chroococcidiopsis is a primitive, photosynthetic, coccoidal cyanobacteria that is able to resist desiccation (extreme dryness). Its ability to live in arid environments is due in part because it colonizes on the underside of translucent rocks which provide both enough condensed moisture for growth and enough light for photosynthesis to occur. Hence, because Chroococcidiopsis is resistant to harsh environmental conditions such as low temperature and radiation (in addition to low moisture) it is thought that the organism could potentially survive on Mars and aid in the formation of an aerobic atmosphere on the planet. The space mission EXOPSE-R2, launched on July 24, 2014 aboard the Russian Progress M-24M, includes samples of Chroococcidiopsis that will be exposed to a simulated Martian atmosphere, UVC radiation, and extreme temperatures to determine the microorganisms’ survival potential on Mars.

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The End of a Course, But The Start of a Passion!

Posted on April 27, 2019 by michaelfung1661
Image source here

What a ride this class has been! The sheer amount of new topics and discoveries I learned about is ridiculous, but my favorite has definitely got to be regarding the unknowns and potentials for life in our universe, or even our own Solar System! Learning about worlds such as Europa and Titan, and the liquid conditions that thrive far, far out in our system serve as great encouragement for future life out there. The narrative of exploration is huge, and has gotten me hooked to potential news in the future! The thought of Planet IX’s existence, and the fact that it took so long to notice that aberrations needed to be explained is exciting, as is the recent black hole image that everyone’s been hyped up about (and memeing about) lately! I can’t wait for the discoveries and advancements to come! 🙂

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A Great Semester

Posted on April 27, 2019 by dayvon
Image result for solar system
Source: Wikipedia – Image of the planets in our solar system (distances are not to scale)

This was a great class, and I’m grateful for all the information I learned. Some concepts were reemphasized since I knew them before taking the course, but I’ve received and retained some new, useful knowledge that I can share with others. I’ve been interested in all things concerning astronomy since I was young, and I take every opportunity I can to learn things about celestial phenomena. Exploring relative sizes of and relative distances between the different things in the solar system during class in addition to researching things that I didn’t even know existed such as the Oort Cloud and different moons was eye opening. Misconceptions of mine, like why the sky is blue during the day and the theory behind the formation of the solar system, have been corrected as well. Many people could benefit from the information presented. I believe that analyzing the cosmic perspective could help a lot of people in a multitude of ways. I knew that Earth was extremely small relative to many other things in the universe, but this class has made me realize just how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of everything.

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Space Travel?

Posted on April 27, 2019 by michaelfung1661
Image result for millennium falcon jump to lightspeed
Image source here

Jumping into hyperspace to make a lightspeed escape is typically something normally associated with the Millennium Falcon’s capabilities. Our technology, sad to say, is far from the point to where we could safely travel at such speeds. Therefore, even though there are plenty potential hotspots for investigation for life, civilized or microbial, habitable conditions, or ancient records of such…..or all of the above, sending man out to explore the unknown to an appreciable distance beyond our home is…complicated, to say the least. Honestly, the relative difference in time frame was a confusing point in space travel for me in the Star Wars universe, and while we can write it off in fiction, real-world applications aren’t as privy to poetic license.

The classic textbook example is that if you’re on a X-lightyear trip to a galaxy far, far away, a drastically higher number of years would occur on Earth relative to the ship’s crew. The difference in “time” passed poses a variety of societal challenges; even if we were to establish a base and form communication, to what end is it valuable if friends and family could even be dead in what you consider to be a trip of a few years? I don’t know if there’s ever going to be a right answer.

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Blog 7: Culmination of a Semester in Astronomy

Posted on April 27, 2019 by Katie

Because of this class my view of the solar system has changed. From a young age I knew the order of the planets and even some basic facts about each of them. What I did not know, however, was how much more there was to know not only about our solar system, but about the vast number of stars in our galaxy and the current work being done to find extra-solar planets. I have learned so much more information about what goes on inside the planets as well as the fascinating moons that particularly Jupiter and Saturn have. It has also been so interesting to see how the physics class I am currently in and this class coincide. On practically the same day we learned about magnetic fields and how they protect the Earth from charged particles from the sun. Similarly, we learned about Jupiter’s magnetic field and how the tidal forces brought about the volcanism of Io on the same day in Physics and Astronomy. This really excited me about the future classes that I want to take that are about the physics of astronomy.  Hopefully through taking these classes I would be able to more fully understand the current work that is happening in the search for exoplanets and in the continued search for an answer to the mystery of dark matter and dark energy, a field that is so fascinating to me.

Jupiter’s Magnetosphere
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Life Off Earth

Posted on April 27, 2019 by peytonbrown4560

Recently, I have read an article on Scott and Mark Kelly during the Twins Study by NASA. As a serious skeptic involving the potential for the human species to persist in space, I was surprised by the findings in study.

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Scott and Mark Kelly

In the study, Scott was sent into low Earth orbit while his twin brother Mark stayed on Earth. The goal was to test the resiliency of the human body and see if Scott demonstrated any threats to human longevity in space. Outside of a enduring sickness as Scott’s body readjusted to life outside of free-fall, he was healthy in all of the other aspects measured. Discrepancies were found, but these were somewhat anticipated as the body struggles against the new harsh environment that Scott had been flung into. The most surprising find, as mentioned in the article, was that while in space Scott’s telomere’s were elongated but quickly shrank back down after landing. Telomere shortening is the chief indicator of aging, so the fact that they grew is odd especially considering lifestyles such as high stress and low exercise can increase the rate at which they shorten. Some suggestion indicates this could have been due to a higher exercise regime and a better choice of nutrition.

Moving forward past low Earth orbit, there are other factors to consider. Once astronauts leave the tail of the Earth’s magnetosphere, solar winds could affect the human body in ways that the Twin Study could not predict. Additionally, this study did not address how the human body would react to illnesses in space. Also, even if an individual is capable of living an long healthy life outside Earth, the prospect of procreation seems like a huge endeavor; however, a 2001 study on rats does suggest that birth is possible in microgravity.

Overall, I am excited to see so much progress towards pushing the species to new reaches of the universe, but certainly it will be a rough time for the first pioneers who set out with full knowledge that they will live out their lives without the comforts of Earth that humans have evolved to used to.

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Ethics of Space Travel

Posted on April 27, 2019 by Jonathan Roberts

As eager as we are to explore the solar system and beyond, space is not a very hospital place. Muscular atrophy, increased exposure to harmful radiation, and insomnia are just a few of the effects of spaceflight on the human body. Even acknowledging these known risks and the possibility of others, many people are eager to go to space, and would relish the chance to be on the first manned expedition to Mars. Is it ethical to sponsor such a journey?

MRIs before and after space travel

Technological advances are impossible to accurately predict, but it seems reasonable to speculate we won’t be confident of a risk-free journey by the time we begin a Martian expedition. NASA has limits on the amount of radiation an astronaut can receive. However, a report from them states that they are “likely to seek an exception from the current standards” with regards to a trip to Mars. Their approach to other concerns largely relies on ensuring the astronauts are making an informed decision about their own well-being, regardless of how dangerous the outcome might be.

Should any qualified candidate be able to volunteer for a long-distance exploration, regardless of the danger posed? Or, should we wait until space travel is much safer? The line between acceptable and unacceptable risk is difficult to see.

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