Tag Archives: life

Astro2110 Reflection

I learned many things about the solar system this semester. The topic I learned that was the most surprising to me was the composition of the Jovian planets. Despite being known as gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn are mostly composed of liquid and metallic hydrogen. Furthermore, although Uranus and Neptune is largely made from gaseous […] Continue reading

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Is There Life Outside Earth?

A common question many people have asked is if there is life outside Earth and in the Milky Way Galaxy. Current observations and technology have not progressed enough to give a conclusive answer to this exciting and concerning question however people are still searching. One astrophysicist/astrobiologist named Frank Drake came up with an equation to […] Continue reading

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Life Elsewhere in the Universe?

Picture Credit: Columbia University As generations of humans have looked out on the stars, a never ending barrage of questions has ensued. As we learned that these celestial bodies were stars and planets similar to our own, the natural next question was is there anybody else like us out there? The bad answer is no. […] Continue reading

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So Where Is Everybody?

As one may have gathered from reading the many, many pages of “The Cosmic Perspective,” the human race has learned a lot about the universe. We can determine the masses, chemical compositions, and orbital paths of celestial bodies. We’ve identified thousands of planetary systems in outside our own. We know how stars are born and […] Continue reading

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Blog 8 – Beyond Saturn

There is likely a subsurface ocean on Enceladus! Enceladus is the sixth moon of Saturn and is the brightest world in the solar system. This world is small and icy, which lead scientists to believe it was geologically dead, as most small, icy worlds tend to be. However, it was discovered geyser-like jets spew water […] Continue reading

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Blog 7 – Extremeophiles on Mars?!

Unfortunately, life on other planets has not yet been found but astronomers and astrobiologists are constantly working to find any signs of it in our solar system and beyond. One of the most investigated worlds is our neighbor, Mars. While evidence has not yet been found, there have been discoveries that lead some to believe […] Continue reading

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Life On? Venus

Venus is known as Earth’s sister planet due to their similar sizes and structures, but Venus is a very different world than what we know on Earth. As NASA notes, if you were to slice both Venus and Earth down the middle, their interiors would be very similar, but their surfaces are much different. One […] Continue reading

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Life on Europa??

One of humanity’s greatest wonders is if life could exist outside of Earth. Surely humans are not the only living creatures to exist in the entire universe, but where could other organisms flourish? Scientists have identified three key criteria that make life possible: liquid water, chemistry, and energy. Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons and the […] Continue reading

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Astrobiology & The Search For Life

Astrobiology is the study of life that occurs somewhere other than Earth, as we’ve learned in class, and this blog post emphasizes its developments and possible future directions. There have been substantial scientific, technological, and programmatic advances achieved in the hunt for extraterrestrial life since the 2015 publication of NASA’s Astrobiology Strategy. Understanding the beginnings […] Continue reading

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How Extremophiles Work

As we talked about in class a few weeks ago, Extremophiles are living things that flourish under challenging conditions.They are amazing because they can endure situations that would be fatal to the majority of other life forms. They originate from Archaea, Eubacteria, and Eukarya, the three branches of the three-domain categorization scheme. Extremophiles have caused […] Continue reading

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