For most of us, asteroids exist primarily as a threat. An asteroid that landed around the Yucatan peninsula, after all, is generally considered to have set into motion the changes that resulted in the elimination of the dinosaurs. Other large in-coming asteroids laid waste to swaths of Siberia in 1908, dug the world's largest crater …
NASA Panel Supports Life-Detecting Lander for Europa
It has been four long decades since NASA has sent an officially-designated life detection mission into space. The confused results of the Viking missions to Mars in the mid 1970s were so controversial and contradictory that scientists -- or the agency at least -- concluded that the knowledge needed to convincingly search for extraterrestrial life …
Continue reading "NASA Panel Supports Life-Detecting Lander for Europa"
NASA Panel Supports Life-Detecting Lander for Europa
It has been four long decades since NASA has sent an officially-designated life detection mission into space. The confused results of the Viking missions to Mars in the mid 1970s were so controversial and contradictory that scientists -- or the agency at least -- concluded that the knowledge needed to convincingly search for extraterrestrial life …
Continue reading "NASA Panel Supports Life-Detecting Lander for Europa"
Do Intelligent Civilizations Across the Galaxies Self Destruct? For Better and Worse, We’re The Test Case
In 1950, while working at Los Alamos National Laboratory, renowned physicist Enrico Fermi was lunching with colleagues including Edward Teller, Herbert York an Emil Konopinski. The group talked and laughed about a spate of recent UFO reports during the meal, as well as a cartoon about who might be stealing garbage can tops. Was it …
Do Intelligent Civilizations Across the Galaxies Self Destruct? For Better and Worse, We're The Test Case
In 1950, while working at Los Alamos National Laboratory, renowned physicist Enrico Fermi was lunching with colleagues including Edward Teller, Herbert York an Emil Konopinski. The group talked and laughed about a spate of recent UFO reports during the meal, as well as a cartoon about who might be stealing garbage can tops. Was it …
A Four Planet System in Orbit, Directly Imaged and Remarkable
Now on Facebook: http://facebook.com/nexssmanyworlds/ The era of directly imaging exoplanets has only just begun, but the science and viewing pleasures to come are appealingly apparent. This evocative movie of four planets more massive than Jupiter orbiting the young star HR 8799 is a composite of sorts, including images taken over seven years at the W.M. …
Continue reading "A Four Planet System in Orbit, Directly Imaged and Remarkable"
A Four Planet System in Orbit, Directly Imaged and Remarkable
Now on Facebook: http://facebook.com/nexssmanyworlds/ The era of directly imaging exoplanets has only just begun, but the science and viewing pleasures to come are appealingly apparent. This evocative movie of four planets more massive than Jupiter orbiting the young star HR 8799 is a composite of sorts, including images taken over seven years at the W.M. …
Continue reading "A Four Planet System in Orbit, Directly Imaged and Remarkable"
Messy Chemistry, Evolving Rocks, and the Origin of Life
Noted synthetic life researcher Steven Benner of Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution (FfAME) is fond of pointing out that gooey tars are the end product of too many experiments in his field. His widely-held view is that the tars, made out of chemicals known to be important in the origin of life, are nonetheless …
Continue reading "Messy Chemistry, Evolving Rocks, and the Origin of Life"
Messy Chemistry, Evolving Rocks, and the Origin of Life
Noted synthetic life researcher Steven Benner of Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution is fond of pointing out that gooey tars are the end product of too many experiments in his field. His widely-held view is that the tars, made out of chemicals known to be important in the origin of life, are nonetheless a dead …
Continue reading "Messy Chemistry, Evolving Rocks, and the Origin of Life"
Direct Imaging Earth and Moon from Mars
Sometimes images arrive that make it clear that the space age is not a throw-away line, but a reality. This one was taken by a satellite orbiting Mars, and it shows the Earth and the moon. Kind of remarkable, given that the camera -- the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars …
Many Worlds 