Life on other planets might not look like any beings we’re used to on Earth. It may even be unrecognizable at first to scientists searching for it. Credit: William Hand Topics: Astrobiology, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Planetary Science, SETI, Space Exploration Sarah Stewart Johnson was a college sophomore when she first stood atop Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano. ItsContinue reading “Reimagining ET…”
Category Archives: SETI
Studying UAPs…
Topics: Astrophysics, NASA, SETI I was startled, to say the least, that this story appears in Scientific American, and that NASA and theoretical astrophysicist Avi Loeb is interested in it. The nut job “giggle factor” has given way to curiosity about things humans cannot explain, and that bothers us as a species. My concern isContinue reading “Studying UAPs…”
Dyson Sphere Feedback…
Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Dyson Sphere, SETI Although the so-called Dysonian SETI has been much in the air in recent times, its origins date back to the birth of SETI itself. It was in 1960 – the same year that Frank Drake used the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia to study EpsilonContinue reading “Dyson Sphere Feedback…”
From Redshift to Enlightenment…
Topics: Astrobiology, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Carl Sagan, James Webb Space Telescope, SETI The relief was as deep as the stakes were high. At 7:20 A.M. (ET), the rocket carrying the largest, most ambitious space telescope in history cleared the launchpad in French Guiana, and the members of mission control at the Space Telescope Science Institute inContinue reading “From Redshift to Enlightenment…”
Life As We Don’t Know It…
Topics: Astrobiology, Philosophy, SETI, Space Exploration In my freshman seminar at Harvard last semester, I mentioned that the nearest star to the sun, Proxima Centauri, emits mostly infrared radiation and has a planet, Proxima b, in the habitable zone around it. As a challenge to the students, I asked: “Suppose there are creatures crawling on the surfaceContinue reading “Life As We Don’t Know It…”
Roaming Goldilocks…
Topics: Astrophysics, Planetary Science, SETI, Space Exploration Even as a child, before he devoted his life to the search for extraterrestrial life, Frank Drake wondered whether Earth was alone in its ability to harbor life. He wasn’t the first or the only one to wonder. There’s a reason so many are fascinated by the question:Continue reading “Roaming Goldilocks…”
Flirting by Starlight…
Topics: Astrophysics, Electromagnetic Radiation, Entanglement, SETI When we gaze up at the night sky, we might be accidentally eavesdropping on an alien conversation. At least, that’s according to Imperial College London quantum physicist Terry Rudolph, who last week published preprint research theorizing that an advanced extraterrestrial civilization might alter the light coming off stars in order toContinue reading “Flirting by Starlight…”
Nano, to Planck…
Topics: Barrow Scale, Kardashev Scale, Exoplanets, SETI The Kardashev Scale is a discussion, and ranking of civilizations based on energy output: Type I: able to marshal energy resources for communications on a planet-wide scale, equivalent to the entire present power consumption of the human race, or about 1016 watts. Here, Carl Sagan begged to differ, due to powerContinue reading “Nano, to Planck…”
Adversary, Friendly, or Neutral…
Topics: Aerodynamics, Applied Physics, Biology, Exoplanets, General Relativity, SETI May 17, 2019- No, little green men aren’t likely after the conquest of humanity. Boyd’s piece for Phys.org highlights the reason why the Pentagon wants to identify UFOs: they’re unidentified. If a warfighter on the ground or in the sky can’t ID an object, that creates aContinue reading “Adversary, Friendly, or Neutral…”
Panspermia…
Topics: Astrobiology, Biology, Cosmology, SETI Life, for all its complexities, has a simple commonality: It spreads. Plants, animals, and bacteria have colonized almost every nook and cranny of our world. But why stop there? Some scientists speculate that biological matter may have proliferated across the cosmos itself, transported from planet to planet on wayward lumpsContinue reading “Panspermia…”
Physics and Nano 