FURTHER is an original series exploring the intersection of science and humanity. In the wake of Kepler-452b, Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at SETI Research weighs in on the potential for alien life. Producer: Marco Patricio & Vinny Verma Director: Vinny Verma & Stuart Langfield Animation: Stuart Langfield Additional Animation: Jennifer Mackie Original Composition: Jim Guthrie …
Tag: Alien Life
Harvard University: Sarah Rugheimer | Sniffing the Air of Alien Earths
Are we alone in the universe? We’ve found hundreds of planets orbiting distant stars, including several dozen in their star’s habitable zone. But do any of them host life? To find out, we’ll need to look for telltale molecules like oxygen or methane. The next generation of telescopes may answer this question when they take …
University of Arizona: Guy J. Consolmagno | What is Life?
Guy J. Consolmagno, SJ, Planetary Scientist, Vatican Observatory Research Group. Throughout history, our definition of ‘life’ reflects our assumptions about how the Universe works – and why we ask the question. The ways different human cultures, ancient and current, have talked about life provide some sense of how we have defined life, and illustrate the …
Caleb Scharf: The Copernicus Complex | Are We Special in the Cosmos?
Is humanity on Earth special or unexceptional? Extraordinary discoveries in astronomy and biology have revealed a universe filled with endlessly diverse planetary systems, and a picture of life as a phenomenon intimately linked with the most fundamental aspects of physics. But just where these discoveries will lead us is not yet clear. We may need …
The Planetary Society: Shaping the Search for Life
The seven-mirror Giant Magellan Telescope is being built at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, on an 8,500-foot peak in the Andes Mountains. It is expected to be operational for initial science observations in 2020. After spending three months cooling, the GMT’s third mirror was removed from its rotating furnace on Dec. 6, 2013 and …
Abraham (Avi) Loeb: New Search Methods for Primitive and Intelligent Life Far from Earth
Are we alone or is the universe teeming with life? is one of the most fundamental questions in science. The answer could have a dramatic impact on society and culture. Over the next decade, advances in technology will allow astronomers to address this question in new ways. Abraham (Avi) Loeb will describe a few novel …
NASA Space Experts Discuss the Search for Life in the Universe
NASA space-based observatories are making unprecedented new discoveries and revealing worlds never before seen. During a televised panel discussion of leading science and engineering experts at NASA Headquarters on Monday, July 14, a scientific and technological roadmap to lead to the discovery of potentially habitable worlds among the stars was addressed. The agency’s next step, …
ESA: Life in the Solar System
Charles Cockell, about exobiology research and the potential benefits of biomining on other celestial bodies. ESA has a long history of experiments exposing life to the harsh conditions of space. Can life survive space travel? Can life hitchhike across the galaxy and where did life come from to begin with?
Seth Shostak: The Search for Intelligent Life Among the Stars – New Strategies
In this talk hosted by the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures, Dr. Seth Shostak talks about the search for intelligent life in the universe. A half-century ago, astronomers began trying to “eavesdrop” for radio messages from nearby star systems. Today, SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) researchers continue to point their telescopes at individual stars, on the …
Chris McKay: Saturns Moon Titan – A World with Rivers, Lakes and Possibly Even Life
Hosted by the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures, in a talk held on March 9, 2011. Dr. Chris McKay from NASA’s Ames Research Center talks about Titan, Saturn’s largest satellite. Titan is the only moon with a thick atmosphere. In many ways, Titan is a cold twin of the Earth, with liquid methane playing the same …
SETI Chats: An Update on Exploration of the Titan Lakes
A SETI Institute Hangout with Nathalie Cabrol (Senior researcher at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute), Liam Pedersen (Senior Robotics Scientist at Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley / NASA Ames Research Center), and Leslie E. Bebout (Microbial Ecologist at NASA Ames) on the exploration of the Titan Lakes.
Freeman Dyson: Let’s look for life in the outer solar system
Physicist Freeman Dyson suggests that we start looking for life on the moons of Jupiter and out past Neptune, in the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud. He talks about what such life would be like — and how we might find it. From inventing Dyson Spheres, a sci-fi conceit postulating habitable shells around …
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