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Duplicating the harsh conditions of space in their laboratory, NASA scientists have created primitive cells with membrane-like structures. These chemical compounds may have played a part in the origin of life.
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Wednesday, October 01, 2003
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The terrestrial neighborhood is rich with both extremes of hot and cold, depending on whether one looks to Venus or Mars. Whether Venus has too much atmosphere or whether Mars has too little determines whether they rank as hospitable or hostile.
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Saturday, September 27, 2003
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Sitting beneath a dark night sky, looking up at the vast array of stars, what human has not wondered, "Are we alone?"
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Wednesday, September 24, 2003
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Christopher F. Chyba of the SETI Institute discusses the search for life in the Universe. Are we alone?
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Friday, September 19, 2003
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The idle processing power of millions of computers, turned to look for a stray signal from billions of stars, now has a target: 150 promising signals to be handled again in a new SETI@home project.
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Friday, September 12, 2003
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Using the Hubble and Hawaiian Keck Telescopes in tandem, astronomers have discovered a new class of star clusters. The star-rich regions have been called orphans, because they appear to be ripped by gravity from their parent galaxies. The globular clusters populate otherwise relatively empty space, and drift between galaxies without a strong sense of direction.
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Tuesday, September 09, 2003
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To understand how intelligence develops, we have only one example to study: the development of human intelligence on Earth. Since intelligent life took a long time to develop on Earth, some believe it will take just as long on other worlds. The appearance of evolution seems aimed towards the development of intelligence, but what kinds and with what frequencies?
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Sunday, September 07, 2003
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Thick Venusian clouds mask a dense greenhouse atmosphere that is inhospitably hot. But 30 miles up from the surface, conditions suggest a more temperate zone. Some scientists wonder what strange equilibrium sustains a reactive gas mixture that shouldn't co-exist there: exotic biology or not?
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Saturday, September 06, 2003
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The scientific community has been impressed with the robustness of environments that can support life, ranging from Antarctic lakes to salt mines to nuclear reactors. But conventional wisdom has presumed that life traveling to Earth on a fiery meteor - if possible - would meet a quick sterilizing death. The SETI Institute's Seth Shostak addresses whether life from a warm terrestrial pond can be compared to life travelling on a fireball.
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Thursday, September 04, 2003
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Advanced space telescopes might soon probe far-off worlds for the chemical signatures of alien life.
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Full story...
Monday, September 01, 2003
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