A new study proposes a shift in the search for extraterrestrial life, moving away from individual biosignatures toward large-scale planetary patterns.
Category: alien life
A new way to detect life beyond Earth without knowing what life looks like
A research team of Specially Appointed Associate Professor Harrison B. Smith of Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Institute of Science Tokyo and Specially Appointed Associate Professor Lana Sinapayen of National Institute for Basic Biology has developed a new approach to detecting life beyond Earth that does not rely on identifying specific biological markers. Instead, the study suggests that life may be detectable through patterns emerging across groups of planets, offering a new framework for astrobiology in situations where traditional biosignatures are ambiguous or unreliable.
Surprise: There was a universe before the Big Bang | Ethan Siegel
“Asking the question of, where did the entire universe come from, is no longer a question for poets and theologians and philosophers. This is a question for scientists, and we have some amazing scientific answers to this question that have defied even the wildest of our expectations.” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► / @bigthink Up next, The mind-blowing circle of life, explained by a biologist ►
• The mind-blowing circle of life, explained… Ethan Siegel, theoretical astrophysicist and science communicator, author of the James Webb Space Telescope book, “Infinite Cosmos,” and writer of the science blog, “Starts With A Bang” joins us to explore the cosmic origins of our universe. Read Ethan’s companion article: https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-ba… — Where did the entire universe come from? 0:57 — A question for scientists 1:43 — The quest for the beginning of the universe 2:21 — Hubble’s telescope 4:09 — Extragalactic objects 5:11 — Blueshifted vs redshifted 6:53 — General theory of relativity 7:50 — The cosmic egg 8:26 — The origin of The Big Bang 9:55 — A cosmological constant 14:24 — Scale invariant spectrum 15:13 — Testing for Cosmic Inflation 19:34 — Our cosmic origins 21:03 — Ethan Siegel, kilt influencer Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-t…
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About Ethan Siegel: Ethan Siegel is a Ph.D. astrophysicist and author of “Starts with a Bang!” He is a science communicator, who professes physics and astronomy at various colleges. He has won numerous awards for science writing since 2008 for his blog, including the award for best science blog by the Institute of Physics. His three books “Treknology: The Science of Star Trek from Tricorders to Warp Drive,” “Beyond the Galaxy: How humanity looked beyond our Milky Way and discovered the entire Universe,” and “Infinite Cosmos: Visions From the James Webb Space Telescope” are available for purchase at Amazon. Follow him on X @startswithabang.
NASA Rover Uncovers Rare Organic Molecules on Mars
“We think we’re looking at organic matter that’s been preserved on Mars for 3.5 billion years,” said Dr. Amy Williams. [ https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/30462/nasa-rover-unc…les-mars-2](https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/30462/nasa-rover-unc…les-mars-2)
Does Mars contain the building blocks for life as we know it? This is what a recent study published in Nature Communications hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated whether the surface of Mars could preserve evidence for life as we know it using experiments from one of its rovers. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand how and where to search for past evidence of life as we know it and comes as NASA is working to return samples from the surface of Mars.
For the study, the researchers examined data obtained from NASA’s Curiosity rover, which has been exploring Gale Crater on Mars since 2012. Recently, it used its cache of scientific instruments to identify more than 20 organic molecules from 3.5-billion-year-old Martian clays. These included a first-time identification of DNA precursors and specific chemicals that are delivered to planets via meteorites.
Cosmic Strings — Cracks in the Fabric of the Universe
Cosmic strings may be ultra-thin defects in spacetime—relic “cracks” from the early universe. How we’d detect them, what they mean for physics, and how aliens might exploit them.
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/ discord Credits: Cosmic Strings – Cracks in the Fabric of the Universe Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images Chapters 0:00 Intro — Cracks in the Fabric of the Universe 6:11 From Defects to Cosmic Strings 13:31 Civilizations and Cosmic Strings: Tools, Traps, and Temptations 19:43 Nebula 20:39 Cousins, Confusions, and What a Discovery Would Mean.
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Credits:
Cosmic Strings – Cracks in the Fabric of the Universe.
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur.
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images.
Chapters.
0:00 Intro — Cracks in the Fabric of the Universe.
6:11 From Defects to Cosmic Strings.
13:31 Civilizations and Cosmic Strings: Tools, Traps, and Temptations.
19:43 Nebula.
20:39 Cousins, Confusions, and What a Discovery Would Mean.
Roger Penrose — Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Life and Mind?
If the deep laws of the universe had been ever so slightly different human beings wouldn’t, and couldn’t, exist. All explanations of this exquisite fine-tuning, obvious and not-so-obvious, have problems or complexities. Natural or supernatural, that is the question.
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‘Interstellar glaciers’: NASA’s SPHEREx maps vast galactic ice regions
NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) mission has mapped interstellar ice at an unprecedented scale. Covering regions in our Milky Way galaxy more than 600 light-years across, the ice was found inside giant molecular clouds—vast regions of gas and dust where dense clumps of matter collapse under gravity, giving birth to stars. A study describing these findings was published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal.
One of SPHEREx’s main goals is to map the chemical signatures of various types of interstellar ice. This ice includes molecules like water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide, which are vital to the chemistry that allows life to develop. Researchers believe these ice reservoirs, attached to the surfaces of tiny dust grains, are where most of the universe’s water is formed and stored. The water in Earth’s oceans —and the ices in comets and on other planets and moons in our galaxy—originates from these regions.
“These vast frozen complexes are like ‘interstellar glaciers’ that could deliver a massive water supply to new solar systems that will be born in the region,” said study co-author Phil Korngut, the instrument scientist for SPHEREx at Caltech in Pasadena, California. “It’s a profound idea that we are looking at a map of material that could rain on nascent planets and potentially support future life.”
Planets need more water to support life than scientists previously thought
Unfortunately for science fiction fans, desert worlds outside our solar system are unlikely to host life, according to new research from the University of Washington. Scientists show that an Earth-sized planet needs at least 20 to 50% of the water in Earth’s oceans to maintain a critical natural cycle that keeps water on the surface.
Scientists believe that there are billions of planets outside our solar system. More than 6,000 of these exoplanets are confirmed, but only some of them are candidates for life. The search for life has focused on planets in the “habitable zone,” a sweet spot that is neither too close nor too far from a central star. Planets in this zone are considered viable because they can maintain liquid surface water.
“When you are searching for life in the broad landscape of the universe with limited resources, you have to filter out some planets,” said lead author Haskelle White-Gianella, a UW doctoral student of Earth and space sciences.
Lawrence Krauss — Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Consciousness?
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That the universe is fine-tuned for life, with multiple physical laws required to be within small ranges, is generally accepted. But can we then make the additional argument that the universe is somehow required to contain consciousness? Such a conclusion may not follow. But the key question is this: Is consciousness wholly contingent or somehow special?
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Lawrence Maxwell Krauss is a Canadian-American theoretical physicist and cosmologist who is a Foundation Professor of the School of Earth and Space Exploration, and director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University.
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