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Extraterrestrial Life

Extraterrestrial Life. Antígona Segura Peralta. Penn State University, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences Penn State Astrobiology Research Center. They do exist!. Astrobiology. Astrobiology is the science that studies the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the Universe.

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Extraterrestrial Life

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  1. Extraterrestrial Life Antígona Segura Peralta Penn State University, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences Penn State Astrobiology Research Center

  2. They do exist!

  3. Astrobiology Astrobiology is the science that studies the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the Universe

  4. The origin of life on Earth 4 billion years ago

  5. What does life need? • Raw materials: hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and minerals like iron and sulfur. • Energy: Sun, volcanoes • A liquid: Water

  6. Planets, the perfect place • They contain raw materials • Energy sources • They can have liquid water

  7. Our Solar System Uranus Pluto Saturn Jupiter Neptune Venus Mercury Earth Mars

  8. The terrestrial planets Very hot because its atmosphere Mercury Mars Very near the Sun Venus No atmosphere, cold but…

  9. Mars today

  10. Mars, an interesting past Ancient volcanoes Ancient rivers?

  11. Mars might be like this

  12. Little martian?

  13. The giant planets Jupiter Saturn Neptune Uranus

  14. Europa, Jupiter’s moon

  15. Europa

  16. Europa

  17. Milky Way 100 billion of stars!

  18. Where the stars are born Molecular cloud

  19. Formation of stars and planets Beta Pictoris, a newborn star

  20. Formation of stars and planets Beta Pictoris disk (artist conception)

  21. Extrasolar planets

  22. The life of the stars Red Giant Panetary nebula and white dwarf Yellow dwarf 10 billion years

  23. The life of the stars Blue giants 100 million years Supernova remmanent and neutron star Supernova

  24. A habitable world Characteristics: • Distance from its star, not too far, not too close • Size, not too big, not too small • Atmosphere to keep the planet warm and water liquid • Water

  25. Biomarkers Those features whose presence or abundance can be attributed to life

  26. Signatures of life?

  27. Small things can make big changes Cyanobacteria

  28. How to find a planet? Problem: The stars emit light (a lot!) and planets doesn’t, they just reflect the light from their parent star. • How to solve it? • Cover the star!!!! • Measure the effects of the planets on the stars: • Stars wobble because of the planets • Stars dim when a planet crosses in fron of them

  29. Looking for habitable worlds Kepler: • Look for terrestrial planets around 100,000 stars. • Launch on 2006.

  30. Looking for habitable worlds Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF): • Look for terrestrial planets around 100 nearby stars. • Analyze the planets to detect those that may be habitable • Launching on 2012-2015

  31. Looking for habitable worlds • Eddington: • Looking for planets bigger than Mars around 500,000 stars. • Launching on 2008.

  32. Looking for habitable worlds • Darwin: • Look for terrestrial planets around 1,000. • Launching after 2014.

  33. Globular Cluster M13 Intelligent life? Arecibo Antenna, Puerto Rico

  34. The Pioneer mesage

  35. Voyager

  36. SETI: Search for extraterrestrial life Allen array Project Phoenix

  37. A habitable world

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