Current Events in Astrobiology

Hi students,

Today you are going to find a current events article relating to the search for alien life in space.

You may use google or any search engine you wish.  You may also use http://phys.org/space-news/ or http://www.astrobiology.com/ to find an article that interests you.

Read your article, write a one paragraph summary, and email me the LINK to the article and the summary at james_trainer@dpsk12.org.

Here are some articles from students (you may not use these!)..

Kiki: In this article it states that 1,000 new exoplanets have been found. And because of the Kepler telescope in space has detected 3,588 planets in total! Thats only with one telescope, so there is a possibility of life on other planets. Also, this article is mainly just stating that the Kepler telescope is just searching a patch in the sky, that beyond our reach there is ET life out there.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/09/29/number-confirmed-alien-planets-nears-1000/

Juan: A group of British researchers sent up an balloon up to the stratosphere above England and when the balloon came back down they found living microbes on the balloon and the microbes were being supported by the environment of the stratosphere.  Other bacteria and lifeforms have been found high above planet earth. This alone can tell us that lifeforms can live in a more space condition with a very small fraction or poor like earth condition.

New Alien Life Claim Far from Convincing, Scientists Say

Nora:    In this article, they are investigating about the existence of life on exomoons. There has not yet been a discovery of an exomoon but they predict there is a possibility for life to exist if it has the right conditions, in the habitable zone. They believe there could me more exomoons than exoplanets. They are investigating how the climate of an exomoon will be affected by tidal stresses which provide a source of internal heating for the exomoon as it is stretched and deformed by the gravitational pull of its planet. They are also investigating how light reflected from the exoplanet, and eclipses by the exoplanet, can also subtly alter the exomoon’s climate.

http://www.space.com/25645-move-over-exoplanets-exomoons-may-harbour-life-too.html

Ashley:  Sceinetists have found what seems to be an ocean on Saturn's moon, Enceladus, and that gives them a possible thought that alien life could be there.Thought it is not the only moon to have water on it and possiblely extraterrisetial life. Jupiters largest moon is capable to have life as well.Though sceintists wonder "What coniditons are there suppose to be for life?" They still dont know the ocean's temperature. So it's still a mystery.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/apr/03/ocean-enceladus-alien-life-water-saturn-moon

Astrobiology: Finding other Earths

Hi students!  Today we are going to learn about the search for exoplanets (planets beyond our solar system) that may support life.

Objective: SWBAT describe how the Kepler mission finds exoplanets and describe the criteria by which we assess the habitability of exoplanets.

Today's assignment:  You will be assigned a topic to research in a small group.  Visit the links below for your topic, gather information according to the guiding questions you are given, and prepare a very short presentation to describe your topic to another group.  Your presentation should contain at least one image, answers to the guiding questions, definitions for key vocabulary, and examples of scientific discoveries pertaining to your topic.  You should expect to speak to a group about your topic for 1 or 2 minutes.

Exoplanets
http://www.space.com/17738-exoplanets.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/04/140417-exoplanet-interactive/#

Kepler Mission
http://kepler.nasa.gov/Mission/QuickGuide/howKeplerFindsPlanets/
http://astro.unl.edu/naap/esp/detection.html

Habitable Zone
http://www.pbs.org/lifebeyondearth/alone/habitable.html
http://www.hzgallery.org/

Goldilocks
http://phys.org/news/2013-12-goldilocks-clue-habitable-planets.html#nRlv
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/29mar_goldilocks/

After your research and preparation time is up, you will get sorted into different groups to share your information.  During that time, you will complete this graphic organizer.

Unit 7: The Search for Alien Life, Day 1 - Fermi's Paradox

Hi students!

Now we are learning about aliens.  Awesome.

Today we are learning about Fermi's Paradox.  Enrico Fermi was a famous physicist who figured out that there has been enough time for intelligent alien life to colonize the galaxy, yet we cannot detect their presence today.  This is a paradox, which is a self-contradictory idea.

Here is a great visual explanation of Fermi's Paradox:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2apGYUX7Q0

Later on, another physicist checked Fermi's math and developed this formula:

This is the Drake equation.  When it was initially solved, using what we knew about the milky way galaxy in the 60's, the solution estimated that there should be 10,000 intelligent civilizations in the milky way galaxy.  Today, we know more about the milky way and the current solution is that there should be 0.08 intelligent civilizations in our galaxy.  This is weird because we know of at least 1.

Here is a great visual explanation of the Drake Equation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AnLznzIjSE