Questions tagged [astrobiology]
Questions about the origins of life on Earth, and the existence and detection of extraterrestrial life.
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What earth organisms might survive if they arrived on Mars?
Contaminating other planets is a concern in space exploration. My question is what organisms, or small collections of organisms, from earth would be able form a self-sustaining population on Mars? I'm ...
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Serious alternate form of the Drake Equation, or graffiti?
Where I live it is very common to see jackets and T-shirts with familiar yet casually garbled or modified content (example)
I recently spotted what looked a lot like the Drake equation on the back of ...
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Why there are no terrestrial planets with a subsurface ocean?
Subsurface oceans in satellites are pretty common: Europa, Enceladus, Ganymede, Callisto, maybe Pluto... This is due to tidal heating of their host planet, Jupiter and Saturn, which heats up the inner ...
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Why do aliens have to be carbon based lifeforms?
So correct me if I'm wrong, but when searching for extra terrestrial life, scientists usually search for signs they would expect for life on earth to thrive in. We look for conditions on planets that ...
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How is an exoplanet characterised as "Earth-Like"?
Which features or characteristics are taken into account to characterize an exoplanet as "Earth-Like"?
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Are there plans to detect life on Earth from the outer solar system?
This has been kicking around in my head for a while. We've been detecting planets for decades by observing regular dips in starlight from many light years away as a planet transits its host star. I've ...
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Could the James Webb Space Telescope detect biosignals on exoplanets?
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) which is slated to launch in 2018 will bring us a better view of exoplanets, but will it be sufficient to detect signs of life on at least some of those worlds?
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What is the probability of life having developed or going to develop in our solar system another time?
I'm sorry I am not quite sure this question satisfies this point:
Questions that are purely hypothetical, for example a question such as 'Could a black hole destroy the universe' or 'What if our ...
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Is early life required for life?
I was watching the new Cosmos and Neil DeGrasse Tyson said something that made me go hmmm...
He mentioned that the only reason that the Earth did not experience the runaway greenhouse effect like ...
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What are the prospects for follow-up observations of phosphine on Venus?
Today, it was officially announced that astronomers have detected phosphine on Venus via the $\text{PH}_3(0\to1)$ transition (Greaves et al 2020). While the line was found by both the James Clerk ...
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How much competition there is for jobs in astronomy compared to other fields of science?
I will soon finish a master's degree in computer science. I have been interested in astronomy for some time, which has included playing around with a Newtonian reflector telescope and reading about ...
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Is axial tilt critical for life?
According to this explanation at the Georgia State University website,
Axis Tilt is Critical for Life
. . .
The Earth's spin axis is tilted 23.5° with respect to the ecliptic, giving ...
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Why N$_2$ is a non-absorbing species in the spectrum of the Earth?
The transmission spectrum of the Earth atmosphere is like that (Kaltenegger & Traub 2009):
As you can see, you can find many absorption lines related to some components of Earth's atmosphere: H$...
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Why are ice giants not considered suitable for life?
Ice giants are currently not considered suitable for life due to temperature, pressure and composition. This paper gives some parameters for life in regards to temperature, pressure and composition:
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What limits can we set about life beneath the ice of Europa?
Do we know enough about the conditions beneath the ice of Europa to say anything about the complexity of life that may live there? Can we rule out macroscopic life?
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