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Extra-terrestrial life: Is there anybody out there? Dr Martin Hendry University of Glasgow Reach for the Stars Is there Anybody Out There? Life in the Solar System? Extra-Solar Planets Searching for Life Life in the Solar System Runaway Greenhouse Effect Formation of the Moon: Impact from Mars-sized planetesimal during first aeon. Impact energy = 1 million million megatons 5 billion cubic miles of the crust sprayed into space Atmosphere ejected into space Ring of ejecta coalesces into Moon Is there life on Mars?… Is there life on Mars?… Mars 2004: Mars Express ( + Beagle 2) Spirit + Opportunity Jan 23rd 2004: Mars Express Orbiter detects water ice at the South Pole of Mars. Jan 23rd 2004: Mars Express Orbiter detects water ice at the South Pole of Mars. Jan 23rd 2004: Mars Express Orbiter detects water ice at the South Pole of Mars. H2O CO2 Visible light Water on Mars Images suggest flowing water on Mars in the past Mars Earth 2mm The moons of Jupiter Isaac Newton: 1642 – 1727 AD The Principia: 1684 - 1686 The tidal pull of the Moon on the Earth Galileo’s Moons Inside Europa Could there be life?….. EXTRA-SOLAR PLANETS The stars are VERY far away. The nearest star (after the Sun) is about 40 million million km from the Earth. It takes light more than 4 years to travel this distance.. If the distance from the Earth to the Sun were the width of this screen, the nearest star would be in Paris !!!! Wobbling stars: the key to finding extra-solar planets Planets are too faint to see directly but Planets and stars orbit their common centre of mass - so stars wobble The Sun’s “wobble”, due to Jupiter, seen from 30 light years away = width of a 5p piece in Baghdad The Electromagnetic Spectrum Doppler Shift Star Laboratory The origin of spectral lines Absorption ee- Emission ee- Star Laboratory 51 Peg – the first new planet What have we learned about exoplanets? Highly active, and rapidly changing, field Aug 2000: 29 exoplanets What have we learned about exoplanets? Highly active, and rapidly changing, field Aug 2000: 29 exoplanets 2004: ~120 exoplanets What have we learned about exoplanets? Highly active, and rapidly changing, field Aug 2000: 29 exoplanets Up-to-date summary at http://www.exoplanets.org Now finding planets at larger orbital semimajor axis 2004: ~120 exoplanets Looking to the Future 1. The Doppler wobble technique will not be sensitive enough to detect Earth-type planets (i.e. Earth mass at 1 A.U.), but will continue to detect more massive planets Looking to the Future 1. The Doppler wobble technique will not be sensitive enough to detect Earth-type planets (i.e. Earth mass at 1 A.U.), but will continue to detect more massive planets 2. The ‘position wobble’ (astrometric) technique will detect Earth-type planets – Space Interferometry Mission in 2009 (already done with HST in Dec 2002 for a 2 x Jupiter-mass planet) Looking to the Future 1. The Doppler wobble technique will not be sensitive enough to detect Earth-type planets (i.e. Earth mass at 1 A.U.), but will continue to detect more massive planets 2. The ‘position wobble’ (astrometric) technique will detect Earth-type planets – Space Interferometry Mission in 2009 (already done with HST in Dec 2002 for a 2 x Jupiter-mass planet) 3. The Kepler mission (launch 2007?) will detect transits of Earth-type planets, by observing the brightness dip of stars (already done in 2000 with Keck for a 0.5 x Jupiter-mass planet) Looking to the Future 1. The Doppler wobble technique will not be sensitive enough to detect Earth-type planets (i.e. Earth mass at 1 A.U.), but will continue to detect more massive planets 2. The ‘position wobble’ (astrometric) technique will detect Earth-type planets – Space Interferometry Mission in 2009 (already done with HST in Dec 2002 for a 2 x Jupiter-mass planet) 3. The Kepler mission (launch 2007?) will detect transits of Earth-type planets, by observing the brightness dip of stars (already done in 2000 with Keck for a 0.5 x Jupiter-mass planet) There was a (rare) transit of Mercury on May 7th 2003, and a (very rare) transit of Venus on June 8th 2004 Looking to the Future 4. NASA: Terrestrial Planet Finder ESA: Darwin } ~ 2015 launch These missions plan to use nulling interferometry to ‘blot out’ the light of the parent star, revealing Earth-mass planets Looking to the Future 4. ESP NASA: Terrestrial Planet Finder ESA: Darwin } ~ 2015 launch These missions plan to use nulling interferometry to ‘blot out’ the light of the parent star, revealing Earth-mass planets Follow-up spectroscopy will search for signatures of life:Spectral lines of oxygen, water carbon dioxide in atmosphere Simulated ‘Earth’ from 30 light years What will TPF look for?…. Earth from 30 lyrs Is there anybody out there?…. ….if there isn’t, it seems a terrible waste of space !!!!