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Johnnie French Life in the Universe Dr. Melinda Hutson 01 October 2010 Lab Exercise #1 Read The Astrobiology Primer: An Outline of General Knowledge – Version 1, 2006 by Billings, L. et al. Sections include: o Stellar Formation and Evolution o Planetary Formation and Evolution o Astrobiogeochemistry and the Origin of Life o Evolution of Life Through Time o Planet Detection and Characterization o Diversity of Life o Science in Space Astrobiology didn’t exist before 1996. Scientists with NASA and JPL found compelling evidence for Life on Mars from a Martian meteorite. After a huge debate, the jury is still out. Main topics of interest for Astrobiology are: Intelligent extraterrestrial life/civilizations o Seti – Search for extraterrestrial intelligence. According to www.seti.org their mission “is to explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe.” o Fermi Paradox – The contradiction between high estimates of intelligent life in the universe and the lack of evidence to support this o Drake equation – used to estimate the number of potential extraterrestrial equations in the universe. It was first devised by Frank Drake in 1962. According to Wikipedia, current estimates of the equation result in 2.31 intelligent civilizations. Life in any form o Conditions for life o Extremophiles o Habitable planets such as Mars, Europa, Titan o Bacteria can survive in dehydration for millions of years Other Earth-like planets o Spectra o Detecting extra-solar planets (Gravitational lensing ect…) o Planets from models and modeling o Stellar life cycles o Where elements come from (stars and stellar death) Our Solar System http://qwickstep.com/search/dwarf-planets.html There are currently 8 recognized planets and 3 dwarf planets in the solar system. Our technology isn’t capable of seeing entire exo-solar systems. We can see gas giants but not their smaller rocky earth-like neighbors. Sol is our star, the sun. Everything in our solar system is gravitationally bound to the sun A star is a gaseous sphere that produces enough heat in its interior by nuclear fusion to withstand the force of gravity. Planet (from the Greek word meaning wanderer) Originally, they were little points of light that moved through the constellations. Now they are reasonably large objects that orbit the sun. Must be directly orbiting the sun to be a planet (i.e. moons) There are four inner earth-like terrestrial planets and four outer Jovian planets. The asteroid belt separates the inner solar system from the outer. The belt is actually very spread out and is comprised of less material than is found in our moon. Dwarf planets include Ceres, an asteroid, Pluto and Eris, Kuiper belt objects. Pluto’s orbit is tilted 15 degrees out of plane and is highly elliptical. Earth is really a binary planet system. However, like Mercury, the moon is a dead world with no atmosphere. Earth’s sister planet is Venus, but it has a highly toxic atmosphere and has extremely high pressures on its surface. Mars is the only other planet found in the zone of habitability that might support life. Water has been found on its surface at the poles and in craters.