Why It's So Hard to Find Alien LIfe

Why It's So Hard to Find Alien LIfe

A big reason why the Fermi paradox has punch is the matter of time. Max Tegmark gets into this in his excellent new book Our Mathematical Universe (Knopf, 2014), where he runs through what many thinkers on the subject have noted: Our Sun is young enough that countless stars and the planets that orbit them must have offered homes for life long before we ever appeared. With at least a several billion year head start, wouldn’t intelligent life have had time to spread, and shouldn’t its existence be perfectly obvious by now?

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How Space Heat Helps Us Hunt Down Alien Technologies

How Space Heat Helps Us Hunt Down Alien Technologies

My colleagues and I have begun the Glimpsing Heat from Alien Technologies (G-HAT) SETI program, which has been written about here on Centauri Dreams and in other places, like in this nice summary article. I describe some of the foundations of the search here on my blog, but I have written up this short primer for Centauri Dreams to collect much of what is there into a single post.

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NASA and SETI discover new Neptunian moon, spot what Voyager 2 missed

NASA and SETI discover new Neptunian moon, spot what Voyager 2 missed

A baker’s dozen worth of moons might already sound like too many for us Earthlings, but Neptune has just had its count bumped to 14. Though the extra luna appeared as a white dot in over 150 photos taken by NASA’s Hubble telescope between 2004 and 2009, it took SETI’s Mark Showalter to discover it after poring over images of faint rings around the planet. Dubbed S/2004 N 1, the satellite is no more than 12 miles across and completes its orbit every 23 hours. Hoping to spot it in the night sky? You’re better off hitting the second source link for more pictures, as it’s 100 million times dimmer than the faintest star viewable with the naked eye, and it escaped Voyager 2, to boot.

[Image credit: NASA, ESA and A. Feild (STScI)]

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Source: NASA, HubbleSite

Meet Styx and Kerberos, Pluto’s newly named moons

Meet Styx and Kerberos, Pluto's newly named moons

SETI’s best known for its search for sentient life in the cosmos, but when the Hubble space telescope found a pair of new moons orbiting Pluto (at SETI’s behest), it decided to do some planetoid naming, too. Today, SETI announced those names: Styx and Kerberos. The institute didn’t grant titles to the moons itself, however. Instead, it put the onus on the public to come up with the proper names — with instructions from the International Astronomical Union (IAU) that the nomenclature have something to do with the mythological underworld known as Hades. Voting lasted for two weeks, and SETI received over 450,000 regular votes and around 30,000 write-ins. Though many wished for the moons to be named for Stephen Colbert or the Romulan home world, the IAU found those choices to be unfit for the new moons. Instead, we have Styx (the river that separates earth from the underworld) and Kerberos (the three-headed dog that serves as the guardian to Hades) — who said studying Classics was a waste of time?

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Source: SETI Institute

PayPal Galactic arrives to address the pressing issue of paying in space

PayPal Galactic arrives to address the pressing issue of paying in space

Space tourism is coming, and it ain’t gonna be cheap. The question is, how are the rich folks aboard such craft going to pay for… stuff? Since weighty cash is a non-starter, Paypal has unveiled the PayPal Galactic initiative with SETI and the Space Tourism Society to prepare for the future of extra-planetary commerce. It’ll be launched today at noon EST via livestream (see the More Coverage link) by none other than astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who said that future trips to the moon or Mars will require “as many comforts from home as possible, including how to pay each other.” PayPal worked with SETI to hatch the project, which will address meaty issues like a standard space currency, the risk of space fraud and dealing with customer support issues. (Sorry, space customer support issues.) We’re pretty sure the conversation won’t involve how to pay aliens, but as part of the Galactic launch, PayPal will also announce a new crowdfunding campaign on FundRazr to aid SETI. That’ll help the ET-seeking outfit with its astrobiology and radio astronomy research and, hopefully, keep its dishes pointed skyward, so maybe one day we can horse-trade with the Ferengi.

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Pluto moon names to be selected by public voting, we talk to astronomer Mark Showalter

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P4 and P5 aren’t the sorts of names that impart the manner of excitement space exploration companies and organizations are looking to inspire in the next generation of enthusiasts (nor the customers, philanthropists and tax payers destined to fund those explorations). The SETI Institute, a private non-profit, best known for its ties to the eponymous search for extraterrestrial intelligence in the universe, is looking to add a little bit of audience participation to the act of naming Pluto’s newly discovered moons, which sport those rather uninspired alphanumeric designations.

Beginning today, SETI will open up an online contest to name the moons, both of which were discovered via the Hubble Telescope fairly recently. As with the rest of the dwarf planet’s moons, the organization’s asking that the names be associated with Hades (the underworld), with ties to Greek or Roman mythology. SETI will pre-select candidates and is also allowing for write-in candidates (though it’s retaining editorial discretion here, so, for better or worse, we’re not likely to see a Baba Booey moon in the near future).

On a recent trip to the Bay Area, we had the opportunity to speak to Mark Showalter, the senior research scientist at the organization’s Carl Sagan Center, an astronomer who played a key role in the discovery of the celestial bodies. You can check out that interview just after the break, before heading off to vote. Showalter is also co-hosting a Google+ Hangout with astronomer Hal Weaver today at 2PM ET.

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Source: Pluto Rocks

Alt-week 12.15.12: rivers on Titan, electric handcuffs and crashing into the moon

Alt-week takes a look at the best science and alternative tech stories from the last seven days.

Altweek 121512 rivers on Titan, electric handcuffs and crashing into the moon

Space, it’s the final frontier, where no-one can hear you scream in frustration at not knowing who the villain of Star Trek: Into Darkness is, as well as where 50 percent of our stories take place this week. NASA’s planning to crash satellites into the moon, someone’s patented an electo-shock handcuff and there’s a river on Titan that you wouldn’t want to canoe-down. This is alt-week.

Continue reading Alt-week 12.15.12: rivers on Titan, electric handcuffs and crashing into the moon

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