Archives for the 'astrobiology' Category
Tough Bacteria
Published on 1 Sep 2007 at 4:42 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under astrobiology.
Within the last month, there have been news reports of scientists reviving eight million year old bacteria. The bacteria was frozen in Antarctic ice. Most life forms on Earth don’t do well with freezing. You get them too cold or too hot, and they die. But, these bacteria were in […]
The orange, orange grass of home …
Published on 1 May 2007 at 11:04 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under astrobiology.
There’s an old Tom Jones song called the Green Green Grass of Home. But, that song might not work on other worlds. Actually, it isn’t all that true at my home, either. I am firmly convinced that plants are brown and crunchy, and if they aren’t, then they are heading that was […]
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Purple planets
Published on 13 Jan 2007 at 8:50 pm.
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Filed under astrobiology.
At the AAS Meeting, there were several sessions on astrobiology. Some of these sessions were on the nature of life, the origin of life, and detection of life. One of the biomarkers is the effect that it has on the spectrum of a planet. Oxygen and methane biomarkers. The only way that we know to […]
Killing Martians
Published on 8 Jan 2007 at 12:58 am.
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Filed under astrobiology, conference blogging.
Astronomers generally think of the dark matter findings that I just blogged about as some of the more important news from Sunday’s meeting. I checked the CNN web site to see if they had anything on it, but instead they had this.
When the Viking Landers landed on Mars in the 1970’s in the first US […]
A Martian Christmas Gift?
Published on 5 Dec 2006 at 12:22 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Mars, amusement, astrobiology.
Are you looking for that perfect Christmas gift for an astronomer? Here’s a nice little stocking stuffer. It is a Mars microbe (sort of). Actually, it is a little stuffed toy made to look like one interpretation of Mars life. It is from a company called Giant Microbes that sells all […]
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Radiobiological Damage in Circumstellar Disks
Published on 9 Oct 2006 at 2:11 pm.
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Filed under astrobiology, extrasolar planets.
Now, that’s a scary looking title!Â
A while back, I posted about the effects of cosmic radiation on airline crew members. You can read that post, but the gist of it is that the higher you go, the less that the atmosphere protects you from radiation. The universe is filled with radiation of all types. Some of […]
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Panspermia
Published on 2 Mar 2006 at 12:09 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under astrobiology.
For the last couple hundred years, the idea called panspermia has been tossed around, found favor, lost favor, been revived, reviled, and then back into favor again. Basically, panspermia is the natural transferal of life from one planet to another. Recently, it has gotten another boost, which I will discuss.
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According to several internet sources, the […]
