...Stardust is the NASA spacecraft that took samples of the Wild 2 comet. This craft returned samples that showed sampled of glycine, an amino acid used to make proteins. The mission took place in January of 2004 and the data was sent back to Earth in January 2006. These results were the first to prove that there are life ingredients in space. This proof restarts the issue of whether our species was created by a meteor or comet that came to Earth and left these similar samples. It’s perfectly logical to think believe if this one comet had these particles that many more could too. That they could be remnants of other planets or celestial bodies even. Dr. Carl Pilcher, Director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute which co-funded the research said, “The discovery of glycine in a comet supports the idea that the fundamental building blocks of life are prevalent in space, and strengthens the argument that life in the universe may be common rather than rare.” This is simply a hint of possibilities for what could be out there. Through this two-year journey much was accomplished. These accomplishments give scientists and astronomers even more of a reason to look into space in search for many things from life to more life ingredients. If our science today can accomplish something like this then the limitations are endless for future scientists and what they can find. Professor Donald E. Brownlee said it best when he said, “The discovery of amino acids in the returned comet sample...
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...Extraterrestrial Hypothesis The extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) is the hypothesis that some unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are best explained as being physical spacecraft occupied by extraterrestrial life or non-human aliens from other planets visiting Earth. Etymology Origins of the term extraterrestrial hypothesis are unknown, but use in printed material on UFOs seems to date to at least the latter half of the 1960s. French Ufologist Jacques Vallee used it in his 1966 book Challenge to science: the UFO enigma. It was used in a publication by French engineer Aimé Michel in 1967,[1] by Dr. James E. McDonald in a symposium in March 1968[2] and again by McDonald and James Harder while testifying before the Congressional Committee on Science and Astronautics, in July 1968.[3] Skeptic Philip J. Klass used it in his 1968 book UFOs--Identified. In 1969 physicist Edward Condon defined the "Extra-terrestrial Hypothesis" or "ETH" as the "idea that some UFOs may be spacecraft sent to Earth from another civilization or space other than earth, or on a planet associated with a more distant star," while presenting the findings of the much debated Condon Report. Some UFO historians credit Condon with popularizing the term and its abbreviation "ETH". Chronology Although ETH, as a unified and named hypothesis, is a comparatively new concept - one which owes a lot to the saucer sightings of the 1940s–1960s, it can trace its origins back to a number of earlier events such as the now...
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...In the movie District 9 (Blomkamp, 2009) there was several ethical issues of significance for trans humanism. The issues that was created in the movie was if it was permissible to give a normal human being superhuman powers even when they are forced against their will, under what circumstances humans will be accepting of trans humans or post humans, and what roles space colonization and extraterrestrial encounter may play in the future of humanity. The movie shows an encounter between both humanity and extraterrestrials. The two civilization forms a standard issue war between two different worlds. Whenever violence breaks out, it is limited to localized police operations, insurgencies, and crimes, not focused efforts at extermination. (Baum, 2009) The movie gives you a good guess about which civilization you should be going for and it also tells you about where they began and when one ends. District 9 is about a man named Wiku van de Merwe, who is a young white African corporate bureaucrat that is in charge of the “Multination United” and the “Department of Alien Affairs”. His job was to evict a large ship full of non-humans also known as the aliens that was found malnourished and weary from travel away from their home to District 9 to an alien relocation camp which was located 200 kilometers from Johannesburg. After three months since the non-humans been on earth 1 million of the non-humans were ferried by city officials from their mother ship to a temporary camp that was...
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...Chapter #1: A Universe of Life? 1.1 The Possibility of Life Beyond Earth What are we searching for? * What are we looking for exactly? * Is it: intelligent life portrayed in sci-fi, more akin to the plants and animals we see in parks or zoos, or is it tiny bacteria-like microbes? * The simple answer to this question is “all of the above” * Extraterrestrial life: Life beyond Earth, we are looking for any sign of life, be it simple, complex, or even intelligent * We have a general definition of what life is, but for now it should be clear that this is a complicated question that affects how we search for life in the universe * Because of the definitional difficulty, the scientific search for extraterrestrial life in the universe generally presumes a search for life that is at least somewhat Earth-like and that we could therefore recognize based on what we know from studying life on Earth Is it reasonable to imagine life beyond Earth? * Prior to the 20th century, for example, some scientists guessed that Venus might harbor a tropical paradise -> this guess was based on little more than the fact that Venus is covered by clouds and closer than Earth to the Sun * Mars was the subject of even more intense debate, largely because a handful of scientists thought they saw long, straight canals on the surface * These canals, which don’t actually exist, were cited as evidence of a Martian civilization * Why has...
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...Prachi Sonani Mr. Bal Honors English 10 29 September 2014 Extraterrestrials in the Universe No one has seen the element ununoctium, but it does not indicate that it does not exist; in fact it is an actual synthetic element that has yet to survive for more than a thousandth of a second. All that is needed are scientists who can stabilize the element to survive longer. The same goes for extraterrestrials. Just because no one has found them, it does not prove they do not exist. Extraterrestrials are any form of life that does not originate, or did not originate from Earth. When people think of aliens, they imagine creatures like Megamind, E.T., and many others that they have seen on television or read about in fiction books. What people really forget is that life can be as simple as an individual cell, or a microbe; so when asked, without thinking, many people say they do not believe in the possibility of life elsewhere. Over the years, scientists have dedicated a significant amount of their life looking for any type of evidence. There is a great possibility of extraterrestrial life existing on other planets as is evidenced by the history of the universe, the extant research, and the expanse of the universe. The past of the universe substantiates the possibility of aliens living on other worlds. In order to find the proof of life, the scientists have intensely studied planet Mars. About 16 million years ago, the collision of an asteroid with Mars blasted martian rocks in...
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...The Ministry of Magic denies the existence of extraterrestrial life. It is this “conspiracy”, to which we have devoted our lives to uncovering. Discrepancies are paradoxical and the only thing to trust is magic, when reasoning fails. Though the pitch is littered with skeptics, we still remain dedicated to the search; the fact is however, much is unknown and there are obstacles at every turn. A larger scheme is at work, and maybe not those from other worlds, but someone amongst us. Nevertheless, the truth is out there. The room was dark, filled with unease. A chilled tension that Malfoy couldn’t help but feel in his skin, a sense of foreboding. Curtains drawn painfully shut, casting only menacing slits of light into the office. Silhouettes...
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...For thousands of years there have been multiple reports and sightings of UFO’s and other mysterious flying objects. The mysterious objects have long been the subject of many high fueled debates and scientists continue to argue whether or not they exist. Many of these sightings can be explained as naturally occurring incidents such as meteors or even manmade events such as the testing of top secret military hardware, but many of these sightings go unexplained. Eyewitness accounts of these strange objects, especially from high-ranking military officers, help build the case of extraterrestrial existence. The Rendlesham Forest Incident is one of the most documented UFO sightings with strong supporting evidence such as eyewitness accounts, physical traces of the craft at the landing site, and tape recordings from a high-ranking Air Force officer. On December 26, 1980, three Air Force patrol officers were sent out to patrol the east gate of RAF Woodbridge, an Air Force base located in Suffolk, England. The patrol team consisted of Amn. John Burroughs, Amn. Edward Cabansag, and Sgt. Jim Penniston . As the patrol officers were going about their normal duties they noticed a...
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...16. Will they be Friendly? One question that has plagued the minds of many an educated mind while living on planet earth is the existence of alien life. The earth, which is often referred to as ‘the world’, is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest of the eight planets in our Solar System. The earth is only a tiny part of our universe, which is made up of many planets, galaxies, clusters and super clusters. With such an enormous universe, it would be outrageous to even contemplate that there is no extraterrestrial life out there. With this question being so prominent, another question arises and that is ‘if there is other species of life out there, will they be friendly?’ From this question, we can make an assessment on whether we should be advertising our presence by sending messages to stars or just staying quiet. Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from earth. ‘Referred to as alien life, or simply aliens these hypothetical forms of life range from simple bacteria-like organisms to beings far more complex than humans’1. Earth is moderately young compared to the rest of the universe, so therefore one can only assume these extra-terrestrials would be far more advanced and complex then ourselves. Although many scientists consider extra-terrestrial life to be plausible, no direct evidence has yet been found. If they do exist, we come back to our will they be friendly question, and we can use certain theories to explore this. A phrase that...
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...planet, 2.4 times the size of the Earth, is six hundred light-years away in what astronomers call the “Goldilocks Zone”, an area in which a planet has an ideal temperature because of its distance from a star. It orbits around a star similar to the sun of the Earth, and the temperature of its surface is habitable at 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Scientists are hopeful that this planet might possess water and land, but they are not sure as of the moment if the majority of it is made up of solid, liquid or gas (Bloxham). Kepler 22-b is just one of the extrasolar planets observed by NASA that has a probability to be inhabited by extraterrestrial life forms. Since 1960, NASA has funded different exobiology projects, including Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), in hopes that astronomers can find evidences of life in outer space. Thinking that extraterrestrials would likely leave something behind to signal other intelligent beings during their exploration, astronomers of SETI previously tried to detect interstellar probes to be able send messages back to them, but until now, none have been discovered. Despite this, scientists working on SETI have not given up, focusing more on searching for Earth-like planets in different galaxies. So far, they have discovered “super Earths” that are larger and less temperate than Earth. Some astronomers estimate that perhaps half of the 200 billion or so suns in the Milky Way support terrestrial, Earth-like worlds. What the astronomers do is...
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...1. Introduction In Oxford Dictionary, the popularized term UFO is an acronym for “Unidentified Flying Object” which means any object seen in the air that is not identifiable. These unusual aerial phenomena have been discussed and spotting for centuries, however, according to Wikipedia, the UFO craze really started in 1947 from Roswell UFO incident, after the Second World War. Since then, many UFO sightings have been reported worldwide. Yet, almost all of them end up being IFOs – Identified Flying Objects, as bright planets or stars, aircraft, balloons, flares, peculiar clouds, meteors, and satellites. The remaining sightings are hard to confirm due to the lack of photographic taken, inaccurate reporting, or delusions. Some people have given evidences to support the appearance of the UFOs, arguing that there is a conspiracy to hide the truth. The paper deals with UFOs phenomenon, which is an unexplained aerial event that has happened for a long time. It discusses the evidences of UFOs’ existence and the question of whether we are not alone in this universe as well as the theories surrounding these aerial events. 2. Discussion of findings 2.1. The Evidences For centuries, the UFOs reports have been familiar with people throughout the world. According to UN (2011), it is estimated that since 1947, about 150 million people have witnessed the UFO phenomenon and most of the reports from these people are general sighting. Many picture and video have been taken...
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...Evidence of Prehistoric Bacterial Life found from Mars: I wonder if there are still any possible life-forms on Mars From the beginning of time, the universe has always been a mystery to mankind. We have been intrigued by the many wonders of the universe and as time elapsed, technology increased, and the minds of human beings have evolved, extraterrestrial life remains a recurring interest. The rising curiosity of extraterrestrial life has plagued the minds of Scientists to common folk. People have held various theories based on their imagination on what life would resemble. Over time, many great discoveries have been made as well as many excursions into outer space. Planets, stars, galaxies, comets, our moon and sun we’ve discovered. We have advanced enormously within the technology field and this advancement has enabled man to be educated about space and the wonders thereof. However, the greatest question of extraterrestrial life has not been answered. Many of us perceive life forms to be humanlike species or “Cycloptic” (one-eyed) creatures similar to the aliens depicted in Science fiction films. However we fail to realize the life can be as small as bacteria or as enormous as prehistoric creatures like dinosaurs. The planet Mars, is one which is very close to the characteristics of our very own earth and with recent missions to Mars in the search for life I believe that life does exist on Mars upon recent findings and also theories which dictate the requirements for life...
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...Paper Seven E.T. The Extra Terrestrial is a film about a young boy that grows a relationship with a lost little alien and helps him find his way home. In many films, the director uses his skills to change the belief of their audience to accommodate the story. Many things taken out of context could be viewed as strange and wild, but with directing, your mind can be manipulated. In one of the first scenes of the film, the alien space ship is shown landing but with branches and shrubbery blocking the lens. This gave the feeling that something out of the ordinary was happening, something strange. This type of camera work is shown even when the aliens are moving about. ET was then shown with a clear, long shot showing the vastness of the forest he was in. Without any previous scene to compare to , the landing scene was automatically considered strange, not just for the use of camera work, but for the fact that we don’t encounter aliens visiting earth too often. When the cut to ET happened, the director traded the audiences place with him. We were first looking at something out of the ordinary but now it was ET's turn as he has never been to our planet before. Later on, it is shown that ET was left on our planet unintentionally. We understand this, so we feel a connection with ET making him feel more real and normal. When Eliot (Main Character) meats ET, he doesn’t take the encounter to lightly, and rightfully so. Eliot nor anybody else in the film has met an alien life form...
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...The Planet of Aliens An alien is what we know to be something that is not native to planet earth, also known as an extraterrestrial life form. Although I do not believe that the green, one-eyed, Hollywood-influenced alien exists, I do believe that there are living organisms on other planets in this universe. The universe is so large that it is next to impossible to be able to examine every aspect of it, as we are still discovering new species here on earth. I do not believe that Aliens have not come to our planet; however, I do believe that there is life on other planets. As Joshua Kennon once wrote: Add in the possibility of multiple, or even infinite dimensions, which means entire civilizations could exist on a planet like Earth right alongside us without us knowing it, throw in the nature of time and time travel as it interacts with gravitational forces like black holes, and the concept exceeds the human mind’s ability to grasp. (Kennon) I agree with Kennon because if there are billions of stars in the universe, there has to be one relatively similar to that of the sun, and also a planet revolving around it the same distance away as earth is to the sun. Due to this assumption, there must be some planet somewhere with conditions similar to those of earth. I do not believe that in our solar system there is one however because the planets that are in our system are either too far or too close to the sun for life to be maintained. In another solar system there must be...
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...1. Assuming scientists came in to radio contact with some type of ETI in 2037 and I was personally offered to answer one question from humankind, being a staff member of the United Nations. If to be true, I would ask, “In terms of environmental stability and living, how does your planetary system and biology functions function?” This is an important question for an ETI because it can bring light into the difference habitats compared to Earth. Comparing the two environments may open ways in improving our environment. 2. In my opinion, the single most serious threat to the survival of humankind over the next two centuries is the true to be told fact that life on Earth is growing rapidly, and resulting overpopulation. It is important for us humans to relieve the shortage of natural resources, such as gas and oil. As we might already know, our economy and lifestyles are really dependent on the two. With limited resources, makes life on Earth quite more serious. As time goes, humans must solve this problem before larger problems result the issue. 3. The Fermi Paradox states, “if civilizations are all common, then the galaxy should have been colonized long ago” (Bennett 454). However, one may argue the that the solution to Fermi Paradox is “we are alone and there is no galactic civilization because civilizations are extremely rare- so rare that ours is the first to have arisen on the galactic scene” (Bennett 454) Works Cited * Bennett, Jeffrey O., G. Seth. Shostak...
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...bears. Each bear has their own preference of food, beds, etc. After testing each of the three items, Goldilocks determines that one of them is always too much in one extreme (too hot, too large, etc.), one is too much in the opposite extreme (too cold, too small, etc.), and one is "just right". In astrobiology, the Goldilocks zone refers to the habitable zone around a star. A planet must neither be too far away from, nor too close to a star and galactic centre to support life. Either extreme would prevent a planet evolving life. Such a planet is colloquially called a "Goldilocks planet". Fermi paradox The Fermi paradox (or Fermi's paradox) is the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilization and humanity’s lack of contact with, or evidence for, such civilizations.[1] The basic points of the argument, made by physicists Enrico Fermi and Michael H. Hart, are: * The Sun is a typical star, and relatively young. There are billions of stars in the galaxy that are billions of years older. * Almost surely, some of these stars will have Earth-like planets.[2] Assuming the Earth is typical, some of these planets may develop intelligent life. * Some of these civilizations may develop interstellar travel a technology Earth is investigating even now (such as the 100 Year Starship). * Even at the slow pace of currently envisioned interstellar travel, the galaxy can be completely colonized in a few tens of...
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