All posts tagged: Alien life

Dozens of stars show signs of Dyson spheres built by advanced alien civilisations

Dozens of stars show signs of Dyson spheres built by advanced alien civilisations

Published by skeptic

Dyson spheres could capture the energy from a star dotted zebra/Alamy Two surveys of millions of stars in our galaxy have revealed mysterious spikes in infrared heat coming from dozens of them. Astronomers say this could be evidence for alien civilisations harnessing energy from their stars by using a vast construction known as a Dyson sphere – although they can’t fully rule out more mundane explanations. First proposed in the 1960s, Dyson spheres are hypothesised structures that could surround entire stars to absorb their energy, a possible means by which advanced aliens might… Source link

Planets that look alike might be a sign of spacefaring aliens

Planets that look alike might be a sign of spacefaring aliens

Published by skeptic

Alien civilisations that have terraformed multiple planets may be detectable from afar dotted zebra/Alamy Nearby planets that look unusually alike could be a sign of spacefaring alien life that has travelled between stars, researchers have suggested. Astronomers searching for extraterrestrial life tend to look for specific signals, either in the form of “biosignatures” – molecules that are only produced by biological processes – or “technosignatures”, abnormal patterns of light that may have been produced by technologies. Both of these rely on assumptions… Source link

Bennu: How our golden age of asteroid exploration could reveal life’s origins

Bennu: How our golden age of asteroid exploration could reveal life’s origins

Published by skeptic

ON THE morning of 24 September 2023, Dante Lauretta woke up early, his pulse racing. For 20 years, he had been working on a NASA space mission that aimed to scoop up a sample of an asteroid and return it to Earth. Now, it was time for the sample capsule to land. If anything went wrong, it could end up smashed to smithereens on the desert floor, as flat – and as useless to science – as a pancake. Thankfully, the landing was successful. And since that day, researchers led by Lauretta, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona, have been busily examining crumbly, jet-black material from the asteroid Bennu. Their mission, called OSIRIS-REx, is one of several similar efforts in what arguably adds up to a golden age of asteroid science. We now have no less than three pristine samples brought back from asteroids and there are thrilling plans afoot to visit others (see “Encounters with asteroids”, below). Lauretta has written a book about the OSIRIS-REx mission called The Asteroid Hunter. Here, he …

K2-18b: Habitable ocean world may actually be inhospitable gas planet

K2-18b: Habitable ocean world may actually be inhospitable gas planet

Published by skeptic

An artist’s impression showing K2-18b as a potentially habitable ocean world may not be correct NASA, CSA, ESA, J. Olmsted (STScI) A distant planet once touted as a potential location to look for alien life is actually most likely to be inhospitable, according to astronomers who have found it probably lacks a solid surface. In 2015, astronomers discovered a planet 110 light years away called K2-18b, which later analysis estimated to be a super-Earth or mini-Neptune about eight times the mass of our world.… Source link

My Dad Said He Saw UFOs And Aliens. Was It True?

My Dad Said He Saw UFOs And Aliens. Was It True?

Published by skeptic

There’s one video available on the internet concerning my father, Patrick McGuire. It’s strange. Uploaded to YouTube 15 years ago — though clearly recorded much earlier — the video frames another TV screen. There is constant static, and the image is fractured as if the broadcast comes from far away. My father is discussing cattle mutilations under hypnosis. “We come up on a cow that was dead. They cut the nose off, tongues out and the sex organs were gone,” he recounts as though he is sleepwalking through a nightmare. He goes on to describe in great detail a “spaceship” that landed on his ranch and took members of his herd ― their distant, terrified animal cries filling those dark prairie nights. One comment below the video reads, “Having lived and worked with cow-men, can you imagine this guy going to town after this got out publicly. I mean they are a finicky bunch to say the least.” I don’t have to imagine. I grew up with him walking through our small Western town, his …

Why we’re finally on the cusp of finding exomoons around other planets

Why we’re finally on the cusp of finding exomoons around other planets

Published by skeptic

YEARS ago, when David Kipping lived in London, he would walk home through the city and look up at the moon. As an astronomer, its faintly glowing presence served as a nightly source of inspiration. “It was a reminder that moons were waiting for us around exoplanets,” he says. “It just made sense that we should look for them.” Finding exomoons – natural satellites of worlds beyond our solar system – would be thrilling. For a start, they may play a key role in determining the habitability of host planets by damping their wobbles, fostering a stable climate in the same way that our moon has done for Earth. They might also come in weird and wonderful configurations, such as rings of moons and moons with their own moons. But most excitingly, it is possible that some of them are more hospitable to life than exoplanets. Kipping, now at Columbia University in New York, is part of a small community of astronomers who search for exomoons. The statistics, at least, are on their side: we …

Where are all the exomoons? The hunt for worlds orbiting alien planets

Where are all the exomoons? The hunt for worlds orbiting alien planets

Published by skeptic

YEARS ago, when David Kipping lived in London, he would walk home through the city and look up at the moon. As an astronomer, its faintly glowing presence served as a nightly source of inspiration. “It was a reminder that moons were waiting for us around exoplanets,” he says. “It just made sense that we should look for them.” Finding exomoons – natural satellites of worlds beyond our solar system – would be thrilling. For a start, they may play a key role in determining the habitability of host planets by damping their wobbles, fostering a stable climate in the same way that our moon has done for Earth. They might also come in weird and wonderful configurations, such as rings of moons and moons with their own moons. But most excitingly, it is possible that some of them are more hospitable to life than exoplanets. Kipping, now at Cornell University in New York, is part of a small community of astronomers who search for exomoons. The statistics, at least, are on their side: we …

NASA finds ‘super-Earth’ 137 light-years away that could inhabit alien life | Science | News

NASA finds ‘super-Earth’ 137 light-years away that could inhabit alien life | Science | News

Published by skeptic

NASA has found a ‘super-Earth’ 137 light years away that could have the perfect conditions for alien life to live there. The planet, named TOI-715 b, is one and a half times bigger than Earth and circles a small, red star that might be the perfect temperature for water to form – which is really important for life. Astronomers are now going to study TOI-715 b’s features and atmosphere to see if it could have another planet nearby. Exoplanets are planets that are outside our solar system. Scientists have been studying them since 2018 using tools like NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which helps them find new worlds and learn about them. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was launched six years ago to watch these ‘transiting’ planets, which go around stars like our sun. For all the latest on news, politics, sports, and showbiz from the USA, go to Daily Express US Researchers have said that if they can confirm this second Earth-like planet within TOI-175 b’s orbit, it would be the smallest habitable …

What we know about the stars where NASA will hunt for life

What we know about the stars where NASA will hunt for life

Published by skeptic

Could a nearby super Earth host life? Steven Hobbs/Stocktrek Images/Alamy To prepare for one of the most advanced searches for life on other planets, astronomers have examined the stars that a new multibillion-dollar telescope might target. They discovered some may be better suited than others to hunt for potential alien life. In the 2040s, NASA plans to launch the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), a successor to the James Webb Space Telescope. Its primary goal is to image 25 Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of sun-like stars – where water, or even life,… Source link

What we know about the stars where NASA will hunt for alien life

What we know about the stars where NASA will hunt for alien life

Published by skeptic

Could a nearby super Earth host life? Steven Hobbs/Stocktrek Images/Alamy To prepare for one of the most advanced searches for life on other planets, astronomers have examined the stars that a new multibillion-dollar telescope might target. They discovered some may be better suited than others to hunt for potential alien life. In the 2040s, NASA plans to launch the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), a successor to the James Webb Space Telescope. Its primary goal is to image 25 Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of sun-like stars – where water, or even life,… Source link