The latest on the search for planets in other planetary systems. . //

This is a good lecture on why there’s a 1 in 4 chance of life (in Penelope’ Bostons opinion anyway) under the surface on Mars. //

Lots of signals have gone into space such as TV, radar and radio. The signals have been betraying our presence for 60 years and have passed over about 6000 star systems and are reaching new systems every day. This would seem to be enough, even though we haven’t received anything back yet, but what if [...]

The Cassini spacecraft has noticed on Titan, Saturn’s moon, that hydrogen molecules flow down through the atmosphere and disappear when they reach the surface (Icarus Journal). Also the hydrocarbons on the surface of Titan have been mapped and show that there is a lack of acetylne (Journal of geophysical research). The lack of acetylne could [...]

Fifty years ago, a young astronomer named Frank Drake pointed a radio telescope at nearby stars in the hope of picking up a signal from an alien civilization. Thus began one of the boldest scientific projects in history: the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). A great lecture with slides from the Royal Society. // Join [...]

The story and history of SETI the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The ups and downs of the alien search with Frank Drake and a few critics. //

Where will all the rubbish go? Space stations? Will aliens notice us if they come to visit and we are extinct? Sending a message to ET. A discussion on the problems and the benefits of living in the universe 1000 years in the future. Podcast (Part 2) // Join the forum discussion on this post [...]

The universe is full of stars. We are not so sure about habitable planets though. The habitable zone is defined as the distance from the parent star where water flows freely as a liquid. Saying that, over 300 planets have been found so far. Unfortunately from earth we just can’t pick up habitable planets but [...]

Look up and you will see lots of dots of light. No, it’s not a load of cars screaming towards the Earth because they missed the stop sign at Mars.  It’s stars. There are said to be about 140 billion stars that look like the sun in the Milky Way. There are a lot more stars [...]

Light is one of those things that you take for granted just switching on a switch or, if you are a caveman, lighting a fire. It appears almost instantaneously as that switch clicks or fire bursts into life. But, you know what I’m going to say don’t you, it’s not that simple. It takes time [...]

It may be a bit of a long way away (26,000 ly)  but it is an interesting place to go.  At 26,000 light years away it would take  26,000 years as measured by clocks on Earth at the speed of light, and no time at all as measured by your watch. Time is relative, not fixed. [...]

A communication strategy that aliens might use instead of radio signals is to send brief and intense bursts of laser light across the galaxy – sort of like a signal lamp between two ships. Some space telescopes would be ideally suited to pluck out such a signal from the sky background. Why laser beams instead of radio transmitters? [...]