Life in Space

Question 1

Moon

Answer 1

• First started looking for life on moon

- Happened during 60’s-70’s

Question 2

Venus

Answer 2

• brightest thing in sky
• has runaway greenhouse effect -> clouds there are so thick that sunlight is trapped on planet -> extremely high radiation
• Closer to sun = extremely high heat
• Extremely high pressure
• Volcanoes added to this effect
• Extreme heat, high acidity, high atmospheric pressure, and lack of liquid water all prohibit formation of life on Venus

Question 3

Mars

Answer 3

• Deep ridges = plate tectonics at some point
• Ice and limited craters = geologically active at one point
• Iron soil means water (oxidation)
• Lines indicating water flowing downslope

Question 4

Jupiter

Answer 4

• Failed star that didn’t ignite
• 4 Galilean moons:
• • Europa: has ice, likely most hospitable, more liquid water there than on earth
• • Io: actively volcanic
• • Ganymede: lifeless
• • Callisto: lifeless

Question 5

Saturn

Answer 5

• 15 moons
• • Titan may be best place to find life -> icy highlands and liquid methane oceans
• • Enceledus geologically active

Question 6

Rosetta comet mission

Answer 6

Landed probe on comet to explore it

Question 7

OSIRIS-REX

Answer 7

• land on asteroid, take samples, and bring them back

- Could we be mining asteroid resources in the future?

Question 8

Size of universe

Answer 8

• 400 billion galaxies

- Milky Way galaxy has 400 billion stars (more starts in the universe than grains of sand on earth)

Question 9

Kepler mission

Answer 9

• Searching for exoplanets in Milky Way galaxy
• Discovered hundreds of planets of varying sizes that are in or near the habitable zone
• Can find due to radial velocity, direct imaging, or transit detection

Question 10

transit detection

Answer 10

when a planet passes in front of a star that’s viewed from earth

Question 11

Drake equation

Answer 11

• N = how many alien words there are in the universe

- We now have the variables to plug in