NATS 1880 Midterm Review Flashcards
(179 cards)
A habitable world is defined to be one that
has surface conditions similar to Earth’s and thus suitable for life
What would be an obvious advantage in searching for extraterrestrial life in our Solar System as opposed to on planets around another star?
We can physically search for life on planets or satellites in our Solar System
Which statement is incorrect.
Based upon the multitude of planets with life found so far, we can conclude that the principles of biology are universal.
Among the other planets in our own Solar System, probably the most likely place to find evidence for life that may exist now or may have existed in the past is on
Mars
Astronomy has shown us that the Earth
is just one planet orbiting an ordinary star in a vast universe
During the latter half of the twentieth century, astronomers and planetary scientists predicted that planets around other stars should be
common
Extraterrestrial life elsewhere in the universe
could be similar to life on Earth or might be completely different
Extraterrestrial life is defined to be
any kind of life found beyond the Earth
For most of human history it was believed that Earth was, erroneously, at the center of the Universe. This idea is referred to as
geocentric
The physics experiment conducted by astronauts on the Moon as discussed in class
verified that objects of different mass fall at the same rate in a gravity field as proposed by Galileo
Based upon our preliminary discussions of where life may be found in our Solar System, which of the following locations is considered least likely to harbour life?
Mercury
A basic definition for astrobiology is
the merger of astronomy and biology to find life beyond Earth
Beneath the surface or which moon of Jupiter is there the strongest evidence for the existence of a subsurface ocean of liquid water?
Europa
Biologists have found that life on Earth can
survive over a wide range of environmental conditions
While planets in our Solar System have been observed since the dawn of time, exoplanets are by comparison a recent discovery. Approximately when was the first exoplanet discovered?
Mid 1990s
Planets orbiting around stars other than our Sun are known as
extrasolar or exoplanets
Possible evidence for subsurface liquids has been found beneath the surfaces of one or more of the moons of
Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune
Astronomers have observational evidence that, in addition to being full of stars, our galaxy is also full of
Planets
The fact that the life on Earth appeared shortly after its formation (~600 million years or so) suggests that life
could arise on most habitable worlds
The molecular building blocks of life have been found
on the Earth, in interstellar clouds, and in meteorites
The portrayal of nearly all aliens in movies and on TV as being humanoid is
probably unrealistic because the human form is most likely a result of the particular conditions and events that occurred on the Earth
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program primarily involves
listening for radio signals broadcast by advanced civilizations
The search for life in the universe
is influenced by almost every other branch of science
Assuming current spacecraft speeds (e.g. Voyager), approximately how long would it take to reach the nearest stars (a few light years away)?
tens of thousands of years