Sunday, July 23, 2017
Popular Science: "Are We Alone: Searching for Life in Space"
Popular Science (part of Time) is offering a supermarket glossy booklet “Are
We Alone? Searching for Life in Space”. 96 pages.
There are some highlights not seen before in other booklets
like this. One is an examination of the
seven earth-like planets around the Trappist M-star 39 light years away, with
planet E having the best chance for Earth-like temperatures, and an artist’s
rendition of the surface of a moderately cold Planet F.
There is some discussion of the earth-like planet around
Proxima B. an M-star and the closest to Earth at 4.2 light years.
There is a lot of attention to Europa and its subsurface
ocean and likelihood of life, as well as Encedalus. But Titan gets mentioned only in passing with
the possibility of silicon-and-methane based life. Ironically, my own Science Honor Society
project in 1960 had speculated about
silicon-based life, but I was hardly as accomplished as Jack Andraka (who came
53 years later, however, and that matters).
I had tried some experiments in my father’s workshop with an acetylene
torch that I recall very little about now.
There is also an article about the idea of aliens eating
electricity, which has been the subject of horror movies before (“Kronos”).
There is mention of the possibility of a Dyson Sphere around
Tabby’s Star, as well as other theories, and a nice drawing of what it could
look like.
There’s also an essay about keeping Mars biologically clean.
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