scholarly journals Biosignatures in the solar system

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 6-9
Author(s):  
David Slade ◽  
Alex Price ◽  
Rachael Hamp ◽  
Nisha Ramkissoon
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Planetary Bodies ◽  
Planets And Satellites ◽  
Life Detection ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Intelligent Life

Humanity's interest in whether or not we are alone in the universe spans generations, from Giordano Bruno's 16th century musings on other worlds and Giovanni Schiaparelli reporting seeing ‘canali’ in 1877 on the surface of Mars (which were thought to have been created by intelligent life) to alien invasions portrayed in today's movies. However, it is still unclear if other planetary bodies are capable of supporting life. In the search for life there are two broad areas we look into, the requirements of life and actual signs of life. The identification of the key requirements for life enables scientists to focus life detection efforts onto planets and satellites that are considered habitable and more likely to support life. However, our ability to find life or detect signs of life is based on our understanding of life on Earth.

scholarly journals From cosmos to intelligent life: the four ages of astrobiology

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo Gleiser
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Elements ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
First Stars ◽  
History Of ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Intelligent Life

AbstractThe history of life on Earth and in other potential life-bearing planetary platforms is deeply linked to the history of the Universe. Since life, as we know, relies on chemical elements forged in dying heavy stars, the Universe needs to be old enough for stars to form and evolve. The current cosmological theory indicates that the Universe is 13.7 ± 0.13 billion years old and that the first stars formed hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang. At least some stars formed with stable planetary systems wherein a set of biochemical reactions leading to life could have taken place. In this paper, I argue that we can divide cosmological history into four ages, from the Big Bang to intelligent life. The physical age describes the origin of the Universe, of matter, of cosmic nucleosynthesis, as well as the formation of the first stars and Galaxies. The chemical age began when heavy stars provided the raw ingredients for life through stellar nucleosynthesis and describes how heavier chemical elements collected in nascent planets and Moons gave rise to prebiotic biomolecules. The biological age describes the origin of early life, its evolution through Darwinian natural selection and the emergence of complex multicellular life forms. Finally, the cognitive age describes how complex life evolved into intelligent life capable of self-awareness and of developing technology through the directed manipulation of energy and materials. I conclude discussing whether we are the rule or the exception.

History and future of life on Earth - a synthesis of natural science and theology

DIALOGO ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-251
Author(s):  
Andreas May
Keyword(s):  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Modern Natural ◽  
History Of ◽  
Science And Theology ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Intelligent Life

"A synthesis of research results of modern natural sciences and fundamental statements of the Christian faith is attempted. The creation of the universe is addressed. Four important events in the history of the Earth as well as the diversity of living beings are shortly discussed. There are good reasons to believe that the universe was created by a transcendent superior being, which we call God, and that this superior being intervened in evolution and Earth history to promote the development of intelligent life. Furthermore, it can be concluded that intelligent life is very rare in the universe. This is the explanation for the “Fermi paradox”. Intelligent life on planet Earth has cosmic significance. The overabundance of this universe inspires the hope for participating in the fulfilled eternity of the Creator in transcendence. Prehistoric humans had long had hope for life after biological death. While scientific speculation about the end of the universe prophesies scenarios of destruction, the Christian faith says that humanity is destined to be united with Jesus Christ. Furthermore, all evolution will be completed with the Creator in transcendence. Then the whole of creation will “obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God”. From the first primitive living cell, an abundance of the most diverse living beings has evolved. Comparably, humanity has differentiated into a plethora of different cultures. This entire abundance will find its unification and fulfilment in transcendence with the Creator of the universe, without its diversity being erased."

scholarly journals Oxygen and environmental stress in plants - an overview

1994 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
George A. F. Hendry ◽  
R. M. M. Crawford
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Narrow Band ◽  
Atmospheric Oxygen ◽  
Recent Event ◽  
Radio Emissions ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Reducing Conditions ◽  
Galileo Satellite ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Intelligent Life

The Galileo satellite during its recent passes close to the Earth recorded a planet with an unusual red-absorbing pigment, a poisonous atmosphere, simultaneously rich in oxygen and in methane, with strong, modulated, narrow-band, radio emissions in the MHz frequencies (Sagan et al. 1993). To an observer visiting the solar system, these features; the photo-oxidisable pigment chlorophyll, abundant atmospheric oxygen, the existence of reducing conditions and intelligent life might well appear self-contradictory. While intelligent life is a recent event, the presence of other forms of life based on photosynthesis and survival under both oxygen-rich atmospheres and reducing conditions go back to the earliest times (Table 1). Life on Earth has evolved over nearly 4 G years under atmospheric environments ranging from anoxia, to hypoxia, to hyperoxia (relative to the present day), and not always in that sequence.

Leaves, genes, and greenhouse gases

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Beerling
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Liquid Water ◽  
Natural Radioactivity ◽  
Extraterrestrial Life ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Direct Observations ◽  
Solar System Exploration ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Modern Astronomy

The Galileo spacecraft, named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), who launched modern astronomy with his observations of the heavens in 1610, plunged to oblivion in Jupiter’s crushing atmosphere on 21 September 2003. Launched in 1989, it left behind a historic legacy that changed the way we view the solar system. Galileo’s mission was to study the planetary giant Jupiter and its satellites, four of which Galileo himself observed, to his surprise, moving as ‘stars’ around the planet from his garden in Pardu, Italy. En route, the spacecraft captured the first close-up images of an asteroid (Gaspra) and made direct observations of fragments of the comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 smashing into Jupiter. Most remarkable of all were the startling images of icebergs on the surface of Europa beamed backed in April 1997, after nearly eight years of solar system exploration. Icebergs suggested the existence of an extraterrestrial ocean, liquid water. To the rapt attention of the world’s press, NASA’s mission scientists commented that liquid water plus organic compounds already present on Europa, gave you ‘life within a billion years’. Whether this is the case is a moot point; water is essential for life on Earth as we know it, but this is no guarantee it is needed for life elsewhere in the Universe. Oceans may also exist beneath the barren rocky crusts of two other Galilean satellites, Callisto and Ganymede. Callisto and Ganymede probably maintain a liquid ocean thanks to the heat produced by natural radioactivity of their rocky interiors. Europa, though, lies much closer to Jupiter, and any liquid water could be maintained by heating due to gravitational forces that stretch and squeeze the planet in much the same way as Earth’s moon influences our tides. To reach Jupiter, Galileo required two slingshots (gravitational assists) around Earth and Venus. Gravitational assists accelerate the speed and adjust the trajectory of the spacecraft without it expending fuel. The planets doing the assisting pay the price with an imperceptible slowing in their speed of rotation. In Galileo’s case, the procedure fortuitously permitted close observations of Earth from space, allowing a control experiment in the search for extraterrestrial life, never before attempted.

scholarly journals Biosignatures Search in Habitable Planets

Galaxies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Claudi ◽  
Eleonora Alei
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Composition ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Planetary Atmospheres ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Habitable Planets ◽  
Planetary Bodies ◽  
The Right ◽  
Rocky Planets ◽  
The Universe

The search for life has had a new enthusiastic restart in the last two decades thanks to the large number of new worlds discovered. The about 4100 exoplanets found so far, show a large diversity of planets, from hot giants to rocky planets orbiting small and cold stars. Most of them are very different from those of the Solar System and one of the striking case is that of the super-Earths, rocky planets with masses ranging between 1 and 10 M ⊕ with dimensions up to twice those of Earth. In the right environment, these planets could be the cradle of alien life that could modify the chemical composition of their atmospheres. So, the search for life signatures requires as the first step the knowledge of planet atmospheres, the main objective of future exoplanetary space explorations. Indeed, the quest for the determination of the chemical composition of those planetary atmospheres rises also more general interest than that given by the mere directory of the atmospheric compounds. It opens out to the more general speculation on what such detection might tell us about the presence of life on those planets. As, for now, we have only one example of life in the universe, we are bound to study terrestrial organisms to assess possibilities of life on other planets and guide our search for possible extinct or extant life on other planetary bodies. In this review, we try to answer the three questions that also in this special search, mark the beginning of every research: what? where? how?

scholarly journals Islamic-Based Physics Learning Model in the Subject of Solar System and Life on Earth

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-31
Author(s):  
Mujizatullah Mujizatullah
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Extracurricular Activities ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Science Learning ◽  
Learning Model ◽  
Islamic School ◽  
Physics Learning ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Universe

The research aimed to describe the Islamic based physics science learning model in the subject of measurement at Uminda Islamic School in Gowa by using a qualitative approach the result of research can be seen in implementation learning activities: Praying, read Al-quran and learning process. The students inspired the teaching of islam by instilling religions valves including knowing, understanding the living  Gods creating with the Universe of the solar system, life on earth and also the implementation of religions extracurricular activities. The closing learning process, the teacher and the students made conclusion together Islamic based science learning model in physics lesson on the solar system and life on earth at Uminda Islamic School in Gowa with using with implementatively formulated model namely “Dialogical Diodik” with accordance with the study of Islamic based science physics learning model from the aspect of the of the interdisciplinary approach because it only involved two science and religions extracurricular activities through faith and piety learning. The students were given lesson to observe the universe event and mental spiritual formation which was integrated with the planting of religions valves, but there were still limited teacher resources to do it.Keywords: Model, Pembelajaran IPA, Fisika, berbasis, Islam.Penelitian bertujuan untuk menggambarkan Model pembelajaran IPA Fisika berbasis Islam pada Pokok Bahasan Pengukuran di MTS Uminda Kabupaten Gowa . dengan menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif. Hasil penelitian  dapat terlihat pada implementasi langkah –langkah pembelajaran,mulai dari kegiatan pembelajaran pendahuluan :Membaca doa, membaca ayat suci Al Quran surat-surat pendek,kegiatan pembelajaran Inti :Menghayati ajaran agama Islam dengan menanamkan nilai-nilai agama diantaranya mengetahui, memahami dan menghayati ciptaan Tuhan dengan adanya alam semesta sistem tata surya dan kehidupan di bumi dan implementasi ektrakurikuler keagamaan.kegiatan pembelajaran Penutup .Guru dan peserta didik bersama-sama menyimpulkan Model pembelajaran  IPA berbasis Islam pada pelajaran fisika pokok bahasan sistem tata surya dan kehidupan di bumi pada Madrasah Tsanawiyah Swasta Uminda Kabupaten Gowa menggunakan model yang dirumuskan secara implementatif yaitu model Diadik Dialogis yang sesuai dengan kajian model pembelajaran IPA-Fisika berbasis Islam dari aspek pendekatan interdisipliner karena hanya melibatkan dua disiplin ilmu IPA dan agama. Selanjutnya di integrasikan pada kegiatan ekstrakurikuler Keagamaan melalui pembelajaran iman dan taqwa peserta didik di berikan pembelajaran mengamati kejadian alam semesta dan pembinaan mental spiritual yang di integrasikan dengan penanaman nilai-nilai Agama. Namun masih terbatas sumber daya Guru untuk melaksnakan hal tersebut.Kata kunci: Pembelajaran IPA, Fisika, berbasis Islam.

Applications of Geospatial Research in Earth Resources

2018 ◽  
pp. 15-31
Author(s):  
Joyce Gosata Maphanyane ◽  
Read Brown Mthanganyika Mapeo ◽  
Modupe O. Akinola
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Seasonal Changes ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Atmospheric Processes ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Tectonic Movements

This chapter is a continuation from Chapter 1. The two chapters draw attention to discussions on the Earth and its systems, which are driven by the outer motion of the Solar System. It gives an analytical view of what is known about the Universe. It elaborates upon the Earth's structure and the associated spheres and their interactions. These interactions account for activities that form the whole Earth dynamism, which manifest as tectonic movements, polar wondering and magnetic reversals, seasonal changes, hydrological cycle, atmospheric processes and life on Earth as a whole. The study of these is a fundamental component of geospatial science research.

scholarly journals Dynamics of Gravitating Systems of Colliding Particles in Planetary Discs

1979 ◽  
Vol 81 ◽  
pp. 197-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Brahic
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Interstellar Clouds ◽  
Gravitational Perturbations ◽  
Planets And Satellites ◽  
Saturn’S Rings ◽  
Gravitating Systems ◽  
Saturn's Rings ◽  
Solid Bodies ◽  
The Universe

During this symposium on the dynamics of the solar system, we have mainly studied the movements of the bodies of the solar system submitted to gravitational perturbations. The next step is to take into account the physical collisions. Indeed, there can be little doubt that collisions between “macroscopic bodies” are of frequent occurence in the Universe. All kinds of quite different objects undergo such collisions: these may range from large interstellar clouds to small solid bodies in the solar system. Collisions have surely played an important role in the formation of planets and satellites and continue to play a central role in the behaviour of the planetary discs. For example for Saturn's rings, one can see intuitively that until the optical depth drops much below unity, the rings are still evolving. Each orbiting particle can be taken as occupying a kind of torus, and collisions will continue until there is only one particle in each such “orbital tube”; this corresponds to a very small optical depth.

The Long View of Planetary Systems

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karel Schrijver
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Milky Way ◽  
Planetary Systems ◽  
Giant Planets ◽  
Milky Way Galaxy ◽  
Population Statistics ◽  
The Past ◽  
General Terms ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
The Universe

How many planetary systems formed before our’s did, and how many will form after? How old is the average exoplanet in the Galaxy? When did the earliest planets start forming? How different are the ages of terrestrial and giant planets? And, ultimately, what will the fate be of our Solar System, of the Milky Way Galaxy, and of the Universe around us? We cannot know the fate of individual exoplanets with great certainty, but based on population statistics this chapter sketches the past, present, and future of exoworlds and of our Earth in general terms.

The Planet in a Pebble

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Zalasiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Forensic Analysis ◽  
Mineral Matter ◽  
Supernova Explosions ◽  
Deep Underground ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
The Universe

This is the story of a single pebble. It is just a normal pebble, as you might pick up on holiday - on a beach in Wales, say. Its history, though, carries us into abyssal depths of time, and across the farthest reaches of space. This is a narrative of the Earth's long and dramatic history, as gleaned from a single pebble. It begins as the pebble-particles form amid unimaginable violence in distal realms of the Universe, in the Big Bang and in supernova explosions and continues amid the construction of the Solar System. Jan Zalasiewicz shows the almost incredible complexity present in such a small and apparently mundane object. Many events in the Earth's ancient past can be deciphered from a pebble: volcanic eruptions; the lives and deaths of extinct animals and plants; the alien nature of long-vanished oceans; and transformations deep underground, including the creations of fool's gold and of oil. Zalasiewicz demonstrates how geologists reach deep into the Earth's past by forensic analysis of even the tiniest amounts of mineral matter. Many stories are crammed into each and every pebble around us. It may be small, and ordinary, this pebble - but it is also an eloquent part of our Earth's extraordinary, never-ending story.

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