COSMOS Magazine | National Science Week | Australian Goverment Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research
Hello From Earth

About Alien Life


by Heather Catchpole

ARE WE ALONE? It's one of the fundamental questions of humanity, and chances are we'll be hollering the question into the vastness of the universe for centuries to come - someday, we may just get an answer.

When that answer comes, it may be anything from a War of the Worlds-style invasion; to a sniff of the building blocks of organic life in interstellar space, or even the discovery that Earth itself had an extraterrestrial origin as ancient microorganisms hitched a ride on a passing comet.

One thing is for sure, whether extraterrestrial life is hidden in the crust of an icy moon in our own Solar System or watching repeats of The Simpsons on a distant exoplanet, we will never stop looking for that someone - something - we can call our neighbour.

Twittering The Aliens

ARE WE ALONE?
There could be more than 200 extraterrestrial civilisations humming away in our galaxy right now. So where are they?

STAR MAKERS
A hyper-advanced civilisation may command such unimaginable power that it can fashion worlds and consume whole suns. But it would still be bound by the laws of physics.

BIGGER TELESCOPES NEEDED TO FIND ALIENS
Large space telescopes could zoom in on the atmospheres of planets around other stars, helping to speed up the search for extraterrestrial life, says a new study.

MARKER OF LIFE DETECTED ON DISTANT EXOPLANET
For the first time methane gas has been detected on a planet outside our Solar System. The organic molecule is a key product of life on Earth, and might be a useful tool for finding it elsewhere, say experts.

NASA PREDICTS COLOUR OF ALIEN PLANTS
Planets outside our Solar System may have orange, yellow, red or even black plant life, according to a new NASA study.

IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? SEARCHING FOR ALIENS THROUGH HISTORY
The desire to contact intelligent life on other planets is much older than the UFO craze and the SETI movement. In fact, it goes back to the Ancient Greeks.

THE PLATE TECTONICS OF ALIEN WORLDS
Extrasolar planets that are superficially similar to our own and sometimes termed 'super-sized Earths' may in fact have stagnant outer surfaces rendering them inhospitable to life.

THE FINAL FRONTIER
In the 1960s the space race created a fascination with science and great technological advances. To find alien life we need to take back up that mantle, says astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, and send people further into space.

U.N. OFFICE MANAGES ASTEROIDS, ALIEN CONTACT
They call them the "people in outer space". But besides stopping an arms race in space, one tiny United Nations office has very down-to-Earth goals: to help poor nations develop crops and help manage natural disasters.

USEFUL SITES:

SETI Institute
If extraterrestrial civilisations are calling, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute is listening.

NASA Astrobiology
Aims at understanding the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the universe...are we alone?

Australian Centre for Astrobiology
Hosting ancient fossil-bearing rocks, Australia is one of the most interesting environments from which to contemplate the evolution of life on other planets.

Astrobiology Magazine
A NASA-sponsored online popular science magazine.

WIKI: Extraterrestrial Life
It's life, Jim, but not as we know it.





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