Prior to my enrollment in this class, I rarely thought about the Universe around me. Furthermore, I never truly comprehended the vastness of the Universe. In fact, although I do have a better understanding about the immense size of the cosmos, I feel as though I still cannot fathom the true size of our expanding Universe. Accompanying my realization of the immensity of the cosmos, was my growing belief that there is life existing outside of our Earth. These thoughts were fueled by the class’s analysis of the Drake Equation, and by our study of extremophiles and habitable zones. Prior to my exposure of such topics, I never seriously considered the possibility of extraterrestrial life. As we continued to consider the possibility of life elsewhere, I began to think that all our efforts at finding extraterrestrial life are restricted to finding life like that of our own. I feel as though we subconsciously ignore the possibility of extremely weird life that we cannot even comprehend that may exist elsewhere. Then again, the study of extremophiles is our first step in that direction. I plan to go into further research of our efforts at extraterrestrial contact, and hope that one day our efforts may actually become successful. In comparison to my view of the Universe before I took ASTRO 201, I regard the cosmos in a much more colorful light, full of possibilities and secrets that we have yet to uncover.
About six months ago, scientists retrieved samples of water that are nearly two billion years old from the depths of a mine in Timmins, Ontario. They are now attempting to determine whether or not any life exists within the liquid. If in fact lifeforms are present within the water, this would be yet another area in which scientists find that extremophiles can exist. This would offer the possibility of life elsewhere in the solar system or galaxy where extreme conditions may be present. On the other hand, if life is not discovered within the liquid, such a discovery is just as valuable. This is because this information could provide evidence for an abiotic line, which is an environment where an element necessary for life is absent. A further understanding of an abiotic line allows astrobiologists to narrow down their search for extraterrestrial life. Thus, one can see how the discovery of extremophiles or the lack there of can contribute to our search for life beyond Earth.
To this day, extremophiles have been discovered in volcanic vents that are subject to extremely high temperatures. Moreover, the European Space Agency sent microorganisms into space to see how they would react to the harsh conditions; these lifeforms were able to survive. Although all of this helps us to expand the possible areas of the cosmos where life may be present, this also makes our search less narrow, which we do not have the resources nor time to account for. As our research in extremophiles advances, I hope we can find a balance between a broad enough area for possible life, and a narrow enough area that we have the time and resources to allocate toward. Maybe then we can finally find extraterrestrial life.
Over the past couple of centuries, we have learned a great deal about our Universe. However, the more we seem to learn about the cosmos, the more we realize that we do not understand. When Jan Oort and Fritz Zwicky first hypothesized the existence of dark matter in our Universe, a breakthrough in our view of the Universe took place. Both Zwicky and Oort had hypothesized the presence of this dark matter to explain the rapid orbital velocities of stars in the Milky Way as well as the surprisingly small mass in the orbital velocities of galaxies within clusters. Although dark matter is thought to make up about 80% of the entire Universe, it is quite difficult to study dark matter considering the fact that we can’t see it.
Today, it was posted in a Huffington Post Article that scientists from the Fermi National Laboratory are claiming that they may have just found one of the most important and clear signals for the presence of dark matter. The scientists produced the picture above, which shows the Milky Way with all known sources of gamma radiation removed. However, the red part of the image depicts a healthy source of gamma rays at the center of the Milky Way. The team at Fermi National Laboratory has come to the conclusion that these gamma rays must be emanating from dark matter, as they have ruled out all other known possibilities. Although it has been confirmed that no other known astrophysical sources can account for the gamma rays, this still does not prove the existence of dark matter entirely. For all we know, it could be something entirely different that we have yet to discover. Nevertheless, it seems as though the scientific community is getting closer and closer to understanding dark matter with each and every discovery.
People are fascinated by the Universe for a variety of reasons. Some are intrigued by black holes, while others may be obsessed with the formation of stars and planets. But one thing is for sure, the possibility of life elsewhere is definitely an exciting topic no matter what you’re interested in.
When we think of the possibility of life elsewhere, we often assume that liquid water and oxygen is required. Moreover, our commonly accepted image of extraterrestrial life is often a green being with 2 legs, 2 arms, and a head just like ourselves. We are basically assuming that life elsewhere would look not that much different than the life we are accustomed to. People usually overlook the possibility that extraterrestrial life can be unimaginably different than our own, living off of different types of chemical compounds than we would guess. Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, may be the place where weird life such as this could be harbored.
Most people are unaware that Titan is somewhat Earth-like. Like that of our own, Titan has a thick, nitrogen atmosphere. In addition, Titan and Earth are the only two worlds in our solar system that have stable liquids on its surface. Like we see on Earth, these liquids form rivers and streams, which flow into lakes and seas as well. The difference, however, is that Titan’s liquid is made up of hydrocarbons. Considering Titan’s extremely cold temperatures of around -180 degrees Celsius, compounds such as methane and ethane are liquid on Titan’s surface. Moreover, these frigid temperatures cause water ice to be as hard as rocks. Such rocks of waters are actually in abundance around Titan’s surface. Astrobiologists are considering the possibility that Titan may harbor very weird life that may be liquid methane or liquid ethane based rather than water-based. If we were to ever find weird life such as this, it would open up a whole new realm of possibilities for life in the Universe. We would no longer be concerned with finding liquid water, but other liquid compounds as well. However, until we find life that is supported by other compounds such as those mentioned, we can only assume that life forms from liquid water.
For years now, scientists have been fascinated with Jupiter’s fourth largest moon known as Europa. What makes Europa such an interesting subject is the fact that it is home to a saltwater ocean beneath a layer of ice. Such characteristics make Europa the most likely other place in our Solar System to have life. In order to further investigate Europa, scientists are in the development of robots and instruments of the like that may sniff around Europa’s mysterious waters. Of these developments is a nuclear-powered autonomous underwater carrier (AUV), which will venture into dangerous areas on Europa while obtaining essential biological samples. These samples may hold the key to the famous question: Are we alone? It may only be a matter of time before this question is answered. For more details see here.
For many years, scientists have regarded Mercury as a planet that has little to offer, as it is more or less a ‘dead’ planet. Mercury has acquired such dull attributes given its treacherous location in the Solar System. Its proximity to the Sun allows the sun-facing side of mercury to reach temperatures of up to 840 degrees Fahrenheit, while the other side drops to temperatures of about -346 degrees Fahrenheit. As one could guess, these extreme temperature differences are not supportive of life. Moreover, Mercury’s small size of about 3000 miles in diameter suggests that its interior parts have been cooled for quite some time, thus supporting the fact that it lacks underground activity such as volcanism. However, scientists have recently noticed that Mercury is home to several clean surface areas, which is not characteristic of planetary surfaces without geological activity. Furthermore, pictures taken by instruments of the Messenger spacecraft show ancient volcanic plains as shown in the image above. The purpler regions are low elevation, while the whiter colors are high elevation. Although Mercury has lived in a hostile environment, there may be many more mysteries to uncover regarding its past.
Physicists and astronomers today are confident that the age of our universe is about 13.8 billion years. However, they are also confident that our universe is much bigger than 13.8 billion light years. But how can this be if nothing in our universe can travel faster than the speed of light? The fact of the matter is that during the early moments of the creation of our universe there was a period known as ‘inflation’. It is during this time that the fabric of space itself expanded faster than the speed of light, accounting for a universe currently larger than 13.8 billion light years.
This shows the unpredictable and unlawful nature of spacetime, opening doors to several mind-bending possibilities. Of these is a theory put forth by a Mexican physicist, Miguel Alcubierre. Alcubierre formed a theory stemming from inflation, allowing objects themselves to travel beyond the speed of light by means of spacetime. His theory is known as the Alcubierre Warp Drive, and states that an object can travel vast distances in a short period of time by means of spacetime warping. In particular, the spacetime behind the object expands while the spactime ahead of the object contracts. The object is essentially riding a wave of spacetime, accelerating to great speeds.
Currently, the largest telescope in the world is the Gran Telescopio Canarias, which has an aperture size of about 10.4 meters. However, plans to build an even larger telescope were recently approved. This new telescope will be built at the summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano, and will cost an alarming $1 billion to create. Accompanying such a large cost, however, is an aperture size of almost 30 meters, allowing astronomers to see 13 billion light years away. This is less than a billion light year short of the entire observable universe. Because of these vast distances at which the telescope will cover, much of the light from those distances has yet to reach us. It is for this reason that astronomers will be able to see into some of the relatively earlier years of our universe. Peering into the past of our universe can provide astronomers with some of the information they need to answer many of the big questions in the field today. For instance, astronomers may further their understanding of the formation of our universe with the use of such a telescope. We may even discover entirely new things as a result of this development; the possibilities are boundless.
Isaac Newton is one of the most important scientists in history. Although he lived during the late 17th century, his work has impacted the fields of mathematics, physics, and astronomy of today’s world. His notable accomplishments include the establishment of modern Physics, and the discovery of both the gravitational force and the three Universal Laws of Motion. Moreover, his work provided the proof for heliocentricity, as first put forth by Nicholas Copernicus. This discovery alone “served as the basis for our understanding of how the universe functions and why it is the way it is” (Jessa, 2009).
Major Historical Events During Isaac Newton’s Lifetime:
On February 3rd, 1690, paper money was issued for the first time by the colony of Massachusetts.
Another important even during the lifetime of Isaac Newton was in June of 1654, when Louis XIV was crowned king of France in Rheims.
Another Historical Figure During Isaac Newton’s Lifetime:
A famous historical figure that lived during the time of Isaac Newton is John Locke. Locke was born in England on August 29th, 1632, and died on October 28th, 1704. Locke contributed greatly to the field of philosophy during the enlightenment period. Among his philosophies was his theory that everyone was born with natural rights. Of these rights were life, liberty, and property. It is not a coincidence that such philosophy made its way onto the constitution.
Reflection:
Throughout this assignment, I came to the realization that several of the most important scientific discoveries and developments occurred around the time of the aforementioned astronomical figures. It was interesting to learn of how impactful Isaac Newton’s work has been on the fields of mathematics, physics, and astronomy. Without his work, we could never have reached the level of knowledge that we are at today; so much of what we know in science is based upon Newton’s accomplishments. It was also interesting to note that although there was a plethora of accomplishments in the field science during those centuries, there were also several other important events around the world as well.
How concrete are our laws of physics? Could there be a way to bend the laws and essentially travel beyond the speed of light? Could such an ability open the possibilities for interstellar space travel? These are some of the questions that surround the intriguing idea of wormholes. Two wormholes could in theory act as a gateway between two fabrics of space. In such a case, the wormholes act as a bridge between two points in space. But what if these two points were immensely far apart? We would then be traversing a great distance in little time, possibly defying the cosmic speed limit: the speed of light. However, this is purely theory; the idea of wormholes can be seen as “cheating” the speed of light, considering that an object is simply traveling through bent space and not actually traveling the entire distance from one point to another.