New Equation for Habitable Planets&Primitive Life

Scientists have recently been attempting to come up with an equation to "quantify how suitable other planets are for life."

The equation is reminiscent of the Drake Equation, which judges the chances of contacting extraterrestrial civilizations., as it contains many variables that must be debated on.

The hard part is finding what variables are required, and which ones describe qualities of our Earth that aren't necessarily required to sustain intelligent life.
As a senior astronomer from SETI claims, "There's no definition of life that really works very well. Even if you were able to define life as we know it, you might be missing out on life as we don't know it."


The article ends with the message that its definitely very likely that we'll find primitive life on planets with at least semi-habitable atmospheres, the problem is figuring out what it takes to get from life to intelligent life.

Us or the Androids: Who Gets the Glory?

This article is a little older, but I found it pretty interesting, and relevant too.

http://www.space.com/searchforlife/090115-seti-spacefaring-humanity.html

It opens with statements seeming to convey that Earth's destiny lay in the stars. Whether from internal conflict or resources, the author believes that humanity "can't stay in the cradle forever".

The article goes on to state that colonization of our solar system is definitely feasible, stating that it would take us less than a decade to get to Neptune.

However, its also later stated that the subsequent settling of planets from other systems and galaxies would be significantly harder: it would take around 75,000 years to travel to the nearest star system , Alpha Centauri.

Thus the solution is probes. with cameras.

Unfortunately, camera and remote technology has been improving at a much faster rate than our rocket technology, with the article stating that "In other words, in seven decades our rockets sped up by a factor of ten, but in little more than half that time our cameras improved by a factor of five thousand. There's no comparison: probe technology is marching to the beat of a faster drummer."

Probes have always offered the advantage of lower cost and minimal risk. For interstellar travel, their smaller size makes them especially practical. For the same energy bill, you could propel a one-ton reconnaissance craft to another star in one-tenth the time of sending even a small clutch of humans

Dislodging the Three Most Common SETI Myths

http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_three_myths_060622.html

"Just the Facts: Three SETI Myths"

Widely subscribed to myths about SETI are a paramount reason that SETI has had to fight so hard for funding and support. Due to misleading media coverage, such as "SETI is using millions of personal computers" or "SETI opened a new search for laser signals" and movie portrayals there is the myth that that there is an organization called simply, "SETI" that coordinates and controls all SETI work around the world, and some people even believe it semi-secret, US government organization.

Another common myth about SETI is that all radio telescopes are doing SETI work, all the time. However, this is far from the truth, which is that SETI hardly is constantly probing the universe for aliens. In fact, SETI's Project Phoenix used about 5% of the time at the Arecibo Observatory...and it was the largest allocation for a single project at Arecibo. Obviously, a much smaller percentage of radio telescopes are used by SETI than people are prone to think.

Finally, there is the belief most detrimental to the SETI cause: that SETI has been listening for nearly fifty years and hasn't discovered ET, so SETI is a failure. This would imply that SETI is always tuned in to the universe and that this is as constant as humans hearing. However, In the first of "listening," twenty-three targeted radio SETI projects conducted a total of ninety days of searching. The vast majority of the roughly 100 projects were very limited in frequency coverage, directions searched, and/or sensitivity. If you consider the number of stars (or sky positions) observed and the number of frequency channels searched at high sensitivity, only two projects have done a significant amount of searching.

These widely believed falsehoods surrounding SETI and general scientific ignorance (many people imagine searching for aliens to be a bit less complicated than it actually is) are the main obstacles SETI now faces in search of renewed support and funds.

Kepler Mission Carries Messages from Earth

http://www.space.com/searchforlife/091001-seti-kepler-names.html

"Messages from Earth Ride on Planet Hunting Space Craft"

The Kepler spacecraft consists of two main parts: one, instruments to detect other worlds, and two, a DVD attached to the spacecraft consisting of messages submitted by tens of thousands of people on why they thought the Kepler mission is important.

Many messages focused on Kepler's scientific objectives, which coincide with the exploration of humanity's deepest questions. Questions such as "are there other worlds out there like our own? and if so, are there other entities who may be seeking knowledge of us? Others say the Kepler mission is a result of humanity's natural and instinctive curiosity, and a manifestation of a need to reach out into space. Others believe that by searching outside our own world, we are given a larger sense of our place and size in the universe and therefore more appreciate the uniqueness and beauty of Earth. Another group of people such as Christina Aas of Norway emphasized that by searching for other life forms we might learn more about ourselves in the process and hopefully that despite whatever conflicts exist between people, on the whole we are all the same.

All in all, whether or not the Kepler mission reveals many terrestrial-style planets (which it is hypothesized is more likely than not) it is an important mission in space exploration for humanity.

First Images from Kepler Mission

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090416-kepler-first-images.html

"Planet-Hunting Spacecraft Beams Home First Images"

The $600 million Kepler spacecraft was launched last month to try and look through million of targets for about 100 thousand stars that may have Earth-sized planets around them. Kepler does this by using a 95-megapixel camera to cast an "unblinking stare at its target star field". This camera is so sensitive it will be able to record the blip of light created by a planet as it crosses infront of its parent star. These images will act as road maps that will in a few years help us to select a star and be able to tell if a world like ours is there.

The first views of Kepler encompass an estimated 14 million stars between the constellations Cygnus and Lyra; one view includes a cluster of stars known at NGC 6791 about 13 thousand light-years from Earth and other includes a star called Tres-2, known to have a Jupiter-like planet close by. All in all, these images are an important step forward for SETI to be able to determine which planets, if any, have the conditions that would allow for extraterrestrial life to lurk on them.