New physicsworld.com online lecture: Are we alone in the universe?
For 50 years, astronomers have been sweeping the skies with radio telescopes in the hope of stumbling across a message from an alien civilization. So far, they have been greeted by an eerie silence. So are we alone in the universe after all, or might the scientists be looking for the wrong thing in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Paul Davies, director of BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University, US, calls for the search to be widened to include any signatures of intelligence, and examines several ways in which alien technology might have left subtle footprints in the universe in this physicsworld.com webinar: ‘The Eerie Silence: Are We Alone in the Universe?’
Wednesday 31 March 2010
4p.m. BST (5p.m. CET, 11a.m. EST)
Register for this free event here:
http://physicsworld.com/cws/go/webinar8
Tags: Physics World, webinar
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what is physic today
The first step to finding alien life in our galaxy is working out what sort of planet an alien might call home. Almost 400 exoplanets – planets orbiting stars outside our solar system – have been spotted and now it’s time to take a closer look.
Dr Giovanna Tinetti from UCL is working on a new observation technique which will make it easier than ever to take a glimpse at the atmospheres of exoplanets, revealing further clues as to any potential inhabitants. Last month, her team of astronomers from UCL and NASA identified organic molecules in the atmosphere of a planet (the catchily named HD 189733b) nearly 63 light years away.
With these kinds of distances, bottling a sample of alien air to take back to the lab is not an option. Instead, astronomers analyse the radiation emitted from, or reflected by, a planet – a method known as spectroscopy. The various molecules in the planet's atmosphere absorb different wavelengths of radiation, leaving a telltale pattern in the overall spectrum of light captured by telescopes. By recognising these fingerprints, researchers can deduce the composition of the planet’s atmosphere.
‘We are interested in looking at light in the infrared end of the spectrum, so basically it’s thermal light emitted by the planet’, explains Tinetti. ‘The reason for this is that most of the molecules that we’re interested in, for example carbon dioxide or methane, have a much stronger signature in this part of the spectrum.’
Do you really think is live in another planets, could be microbe live, like Professor Brian Cox toll as in the TV programme in the BBC