AGEO 110 3 credits Search for Life beyond the Earth Call

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AGEO 110 (3 credits)
Search for Life beyond the Earth
Call 32629 MWF 920-1015 in LC
1 http//www.atmos.albany.edu/jdelano/GEO110
John W. Delano, Ph.D.
Distinguished
Teaching Professor
Earth Science 313
Department of
Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences
jdelano_at_csc.albany.edu
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Principal Investigator in NASAs Astrobiology
program Associate
Director of New York Center for
Astrobiology http//www.origins.rpi.edu
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Text book Jeffrey Bennett and Seth Shostak
(2007) Life in the Universe. 2nd edition.
Pearson/Addison Wesley.
Web site with PowerPoint files
and homework assignments http//ww
w.atmos.albany.edu/jdelano/GEO110
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Flying saucer (UFO)
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Viking Orbiter (1976)
The Face on Mars
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2001)
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censored
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M42 in Orion (1,500 light years away)
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What is Astrobiology? It is a multidisciplinary
science with the goal of understanding the
origin, evolution, and distribution of life in
the Universe.
Microbiology, biochemistry, geochemistry,
planetary science, astrophysics, paleontology
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We stand at a new threshold of cosmic knowledge
that may be as philosophically challenging and as
historically significant as the views of
Copernicus (1543) and Darwin (1856).
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Apollo 15 in August 8, 1971
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Are we alone in the Universe?
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What is life?

• Primitive life is an aqueous chemical system
  able to transfer its molecular information and to
  evolve. The concept of evolution implies that
  the system transfers its molecular information
  fairly faithfully but makes occasional errors.
• Andre Brack (1998) The Molecular Origins of Life.
  
• Cambridge University Press.

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How diverse is life on Earth?

• Green plants gt105 species
• Animals gt106 species
• Bacteria gt6 x 103 species
• Fungus gt106 species
• Viruses gt3.6 x 103

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Eris and moon
Figure 1.4
International Astronomical Union (IAU) set the
definition of a planet being a celestial body
that (a) is in orbit around a star, but is not a
star itself (b) has sufficient mass to assume
hydrostatic equilibrium and (c) has cleared the
neighborhood around its orbit.
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QUESTIONS

• Are planets common in the Universe?
• Is our solar system typical?
• In what ways is planet Earth unusual?
• Is most life likely to be carbon-based?
• Is complex life common in the Universe?
• Does life elsewhere follow similar evolutionary
  trends and evolutionary rates?
• Is intelligence inevitable during evolution?
• What are the philosophical implications of
  finding complex life elsewhere in the Universe?

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Hubble Ultra Deep Field image showing 10,000
galaxies
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KEPLER
http//www.kepler.arc.nasa.gov
Launched on March 6, 2009
1.4-meter primary mirror 105
stars on 4-yr mission
20 ppm detection limit 0.002 on 12th mag.
star 430 - 890 nm
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Figure 1.3
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Camille Flammarion (1888) LAtmosphere
Meteorologie Populaire. Paris.
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Image by Mars Rover Spirit from the Columbia
Hills looking across Gusev Crater
Figure 1.5
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140-foot diameter radio telescope in West
Virginia that has been used to search for
extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).
Figure 1.7