By: Sydney Bumbarger and

Haley Kreh

EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE

TABLE OF CONTENTS• How Are Alien Worlds Discovered?

• Mars

• Jupiter

• Europa

• Titan

• Kepler 22b

• Kepler-62 System

• Bibliography

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HOW ARE ALIEN WORLDS DISCOVERED?• Transit Method

• Watches for dips in a star’s brightness as a planet passes in front of it

• Radial Velocity

• Picks up on the tiny wobbles a planet causes on its parent star’s motion toward or away from earth

• Also known as the Doppler method because it measures shifts in the star’s light caused by the gravitational pulls

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HOW ARE ALIEN WORLDS DISCOVERED?• Gravitational Microlensing

• Astronomers watch for massive objects passing in front of a star

• The object bends and magnifies the light from the star, and produces a light curve that can tell a lot about the object

• Direct Imaging

• Powerful telescopes take images of distant worlds

• Use coronagraphs to block out the glare of their parent stars

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HOW ARE ALIEN WORLDS DISCOVERED?• Pulsar Timing

• Anomalies in the timing of pulsars’ radio waves can reveal the presence of orbiting planets

• Harnessing Special Relativity

• Astronomers watch for a star to brighten as it is tugged by an orbiting planet and as a result light is focused in the direction of the star’s motion

• Astrometry

• Tracks a stars movements on the sky to spot the gravitational tugs of orbiting planets

• Produces limited and debatable results

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MARS• Curiosity visited Gale crater, and found

evidence supporting the idea that there was once a river running through the area that small microbes could have prospered in

• Spirit and Opportunity both found clay minerals on Mars’ surface that formed in the presence of acidic or highly salty water

• Recent analyses detected carbon dioxide, but this compound could have been given off during the rover’s experiments

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JUPITER• Jupiter is a gas giant planet that has no

surface, and extreme temperatures and pressures

• Some scientists speculate that organic chemicals in Jupiter’s atmosphere could have reacted and produced floating life forms in the lower atmosphere

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JUPITER• These life forms would be able to adjust to their own air pressure as they float about

• However, recent studies show far fewer organic molecules than expected

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EUROPA• One of Jupiter’s many moons

• Due to the changing gravitational pull of Jupiter, it is stretched over and over

• This creates heat, which melts the ice closest to its core, resulting in a hidden ocean protected by a thick layer of ice

• Many scientists predict that life forms that have adapted to live in these cold, dark conditions may reside on the interesting moon

• Some organisms might even be able to walk on the surface as a result of cracks in the crust

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TITAN• One of Saturn’s moons

• Has an assortment of organic molecules on it

• Amino acids discovered to be there

• Led to understanding that there may have primitive

life forms there

• However, the moon is extremely cold

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KEPLER 22B• Eerily similar to Earth

• 600 light years away

• Best candidate for life besides earth

• Average temperature of about 72˚F

• Orbits star similar to our own sun

• One year = 290 Earth days

• However, it could possibly be more like Neptune, with only a rocky core and mostly ocean

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KEPLER-62 SYSTEM• 1,200 light years away from Earth

(7,054,199,780,000,000 miles)

• Star is Kepler 62

• System of 5 planets

• Kepler 62e and 62f

• Mostly water, so any

life would be sea-

based

• Daily life would not be technology based

• Around 1.5 times the size of Earth

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BIBLIOGRAPHY“Europa & Titan: Moons With Life?” Earthguide.uscd.edu. 2002. 14 May 2013 http://earthguide.uscd.edu/virtualmuseum/listu/10_3.

“NASA finds new planet Kepler 22b outside solar system with temperature right for life.” The Washington Post. 7 December 2011. 14 May 2013 http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/nasa-finds-new-planet-Kepler-22b-outside-solar-system-with-temperature-right-for-life/2011/12/07/glQAPfzFdO_story.html.

Fisher, Max. “New planet similar to Earth discovered: how far is 600 light years away?” The Washington Post. 06 December 2011. 9 May 2013 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/new-planet-similar-to-earth-discovered-how-far-is-600-light-years-away/2011/12/06/glQABQ9SaO_blog.html.

Impey, Chris. The Living Cosmos. New York: Cambridge University Press, June 2011.

Kaufman, Marc. “Think Outside the Box to Find Extraterrestrial Life.” National Geographic. 02 May 2013. 13 May 2013 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/13502-exoplanets-hydrogen-atmosphere-space-science/.

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BIBLIOGRAPHYLandalay, Elizabeth. “3 new planets could host life.” CNN. 21 April 2013. 9 May 2013 http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/18/us/planet-discovery.

Mann, Adam. “Curiosity Rover Finds Evidence That Mars Could Have Hosted Life.” Wired. 12 March 2013. 13 May 2013 http://www.wired.com/wired/wiredscience/2013/03/curiosity-mars-life/.

Roach, Joan. “Jupiter Moon May Have Life- Experts Urge a Mission.” National Geographic. 23 March 2005. 13 May 2013 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/03/0323_050323_jupitereuropa.html.

Taylor Redd, Nola. “Life on Jupiter Moon Europa May Hide in Depths to Survive.” Space.com. 04 April 2012. 14 May 2013 http://www.space.com/15152-jupiter-moon-europa-life.html.

Wall, Mike. “7 Ways to Discover Alien Planets.” Space.com. 02 May 2013. 14 May 2013 http://www.space.com/20941-alien-planet-detection-techniques-countdown.html.

York, Christopher. “Two Life-Friendly Planets, Keper 62e and Kepler 62, Discovered in Same Solar System.” Huffpost Tech. 22 April 2013. 13 May 2013 http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/22/two-life-friendly-planets_n_3130349.html.

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