Mars Soil Roundup

On Thursday, NASA announced its Mars Phoenix Lander had found Martian soil is loaded with the minerals and nutrients necessary to support life. Here's a roundup of the latest coverage:

Alkaline Soil Sample From Mars Reveals Presence of Nutrients for Plants to Grow NYT

Martian Soil Could Grow Turnips New Scientist

Martian Soil Hints At Water, Nutrients Science News

Martian Soil Not So Alien The Planetary Society

Mars Lander Finds Salty Environment Wired

Phoenix Mars Lander Returns Treasure Trove For Science Science Daily

Awash In Chemistry Astrobiology Magazine

And of course the ultimate question:

Will NASA Ever Find Life On Mars? Space.com

Tunguska: Bad Astronomical News Of The Century

One hundred years ago today, on June 30, 1908, a massive atmospheric explosion detonated over a remote region of Siberia called Tunguska, levelling over 800 square miles of dense forest.

The blast equalled in force 185 Hiroshima-size atomic bombs, or about 2.7 megatons.

People forty miles from the explosion's epicenter were knocked over or even set on fire; witnesses as far away as Britain saw the Eastern sky light up afterward.

We now know the cause of the explosion -- a space rock approximately 120 feet in diameter smashing into the atmosphere at a speed of 33,500 miles per hour and detonating at a height of about 28,000 feet.

If a similar event occurred today over a major city, millions of people would likely die.

Will we take the steps necessary to protect ourselves?

WOW!

Ray Villard recently posted about the so-called "Wow!" radio signal (pictured above), detected for a brief 72 seconds on August 15, 1977, by radio astronomer Jerry Ehman at Ohio State's now-defunct Big Ear radio telescope. The Wow! signal may have been the first identifiable signal the human race has received from an advanced extraterrestrial civilization.

Ray Villard's blog post contained an interesting tidbit that piqued my interest: the Wow! signal came from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, which -- as Villard points out -- is at the top of the list as a location for the possible existence of extraterrestrial civilizations because it is located in the direction of the galactic center. This part of the sky has the highest density of stars -- and old stars in particular -- in the Milky Way galaxy. (Here is a map showing the location of the Wow! signal in Sagittarius.)

However, recent scientific developments make the Wow! signal's location in Sagittarius even more significant. Early in June I posted about a new SETI strategy that exploits the intersection of the ecliptic with the galactic plane.

The ecliptic (the path of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, projected against the sky) is important because advanced extrasolar civilizations located near the ecliptic would be able to detect the Earth's presence and habitability by advanced versions of the transit method of planet detection we are currently perfecting. The galactic plane (what we view in the sky as the Milky Way) is important because that is where most of the stars in our galaxy are located.

The ecliptic and the galactic plane intersect in two places in the sky: the constellations of Taurus and -- you guessed it -- Sagittarius. However, only Sagittarius has the added benefit of also being located in the direction of the galactic center.

Ray Villard concludes -- based largely on location -- the Wow! signal probably was extraterrestrial in origin, and recounts that Frank Drake has concurred and also suggested the signal may have carried a packet of data at a rate too high for Big Ear to resolve.

Jerry Ehman, the astronomer who found the Wow! signal almost 31 years ago, last year published a 30th anniversary report concluding an extraterrestrial origin for the signal has not been ruled out.

First Contact (Part Deux)

Early in June I posted about the connection between the recently published photos of an uncontacted tribe in the Amazon and the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Since the photos were published, the Guardian newspaper in the UK has attempted to impeach the credibility of the organization publishing the photos -- Survival International -- by falsely accusing the group of claiming the tribe was "lost" or previously undiscovered.

As it turns out, Survival International never made such a claim -- the tribe merely avoids contact with the outside world, and the outside world has so far kindly obliged.

ABC News did an excellent piece debunking of the Guardian story. However, this passage in the original Guardian story caught by eye:

"When we think we might have found an isolated tribe . . . a sertanista like me walks in the forest for two or three years to gather evidence and we mark it in our [global positioning system]. We then map the territory the Indians occupy and we draw that protected territory without making contact with them. And finally we set up a small outpost where we can monitor their protection."

Sound a little like the Zoo Hypothesis or the Prime Directive to you?

A Twinkle In The Sky

Back in April I posted about an ingenuous method scientists are developing to detect Earth-like planets covered by oceans. That method would rely upon the unique reflective properties of liquid water.

And earlier this month I suggested any advanced technological civilizations in our galactic neighborhood would probably already know about Earth's existence and its habitability merely by studying the light reflected by our planet, including the light reflected by Earth's oceans.

Now a new study is suggesting scientists may recognize Earth-like planets much more quickly than previously thought due to a unique twinkling caused by light reflecting off atmospheric clouds.

According to the new study, an extraterrestrial observer would be able to deduce facts such as the Earth's rotation period from cloud patterns, and variations in the cloud patterns would indicate an active weather pattern and the presence of liquid water -- both considered favorable if not necessary conditions for the presence of life.

On the other hand, Earth-like planets lacking these features are less likely to be habitable, and therefore inhabited.

Another Earth Within 5 Years?

Planetary scientists Geoff Marcy and Alan Boss are predicting astronomers will find the first truly Earth-like extrasolar planet within the next five years, due to dramatic improvements in planet-finding technology.

Most of the more than 300 extrasolar planets found to date are "hot Jupiters," gas giants orbiting extraordinarily close to their host stars and likely inhospitable to life. However, the prevalence of hot Jupiters among extrasolar planets found to date is due to the bias of current technology, which so far is too crude to detect much smaller Earth-like planets in more distant Earth-like orbits.

Last week scientists announced the discovery of a Sun-like star with three "super-Earths," rocky planets with several time the Earth's mass.

Improvements to the two most common planet-finding techniques -- the radial velocity method and the transit method -- are rapidly bringing Earth-size exoplanets within their reach.

Scientists are also perfecting methods expected to capture the first true image of an extrasolar planet in the near future.

Extreme Life = Alien Life?

Remember those posts about the discovery of ancient hydrothermal springs on Mars, or speculation Mars' former seas would have been too salty to support life?

New Scientist has a brief but excellent survey of known extremophile life on Earth, including microbes thriving in boiling hydrothermal vents deep under the sea or in the almost-sterile Dead Sea, which isn't really dead at all.

Could something similar dwell on the Red Planet, Europa or perhaps Enceladus?

It Once Rained On Mars

A new study indicates it once rained or drizzled on Mars, at least a very long time ago.

The study contradicts the former belief of scientists that liquid water on the surface of Mars welled up from below as opposed to falling from the sky. According to a new analysis of data from the Viking, Pathfinder and Mars Rover (Spirit and Opportunity) missions, liquid water may have formed in the Martian atmosphere as recently as 1.8 billion years ago.

The study results mark the first confirmation of rain, drizzle or dew on Mars.

"FLABBERGASTED": INGREDIENTS FOR LIFE FOUND ON MARS!

A week after announcing the probable discovery of water ice on Mars, NASA today announced its Mars Phoenix Lander has found the basic ingredients necessary to support life in the first soil sample the Lander has tested.

The lander has found potassium, magnesium and chloride in its first sample of Martian soil. Scientists say the soil would likely be suitable to grow plants such as asparagus, which thrives in an alkaline environment.

The lander’s instruments also found water vapor in the sample.

All results are preliminary and need to be confirmed, scientists say.

Planet Of The Apes

In a legal first for the human race, the Spanish parliament has voted to extend to humanity's closest genetic relatives -- the great apes -- certain rights to life and freedom previously granted only to people.

In response to lobbying by the Great Ape Project, the new law will criminalize harmful experiments on great apes -- gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans and bonobos.

Keeping apes in zoos will not be illegal, but their living conditions will have to improve. However, the use of apes in circuses or in commercials and films will be a criminal offense.

Planet X?

Japanese scientists have developed a new computer model postulating the existence of an as-yet undiscovered

"Planet X" far beyond the orbit of Pluto.

If the object exists, technically it would be a dwarf planet or Plutoid and not a planet.

Planetary scientists and science fiction writers alike have speculated for decades about the possible existence of a large planetary body in the outer solar system, in a region known as the Kuiper Belt.

Sedna and other known objects in the Kuiper Belt have irregular orbits that cannot be explained by standard solar system models. The new computer model attributes these irregularities to the existence of a unknown Plutoid with 30 to 70 percent of the Earth's mass, orbiting at a distance of 100 to 200 Astronomical Units (an AU is the distance from the Sun to the Earth, or approximately 93 million miles).

For comparison, Sedna orbits the Sun at 80 to 100 AUs, or about three times the distance of Pluto from the Sun, taking 12,000 years to complete one orbit.

Planetary Roundup

Last week scientists announced the discovery of a single star hosting a planetary system with at least three Super-Earths. Here's a roundup of some of the subsequent coverage:

Exoplanet Count Tops 300 With Discovery of Super-Earths Planet Quest

Trio of Super-Earths Found To Orbit Nearby Star The Planetary Society

More Planets Like Earth? Time

One In Three Stars May Have "Super"-Earths Scientific American

Closing In On Extrasolar Earths Space.com

More SuperEarths Discovered Astrobiology Magazine

And, again, the ultimate question:

For Alien Life-Seekers, New Reason To Hope New York Times

Mars Water Roundup

I've just returned from a week-long vacation, so I haven't had much time to cover the news announced Thursday that the Mars Phoenix Lander has confirmed the presence of water ice on Mars. Here's a brief news roundup:

It Must Have Been Ice Astrobiology Magazine

The Mars Ice FAQ: How Do You Know It's Water? Wired.com

Scientists Ponder Whether Ice On Mars Ever Melted Wired.com

And, finally, the ultimate question:

Can The Martian Arctic Support Extreme Life? Associated Press/MSNBC

You can find other relevant posts here.

Tomorrow, I'll have a roundup of the coverage of last week's announcement of a planetary system with three Super-Earths.

I KNEW It!

Seven cups of coffee per day is actually good for you!

Straight, that is, no chaser.

Extraterrestrial Angst (Part Deux)

A week or so ago a reader named Alan added the following comment to this post discussing the internal contradiction between certain accepted scientific ideas regarding the likelihood of advanced technological civilizations in our galaxy and skepticism regarding whether such civilizations would ever travel interstellar distances.

Alan’s argument enhances the point I was trying to make in my original post, and I have decided to reproduce Alan’s comment in its entirety, with relevant links added to other posting in this blog or to articles on the Internet.

Here is Alan’s comment:

"All these guys are doing is describing their own imaginative feebleness: because they can't conceive of something therefore it isn't possible.

A similarly ridiculous dismissal is the one that [states] beings capable of traversing the galaxy would be so far in advance of us we'd be to them what ants are to us.

Yet we ourselves study ants!

If you asserted to these guys there were species out there that traveled to other worlds merely to study extraterrestrial muck, they'd laugh in your face, and yet look at our own latest scientific marvel, the Phoenix project - we've spent all that time, effort and money for what? To study muck on Mars!

A still more pointed example is the recent incident of the plane catching a glimpse of an unknown 'primitive' tribe in the Amazon jungle: even as I write, some anthropologist, somewhere, is wondering who these people are, how more can be learned about them, and how this can be done with a minimum of contamination - cultural or otherwise.

But even more intriguingly, a new tool has become available to this anthropologist, the likes of which would never have been available to his disciplinary ancestors of even the previous generation: namely remote observation by satellite.

In other words, a new age is dawning which will eventually enable the likes of anthropologists to comprehensively study their subjects, in situ, without their ever being aware of it.

And since all any alien species needs to do to study us is hack into our computing systems, who is to say they aren't already doing that?

You can bet your *rse we'll be doing it on them as soon as we can!"

Thanks Alan.

The Great Filter, Doomsday, and the Fermi Paradox

Folks are in a gloomy mood recently, and with good reason.

I posted the question here recently whether or not catastrophic climate change might be the Great Filter Nick Bostrom has proposed -- one that may go a long way toward shedding some light on the Fermi Paradox.

The Fermi Paradox, of course, asks why -- in a Universe that should be teeming with intelligent life -- we so far have but one example of a supposedly intelligent species.

Us.

However, more people are proposing it may be our own intelligence that will be our undoing, thereby suggesting a solution to the Fermi Paradox: advanced technological civilizations are prone to destroy themselves.

I am still optimistic we can survive this century, but not everyone is.

In September, ABC News will broadcast a 2-hour special asking scientists from across the globe whether we are living in the last century of human civilization. The show, Earth 2100,
will explore whether "extreme changes in climate, combined with dwindling resources, famine, war and disease have the potential to create a post-apocalyptic world in less than a hundred years."

Others think we will not survive to witness Ray Kurzweil's Singularity around 2050, and that we actually have far less than 25 years before catastrophic climate change overtakes human society.

Or maybe even less time.

The bad news keeps coming, and fast. As I recently posted, the global warming we are experiencing now could rapidly accelerate as methane is released from warming oceans and permafrost, causing even faster warming. Last summer, the Arctic sea ice melted more than ever recorded, and new research indicates the rapid retreat of summer sea ice could triple the current rate of warming in the Arctic and the resultant release of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.

The result would be an even faster rate of global warming.

To make matters worse, many of the men and women who govern the United States don't even believe in climate change -- according to a new survey, fully 74% of GOP members of the United State Congress reject the thesis that human activities are causing climate change. (It's not just Congress; I recently posted about efforts by the Bush Administration to use the military to spread anti-science claptrap.)

Thankfully, 98% of the Democratic members surveyed accept climate change science.

Maybe we can survive the century.

Maybe.

Your Next Cocktail Party Date: A Robot

Researchers at Honda have given their humanoid robot Asimo a new capability: understanding three human voices shouting at once.

New Scientist gives us the details:

For now the modified Asimo's new ability are being used to judge rock-paper-scissors contests, where three people call out their choices at once. But the number of voices and the complexity of the sentences the software can deal with should grow in future.

Honda has outfitted Asimo with a system called HARK, which uses an array of eight microphones and a sound processor to isolate each voice from other sound sources. Speech recognition software then decodes each voice.

However, Honda will have to make improvements to the system before Asimo is ready to carry on conversations at a cocktail party.

Dutch SETI

In May I posted about Seth Shostak's observation that SETI is primarily an American scientific adventure, with little participation by Europeans, except for the Italians.

Now the Dutch are getting in on the act.

ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, is building a radio telescope in Europe called LOFAR, or Low Frequency Array, an extensive array of 25,000 small antennas.

LOFAR presents several advantages for SETI researchers. Unlike most other radio telescopes, LOFAR can survey large areas of the sky at once, which will make it easier to detect signals that are transient in nature. Because of its sensitivity, LOFAR opens the door to possibly detecting leakage from any extraterrestrial radio or TV broadcasts -- at least for the nearest star systems.

Not everyone agrees, however. Seth Shostak, for one, is skeptical that a telescope the size of LOFAR will truly be able to detect leakage as opposed to intentionally targeted messages.

Roadrunner Goes To Work

Last week I posted about the Pentagon's newest supercomputer, Roadrunner, the most powerful computer in the world.

Roadrunner has already gone to work, testing its limits with a program called PetaVision, which models the human visual system and mimics the function of billions of neurons and trillions of synapses.

Running PetaVision, Roadrunner set the world record for computational speed, achieving the 1.144 petaflop benchmark (a petaflop is a quadrillion computations per second -- one million billion).

The achievement not only means scientists will be able to study the human visual system in real time, it opens the door to achieving human-like cognitive function in computers -- artificial intelligence.

Edge Of The Abyss

The United States of America took a step back from the edge of an abyss last week.

By a narrow 5-4 vote, in a decision authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the United States Supreme Court ruled Congress and the President could not abolish the right of habeas corpus for enemy combatants our military is detaining at our base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Habeas corpus is the right of all persons detained by the government to force the government to bring them before a judge and prove the detention is legal. It is a right so ancient its origins date at least to 1215 and the Magna Carta (although that has not stopped the British from screwing it up also).

In 2006, the Bush Administration, with the acquiescence of a compliant Congress controlled by the GOP, passed the Military Tribunals Act, which, among other things, abolished habeas for the first time since the Civil War and Reconstruction.

It should not have been a difficult decision for the Supreme Court to overturn this law. The Constitution is explicit: habeas corpus is so fundamental a right it may only be suspended during times of rebellion or invasion (as Lincoln did during the Civil War, which obviously was a rebellion).

Thankfully, our nation has suffered neither rebellion nor invasion. Habeas corpus cannot be suspended, much less abolished, by the political branches of government -- as long as the current majority is maintained on the Supreme Court.

John McCain, by the way, thinks the pro-Constitution decision is “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.”

BREAKING NEWS: WATER ON MARS!

Wired.com is reporting that water ice has been confirmed on Mars by the Phoenix Lander.

iPhone? How About An i-Limb?

A British company has rolled out the most life-like, commercially available bionic hand ever available.

The bionic hand is the first available to replicate both the form and function of the human hand. It can be fitted with a realistic skin-like glove.

The i-Limb has been fitted to more than 200 people so far, including disabled U.S. veterans of the Iraq war. The hand does not require surgery to be fitted. The hand is controlled by two electrodes that pick up myoelectric signals from the skin, caused by muscle contractions. A computer interprets the signals and controls the hand’s movement. A separate motor powers each digit.

The i-Limb’s UK developer, Touch Bionics, is working on a full-arm version, with a wrist, elbow and shoulder.

Space Robot

Looking like science fiction -- but actually science fact -- the Dextre robot works on the International Space Station, helping to install the Kibo laboratory, during the recent STS-124 Discovery mission.

One City Per Week

I generally lump climate change "skeptics" in with creationists and believers in the so-called "abiotic oil theory." (They all share the same credulity, and the same willingness to select only evidence that supports their position.)

A common refrain of global warming deniers is a general disbelief human activity can actually have a substantial effect on the Earth's atmosphere, as if 6.5 billion people can't get anything done. The effect is simply too small, they believe, to be noticeable.

Have these guys ever looked a map? Do they think the United States, for example, looked like this 200 years ago? New research indicates humans are developing the Earth at a pace equalling one city the size of Vancouver, BC, every week.

That's 52 Vancouvers a year; over 1000 in 20 years.

Think about it.

Plasma-Propelled "Flying Saucer" (Part Deux)

I posted back in May about Florida aerospace engineer Subrata Roy, who recently patented a design for a plasma-driven flying disk powered by magnetohydrodynamics.

Now Science Daily has published more details, including this intriguing tidbit: although the prototype is only six inches in diameter, in principle the device could be scaled up to a "much larger form."

Science Daily reports:

The vehicle will be powered by a phenomenon called magnetohydrodynamics, or the force created when a current or a magnetic field is passed through a conducting fluid. In the case of Roy’s aircraft, the conducting fluid will be created by electrodes that cover each of the vehicle’s surfaces and ionize the surrounding air into plasma.

The force created by passing an electrical current through this plasma pushes around the surrounding air, and that swirling air creates lift and momentum and provides stability against wind gusts. In order to maximize the area of contact between air and vehicle, Roy’s design is partially hollow and continuously curved, like an electromagnetic flying bundt pan.

Here are some other intriguing tidbits, according to Astrobiology Magazine:

The proposed craft -- which has no moving parts and can hover as well as take off vertically -- will have to have an extremely lightweight power source to generate the needed plasma. The plasma needed to propel the craft, however, will cause interference with the electromagnetic waves necessary to communicate with the craft. Roy hopes his invention may be used one day to explore other planets.

Roy's patent stems from his work on his work on plasma actuators, which was funded by the U.S. Air Force.

The Air Force has expressed interest in his invention.

Origin Of Life Modelled

Scientists know little about how the first living cells originated on Earth approximately 3.5 billion years ago.

However, researchers at Harvard University have created a laboratory model of an early protocell capable of building, copying and containing DNA. The project may shed light on how Earth’s earliest life interacted with the primordial soup that acted as life’s cradle.

As Astrobiology Magazine reports:

The protocell's fatty acid membrane allows chemical compounds, including the building blocks of DNA, to enter into the cell without the assistance of the protein channels and pumps required by today's highly developed cell membranes. Also unlike modern cells, the protocell does not use enzymes for copying its DNA.

Some scientists propose life originated in ancient hydrothermal vents – like those that may have been recently found on Mars – where prebiotic organic molecules reacted in a watery medium.

We Are All Aliens Now

For the first time, scientists have proven genetic material found in a meteorite is truly of extraterrestrial origin.

The discovery sheds light on both the origin of life on Earth 4 billion years ago, as well as on the likelihood of life elsewhere in the cosmos.

Studies of the Murchison meteorite, which landed in Australia almost 40 years ago, have confirmed that uracil and xanthine molecules scientists found in the space rock originated in outer space.

Uracil and xanthine are nucleobases and precursors to compounds present in RNA and DNA.

Meteorites are material left over from the formation of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago. Meteorites similar to the Murchison rock bombarded Earth from the time of its formation to about 3.8 billion years ago, during the time life first originated.

Scientists determined the uracil and xanthine in the Murchison meteorite were of extraterrestrial origin -- as opposed to Earthly contamination -- because the molecules contain a heavy form of carbon generally found only in outer space, in particular in the interstellar clouds from which stars and planets form.

The discovery is yet one more piece of evidence that the basic building blocks of life are common in the Universe.

303 And Counting!

Today's exoplanet discoveries -- which I discussed earlier today in this post -- have pushed the number of known extrasolar planets past the 300 mark.

There are now at least 303 known exoplanets, and at least 259 known stars with exoplanets, in our galaxy.

Expect both numbers to keep increasing rapidly in the coming months, as evidence builds that planetary systems are almost universal, and as astronomers zero in on the holy grail: a truly Earth-like terrestrial planet.

BREAKING NEWS: One Star, Three Planets

A team of astronomers – including the Swiss astronomer who discovered the first known extrasolar planet in 1995 – today announced they have found a Sun-like star orbited by three “Super-Earths,” each orbiting the host star in a number of days.

Super-Earths are planets with a mass greater than Earth but less than Uranus or Neptune.

According to Space.com:

The trio's host star, HD 40307, is slightly less massive than the sun, and islocated 42 light-years away, toward the southern Doradus and Pictor constellations. (A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, or about 5.88 trillion miles — 9.46 trillion kilometers.)

The team made the discovery using the HARPS instrument at the European Southern Observatory’s 3.6 meter telescope in Chile.

All of three planets are extremely close to their host star. Space.com also reports:

The smallest of the trio weighs in at 4.2 Earth masses and orbits HD 40307 every 4.3 Earth days, while the largest, with a mass 9.4 times that of Earth, has a 20.4-day orbit. The middleweight is 6.7 Earth masses and has a 9.6-day
trekaround the star.

In addition to today’s discovery, the team has compiled a list of approximately 45 other possible super-Earths with masses of less than 30 Earth masses and orbital periods of less than 50 days. If confirmed, these planets would not only push the number of known exoplanets well past the 300 mark, but would indicate such planets are extraordinarily common.

Astronomers also announced several other exoplanet discoveries today, providing more evidence planetary systems of one type or another may be ubiquitous, and that finding a truly Earth-like planet is just a matter of time.

Extraterrestrial Angst

One of the common red herrings thrown at the extraterrestrial hypothesis is that interstellar travel is extraordinarily unlikely – if not impossible – even for a highly advanced technological civilization.

Then why do legitimate scientists keep popping up and proposing interstellar travel is not only possible, but a problem demanding our attention now?

One of the latest is British astronomer Charles Cockell, who is proposing scientists turn their minds to preventing the contamination of extrasolar worlds by microbial life from Earth.

Despite skepticism from some quarters, scientists are seriously studying several methods humans could use send manned or unmanned craft to other star systems, including solar sails and antimatter engines.

We know humans and their spacecraft drag a lot of earthly microbial life into outer space. Why should we be concerned about extrasolar contamination?

Cockell points to a "utilitarian desire to preserve examples of other life of potentially enormous scientific interest.” And Cockell has previously argued we have an ethical obligation to avoid adversely affecting life on extrasolar planets.

Sounds a lot like the Prime Directive to me.

There’s also a legal angle: the 1967 Outer Space Treaty requires signatory countries to avoid harmful contamination of the Moon and other worlds.

Cockell joins other scientists who have raised the possibility of interstellar travel in recent months, often in the context of possible contact with advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. Back in February, several scientists -- including one with the SETI Institute -- expressed concern over NASA's broadcast of an old Beatles' song in the direction of Polaris, the North Star.

The reason for concern?

Fear of alien invasion.

Other scientists have pointed out that if advanced extraterrestrial civilizations do inhabit our galactic neighborhood, they already know we are here.

So, let's review. Scientists believe advanced extraterrestrial civilizations exist -- we just haven't found them yet. If they do exist, they are far older and probably more advanced than we are. So even though we consider human interstellar travel a distinct possibility for us, any extraterrestrials out there live too far away to ever travel here.

That is, of course, unless they know we are here, in which case we should be concerned.

Make sense?

SETI: The Act Of Coming To Peace With The Unknowable?

That’s what caught my eye in this piece in Wired about an upcoming article on how future contact with an extraterrestrial civilization.

UPDATE: Here's the complete article on Christian theology and extraterrestrial life. It's kind of light, here's the real meat.

Was Jesus an alien?

Sleepless Zombie Soldiers From Hell!

That's what is keeping the Pentagon's top brass up at night.

It sounds like an old episode of the X-Files (in fact I think it was one). The Pentagon's elite scientific advisory panel, JASON, wants military scientists to monitor "enemy activities in sleep research," performance enhancement using psychoactive drugs, and "brain-computer interfaces." (Really? Brain-computer interfaces? Can I have one?)

The fear? Our enemies (whoever they are this week) will "exploit advances in Human Performance Modification, and thus create a threat to national security."

Omigosh, what do we do about it, you ask?

Well, the scientists have an answer: we should do these experiments ourselves! To our own soldiers!

Kinda reminds me of something I once heard about Tuskegee, or the CIA and LSD.

Well, par for the course. The news this week is that military docs are pumping our soldiers full of anti-depressants before sending them back into battle.

Coma Cluster Of Galaxies

NASA recently released the above Hubble Space Telescope image of the Coma Galaxy Cluster, located in the constellation Coma Berenices.

Also known as Abell 1656, the cluster is located over 300 million light-years from us. The entire cluster is over 20 million light-years in diameter, and contains thousands of galaxies.

Kinda makes ya think about your place in the grander scheme of things.

Extrasolar Moons

As the number of extrasolar planets discovered to date closes in on the 300 milestone, astronomers are turning their minds to detecting any moons orbiting exoplanets.

Future planet-finding missions such as NASA’s Kepler and the Terrestrial Planet Finder, as well as the European Space Agency’s Darwin probe, should be capable of generating the data from which the presence of at least some large extrasolar moons can be detected.

Confirming the presence of extrasolar moons would be an important development because some moons may be capable of harboring life.

Memories Of My Childhood

I first saw the pictures above over 30 years ago, I think, in an issue of Astronomy magazine.

The paintings show the interior of a once-dreamed-of torus-shaped space colony (above) and a cylindrical one (bottom). When I first saw these, in the mid-1970s, they seemed like a dream that would be realized in my lifetime.

For more, see NASA's Space Colony Art from the 1970s page.

Hey, E.T.: Snack Strong! (Part Deux)

Well, they did it.

As I told you about back in March, the company that makes Doritos last night beamed a consumer-produced advertisement toward the planetary system orbiting 47 Ursae Majoris, 42 light-years distant and known to have at least two extrasolar planets.

Astronomers also believe the star system contains a habitable zone and might also host a habitable planet and extraterrestrial life.

Sure to stoke the simmering debate over whether efforts at Active SETI present a danger to humanity, the 30-second video "Tribe" (you can view it here on Youtube) won the Doritos "You make it, we play it" user-generated-content advertising campaign.

The video was broadcast for six hours this morning using the EISCAT European space radar in the Norwegan arctic, which scientists normally use to study the Earth's upper atmosphere.

New Scientist reports:

"They [the broadcast signals] are among the brightest signals coming off our planet – almost like a lighthouse beaming out of the solar system," says Tony van Eyken, EISCAT director. That makes the radars ideal for transmissions far into space, he says.

The advert itself is unlikely to be decoded by extraterrestrial life, according to van Eyken. "We're sending it as an MPEG file coded into 1s and 0s. It's going to look pretty random," he says. But repeating the message in a series of regular pulses over several hours should help extraterrestrials identify the message as intelligent, he thinks.

Doritos will make a a financial donation to EISCAT for the use of its facilities.

"Tribe," the winning entry, was produced by 25-year-old Matt Bowron and, according to Science Daily, shows "a tribe of Doritos escaping from the pack and sacrificing one of their own to the God of Salsa, as soon as there are no humans around."

Also according to Science Daily, Nick Pope, the former head of the British Ministry of Defence's UFO project, commented:

“I support this bold new venture in space communication. As humanity reaches out to the stars, this broadcast could lead to us finding the real ET. This is a historic day in our continuing search for alien life.”

NASA To Europe: Get Your Own Ride

NASA administrator Michael Griffin is asking the European Space Agency to develop an independent manned space launch capability to help service the International Space Station once the Space Shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.

The shuttle's replacement, the Orion space capsule, will not fly before 2015. In the meantime, astronauts will have to rely upon Russian spacecraft to get back and forth from the space station.

Griffin suggested the ESA develop a manned spacecraft based on its new unmanned Jules Verne cargo ship, which flew to the space station for the first time in April.

"Holodeck" Closer To Reality

Back in April I posted about predictions we would soon have Matrix-style virtual reality, due to coming advances in supercomputing.

Now comes word a similar science fiction concept -- Star Trek's holodeck -- is also close to becoming reality.

HoloVizio -- a development of the Coherent project -- is a three-dimensional screen that will allow users to view and interact with truly 3D images, without goggles or the requirement to stay in one position relative to the image. In addition, users can manipulate the 3D images merely by waving a hand in front of the screen.

Before The Big Bang

A team of physicists at Caltech have discovered a possible explanation for one of the great mysteries of physics -- why time appears to move only in one direction.

Even more intriguing, they may have found evidence our Universe "bubbled off" from a pre-existing Universe at the time of the Big Bang, 13.73 billion years ago.

Working with data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) , the scientists at Caltech studied variations in the cosmic microwave background (the CMB, pictured above). Earlier this year, the WMAP confirmed the age of the Universe and determined it is flat, meaning it will expand forever.

The CMB is the "echo" of the Big Bang and dates from about 400,000 years after the big event.

The discovery may mean new universes can be created from existing ones, such as ours.

Pale Blue Dot

The eerie photo above shows Earth and Moon from a distance of approximately 30 million miles.

The NASA space probe Deep Impact took the photograph May 29, 2008, as it continues its new mission to hunt for extrasolar planets and speeds toward a rendezvous with comet Hartley 2.

Kurzweil's Optimistic Forecast

The New York Times has profiled some of Ray Kurzweil's many optimistic predictions:

1. Within 10 years, we'll be able to take a pill, eat whatever we want, and not gain weight.

2. In just 5 years, solar power will be as "cheap" as fossil fuels, and in 20 years all our energy will come from clean sources.

3. In 15 years, our life expectancy will begin to keep pace with our age.

4. By 2050, we will reach the Singularity, the point at which Kurzweil predict humans will mesh with machines and computers to become immortal. (Crap, I'll be 87!)

Kurzweil makes these predictions based on the synthesis of dramatically increasing computer power and other fields, including biology, medicine and energy.

No word yet about my flying car.

Roadrunner, The World's Fastest Computer

The Pentagon has unveiled the world’s fastest supercomputer, a machine named Roadrunner that is more than twice as fast as the previous record holder, IBM’s Blue Gene/L.

Roadrunner is the first computer to break the petaflop barrier. (A petaflop is 1,000 trillion calculations per second.) Computer scientists recently upgraded Blue Gene/L to achieve just half that speed, about 500 teraflops.

I posted recently about predictions we would have Matrix-style virtual reality within several years, due to the advent of petaflop computing. Crossing into the petaflop range, however, apparently has come faster than anticipated.

IBM built the $133 million Roadrunner using, in part, the Cell processor originally designed for Playstation 3.

Like Blue Gene/L, the Pentagon will install Roadrunner at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where scientists will use it run virtual tests on the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile and study climate change models.

(I’m glad to know somebody at the Pentagon believes in global warming.)

With the latest achievement, supercomputing has increased in power a thousandfold in the past 11 years. Beyond the petaflop, the next milestones in supercomputing will be the exaflop (one quintillion calculations per second), and beyond that the zettaflop, yottaflop and the xeraflop.

What Are You, A Replicant?

A few months ago I posted about a self-reassembling modular robot, the separated parts of which can recognize one another and reassemble themselves after being kicked apart.

In what seems like yet another baby step in the direction of the T-1000 from Terminator 2 -- or more hopefully a von Neumann interstellar probe -- researchers at Bath University in the UK have built the first self-replicating machine -- the first "working non-organic machine that has been able to construct a fully-functional working clone of itself."

The machine, called RepRap, achieved self-replication at 14:00 UTC on May 29, 2008, at Bath University.

Hostile Aliens, Part Deux

I posted back in May -- as I have several times -- about the controversy surrounding Active SETI -- the affirmative efforts of certain scientists to contact extraterrestrial civilizations by beaming radio messages into space.

Alexander Zaitsev and other astronomers don't think Active SETI is such a bad idea. Other scientists think astronomers should not take it upon themselves to speak for the entire human race, or at least to decide for themselves to give away our existence and location to an intelligence that may be hostile or dangerous.

Zaitsev's rejoinder -- in a recent paper you can look at here -- has been to point out that the relatively feeble efforts at Active SETI to date pale in comparison to the decades-long practice of astronomers blasting the Moon and other bodies in our solar system with powerful radar beams -- radar blasts an advanced extraterrestrial civilization could detect much more easily than any current or past effort at Active SETI.

However, recent research and advances in the science of detecting extrasolar planets may render this debate academic. Regardless of the radio signals we have been beaming into space -- either for basic research or for Active SETI -- it is likely any ETs in our galactic neighborhood already know the Earth exists and is inhabited by a technological civilization.

I'll run through the argument for the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis, which may sound familiar to regular readers of this blog.

Statistically, we know any existing extraterrestrial civilizations in our galactic neighborhood are likely to be vastly older than human technological civilization. They have probably been looking for us far longer than we have been looking for them.

Even if we are too far away for them to detect our electromagnetic emissions -- such as radio and radar -- they are likely to have perfected all of the planet-finding techniques we are currently developing. (I frankly doubt they can't hear our broadcasts; we know what level of technology would be needed -- it is not unthinkable.) As a result, they would have long ago detected the presence of our planet through some variation on the radial-velocity or transit method of finding extrasolar planets, the two methods that account for the vast majority of the 300 or so exoplanets we have found so far.

But they will know more than just the mere existence of Earth. By measuring the light reflected by Earth, they will know oceans of water cover our planet. Through spectroscopy, they will know the composition of our atmosphere, and that its concentrations of organics such as methane and oxygen cannot be maintained without life.

And, in all likelihood, they will be able to detect the effects of an intelligent, technological species on that atmosphere, by measuring the increase in pollutants such as carbon dioxide (assuming they are within 150 light-years or so of Earth, dating back to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, when humans first began belching huge quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere).

In short, they will already know we are here, even if they can't listen in on our phone calls.

In this respect, the debate over Active SETI is probably academic. Any advanced extraterrestrial civilization in our galactic neighborhood could have detected the existence of a habitable Earth long ago, and probably the presence of an intelligent, technological civilization on that planet. So we can blast away with our planetary radars and our Active SETI programs.


It is worth noting an odd incongruity in this controversy. The scientific establishment is still prone to heap scorn on those who suggest extraterrestrials would ever travel interstellar distances to explore Earth and our solar system.

If these skeptics are correct, what possible harm could Active SETI ever do? Why do any mainstream scientists object? After all, even if they are hostile, no extraterrestrial civilization would ever bother to travel light-years just to study us, when a phone call would do.

Right?

Politicians In Space

McCain on Mars: I'm an Obama guy, and not a one-issue voter, but McCain wants to go to Mars. (I agree; he should go.)

Space Platforms: Hillary is obviously out now, but here is a video report -- via Space.com -- of CNN's Miles O'Brien questioning representatives of the Obama, McCain and Clinton campaigns regarding space policy.

Political Math: Last month I posted about astrophysicist John Gott III and what I call the Gott Equation, and the equation's relationship to SETI and the Drake Equation. Now astronomer Neil DeGrasse Tyson -- of public television's Nova fame -- writes in the New York Times about another Gott discovery, one I frankly find rather intuitive. In short, Gott concludes "polls of polls" -- running averages of political polls -- are an uncannily accurate predictor of election outcomes.

Who didn't think RealClearPolitics.com actually knows what they are doing?

About That "Sterile Mars" Report . . .

A few days ago -- just as the Mars Phoenix Lander mission was getting underway -- I posted here about new research casting considerable doubt on whether Mars was ever a hospitable environment due to the apparently high levels of salinity and acidity in its ancient waters.

The research cast an understandable pall over the excitement about Phoenix, which among other things is intended to determine Mars' past and current habitability for simple life.

Well, just in time to lift our spirits -- at least the spirits of those of us who don't view the possible discovery of ancient microbial life on Mars as the death knell for the human race -- comes new research indicating a possible ancient life form that thrived in salty, acidic environments on Earth.

A scientist at Western Michigan University has discovered the fossilized remains of a microorganism -- described as a "hairy blob" -- which apparently thrives in very salty and acidic lakes in modern-day Western Australia. The scientists also found the fossils in Permian Age deposits in North Dakota dating from 250 million years ago.

Both the modern Australian and Permian environments are believed similar to the ancient environment of Mars, particularly the Meridiani Planum, where the Mars Rover Opportunity discovered evidence of Mars' salty and acidic ancient oceans.

A note of caution: other scientists say it is not yet certain the "fossils" were actually once living creatures.

How To Make Mirrors On The Moon

Back in April I posted about two scientists' proposal to cover half the Moon with giant mirrors and use them to flash prime numbers into space as a means of "active" SETI -- affirmative efforts to contact any extraterrestrial civilizations that may be our galactic neighbors.

Now someone has proposed how to make giant mirrors on the Moon -- although these guys are thinking about mirrors for giant telescopes, not giant interstellar semaphores.

All you need is some carbon, a little bit of epoxy and a lot of lunar dust. Coat the mixture with aluminum, and you've got a giant mirror on the Moon. Build a telescope, or try to send signals to ET.

Don't want to build giant telescopes on the Moon? Don't worry, the same technique can be used to build other useful lunar structures, such as lunar homes.

(Lack Of) Military Intelligence

OK, I'm generally skeptical of conspiracy theories, but this makes me suspicious.

Why -- ever -- would the U.S. Army enter the debate regarding climate change?

In particular, why now?

Could it be because the U.S. Senate this week began debating legislation that would place caps on carbon dioxide emissions, a major greenhouse gas?

Or is it because NASA's Inspector General recently released a report acknowledging Bush administration officials distorted climate change science?

Or is it both?

On Tuesday, the chief of the U.S. Army Research Office's mathematical and information science directorate released an advisory to bloggers inviting them to participate in a conference call to promote the dubious claim that solar fluctuations account for as much as 69% of the increase in the Earth's average temperature, a claim "at odds with nearly every major scientific organization on the planet."

I guess it should come as no surprise the U.S. Army uses bloggers to manipulate public opinion on scientific matters.

Can you say propaganda?

A New SETI Strategy

Astronomers are beginning to apply lessons from the search for extrasolar planets to the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

In recent years astronomers searching for extrasolar planets have learned to find them by looking for the momentary dimming of their host stars as the planets transit or cross in front of them, as viewed from Earth. The number of extrasolar planets found via the transit method is steadily increasing.

Scientists also are using spectroscopy to examine the atmospheres of transiting extrasolar planets, and have been able to use this method to detect the atmospheric presence of organic molecules and water.

Researchers at the SETI Institute are now planning a search of the ecliptic plane using the Institute's new Allen Telescope Array. They will listen for any radio signals an extraterrestrial civilization located near the ecliptic may be sending toward Earth.

The ecliptic is the invisible circle in the sky that represents the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun. In two opposite places of the sky -- near the constellations Taurus and Sagittarius -- the ecliptic intersects with the plane of our galaxy, which we view as the Milky Way.

Any extraterrestrial civilization orbiting a star located within a few degrees of the ecliptic would be able to detect the Earth's presence using the transit method.

Given the statistical likelihood any extant extraterrestrial civilization in our galaxy is vastly older and more advanced than we are, an advanced society located near the ecliptic would most likely have the technical ability to determine Earth is a habitable -- and inhabited -- planet, using the same methods we are now perfecting.

SETI scientists speculate these societies, if they exist, may be the most likely to beam radio messages toward Earth, and that is the reason for zeroing in on this area of the sky with the Allen Telescope Array.

The search will begin by concentrating on the two potential "hot spots" near Taurus and Sagittarius.

Space Travel Blues

What psychological stresses and challenges might plague humans on a two-year trip to Mars and back?

Real-time radio conversations with loved ones on Earth would be impossible because of the 44-minute communications gap caused by the Red Planet's distance from us.

And no one would bring Mars voyagers gifts of homemade cookies, as the shuttle astronauts bring the crews on the International Space Station.

Robert Zubrin of the Mars Society suggests we send people who like to cook.

Here's another suggestion: don't send humans, at least until we can travel first class.

Send robots instead.

An Even Smaller Extrasolar Planet?

Gaining little attention in the press last week, scientists working with the European Space Agency's COROT space telescope have announced they may have discovered the smallest extrasolar planet yet found, a relatively tiny world with a radius approximately 1.7 times that of the Earth.

The signal COROT detected is extremely faint and has yet to be confirmed. If confirmed, this new discovery may surpass the announcement a few days ago of a relatively small extrasolar terrestrial planet with a mass three times that of Earth.

In addition to the possible small terrestrial planet, COROT has found within the same planetary system two gas giant planets and a strange body believed to be something in between a brown dwarf and a gas giant planet.

Origin Of Religion Explained?

An evolutionary anthropologist in Michigan has hit upon a theory he believes may explain the origin of religious belief in humans.

Using a computer program he calls Evogod, James Dow of Oakland University in Rochester studied the reproductive success of two types of people: those who pass on real information to others, and those who pass on unreal or unverifiable information.

Under most scenarios, the computer model showed that believers in the unverifiable eventually went extinct. However, when Dow tweaked the program to add the assumption that nonbelievers would be attracted to believers for some arbitrary but clear reason, believers flourished.

This led Dow to conclude that religion flourished in early human societies because something motivated nonbelievers to help believers – perhaps an admiration for their devotion. Otherwise, the believers would have eventually died out. But with the help and support of nonbelievers, religious belief spread.

Dow suggests religious belief is an adaptation in its own right, and that over time natural selection gradually favored believers over nonbelievers, resulting in a prevalence of believers in the human population.

Could This Be The Great Filter?

I recently posted my refutation of Nick Bostrom's Doomsday Argument, which is based upon the concept of a Great Filter -- an event in humanity's past or present that functions to limit the likelihood or lifespan of intelligent life in our Universe. Now comes word of a possible looming Great Filter that may – just may – fulfill Bostrom’s prophecy.

A study published yesterday in the journal Nature suggests a massive release of methane into the atmosphere as ice sheets melt and oceans warm could dramatically warm the planet in a very short time span, on the order of a human life.

Something similar happened 635 million years ago when a climate tipping point was reached, and melting ice sheets triggered a positive feedback loop as warming ice released methane, triggering even more warming. The Earth warmed dramatically in a very short time, ending Earth’s last “snowball” phase and ushering in an era of tropical heat.

Today, Earth has a reservoir of frozen methane, called clathrates, of approximately 10,000 gigatons, about twice the Earth’s reserve of other recoverable fossil fuels. Most of this frozen methane is locked in Earth’s permafrost and deep oceans.

Russian scientists last month reported evidence methane clathrates are already becoming unstable in the Arctic. However, other scientists doubt the claim thawing methane poses a major climate risk.

Methane is 25 to 30 times as potent as carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas once it is released into the atmosphere. A massive release of methane this century – set off by only moderate warming caused by human greenhouse gas emissions -- could trigger rapid and catastrophic warming far beyond that currently envisioned by climate scientists.

Would the human race survive?

Smallest Exoplanet Yet

A team of astronomers today announced their discovery of the smallest known extrasolar planet, a distant world approximately three times the size of Earth orbiting a tiny star 3000 light-years from us.

The discovery surpasses an announcement two months ago of an extrasolar planet with a mass only 5 times that of Earth.

The newest discovery indicates Earth-size planets are probably commonplace around stars that are significantly smaller than our Sun, which are the most numerous stars in our galaxy.

Designated MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb, the planet is believed to be a rocky terrestrial planet and may be covered by a deep ocean.

The small size of the planet's host star also makes the find significant. With approximately 6 to 8 percent the mass of our Sun, the star is either a low-mass hydrogen-burning star or a brown dwarf -- a failed star so small it cannot sustain nuclear fusion. To date, astronomers have not found planets around stars with masses of less than 20 percent of our Sun. The discovery indicates Earth-size planets are common around such small stars.

The planet orbits its host star at a distance equivalent to that of Venus from our Sun. Because the host star is probably between 3000 and 1 million times fainter than our Sun, the top of the planet's atmosphere is likely colder than Pluto. However, planetary formation theory suggests a thick atmosphere blankets the planet, which combined with radioactive decay in the planet's interior may make it as warm as Earth. Scientists also believe the planet may be covered by a deep ocean.

Astronomers made the discovery using a technique called gravitational microlensing, a technique that may be sensitive enough to detect planets with masses one-tenth that of Earth.

You can view a video report from the discoverers here.

Good Astronomical News Of The Week

I posted recently about the increasing awareness of the dire but historically ignored threat posed by asteroid and comet collisions with Earth. Whether it be the K-T event that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago or the 1908 Tunguska event that would have killed millions if it had exploded above a major city (as opposed to Siberia), the threat it real.

According to this piece in the Atlantic Monthly, NASA is not concerned enough to really study the problem.

But at least now someone is. An aerospace engineer at Iowa State University has established an Asteroid Deflection Research Center to study asteroid deflection technologies we could use in the event of an impending collision with a space rock.

Scientists will study deflecting asteroids with methods including nuclear explosions, kinetic impactors and slow-pull gravity tractors – massive objects placed near a space rock to gradually tug it off its current course.

First Contact, The Zoo Hypothesis And The Prime Directive

You've probably seen the incredible photographs the Brazilian government recently released of an uncontacted tribe deep in the heart of the Amazon. The photographs -- you can see several of them here at MSNBC -- show naked men of the tribe bravely brandishing their bows and arrows at the aircraft occupants who took the pictures.

A connection exists between this story and the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence, as I'll explain in a minute.

Anthropologists know virtually nothing about the Brazilian tribe, and there may be as many as 70 other uncontacted tribes in the Amazon -- although only 24 have been confirmed. The Brazilian government has known about the uncontacted tribe's existence for 20 years, but released the photographs now out of fear the encroachment of illegal loggers and settlers will endanger the tribe's survival.

Uncontacted tribes tend to react with hostility when they encounter anyone from the modern world, and with good reason. Contact has proven to be deadly for them, as they do not have a natural resistance to many modern diseases, such as chicken pox or even the common cold. First contact tends to result in a mortality rate for isolated tribes as high as 50% within months. The Brazilian government has adopted a policy of protecting the tribes from the outside world rather than encouraging contact.

The Brazilian government's no-contact policy and this quote by a government official in the Brazilian Indian Affairs office caught my eye: contact and the dire effects it has had on uncontacted tribes are "a monumental crime against the natural world" and "further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the 'civilised' ones, treat the world".

I've posted several times about various solutions to the Fermi Paradox, but this story raises what may be one of the more credible explanations for why we have yet to hear from or be contacted by an advanced extraterrestrial civilization: the Zoo Hypothesis. (I say credible because you can base the hypothesis, in part, on our own ethical development. It has taken us 500 years, but the Brazilian situation shows we have progressed ethically in how we treat indigenous peoples, at least compared to the Conquistadors.)

Well known to fans of the original Star Trek series as the Prime Directive, the principle behind the Zoo Hypothesis is based on a similar ethical precept embraced by the Brazilian government in regard to uncontacted tribes: an advanced civilization should not contact a less advanced civilization if doing so would harm the less advanced civilization.

We know that if other intelligent species share the galaxy with us, statistically they are likely to be vastly older and more advanced than we are. If we are not alone, we are almost certainly the babies in the family. And our galactic neighbors, if they exist, are likely to be far more advanced compared to Westernized humans than Westernized humans are compared to uncontacted tribes like those in Brazil.

It is reasonable to suppose that an extraterrestrial advanced technological civilization is also an advanced ethical civilization. Even humans try -- at least in some cases such as the Brazilian one -- to treat less technologically advanced societies in an ethical manner.

If an advanced extraterrestrial civilization is out there, listening to us or even watching us, we should hope they view Earth as a big zoo -- where we are the exhibit and just have no clue we are being observed.

The Milky Way On A Diet

The Milky Way has lost some weight.

Well, sort of. According to a new study, the galaxy we call home has a mass about half that of previous estimates.

Chinese astronomers conducted a survey of 2500 stars in the Milky Way and concluded the galaxy has a mass approximately 1 trillion times that of our Sun, or 1 trillion solar masses. Previous studies based on fewer stars had concluded the galaxy “weighed” about 2 trillion solar masses.

Most of that mass consists of the mysterious dark matter, the invisible substance known only by its gravitational effects on other objects. The rest of galaxy's mass consists of stars, planetary material, gas and dust.