03.06.10: Do “Dirty” White Dwarfs Provide a Key Spectral Signature?

 
 
   If astronomers at the Leicester University in the United Kingdom are correct, the key elements and chemicals that comprise life may be common throughout our Milky Way. The evidence comes from an unlikely source; spectral examinations of populations of galactic white dwarfs. These ancient remnants of stars exist in vast numbers, and our Sun will [...]

Review: How to Build a Habitable Planet by James Kasting.

 

Out now from Princeton Press!

 

 
   Some years ago, a book entitled Rare Earth was published amid much controversy. The central thesis of this work was that events that led to the eventual habitability and diversity of life and intelligence on Earth were so improbable, as be near to impossible to replicate elsewhere in our galaxy. [...]

24.04.10-Our Existence: Justified.

 Earth: Safe & Sound?
   The formation of the Earth poses a key dilemma to planetary accretionary theory; namely, why are we here at all? Standard models would say that the Earth and other planets coalesced out of the proto-solar nebula to form. However, spiral density waves within the same nebula should have drawn down orbital [...]

11.04.10- Pale Blue Crescent.

 
 Earth as seen from Rosetta.
   It has been said innumerable times that in traveling into space, we’ve discovered the Earth. The Rosetta spacecraft reminded us what a unique place our home is on its trajectory altering flyby on November 13th of last year. Pictured above, you can easily tell that Earth is not a stagnant world, [...]

10.04.10- Radio Astronomers Refine Celestial Grid.

 The VLBA family of radio telescopes!
   Getting a good fix on positions both on the Earth and in the sky is tougher than it may sound. Tectonic plates move. The Moon raises tides under our feet. The whole planet orbits our Sun, which is itself flying about the galaxy and getting jostled by other stars, [...]

04.11.09:Did Ancient Comets give Earth its Seas?

Comets continue to be at the center of controversy concerning the early Earth and life. If you’ve been following our recent reports as of late, you know that opinions run the gamut, from ancient cometary impacts being relatively rare, to comets being crucial to life as we known it. Now, researchers at the Niels Bohr [...]

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