Incredible Yet True

Life on other Planets  Does life exist on other planets? Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both would be amazing. *** Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary scientific field concerned with the origins, evolution and distribution of life in the universe. It asks the questions: does extraterrestrial life exists, and if so, how can humans detect it. So far, astrobiologists have not found any biology beyond the Earth. Of the other planets within our solar system, Mars is considered the most likely to have ever harboured life. Mars is in the liquid water zone of our sun and has evidence of dried-up rivers and floodplains on its surface. But it seems to have lost the atmosphere necessary to maintain liquid water, and perhaps any life along with it. However, it still has water in ice form buried underground, particularly at the poles. In 2016, Boron was discovered in the rocks. This can only occur between temperatures of 0-60°C, and further supports th

In celebration of International SPACE Week, I wanted to share a few interesting facts about exo-planets and put our planet in perspective. The first planet that does not orbit our Sun was only discovered in 1992. While there are probably billions of them, there are now over 4,000 confirmed planets in our Galaxy alone and hundreds more have already been discovered this year. The first planet beyond our Galaxy, however, was only discovered last month, and orbits a star in the Whirlpool Galaxy some 23 million light-years away. There are only about 100 confirmed planets within 30 light-years of Earth, and the closest is still over 4 light-years away. The furthest man-made object — the Voyager 1 Spacecraft — is still less than a light-day away after travelling for almost ½ a century. While a tiny virus, a Gigafire and biblical flooding has rendered Planet Earth less habitable than usual, it is still prime real estate in the scheme of the Universe. The closest even tolerable planet is prob