According to an alternative model of how intelligent life emerges on planets like Earth, the existence of aliens—and human beings–could be the result of natural planetary processes.
Category: alien life – Page 2
Could a planet orbiting a black hole sustain life? We dive into the challenges and wonders of living in such an extreme cosmic environment. Discover what it might be like to live near a black hole, where time slows, gravity warps, and the universe takes on a truly alien form.
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/ discord Credits: Black Sun Rising: Living On A Planet Around A Black Hole Episode 487; February 20, 2025 Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur Editor: Briana Brownell Graphics: Jeremy Jozwik, Ken York YD Visual, Udo Scroeter Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator Phase Shift, “Forest Night” Chris Zabriskie, “Unfoldment, Revealment”, “A New Day in a New Sector”, “Oxygen Garden” Stellardrone, “Red Giant”, “Billions and Billions“
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Credits:
Black Sun Rising: Living On A Planet Around A Black Hole.
Episode 487; February 20, 2025
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur.
Editor: Briana Brownell.
Graphics: Jeremy Jozwik, Ken York YD Visual, Udo Scroeter.
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images.
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator.
Phase Shift, \
NASA and SpaceX Adjust Launch Schedule
NASA and SpaceX are now targeting Friday, February 28, for the launch of the SPHEREx and PUNCH missions, with liftoff scheduled no earlier than 10:09 p.m. EST
EST is an abbreviation for Eastern Standard Time, the time zone for the eastern coast of the United States and Canada when observing standard time (autumn/winter). It is five hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston, and the Kennedy Space Center are in the Eastern Time Zone (ET).
Riverworld.
Imagine a world stretched along a single, endless river inside a colossal space megastructure. Explore the fascinating concept of the Topopolis, a futuristic habitat billions of miles long, where humanity might thrive in a sprawling civilization bound by physics, engineering, and imagination.
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/ discord Credits: Topopolis: The Eternal River Episode 487a; February 23, 2025 Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur Graphics: Apogii.uk, Ken York YD Visual, Steve Bowers, Udo Scroeter Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator.
Searching for life in alien oceans may be more difficult than scientists previously thought, even when we can sample these extraterrestrial waters directly.
A new study focusing on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn that sprays its ocean water into space through cracks in its icy surface, shows that the physics of alien oceans could prevent evidence of deep-sea life from reaching places where we can detect it.
Published today (Thursday, 6 February 2025) in Communications Earth and Environment, the study shows how Enceladus’s ocean forms distinct layers that dramatically slow the movement of material from the ocean floor to the surface.
An interesting glimpse into the adventurous world of neutrino research in Antarctica!
At McMurdo, Karle must wait for the weather to permit the final leg of the trip. “It is not uncommon to spend several days in McMurdo,” he says. (Karle’s record is 10.) When it’s time, he takes a 3.5-hour flight on a ski-equipped LC-130 aircraft to reach the South Pole. Anyone or anything else that goes to the South Pole must take a similarly tedious route.
There’s a reason scientists have endured the challenges of the climate, the commute and the cost for over half a century—since members of the US Navy completed the original Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in 1957. Despite all the trouble it takes to get there, the South Pole is an unparalleled environment for scientific research, from climate science and glaciology to particle physics and astrophysics.
This sentiment was echoed by the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel in its 2023 report, a decadal plan for the future of particle physics research in the United States. Under its recommendation to “Construct a portfolio of major projects that collectively study nearly all fundamental constituents of our universe and their interactions,” the report prioritized support for five specific projects—two of which are located at the South Pole: cosmic microwave background experiment CMB-S4, the top priority, and neutrino experiment IceCube-Gen2, recommended fifth. Because of the high scientific priority of these projects, the report also urged maintenance of the South Pole site.
Astronomers have mapped the 3D structure of an exoplanet’s atmosphere for the first time, revealing powerful winds that transport elements like iron and titanium. Using all four telescope units of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), researchers uncovered complex weather patterns shaping the planet’s skies. This breakthrough paves the way for more detailed studies of atmospheric composition and climate on distant worlds.
“What we found was surprising: a jet stream rotates material around the planet’s equator, while a separate flow at lower levels of the atmosphere moves gas from the hot side to the cooler side,” said Dr. Julia Victoria Seidel.
What can a 3D map of an exoplanet’s atmosphere teach scientists about its weather patterns? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as an international team of researchers successfully produced the first 3D map of an exoplanet’s atmosphere, which is a groundbreaking achievement and will help scientists gain new insights into the formation and evolution of exoplanet atmospheres throughout the cosmos.
For the study, the researchers used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) to observe WASP-121b, nicknamed Tylos, which is designated as an ultra-hot Jupiter that orbits its parent star in only 1.3 days (30 hours) and is located approximately 880 light-years from Earth. Due to its extremely close orbit, Tylos is tidally locked to its parent star, meaning one side is always facing it, resulting in searing temperatures on the sunlit side and incredibly cold temperatures on the far side.
In the end, the researchers successfully produced a 3D map of Tylos’ atmosphere, revealing weather patterns that include high-velocity winds carrying titanium and iron around the exoplanet, which becomes even more turbulent as the winds cross from the far side to the day side of Tylos. Additionally, this also marks the first time astronomers have produced a 3D map of an exoplanet’s atmosphere.
It’s only a matter of time before we find the aliens, scientists say. So what should happen next?