Searching for life in the Universe

Astrobiology The study of the origin, evolution and future of

life in the universeHow life beganEvolution of life on Earth Organisms in extreme

environments

Extremophiles Organisms that thrive in extreme conditions

Extremophiles Thermophiles:

Thrive in extreme heat 110 to 250 °F (43 to 121 °C)

Psychrophiles:Thrive in extreme cold 5 - 50°F (-15 to 10 °C)

Extremophiles Halophiles:

Thrive in salty environments

Extremophiles Acidophiles:

Thrive in acidic environments Xerophiles

Thrive in dry environments

Extremophiles Radioresistant:

Resistant to UV and nuclear radiation

Extremophiles What would an extremophile be called if it

could withstand high temperature and high acid concentrations?

What would an extremophile be called if it could withstand salty, dry conditions?

What would an extremophile be called if it could withstand radiation and high temperatures?

Exobiology

The study of potential extraterrestrial life and the effects of extraterrestrial environments on living organismsIs there life on other planets or moons?How does it survive?

Searching for life in the universe1. Search for simple life forms

Bacteria, single celled-organisms

2. Search for signs of past or future life Amino acids

Searching for life in the universe

3. Search for stars like our Sun Star will wobble and change in brightness

Searching for life in the universe

Searching for life in the universe4. Search for habitable planets or moons KEPLER TELESCOPE

If there is life out there…. How do we communicate?

SETI: Search for E.T Intelligence The Drake Equation: 1961: Francis

Drake Estimates the number of detectable

extraterrestrial intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxyhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/origins/drak-fl

ash.html

Sending out a message Binary: a numeric system that uses two

numerals to represent all real numbers.

1. Arecibo Message Radio message Sent in 1974

1679 bits of information sent by radio signal

0 = off radio signal pulse1 = on radio signal pulse

Arecibo Telescope: Puerto RicoLargest radio telescope

00000010101010000000000001010000010100000001001000100010001001011001010101010101010100100100000000000000000000000000000000000001100000000000000000001101000000000000000000011010000000000000000001010100000000000000000011111000000000000000000000000000000001100001110001100001100010000000000000110010000110100011000110000110101111101111101111101111100000000000000000000000000100000000000000000100000000000000000000000000001000000000000000001111110000000000000111110000000000000000000000011000011000011100011000100000001000000000100001101000011000111001101011111011111011111011111000000000000000000000000001000000110000000001000000000001100000000000000010000011000000000011111100000110000001111100000000001100000000000001000000001000000001000001000000110000000100000001100001100000010000000000110001000011000000000000000110011000000000000011000100001100000000011000011000000100000001000000100000000100000100000001100000000100010000000011000000001000100000000010000000100000100000001000000010000000100000000000011000000000110000000011000000000100011101011000000000001000000010000000000000010000011111000000000000100001011101001011011000000100111001001111111011100001110000011011100000000010100000111011001000000101000001111110010000001010000011000000100000110110000000000000000000000000000000000011100000100000000000000111010100010101010101001110000000001010101000000000000000010100000000000000111110000000000000000111111111000000000000111000000011100000000011000000000001100000001101000000000101100000110011000000011001100001000101000001010001000010001001000100100010000000010001010001000000000000100001000010000000000001000000000100000000000000100101000000000001111001111101001111000

1. Numbers 1-10 in binary2. Atomic #s elements vital to life forms

H, C, O, N, P 3. Formulas for DNA bases4. Double helix shape of DNA5. Human: height and population of

Earth6. Solar system: Human standing on

Earth7. Arecibo transmitting telescope

2. The Pioneer Plaque

3. The Golden Record

4. Cosmic Calls

5. T.V. and Radio Waves