Month: September 2019

When we think about the unexplored and the unknown, we think about deep space, but another alien world lies miles underneath: the deep unknown under the sea. It is said that humans have only explored 5% of the ocean floor, which is crazy considering we have a good sense of what the surfaces of many planets look like. A major barrier between us and the bottom of the ocean is high water pressure, the pure darkness of a lack of sunlight, and extreme temperatures. There are species found in the deep sea that look alien-like, and I would not be surprised if someone showed me one of those creatures and said that they came from an alien planet. Just look at this funny looking deep sea creature:

This is called a blob sculpin, and it looks right out of a sci-fi movie. I would not be surprised in the slightest if they were plucked off the icy surface of Europa, but alas, they live in oceans off the Pacific Coast of the United States. Blob Sculpins are crazy looking, but they are not unusual considering some of the other stuff living in the deep sea. Also, since we don’t know much about the ocean floor, there is a high possibility of even weirder and crazier stuff hiding down there.

It’s ironic that we know so little about the oceans, considering that water is pretty much the blood that keeps the earth up and running. There are waterfalls in the ocean higher than Angel Falls, and there are lakes over 300 feet deep. Just think about all the creatures that are living down there, waiting to be discovered. In terms of exciting discoveries waiting to be made, the bottom of the ocean can be equated to exoplanets in the cosmos, where there are unidentified life forms just waiting to be found.

Speaking of water organisms awaiting discovery, Europa is an exciting prospect in the world of extraterrestrial life. This is mainly due to the fact that on the icy Galilean moon of Europa, there exists an ocean ten times as deep as the one on earth, and the possibility of life exists due to the very fact that there is an ocean. Europa is extremely far away from the sun, so the fact that water exists in the liquid state shows promising things for underwater life. Now, the life there might be intelligent, but the fact that life might exist within our very own solar system is an exciting one.

 

Space is a vast mystery. We are far from the times when we boldly assumed that us humans were at the center of the universe, for now we know that our little rock in the cosmos is just one in billions. Unfortunately, even though we now know of the existence of many other planets, our limited technology doesn’t allow us much more than to simply glance at them from millions of light years away. And yet humans are curious creatures, and we will not let the boundaries of inferior technology stop us. So we come up with theories and equations to help us unravel just a little bit of the secrets that are hiding somewhere in the endless universe. One such equation was conceived by Dr. Frank Drake, now famously known as the Drake Equation. The Drake equation measures the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life in the universe, but since we can’t actually see if other planets in the cosmos literally support life, we need to be searching for something else.

The Drake Equation is as follows:

It looks like a complicated math equation, and in a sense it is, but in reality it’s quite simple. The product of seven different variables spits out a number equal to the number of possible intelligent civilizations. The Drake Equation isn’t anything that’s groundbreaking; rather, it’s a talking point for people interested in the possibility of intelligent alien life. Personally, I look upon the Drake Equation with hope because it’s proof that there are scientists out there who share my passion for the search of extraterrestrial life.

The thing is, there aren’t 100 percent calculated numbers for these variables, so there isn’t a definite answer to the equation. It probably won’t be verified anytime soon, but astronomers are makings strides at locating planets they think may be suitable for life. In 1995, the first planet around a star similar to the Sun was discovered, and Michel Mayor, an astronomer on the team who discovered the first exoplanet, called that age “fantastic times”. The discovery was in 1995 and the quote was spoken in 2005, and since then, astronomers have made tremendous progress in discovering a multitude of new exoplanets. Planets can be discovered in traditionally one of two ways. Astronomers can look for a repetitive dim in the star’s light, which would indicate that something is orbiting the star, or a slight gravitational wobble in the star which would indicate the pull from the planet’s gravity. Now, nearly 4,000 exoplanets have been discovered, and there’s surely more to come. 

As someone who is extremely excited about the direction the future is going in terms of astronomy, I applaud people like Dr. Drake for pioneering the way in the search for extraterrestrial life. Hopefully, someday in the not so distant future, we will get confirmation on extraterrestrial life and take another big step into the future.

Sometimes, when we pass a hard test or ace a quiz, we feel on top of the world. Sometimes, we learn or hear about things that make us want to rip our hairs out, punch a wall, or even question our own sanity. And yet those very questions that push us to our limits are somehow the most captivating, including the theoretical Einstein-Rosen bridge, more commonly referred to as the wormhole.

Part of the reason I’m so interested in space is because of the absolute insanity of it all. A hole in which we can hop in and appear somewhere else in the universe, not unlike magic? A cosmic doorway in which we can travel to a parallel universe and experience the events of Avengers: Endgame? A way to travel back and forth between the seemingly binding restrictions of time? Count me in! Of course, it’s not as simple as that.

First and foremost, wormholes are only theoretical. We don’t know for sure if they exist or not; for all we know, they might only exist in our wildest imaginations and not at all in reality. But even if wormholes don’t exist, they are forever etched into history by way of the film industry. Movies like Interstellar depict wormholes as ways for characters to traverse great distances in the blink of an eye, but unfortunately, that might be all the wormhole is good for. A plot device for the big screens. Even if wormholes do exist, they will most likely never be a way for humans to blink across the cosmic plane. According to Kip Thorne, an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology, a major reason for such unfortunate news has to do with the wormhole’s instability. Thorne stated that wormholes require a large amount of negative energy, otherwise the walls of the wormhole will simply collapse too fast. 

Even if wormholes remain speculation for the rest of time, their existence is still fun to think about. According to Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen, spacetime could become so warped that two points in space can end up sharing the same physical location. It sounds crazy, and probably is, but just think about it: A distance normally millions of light years apart can be traversed in under a minute. Maybe one day all physics as we know it will turn up incorrect, and wormholes become the preferred method of travel for humanity’s intergalactic civilization, or maybe the very idea of wormholes become so obsolete they are hidden away in the lines of some history book. Personally, I much prefer thinking about the former. Life becomes much more interesting that way.

When I first heard of water bears, my first thought was of giant water predators that preyed on smaller fish. I imagined the kings of the ocean, unfazed by anything that stood in their way. What I didn’t expect was a microscopic animal whose photograph needed to be taken under the lens of a microscope. These microscopic animals are tardigrades, often called water bears. They are nearly indestructible and can survive in almost all environments. According to Smithsonian.com, tardigrades can survive in temperatures ranging from -328 degrees Fahrenheit to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. These eight legged, caterpillar looking organisms are unlike any other on earth, which is probably why they will continue living on long after humanity has disappeared.

In fact, tardigrades may very well survive until our Sun itself dies out. Considering the hardiness of these species, it’s not hard to imagine why life on other planets will most likely be microscopic organisms rather than intelligent human-like species. In fact, life already exists elsewhere in the solar system! Well, only technically, and it’s only because we sent them there.

On April 11, 2019, the Beresheet spacecraft crash landed on the moon, releasing tardigrades in the process. Some people think it’s cool that there are organisms on the moon, while others are afraid of a space horror science fiction film in the making. I, for one, think it’s kind of cool that tardigrades are currently somewhere besides earth. Even though we put them there, looking at the moon at night and knowing that there exists these organisms puts smile on the part of me that hungers for the discovery of extraterrestrial life. The deeper question to ask is if we humans should be allowed to populate the moon with other organisms such as tardigrades. Monica Grady, a professor of planetary and space sciences at Open University thinks the answer to that question is no. According to her, tardigrades have breached the “pristine environment” of the moon. Personally, my stance on this topic is a bit unclear. My instinctive answer is no, but after thinking about it for a while I’m honestly not certain “no” is truly what I believe. I’ve always wanted to explore the universe, but I’ve never really thought about what we would do if we did find another planet suitable for life. Would we just sit back and not try and explore it ourselves? Humans are naturally curious, so naturally we would want to set foot down on that theoretical planet, right? I know I would, but I guess we’ll never truly know the answer.