|
January 14 - May 7, 2006
ALIEN EARTHS
Alien Earths addresses several basic questions that scientists ponder:
How does our knowledge of life on Earth inform the search for life beyond Earth?
Are we more likely to find intelligent life or microbes?
How does life alter its environment?
How can we learn about a distant planets habitability from just a few pixels of light?
When searching for signs of intelligent life, what should we look or listen for?
With hands-on and multi-media components, you can:
Compare the life cycle of our Sun to other stars.
Set planets in motion around a star and watch what happens.
Experiment with an infrared camera and ordinary objects.
Feel the difference in density between three known planets.
Explore the methods used to search for extra-solar planets.
Learn about the most abundant life form on Earth, and possibly elsewhere microbes.
Smell the difference between various microbial colonies.
Listen to sounds from space and find out what signals from intelligent beings might sound like.
The National Science Foundation and NASAs Kepler, Navigator, and Spitzer missions provided funding for Alien Earths. The NASA Astrobiology Institute, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and the SETI Institute provided additional support.
|
