NASA To Discuss Search for Life in Solar System & Beyond - Tues. June 16

originally posted by: Xcathdra
a reply to: JadeStar

I am curious as to what changed NASA's focus with regards to ET. For the longest time NASA has maintained they weren't looking for ET. Now all of a sudden its in the news a lot and NASA is chatting it up.

originally posted by: jtrenthacker

originally posted by: proob4
Is it me or does Mimas look like the Death Star?

That's no moon...

its Megamaid...

Please read Soylent's response for solar system stuff.

For extrasolar stuff, the reason NASA is talking up ET life is we finally are building the tools which may be able to remotely detect it via sniffing a planet around another stars atmosphere for "biosignatures" or even "technosignatures".

originally posted by: JadeStar
Trapped oceans like the ones on Ganymede and Callisto would be cut off from much that we think life would need based on everything we know about those two worlds. That's why it says unlikely rather than impossible.

Life (at least as we know it) needs only two things in order to exist: liquid water and a source of energy. That energy doesn't necessarily have to come from the Sun or a breathable atmosphere, it can be chemical and thermal energy, or even radiation.

originally posted by: jtrenthacker

originally posted by: proob4
Is it me or does Mimas look like the Death Star?

That's no moon...

It's too big to be a space station!