Lifeboat Foundation

Astronomers behind the most extensive search yet for alien life are investigating an intriguing radio wave emission that appears to have come from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun.

The narrow beam of radio waves was picked up during 30 hours of observations by the Parkes telescope in Australia in April and May last year, the Guardian understands. Analysis of the beam has been under way for some time and scientists have yet to identify a terrestrial culprit such as ground-based equipment or a passing satellite.

If we send a message into space, will extraterrestrial beings receive it? Will they understand?

The endlessly fascinating question of whether we are alone in the universe has always been accompanied by another, more complicated one: if there is extraterrestrial life, how would we communicate with it? In this book, Daniel Oberhaus leads readers on a quest for extraterrestrial communication. Exploring Earthlings’ various attempts to reach out to non-Earthlings over the centuries, he poses some not entirely answerable questions: If we send a message into space, will extraterrestrial beings receive it? Will they understand? What languages will they (and we) speak? Is there not only a universal grammar (as Noam Chomsky has posited), but also a grammar of the universe?

Oberhaus describes, among other things, a late-nineteenth-century idea to communicate with Martians via Morse code and mirrors; the emergence in the twentieth century of SETI (the search for extraterrestrial intelligence), CETI (communication with extraterrestrial intelligence), and finally METI (messaging extraterrestrial intelligence); the one-way space voyage of Ella, an artificial intelligence agent that can play cards, tell fortunes, and recite poetry; and the launching of a theremin concert for aliens. He considers media used in attempts at extraterrestrial communication, from microwave systems to plaques on spacecrafts to formal logic, and discusses attempts to formulate a language for our message, including the Astraglossa and two generations of Lincos (lingua cosmica).

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A peculiar new paper, published in a little-known scientific journal, has the tabloids stirred up about the possibility of life on Mars.

According to this paper, an international team of scientists are now claiming to have found evidence of ‘mushrooms’ growing on the surface of the Red Planet.

Continue reading “Here’s The Truth About That Photo of ‘Mushrooms’ Growing on Mars” »

The three biggest news items in astrobiology in 2020:

A lot has been achieved, even in an awful year.

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Scientists broke open bits of oceanic crust and found them full of microbes—suggesting similar life could survive on other planets.

Researchers hope the material from Ryugu, an asteroid around 300 million kilometres away, will shed light on the formation of the universe and perhaps offer clues about how life began on Earth.

An international team of astronomers today announced the discovery of a rare molecule — phosphine — in the clouds of Venus. This detection could point to extra-terrestrial “aerial” life in the Venusian atmosphere. Watch our summary of the discovery.

An international team of astronomers announced the discovery of a rare molecule — phosphine — in the clouds of Venus.

Continue reading “Extra-Terrestrial ‘Aerial’ Life on Venus? Possible Marker of Life Spotted in Venusian Atmosphere [Video]” »

In recent years, scientists have learned that one of Earth’s most unique features — its liquid oceans — is far more common throughout the solar system than scientists ever expected.

Take Ceres, a dwarf planet orbiting our Sun inside the asteroid belt, which scientists discovered earlier this year is actually an ocean world, according to Discover Magazine. The discovery of abundant water on other worlds could have huge implications for the search for extraterrestrial life — to the point that NASA astronomer Alan Stern tells Discover that it’s “one of the most profound discoveries in planetary science in the Space Age.”

How early Earth became the habitable and life-friendly planet that it is today.

New insights on how, and when, terrestrial planets become habitable.