ET Life: is there anybody out there?


Is there life elsewhere in our Solar System?

How do we find planets orbiting other stars?

Are any of those planets like the Earth?

Could those planets harbour life like us?
 

Opportunity Mars rover

 

This website provides a few links to websites that can be good starting points for exploring the project topics suggested in the introductory session.

Download the presentation from the introductory session

 

 1.  Grow crystals from evaporating salty water.

      Click  here  for more information, and for some instructions on how to carry out this experiment, and other similar ones.

      Link to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory webpages on the Mars Exploration Rovers

 
2.  Build your own spectrometer

       Link to some excellent webpages describing how to build your spectrometer

       A further link, and an excellent pdf summary file

       A useful page describing spectrsocopy for beginners

3.  Build your own face on Mars
        Link to a SPACE.com page showing how the 'face' is an optical illusion
        National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences webpage on optical illusions

4.  Make a scale model of the Solar System
         Wikipedia page on solar system models
         Exploratorium website that does a lot of the calculations for you!
         The New Worlds atlas, with information on where are the nearest exoplanets to the Sun

5.  Explore the centre of gravity of a see saw
          Wikipedia page on levers
          Webpage with links to explanations of the Doppler 'wobble' method for finding exoplanets

6.  Find out about 'hot Jupiters'
         NASA homepage on exoplanet research
         NSF Space Science Institute webpage on "Alien Earths"

7. Learn about the planets that Kepler might see
         Homepage of the NASA Kepler mission

8. Work out how many ETs there are in the galaxy
          PBS NOVA page on the Drake equation, and how to calculate it

9. Find out about how life could be wiped out from space
           European Space Agency page on Threats from Space
          Prepare to be scared:  Purdue University impact events catastrophe calculator!
          NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Near Earth Asteroid program

10. compose your own message to ET
         Wikipedia page on the Voyager golden disc
         NASA homepage on the Voyager golden disc



Please send any comments or questions to  etlife@astro.gla.ac.uk