Liquid water found on Mars. What does it mean for the search for life efforts?
Where there is water, there is life.
NASA to announce major Martian mystery solved: liquid water flows on Mars
For the last two days the scientific world is bubbling at the announcement of NASA that something of a major importance has been solved on Mars. NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today’s Mars Hear what Professor Kathleen Campbell from University of Auckland commented on this: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-announce-mars-mystery-solved
Mass extinctions update
Mutant Silurian plankton indicate oceanic anoxia spread and metals poisoning in the sea … 420 million years ago. Not scifi but real life research pinpointing onset of global extinctions. Listen to radio interview of Professor Kathleen A. Campbell discussing these new research findings on Radio NZ’s Checkpoint programme.
Hey Cousin Kepler-452b!
“Today, Earth is a little less lonely,” Kepler researcher Jon Jenkins said.
According to NASA, the new planet discovered is about 60% bigger than Earth, and is located in its star’s habitable zone – the region where life-sustaining liquid water is possible on the surface of a planet. It goes around its sun in a little longer than Earth: 385 days and it’s just a bit older than Earth: 6 billion years.
Why should we be excited about this? Hear what our planetary scientist, Professor Kathy Campbell from University of Auckland has to say about this discovery, on Radio Live today:
The 100 million dollar question: “Are we alone in the Universe?”
Shifted from the realm of science-fiction to the reality of science, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence got an unexpected boost. On Monday, July the 20th 2015, a group of visionaries endorsed by Professor Stephen Hawking and funded by Internet investor Yuri Milner announced a $100 million, 10-year search for intelligent project.
Kathy Campbell: The sixth mass extinction
Are we entering the Sixth Global Mass Extinction, caused by cumulative human impacts on the planet? New research (Ceballos and others, Science Advances, 19 June 2015) suggests we are rapidly heading that way owing largely to human induced habitat loss and pollution. Scientists agree on 5 Big Mass Extinctions ever since a good fossil record began accumulating in the rock layers, starting about 545 million years ago.