Star To Be Investigated For Alien Life

Ananova ^ | 10-8-2003

[blam]

Star to be investigated for alien life

Astronomers say a star called 37 Gem offers the best chance of finding alien life.

The star, a little hotter and brighter than the sun, is on a list of 30 to be investigated by a future generation of life-seeking telescopes.

Situated a relatively close 42 light years away, it is the 37th brightest star in the constellation of Gemini.

Scientists are looking for targets for the Terrestrial Planet Finder and Darwin telescopes planned by Nasa and the European Space Agency.

Both are due to be launched in about 10 years and will be capable of finding habitable planets outside the Solar System.

Astrobiologist Maggie Turnbull, from the University of Arizona in Tucson, USA, compiled a set of criteria for choosing which stars to observe.

These included the amount of heavy metals present when a star formed and its age.

Young stars emitting bright X-rays were excluded, as were small "double" stars.

Turnbull narrowed the 5,000 or so stars within 100 light years of Earth to a shortlist of 30 and presented the list to scientists from TPF and Darwin, New Scientist magazine reported.

Her favourite was 37 Gem because it most closely resembled our sun.

"The closer we look, the more we realise how most other stars are different from the sun," she said.

Story filed: 19:09 Wednesday 8th October 2003

[dts32041]

They are never going to give Ken Starr a Break, now he is an Alien. Sheesh

[Support Free Republic]

"Facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our
wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions,
they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."
- John Adams -

Make your statement.

[jimkress]

Star To Be Investigated For Alien Life

I misread the title. I thought it was entitled "Star To Be Investigated For Intelligent Life" and it was a story about Barbara Striesand.

[js1138]

ping

[11th Earl of Mar]

Come to think about it... Has anyone ever seen Kenneth Starr and Yoda in the same place at the same time?

You think maybe..... nah!

[Republicus2001]

heck I thought this thread was about Alec (Kill Their Children!) Baldwin

[VadeRetro]

Star To Be Investigated For Alien Life

I told that Christina Aguilera to get some help with her fashion sense!

[thoughtomator]

Thought this was another Mexican-housekeeper story

[facedown]

Oh, I thought you meant:

[Mustang]

This may piss off the 6-day creation crowd, but every single cell of our mortal coil's source is from star dust.

As to ones' soul, that's a question to be answered when we shed this coil. If we're alone in the universe, it sure is a waste of space.

[JethroHathAWay]

but every single cell of our mortal coil's source is from star dust.

I have always heard this; from Sagen probably. Is it true? How do they know this?

[PatrickHenry]

Overlapping PING. [This list is for the evolution side of evolution threads, and sometimes for other science topics. FReepmail me to be added or dropped.]

[inquest]

They know there's really only one way that the heavy elements (that is, pretty much anything other than hydrogen and helium) can be created, and that's through the immense pressures that exist within the interior of a sun. Many stars (what I believe they call 1st-generation stars) have only hydrogen and helium, but when they examine the remnants from, say, a supernova, they find the rest of the elements.

[RightWhale]

How do they know this?

Every element heavier than the few lightest atom types had to be formed in novas or supernovas, exploded stars. Hydrogen in our cells might not have part of a star, but iron would have been.

[quark]

Alien Life Forms? One only need examine the armpit and crotch areas of Ol' Crusty. (Eeewwww...)

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Upon first reading of the headline, I thought that George Clooney suspected he had worms.

[Dog Gone]

This is great stuff. While none of us will be alive when mankind explores planets outside of our solar system, this is the groundbreaking work that will lay the foundation for future generations to do so.

[longshadow]

I have always heard this; from Sagen probably. Is it true? How do they know this?

The only mechanism that science can find for production of significant quantities of matter heavier than helium is through processes associated with the nuclear reaction inside of stars.

Anything that is made out of atoms other than hydrogen or helium virtually had to come from material that was ejected from some long-since dead star. Hence almost everything you come in contact every day is made from "star-dust."

[JethroHathAWay]

Thanks. When they analize our bodies, they always say they find this much per cent of gold, this much copper, and so on, etc. It then is more evident from the micro biology where we come from I guess