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Science Friday > Archives > 1997 > June > June 20, 1997


The Search for Alien Life
Is it possible that alien life could exist on other planets and moons in our solar system?

Lately, biologists have found life on Earth in all kinds of unlikely places, including bacteria that live deep within the Earth's crust, organisms in the ocean near high-temperature vents, and species that can survive without light, with little oxygen, and in extreme temperature ranges. If life can survive in conditions like these, might it also be found elsewhere in the universe?
We'll talk about recent findings that might support the possibility of life elsewhere, including the famous Martian meteor, water on Jupiter's' moon Europa, and the status of the search for life on other worlds.


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Guests:

Richard Zare
Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor of Chemistry
Stanford University
Stanford, CA.

Philip Harriman
Program Director for Microbial Genetics
National Science Foundation
Arlington, VA

Michael Meyer
Exobiology Program Manager
NASA
Washington, DC.

Ed Weiler
Director of Origins Program
NASA
Washington, DC

Books/Articles Discussed:

Related links:

The Martian Meteor:
http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov /marslife
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov /pao/flash/

Water on Europa:
http://galil eo.ivv.nasa.gov/status960813.html
http://galil eo.ivv.nasa.gov/news_archive.html

Exobiology:
http://exobiology.arc.nasa .gov/

Life Under Extreme Conditions
http://www.reston .com/astro/extreme.html

Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence:
http://www.seti-inst.edu/seti-top.html
http://www.u-net.com/ph/mas/cn/a-drake.htm
http://www.bigear.org

All the Little Green Men You Could Ask For:
http://www.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Paranormal_Phenomena/Extraterrestrial_Life/

 

 

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