Diagram of hypothetical life-forms on Jupiter's moon Europa, from an old issue of New Scientist.
Europa's icy shell may also contain large embedded "lakes" which, like the ice fissures, might provide an abode for life.
Showing posts with label alien life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alien life. Show all posts
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Jovian jellyfish and aerial plankton
Beautiful clip from Carl Sagan's Cosmos, showing hypothetical life forms in the atmosphere of a gas giant:
Since they are adapted for a wide-open environment where buoyancy counters gravity, these imaginary aerial creatures somewhat resemble marine life in form and behavior (the "floaters" in particular look like jellyfish). This same analogy of sea to sky underlies in the term "aeroplankton"-- referring to the much tinier creatures (insects, seeds, bacteria) that drift in Earth's atmosphere-- and presumably inspired the AirPenguin.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Saturnian "speech"
These spooky sounds do vaguely resemble distorted speech, even in their unmodified form. But this reveals nothing about any life-forms on Saturn (an unlikely notion); rather, it reveals a lot about the way humans perceive sounds. Our pattern-seeking instincts cause us to hear "speech"-- even if we can't comprehend its "message"-- in random natural noises such as wind.
Update: Saturn's radio signals are asymmetrical:
Recent data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show that the variation in radio waves controlled by the planet's rotation is different in the northern and southern hemispheres. Moreover, the northern and southern rotational variations also appear to change with the Saturnian seasons, and the hemispheres have actually swapped rates.
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