Initiative 300 And What Makes A Planet Habitable

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:g ABODES - Astronomers are re-thinking the requirements that need to be met for an exoplanet to be considered "habitable." A new simulation of the Gliese 581 system is helping astrobiologists refine their search for Earth-like worlds in the universe. Gleise 581 recently made news because a planet could be orbiting within the system's habitable zone. See article.g LIFE - A vast new amber deposit in India has yielded 100 fossil spiders, bees, and flies that date to the Early Eocene, or 52-50 million years ago. These arthropods are not unique - as would be expected on an island (which India was at that time) - but have close evolutionary relationships with fossils from the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The amber is also the oldest evidence of a tropical broadleaf rainforest in Asia. See article.g MESSAGE - New Scientist magazine has named SETI's detection of mysterious radio signals from a source light years away as its top science story of 2004. See article.g COSMICUS - NASA today officially cleared the space shuttle Discovery for its final mission, setting the stage for a Nov. 1 blastoff to cap the orbiter's spaceflying career. See article.g AFTERMATH - On Tuesday, Denver residents will vote on Initiative 300, a ballot referendum to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission to "ensure the health, safety, and cultural awareness of Denver residents and visitors in relation to potential encounters or interactions with extraterrestrial intelligent beings or their vehicles." See column.Read this blogger's books