One of the jovian moons, Europa, is coated with twice as much liquid water as is sloshing around our planet. — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Mountains aren't eternal: even the most imposing massifs are smoothed away by weathering in a few hundred million years or less. Plate… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Star Trek's genial premise is that the cosmos is flush with intelligent species, and our descendants will interact with them face-to-face, thanks… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Our retinas and brains have been wired by a hundred million years of evolution to find outlines in a visually complex landscape.… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
We're not just any star stuff, most of which is humdrum hydrogen and listless helium. Our bodies include fancier ingredients like carbon,… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Studying Sol's interior by looking for analogous patterns on its incandescent face is known as helioseismology, an active - if largely unpronounceable… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Sure, our three-pound brains might be inadequate to understand the universe. But perhaps they're just good enough to build something that can. — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
The limitless content of our universe might be only one instance of a large (and possibly infinite) number of other universes. — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Astronomers still can't decide what the shape of our universe is. Is it closed and finite, which is to say, is there… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
In days gone by, scientists would speak solemnly about our solar system's 'habitable zone' - a theoretical region extending from Venus to… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
We'll be 'outsourcing' our creativity and our thought processes to manufactured components that could be inconspicuously implanted beneath our coiffeurs. Welcome to… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Our computers double in capability on time scales of only a few years. It's hardly outrageous to believe that we will successfully… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
It's hard to imagine anything more interesting than learning how we're woven into the enormous tapestry of existence. Where did our universe… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
About the only things that are unique to Earth are our biota and our culture. If aliens ever come here, they'd most… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Thanks to the fact that the Earth isn't a perfect sphere, and invoking a bunch of Newtonian physics, you can deduce that… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
A century ago, scientists believed there was only one obvious stomping ground for alien biology in our solar system: Mars. Because it… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
A practical way to travel between the stars is a must-have for space opera, and a sine qua non for our frequently… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
It bears mentioning that the Milky Way is only one of 150 billion galaxies visible to our telescopes - and each of… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
If aliens are really hanging out in our 'hood, it's hard to imagine any other fact more worthy of study. If not,… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
The planets and moons of our solar system are blatantly visible because they reflect sunlight. Without the nearby Sun, these planets would… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Our brains are continuing to evolve, and perhaps a few tens of thousands of years from now, our descendants will walk around… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Just knowing that there's somebody else out there - that what's happened on this planet has also happened in many other places… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Any beings advanced enough to traverse interstellar distances are at least a thousand years beyond our technical level. Spending gobs of time… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Each year, thousands of UFOs are sighted and reported, which is an impressive tally of unidentified aerial phenomena. Surveys show that roughly… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
It's worth noting that invoking God as the entity who set our universe in motion isn't contradicted by the data. Of course,… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Exploration is an oft-lauded human activity, and one that resonates in the same way that music and good stories do. It's hard-wired… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Humans have existed only for the last 0.001 percent of cosmic time. All of which says that - unless the Homo sapiens… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Every day, the temperature of Sol's surface increases by five billionths of a degree, a change of no consequence for thousands of… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
The mission of NASA's Kepler telescope is to lift the scales from our eyes and reveal to us just how typical our… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
When it comes to brains, size matters. It's not all that matters, of course. Whales and dolphins have brains that are larger… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Data from orbiting telescopes like NASA's Kepler Mission hint that the tally of habitable planets in our galaxy is many billion. If… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Are we the only members of the Galaxy that can actually understand what a galaxy is? Could Homo sapiens really be the… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Since the Renaissance, a concept called 'progress' has been baked into our society. Progress - founded on an accumulation of knowledge through… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Give consideration to the fact that alien astronomers could have scrutinized Earth for more than 4 billion years without detecting any radio… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Estimates are that at least 70 per cent of all stars are accompanied by planets, and since the latter can occur in… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Ever since the infamous quiz show scandals of the 1950s, the feds had insisted that TV game shows be honest - or… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Mining asteroids is a well-oiled trope of science-fiction. But someday, actually doing it will make economic sense. Many of the essential metals… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Buying insurance is no one's idea of fun. And it's especially easy to berate something as funky-sounding as writing checks to defend… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Despite tantalizing suggestions of fossilized microbes in meteorites, puzzling and possibly biogenic methane gas in the martian atmosphere, and a long-standing controversy… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
The math is dead simple: it seems that the frequency of planets able to support life is roughly one percent. In other… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Studying Sol's interior by looking for analogous patterns on its incandescent face is known as helioseismology, an active - if largely unpronounceable - research… — Seth Shostak Copy Share
Some pundits have proposed that the aliens have come here to breed with us. Apparently, too much bike riding or something similar has rendered… — Seth Shostak Copy Share
As far as I can tell, the only unambiguous consequence of the claimed invasion of Earth by beings from another star system has been… — Seth Shostak Copy Share
Look, science is hard, it has a reputation of being hard, and the facts are, it is hard, and that's the result of 400… — Seth Shostak Copy Share
Give consideration to the fact that alien astronomers could have scrutinized Earth for more than 4 billion years without detecting any radio signals, despite… — Seth Shostak Copy Share
In a movie, it's often important to have aliens whose gestures and facial expressions can be 'read' by humans. And in the days before… — Seth Shostak Copy Share
Sure, nobody will make a fortune if we figure out why the Big Bang happened. But just about everyone would like to know. — Seth Shostak Copy Share
If you could drive straight down, into a tunnel bored through the crust of the planet, you'd hit this molten mess in about an… — Seth Shostak Copy Share
While I have always thought that the motivation for looking for E.T. was both self-evident and patently worthy, it's possible that I'm a victim… — Seth Shostak Copy Share
I studied Latin in high school, and I was reading stuff from Cicero. And that signal took a few thousand years to get to… — Seth Shostak Copy Share
About the only things that are unique to Earth are our biota and our culture. If aliens ever come here, they'd most likely be… — Seth Shostak Copy Share
This plucky NASA telescope is able to find planets en masse. If you compare planet hunting to prospecting for gold, then Kepler is equivalent… — Seth Shostak Copy Share
The most attractive habitats for synthetic sentience might be the vicinities of exceptional sources of energy - for example black holes, or even the… — Seth Shostak Copy Share
Buying insurance is no one's idea of fun. And it's especially easy to berate something as funky-sounding as writing checks to defend our neighborhoods… — Seth Shostak Copy Share
Plate tectonics is not all havoc and destruction. The slow movement of continents and ocean floors recycles carbon dioxide dissolved in the oceans back… — Seth Shostak Copy Share
