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| life beyond Earth. simple, complex or intelligent |
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| Reasons for life outside of Earth |
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new discoveries say tiny microbes may exist.
Universe has many planets.
Scientific advances allow us to understand biology of life to know what conditions to find. |
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| Physical Law operation in the universe |
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| By studying distant objects, we have learned that the physical laws that operate in the rest of the universe are the same as they are on Earth. |
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| planets orbiting stars that are not our sun. |
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| worlds that contain the basic necessities for life. offers environmental conditions under which life could arise or survive. |
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| These conditions for life may be broad, and include planets that are unlike Earth. |
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| Crucial for all terrestrial life |
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| Candidates for life in our solar system |
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| 6 moons. Europa is #1. Water may exist there. Others Ganymede, Callisto, Titan, Enceladus, Triton |
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| Current telescopes technology |
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| Can only detect extrasolar planets only under certain conditions |
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| Search for extraterrestrial intelligence |
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| The study of life in the universe |
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| NASA Astrobiology Institute |
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| A Collaboration involving scientists from NASA and more than a dozen research institutions across the USA. |
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Studying the conditions conductive to the origin and ongoing existence of life.
Looking for the actual occurrence of life elsewhere.
Looking for such conditions on other planets in our solar system and around other stars. |
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| Seeks to reveal the connections between living organisms and the places where they reside. |
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Tended to rely more on pure thought and intuition than observation or experimental tests.
Developed a tradition of trying to understand nature without resorting to supernatural explanations.
Developed mathematics in the form of geometry.
Understood an explanation about the world could not be right if it disagreed with observed fact. |
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| An idea that is central to modern science |
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| Conceptional Representation whose purpose is to explain and predict observed phenomena. |
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624-546 BC
First to address the question "What is the universe made of?" without resorting to supernatural explanations.
Earth was flat disk on an infinite ocean |
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| Spherical Earth at the center of the great celestial sphere. "Earth centered" universe. |
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| Heavens forming a complete sphere around Earth, as suggested by Anaximander. |
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| Apparent Retrograde motion |
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| "backwards" Last few weeks to months. When planets orbit seems to go reverse in sky. Is really an optical illusion created when orbits pass one another. |
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To distinguish it from earlier geocentric models by having planets move around the earth on small circles that turned around larger circles.
Correctly forecast future planetary positions within a few degrees of arc. |
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| offered a radical departure from conventional wisdom by suggesting the Earth goes around the sun. |
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| Annual shifts in stellar position that now provide concrete proof that the Earth really does go around the sun. |
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| Suggested that other Earths and beings might exist at other times, being reborn in a cycle that originates from and returns to the APEIRON, or "infinite." |
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| Held both Earth and the heavens were made from an infinite number of invisible atoms of each of the four elements. |
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| Held that the four elements-not necessarily made from atoms - were confined to Earth, and that the Heavens, were made of a distinct fifth element called the "Aether," or "Quintessence" (literally the "fifth essence") |
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| His views show how the idea of Atoms led almost inevitably to belief in extra terrestrial life. |
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| Brought back idea of sun-centered solar system. Copernicus discovered simple geometric relationships that allowed him to calculate each planet's orbital period around the sun and its relative distance from the sun in terms of Earth-Sun distance |
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| Kepler's Laws of Planetary motion |
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| The orbit of each planet about the sun is an ellipse with the sun at one focus. Planet's distance from the sun varies during its orbit. |
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| As a planet moves around its orbit, it sweeps out equal areas in equal times. Planet moves a greater distance when it is near perhelion than it does in the same amount of time near aphelion. Which also means it moves faster when it is near the sun and slower when it is not. |
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More distant planets orbit the sun at slower average speeds, obeying the precise mathematical relationship.
p^2=a^3
p=planets orbital period
a= average distance from the sun |
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| = to the earth's average distance from the sun or 149.6 million kilometers |
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(1564-1642)
Firmly put to rest all objections to Copernicus's ideas. Discovered an early version of Newton's first law of motion, showed with his telescope that the Heavens weren't perfect, and showed that the stars were far more numerous than previously believed. Put the final nails in the coffin of the geocentric theory. |
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(1642-1727)
invented the mathematics of calculus and used it to explain and discover many fundamental principles of physics, developed his three laws of motion |
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| Laid out in his famous book PRINCIPIA, published in 1687 under the urging of the scientist Haley (for whom Haley's comet is named) |
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| Newton's First Law of Motion |
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| An object moves at a constant velocity unless a net force acts to change its speed or direction |
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| Newton's Second Law of Motion |
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| Force = mass x acceleration |
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| Newton's Third Law of Motion |
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| For any force, there is always an equal and opposite reaction force |
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| a tentative explanation; sometimes called an EDUCATED GUESS |
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| Hallmarks of Modern Science |
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| 1) seeks explanations for observed phenomena that rely solely on natural causes 2) progresses through the creation and testing of models of nature that explain the observations as simply as possible 3) must make testable predictions that if proven wrong would force us to revise the model. |
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| The idea that scientists should prefer the simpler of two models that agree equally well with observations |
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| literally means "false science;" based on observational evidence but do not treat evidence in a truly scientific way |
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| the general patterns of thought during a given time or era; sometimes valid ideas may not be considered by any scientists because they fall too far outside the contemporary paradigm |
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| a powerful yet simple model whose predictions survive repeated and varied testing; a scientific theory must be supported by a large, compelling body of evidence. |
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| first widely understood when Newton saw an apple fall to the ground and realized that the gravity making the apple fall was the same force that held the Moon in orbit around the Earth - he didn't widely publish his results until the PRINCIPIA in 1687. |
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| Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation |
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| Three simple statements summarize this law: 1) Every mass attracts every other mass through gravity 2) Strength of gravitational force is directly proportional to the mass of the objects and 3) strength of gravity decreases with the square of the distance between their centers |
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| The further away you get from something, the less you feel its effects |
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| Einstein discovered that all objects reside in something known as FOUR DIMENSIONAL SPACETIME, and the mass of large bodies (like the sun) causes spacetime to curve |
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| According to Einstein, what gravity really is is the CURVATURE OF SPACETIME such that bodies are drawn to one another |
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