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Probing into the Atmospheres of Exoplanets with Dr. Munazza K. Alam

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December 24, 2022

Probing into the Atmospheres of Exoplanets with Dr. Munazza K. Alam

Are we alone in the universe? This is one of the principal questions for astronomers studying “extrasolar planets”, also known as “exoplanets”. Today, astronomers start addressing one of science and philosophy’s most fundamentally primitive yet unanswered questions. The ramifications and peculiarity of such a possibility would be genuinely multidisciplinary, from a scientific context to social implications.

Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences, developed by ancient scientists thousands of years ago. But the specific study of exoplanets kicked off in 1995 when the first detection of an exoplanet around a Sun-like star was reported by Mayor and Queloz. The discovery of this gas giant planet called 51 Pegasi b, was a huge surprise. Previously, we did not even fathom the existence of gas giant planets like Jupiter so close to their host stars.

The exoplanet they discovered, 51 Pegasi b – is a "hot Jupiter" gas giant, above are artistic illustrations of the host star and planet. Credit: PlanetQuest — _{The exoplanet they discovered, 51 Pegasi b – is a “hot Jupiter” gas giant; above are artistic illustrations of the host star and planet. Credit: PlanetQuest}

Today, the number of confirmed exoplanets has exceeded more than 5300 (Exoplanet. eu – 2022), a population size that couldn’t have been believed and estimated 30 years ago. But we are still searching for planets that could sustain life. exoplanets that we are trying to study are astronomically distant from us, making it challenging, expensive, and tricky to observe.

In most cases, we can only observe the light from their parent stars to study their atmospheres. We also have to sit tight for the planet to transit its host star to learn about its atmospheric composition and other present-day physical properties. In the coming decades, these techniques will be expanded to search for signatures of habitability or any possible signs of extraterrestrial life.

To discuss this area of research further, we had the privilege to talk to Dr. Munazza K. Alam, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Carnegie Earth & Planetary Laboratory and a National Geographic Young Explorer. She completed her PhD at Harvard University – “I am really inspired and uplifted after listening to her talk about the science of Exoplanets”.

Fouz: Congratulations on your recent discoveries with “The Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Program”. Today, being at the peak of your work in exploring the “Atmospheres of Exoplanets”? How did a young kid from New York get here?

Munazza K. Alam: My story starts with curiosity about how the world works and asking the question, “Why?” Then, in high school, my physics teacher, Dr. Jensen, who was the first woman I knew with a Doctorate in Physics, was so inspiring to me. She was able to answer the most difficult questions in a very easy-to-understand way. It was Dr. Jensen who inspired me to study physics as an undergraduate.

I then connected with a physics professor at my university who asked me to join her research group. When I started attending their group meetings, I realized, “These researchers were asking questions that no one in the world knew the answers to.” It was life-changing for me to witness firsthand how researchers work to advance humanity’s overall understanding of the natural world and the physical universe.

Later on, I had the opportunity to collect data for my research using professional telescopes at national observatories, which are typically situated in remote locations. I grew up in New York City, where there is a lot of light pollution, So the first time that I saw a true night sky, it was truly breathtaking – and at that moment, “I decided to study astronomy for the rest of my life”.

_{Astronomer Munazza Alam researched at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert while studying for her bachelor’s degree. Credit: Munazza Alam}

Fouz: Excitingly, getting exposed to something at this young age is truly charming. Well, my next question would be about your recent work with the JWST; discovering the atmospheric composition of a faraway exoplanet is truly ground-breaking for us! Would be great if you could discuss the details of your involvement and the overall discovery.

Munazza K. Alam: I started studying exoplanets as a PhD student in the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University. It feels a bit like fate to me! Before I started at Harvard, I went to a conference where a professor from a university in the UK was giving a presentation on the atmospheric characterization of “Hot Jupiters” using the Hubble Space Telescope thought this science was so cool but that I wouldn’t be able to work with this professor because he’s located in the UK and that’s too far away.

But then, two months later, I was visiting Harvard before deciding to attend there for my PhD, and I met the person who later became my thesis advisor- Dr. Mercedes López-Morales. Our personalities clicked right away, and she mentioned that she had recently submitted a proposal (not accepted then) to study a large sample of “Hot Jupiters’ Atmospheres” in collaboration with the same professor from the UK I mentioned earlier.

Coincidently, they both were working together on the same project – so I now had the potential opportunity to work on Hubble observations of hot Jupiter atmospheres as well! I then moved to Boston for my Ph.D. In the meantime, the proposal was accepted, and the data started to come in. This is how my route to studying exoplanets began!

During my time as a PhD student, I joined a collaboration called the JWST Transiting Exoplanets Community Early Release Science (ERS) team, in which we outlined the best JWST instrument modes and the best planets to consider for observing exoplanet atmospheres. It was a huge community of scientists around the world (including many senior people who laid the groundwork for this field of study and whose papers I had been reading). We wrote the first publication with 50+ authors detailing the best observation modes and planets that we decided on. As a team, we also submitted a JWST observing proposal. I remember I was in the Canary Islands for a conference when I got the email that our proposal was accepted.

These observations were eventually taken this past August! As part of ERS, we are testing three techniques for observing atmospheres: transmission spectroscopy, emission spectroscopy, and complete orbit phase curves. (In transmission spectroscopy, we see a planet pass in front of its parent star and block out some starlight. The starlight filters through the planet’s atmosphere, and at different wavelengths, we can measure the planet’s size. Any variations that we see in the planet’s size at different wavelengths are the fingerprints of absorption by different atoms and molecules in the planet’s atmosphere.)

For the transmission spectroscopy program, we observe a hot Jupiter called WASP-39b with four different instrument modes between 0.6-0.5 microns and at various resolutions. I was mainly involved in the high-resolution NIRSpec observations taken in the G395H mode (H stands for high resolution G is for grism or the way the light is split on the light on the instrument on the telescope, and 3.95 is the mid-wavelength). With Hubble, we were observing at optical wavelengths and with JWST, we have access to the infrared. We also have higher resolution, higher precision, and higher telescope stability. So the data quality is much better than before!

This graph displays data from Webb's NIRSpec instrument, indicating signatures of potassium (K), water (H2O), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and sodium (Na). Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmsted (STScI) — _{This graph displays data from Webb’s NIRSpec instrument, indicating signatures of potassium (K), water (H2O), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and sodium (Na). Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmsted (STScI)}

When the data first came in, we had no idea what to expect. Our theoretical models predicted different features such as carbon dioxide, water, methane, and carbon monoxide. Most excitingly, we saw this beautiful bump at 4.3 microns, which is evidence of the carbon dioxide in this planet’s atmosphere. Previously, we had never observed carbon dioxide with low-resolution space-based observations. There was also another tiny bump at 4 microns, an absorption feature that was not in any model.

I’m a data analyst and work on observations, but this was very exciting for the theorists on the team since this hadn’t been predicted by their models. So, they started checking and testing a bunch of different possible molecules to explain this feature, and the one that surpassed all the tests was sulphur dioxide (SO₂). This molecule is produced by photochemistry, the interaction of light from the star interacting with an exoplanet’s atmosphere. So, with JWST, we are already learning and finding so many new and unexpected things!

The James Webb Space Telescope made the first identification of sulfur dioxide in an exoplanet’s atmosphere. Its presence can only be explained by photochemistry – chemical reactions triggered by high-energy particles of starlight. Photochemistry is essential to processes on Earth and key to life like photosynthesis and the generation of our ozone layer. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Robert Hurt; Center for Astrophysics-Harvard & Smithsonian/Melissa Weiss — _{The James Webb Space Telescope made the first identification of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere of exoplanets. Its presence can only be explained by photochemistry – chemical reactions triggered by high-energy particles of starlight. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Robert Hurt; Center for Astrophysics-Harvard & Smithsonian/Melissa Weiss}

Fouz: Wow! This is just great! Now, can we say we are getting closer to discovering possible conditions for life on other exoplanets? It would be very optimistic now. Do you think it’s now closer that we may find any biosignatures on any of these exoplanets?

Munazza K Alam: We are getting closer, but still very far from figuring it out. Hot Jupiters aren’t the best targets for the search for life, but are interesting for understanding how planets form and what physics and chemistry occur in their atmospheres. Rocky planets are better targets, but for these worlds to be habitable, we think they must have liquid water on their surfaces and show evidence of biosignatures (the so-called fingerprints of life). But it’s tricky because biosignatures such as oxygen, ozone, methane, or carbon dioxide can be produced by abiotic (non-life) processes. Even if we find a planet that checks every box for habitability, we have to definitively rule out abiotic processes and then prove that life is the only way to explain what we see.

“Hot Jupiters aren’t the best targets for the search for life but are interesting for understanding how planets form and what physics and chemistry occur in their atmospheres”. ~ Munazza

Fouz: Truly, many people are calling it out that with the JWST alive, it’s one of the exciting times to get into the field of the exoplanet atmosphere. Also, there’s another way, like SETI (Search for the Extraterrestrial Life), how they are trying to find the technosignatures and how we are exploring exoplanet atmospheres. So, what mode or approach must we take to search for life?

Munazza K Alam: The search for life should definitely incorporate a multi-directional approach, including but not limited to theoretical models, observations at different wavelengths and resolutions, and different atmospheric characterization techniques. There must also be investment and advancement in instrumentation to probe planets and their atmospheres.

Fouz: Yes, astronomical innovations would work, even as we invented JWST technologies. One more thing, if you remember, we had sent a Voyagers a few decades ago. In the same possible way, if we had sent a probe within the direction of Proxima Centauri (The nearest star to our Solar System). Wouldn’t it have reached in a few decades? What do you think about that?

Munazza K Alam: Yes, well, I started my PhD around the time of the discovery of Proxima Centauri b, which is the closest exoplanet to Earth (just a few light years away) and orbiting in the habitable zone of its host star. There’s a project called “Breakthrough Starshot”, proposing hundreds of more minor chips with cameras and signal processing capabilities that would be sent via solar sails and launched with lasers from space at around 20% of the speed of light – making it possible to reach Proxima Centauri b within our lifetimes, in two-three decades.

The project still has other challenges – including the fact that shooting lasers in space would be a problem between different nations. But, yes, theoretically, it’s possible that we could send a probe to our nearest star, and we would be a step closer to answering the question, “Are we alone?”.

Each lightsail would be limited to about one-thirtieth of an ounce (less than 1 gram) while still being incredibly reflective. Image Concept Credit: Breakthrough Initiatives — _{Each light sail would be limited to about one-thirtieth of an ounce (less than 1 gram) while still being incredibly reflective. Image Concept Credit: Breakthrough Initiatives}

Fouz: This just sounds very promising, I guess. Anyhow, if you would discuss one more thing, what do you think is habitability? As it has been a very subjective topic of conversation now. So, what are your approach and parameters? We should look to have a better understanding of habitability now.

Munazza K Alam: Some relevant parameters include star type, the material from which the planet is formed, the temperature of the planet, distance to the star, radiation caused due to photochemistry, star’s activity (such as flares), and the atmospheric composition of a planet. We think carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, and oxygen are some elements vital for life. There are also theories about super-habitable planets around K-type stars, slightly more excellent stars.

Based on Earth (the only planet we know hosts life), we are looking for liquid water on the surface of a rocky planet and carbon-based life. However, we have seen that extremophiles on Earth exist in extreme environments, such as the depths of the oceans, deep in volcanic vents, and away from sunlight, So that is a possibility. But currently, the habitability conversation is focused on carbon-based lifeforms such as those on Earth.

Fouz: Yes, this would be pretty objective to approach habitability. It’s just similar to our own standard of Earth could be found among ‘checkmarks’. Also, what do you think about Mars? Nowadays, we are talking about terraforming Mars. Can humanity survive in domes or suits there in a long-term scenario? As atmospheric conditions are pretty harsh.

Munazza K Alam: Well, to terraform Mars, we would need to modify the planet to make it more suitable for humans, such as raising its temperature and increasing its oxygen content. But the evolutionary history of our planet took millions of years to evolve life, and terraforming a planet isn’t easy or quick – and shouldn’t be the first solution. We must take care of our planet and the environment and not take it for granted. Our home planet evolved in such a way for life to survive, thrive, and evolve over the last 3.8 billion years.

Humanity’s foremost responsibility is to protect our planet to fight climate change and the threat of world wars, which seems to be a scary possibility for the future. As an astronomer, I study faraway worlds that are entirely different places– but if we don’t protect our home planet and peace for humanity, we could also deprive future generations of the opportunity to explore and understand these faraway worlds.

Also, read: Detecting alien life in the solar system— A talk with Dr. Nozair Khwaja

Fermi Paradox— A scary realization

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Tayyaba Imam

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December 20, 2022

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It was a fine starry night; my friends and I were sitting outside for a cup of coffee when we saw a shiny object pierce through the sky. We were the only ones who caught a glimpse of this object, which appeared for a fraction of a second. “A UFO!” my friend exclaimed, but you know the possibility of that happening is low to none. Or is it?

One of the most exciting topics for a conversation is: Do aliens exist? Are we alone in the Universe? or are there other species wandering about other parts of the Universe in search of other extraterrestrial life? It is generally backed by several convincing and hilarious theories and conspiracies. But the real question is how much truth lies in these speculations. Indeed, we must not be alone in this Universe. The Hubble site states that the Universe’s expansion rate to a precision of just over 1%. This shows that our Universe, which is unfathomably large, is also expanding.

Statistics suggest that there must be at least a few with advanced civilizations for such a large number of probable earth-like planets present in the Universe. — _{Statistics suggest that there must be at least a few with advanced civilizations for such a large number of probable Earth-like planets present in the Universe.}

So, every time you look up at the night sky, know that there are roughly an equal number of observable galaxies in our Universe as the number of stars in our Milky Way galaxy or, simply put, for every grain of sand on every beach on Earth, there are 10,000 stars out there.

Now imagine a number of those stars have planets revolving around them. Statistics suggest that about 1% of those stars have an Earth-like planet revolving around them, a total of a whopping 100 billion Earth-like planets. Our Sun is relatively younger. There are older stars with planets older than Earth, having enough time to create life.

Many scientists have thought of the possibility of extraterrestrial life. One notable contribution is that of Frank Drake, who gave the Drake Equation, which helped find the number of intelligent civilizations according to its factors. The Drake equation tells us that by 2074, there should be about 10 civilizations in our galaxy alone. Furthermore, The Kardashev scale categorizes civilizations into 3 types: Type 1 civilization harnesses all energy of its planet (According to the renowned astronomer Carl Sagan, we are a Type 0.7), Type 2 civilization harnesses the energy of its star, while the Type 3 civilization harnesses the energy of the entire galaxy.

So, where is everybody? A scientist named Enrico Fermi is associated with this question. It gives rise to the paradox we must now highlight; “The Universe is about 14 billion years old. If other intelligent beings are present, why haven’t we heard from them? ” It is from this question, the Drake equation, and the Kardashev scale that The Fermi Paradox was born. We have no clear answer or evidence as to the best explanation for this paradox. We only have several possibilities and hypotheses explaining the absence of alien life. One of the most widely discussed are these possibilities:

THE GREAT FILTER

Statistics suggest that there must be at least a few with advanced civilizations for such a large number of probable Earth-like planets present in the Universe. There are other stars and planets older than our Sun, which had enough time to create life on its planets. The math suggests that thousands of them must be there in our own galaxy. This shows us that there must be Type 2 and Type 3 civilizations present out there, but there are signs of none. This is an intriguing piece of the puzzle. Why are there no Type 2 and Type 3 civilizations? A possible explanation for this question is a theory called The Great Filter.

The Great Filter theory suggests that at some point of evolution from premature life to Type 3 civilization, there must come a time when further attempts to evolve cease completely. This is a stage that is impossible for life to cross. So the question is, when does The Great Filter arrive in our own timeline? It’s essential to answer this question for our own survival.

There are three possibilities:

We have crossed it

This version suggests that, miraculously, we have survived The Great Filter. This shows that our kind of intelligent life is extremely rare and unique. It explains how there are no other Type 2 or Type 3 civilizations, and ours could be the very few of the ones that actually make it. That must mean that we have passed the Great Filter somewhere in our evolutionary process. Was it at the beginning of life itself? Scientists have tried to create life in laboratories for quite a few years, but it was never successful. If the genesis of life was indeed The Great Filter, this could explain why there could be no life out there.

Or it could be when a prokaryotic cell turned into the eukaryotic one. When the prokaryotic cells came into it wasn’t until after two billion years that the first eukaryotic cell came into being. If this is The Great Filter, then the Universe might be full of prokaryotes. Hence, the reason we haven’t heard any signals from any of them.

So, the Great Filter is characterized by one-in-a-billion occurrence only.

We would be the first to experience it!

We may move toward the Great Filter if the first hypothesis is incorrect. It means that we are one of the primary civilizations, and it is still early in the Universe for intelligent life to develop. Other civilizations are either not born yet or even more primitive than us, and we have yet to become a super-intelligent species.

We will experience it soon!

This is undoubtedly the scariest of the three possibilities. Theorists who support this hypothesis claim that life normally evolves to the point where we are. Still, it is after it reaches this stage that it is eliminated by a mysterious phenomenon. And we won’t be an exception. We might even end up destroying ourselves once we reach a point in technological advancement that harms our survival. The more clues we find about the evidence of extraterrestrial life, the more insight we gain on which stage we lie on.

EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL NEIGHBORS

Another group of theorists believes that we are not as special as we think we are. We may just be a mediocre species living on a mediocre planet orbiting a mediocre star. And there are many like us who haven’t reached out to us for one reason or the other. It must be noted that any search for alien life done by humans is limited in scope as we could only search 100 light years away from us.

Let’s explore the different theories supporting this claim:

Some theorists believe that Earth has already been visited by aliens in the past, but it was before humans were here. Humans have only been here for 50,000 years. We would have no way of knowing if any contact happened before then. Even if it happened in the early times of human civilization, we have no proof of that.
One of the most exciting theories is The Dark Forest theory. It states that predator civilizations are out there, and other civilizations are quiet and noiseless to keep themselves safe. There is no way for them to know if the predator civilizations are altruistic or would destroy them completely. Although, the safest option for any species is to destroy all others to ensure its protection. That is why we may not have received signals from the SETI(Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) satellites.

This phenomenon is best explained in this paragraph from the Novel ‘Dark Forest:

“The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound. Even breathing is done with care. The hunter has to be careful because everywhere in the forest are stealthy hunters like him. If he finds another life—another hunter, angel, or a demon, a delicate infant to a tottering old man, a fairy or demigod—there’s only one thing he can do: open fire and eliminate them.”

Astronomer Carl Sagan recommended that “the newest children in a strange and uncertain cosmos should listen quietly for a long time, patiently learning about the universe and comparing notes, before shouting into an unknown jungle that we do not understand.”

Suppose other much more advanced civilizations are already living out there, the Type 2 and Type 3 civilizations. In that case, there is no need for them to visit us or contact us when they are utilizing all their resources from their own star or galaxies. Our system would be too underdeveloped for their needs.
Our Sun is located in one of the Spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy. If the colonization of the Milky Way has already occurred, then there was no reason for intelligent life to visit this rural area of the galaxy. It would just be impractical to travel such a long distance.
Building on the Dark Forest theory, there might just be one Super civilization out there that does not let any other civilization grow and develop and eliminates it, so it does not threaten them.
There may also be a possibility of an intelligent civilization out there, but we just don’t have the right equipment to catch the signals. Maybe the technology they use is too advanced or obsolete, so much so that it is impossible for us to detect it.
Another exciting hypothesis is The Zoo Hypothesis, which tells us that the more advanced civilizations know of our existence and are only just observing us from afar. There is a possibility that they are watching us with technology, which does not let us determine that we are being watched.
A theory suggests that we may be too irrelevant for high civilizations. So much so that they don’t even care to contact us. If that is the case, it also makes sense why we have not yet sensed them because, in the realm of physics, it would be difficult for us to perceive anything that is far too advanced than us.
Let me just add my favourite one out here in the end: Aliens have already contacted us, but the government is hiding it. This one is the most mind-bending one to me, for there is absolutely no way for contact to have already happened, and it remains a mystery.

Looking at the night sky is a humbling experience. It either makes you wonder about what’s above and beyond, making you forget about all the frivolous problems of our daily lives, or it gives you something more to think about, like an existential crisis. To think that we are the only living civilization out there is a lonely experience, but to think that there may be predator civilizations or The Great Filter waiting to happen is an even scarier possibility.

The Fermi Paradox gives us the most reasonable and sound theories regarding the existence of Alien life. It makes me sometimes wonder that we may be the highest-living predator civilization instead. It’s best to negate the fear of annihilation that way. We may even go on to develop a Dyson sphere and turn into a Type 2 civilization, or we may completely wipe ourselves out by over-consuming Earth’s resources. Whatever lies ahead of us is exciting as well as terrifying.

REFERENCE:

https://www.britannica.com/story/the-fermi-paradox-where-are-all-the-aliens

Also, read: Mystery object observed in a collision with a black hole by LIGO and Virgo

Detecting alien life in the solar system— A talk with Dr Nozair Khawaja

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Aniqa Mazhar

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December 20, 2022

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Detecting alien life in the solar system— A talk with Dr Nozair Khawaja

Dr Nozair Khawaja, a prominent astrobiologist based in Punjab, now resides in Germany. He has been associated with several space missions like Cassini, Europa Clipper, etc. Dr Nozair’s research papers have been published in Nature and other notable science journals.

Here are some abstracts of his recent talk, which he delivered virtually at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST)

The first question we ask in astrobiology or space exploration is whether humans exist alone in this universe or not. This question is kind of philosophical as well. Other than the interpretation of scientific data, we need to consult the Islamic and religious perspectives of Jews and Christians as well. Since finding life in outer space may have severe implications for our society, we must also keep the repercussions in mind.

To find the answer to whether we are alone in this universe or not, we usually look into two places: our solar system and, beyond it, other galaxies. There are billions of stars and galaxies, thus expanding the potential to search for life.

it should be kept in mind that the study of the earth also comes under the domain of astrobiology. — _{It should be remembered that the study of the earth also comes under the domain of astrobiology. ~Dr Nozair. Photo Aniqa Mazhar}

Since this is quite an expanded field, the question I will mainly focus on is the existence of alien life within the solar system. There is a reason why I did not opt for outer space research. Interestingly, when I went to Finland for my master’s, I went to the observatory in Scandinavia, and the director there asked why I was not interested in research beyond our solar system. I answered that it would be possible within my lifetime only within the solar system because we can at least search eight to nine planets but not beyond that.

When I talk about life within the solar system, I should have some analogues. When we work in the lab, we use a template for analyzing other samples. In this case, our template is the Earth. So, we will compare any life found with the life present here on Earth. So it should be remembered that the study of the earth also comes under the domain of astrobiology.

Before proceeding, you should define what you mean by ‘life’. When I say we will detect aliens within the solar system, what kind are we looking for? So for that, we need to consider the forms of life, i.e., microbial, extremophiles, and life-like humans. If that is not the case, it could also mean there is a second genesis of life that is totally different from our versions of the definition of life, like carbon and hydrogen-based life.

Within the solar system, different space agencies have already sent numerous missions toward the interior solar system that is toward our left, including Mercury and Venus. On our right are the other planets, namely Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. There are other species, like comets and asteroids. Humans visit these places extensively to learn about life’s secrets or origins.

The solar system is filled with many dust particles as well. They seem to be pretty useless but are actually of great importance. Many space missions are directed toward icy comets as well. In fact, I am also part of the research team on one such project where I use mass spectrometry in my studies.

Search for life in the outer solar system is useless due to the extremely cold temperatures and lack of water. Searching for life based on our knowledge of life on Earth, we would also expect the presence of water.

Earth comes in the zone where water is liquid, which is a suitable medium for life-related reactions. With some space missions like Aleeno and Casini, we were surprised to know that the solar system also has water in liquid form, particularly on Saturn. One of the moons of Saturn has springs of water erupting from it. That was a fantastic discovery. It changed the paradigm of the habitable zone of the solar system.

Our search for life has now spread all across the solar system. Some moons of Jupiter and Saturn have been shown to have water in liquid form on their surfaces. One of the instruments used in this detection was the ‘gravity instrument’, which measures liquid density variation below the surface.

Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, is really amazing in terms of astrobiology. The three moons of Jupiter are equally important; Saturn has rings made of ice and dust particles. The moons of Saturn, which are more than fifty, are embedded in these rings.

In 2005, by using the magnetometer, scientists discovered that it was deflecting near the Enceladus moon in irregular patterns. An emergency meeting was arranged at the NASA headquarters to organize more space missions toward this particular moon. On the south pole of this moon, enormous jets of water springing from the surface were observed. This discovery shifted the history of space exploration.

The moon has a rocky core with silicate, and water percolates in liquid form on its surface. Hydrothermal reactions occur there. When the water in the land beneath the oceans goes down and gets warmer, it returns to the surface. This is referred to as hydrothermal activity, and we have found it on this moon.

Even after discovering ice grains or dust particles, what are the detection methods for aliens? Basically, dust particles are messengers of life across the universe. The explosion of stars, comets, or asteroids causes dust formation, and some fall on Earth, too.

NASA has set up detectors in the upper atmosphere for these dust particles and collects them as well. In 2016, the research concluded that the ingredients of life might have come to Earth from the solar system. The Earth’s atmosphere blocks meteorites, but they land forcefully on planets with no atmosphere. The dust of these planets is caused to rise for several kilometres.

The ice grains from other planets and moons are helpful. They could carry signs of life if we assume that life is present on those planets. If Enceladus has light present on its surface, how do the light rays enter the ice grains? Whenever you detect light in outer space, you must look at the Earth as the analogue or template. The surface of the oceans on our earth is brimming with countless microorganisms.

When the wind blows, waves are caused on the ocean’s surface. When these waves collapse with each other, air goes into the layers and comes up again, causing bubbles. These bubbles carry microbial life and burst at the surface. Air takes these organic molecules and microbial life up via winds to clouds.

The core has a high temperature on Enceladus, so the fluid comes to the surface via a hydrothermal elevator process and bursts, causing gaseous bubbles. Gas is coming at high speed from under the oceans. It goes into the atmosphere when it comes to the surface.

If microbes are present here, they also go upwards and freeze. We could detect these frozen Mos via space missions in the form of ice grains. I led the research from 2018 to 2019 in which we detected these ice grains. We found signatures of macromolecules with a significant molecular weight of more than 2000 mass per unit value. We classified the material to be like aromatic ring structures, having H and O species as well as saturated and unsaturated sections.

I found very small Bonafede particles in those ice grains as well. Those with a background in organic chemistry will know that these molecules can make amino acids in hydrothermal regions where the temperature is 100 degrees Celsius. The pH is 9, very alkaline, via Friedel-Craft reactions. This was the primary breakthrough research where I just found the building blocks of the protogynous protein structure.

How would you detect these chemicals in the ice grains? The tool we used was mass spectrometry. We look at the cations and anions present. We sent a mass spectrometer to the moon of Enceladus, and it is the most ambitious program of 2024 to be launched.

Another mission is of Japan, heading towards an asteroid because a Japanese agency wants to know whether the dust particles from that asteroid that comes to Earth has a Galmene shower in September or October are it’s or not.

An ambitious mission of Europe was also targeted towards light study with a very interesting instrument. It studied the dust particles near comets. When a dust particle hits a spectrometer, its ions are created, which we detect. This apparatus was part of the Japanese space mission. When I looked at the mass spectrum of the ice grain from space, I observed that it had an aromatic carbon ring structure with hydrocarbon chains that have a difference of 12 to 13 units from each other, meaning they are highly unsaturated. We received a signal of up to 2,000 mass units as well. That’s amazing.

We demonstrated in the lab that we took some fatty acids with C12 to C20. We mixed them based on concentrations that indicate abiotic sources of FAs. We obtained a mass spectrum for the solution and saw that an even number of carbons, i.e., 12 14 16 18 20, had signals equal to C 13 15 17 19. There is no distinction between even and odd-numbered fatty acids.

This solution reflects abiotic features. But then we took the same fatty acids but changed the biotic concentration and saw that the signal of even-numbered C fatty acids is higher than those of odd C FAs. We use this template to tell whether FAs from outer ice grains are from biotic or abiotic sources.

Many advanced studies on extremophiles and electron and UV radiations study mutations in microbes. The moon also has a particular atmosphere. Meteorites land on the surface, and the ice particles enter the instrument of the mission and generate a mass spectrum.

The extraterrestrial ocean world is a potentially habitable place. It means there is either life or favourable conditions to start life. This is exciting!

To sum up, dust particles are basically messengers, and we can tell by their help whether there are aliens in the Solar system.

Also, read: Dr. Nozair Khwaja’s Breakthrough research on Saturn’s Moon, Enceladus.

The Galactic Traveler

News

Muhammad Hassan Qazi

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December 18, 2022

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The Space transport vehicle is now approaching the planet Xenon, distant from our Earth as far as 30 Decas (a Deca equals 10 light years). I traveled by the “21Longway” wormhole to reach here; it was calmer than the “57Pathfinder”, mostly used for traveling to Arion. It was part of our training program to journey all planets in Adam’s Empire.

It’s not that we don’t have the technology to go beyond the empire; it’s just that human control has its limits in the domain of time. We have discovered dozens of planets in the outskirts of the empire that cover many nearby galaxies, lurking nearby just some Decas farther. Some of these neighbors lack the essential aspects we require to establish habitable colonies. Xenon is one such planet. It was named after the Xenon gas because no space telescope had been able to analyze the atmosphere and surface of this planet. That made its properties somewhat synonymous with the Xenon gas, “Invisible,” to be precise.

I am now entering the atmosphere. It was bleak, greyish with a pale blue sight that was due to the “sunset” time. As I completed the entry into the atmosphere, the sight became bleaker. The atmospheric sensors were showing high levels of Nitrogen! Yes! And oxygen was present, too! Xenon had an atmosphere similar to Earth. It was denser in some respects. Perhaps a dense foggy day would be very close to these conditions, that too in visual metrics.

The space transport vehicle’s sensors showed fluctuating readings of some other elements in the Earth-like air. I searched for a plan for the vehicle to settle down. Two small mountains had a clear surface between them. I landed my vehicle on it. Although the sensors showed signs of a breathable atmosphere, I put my helmet on because I didn’t want to risk myself in this alien oxygen. The gravity was slightly more than Earth. 10% stronger, to be exact. I had to put in an effort to get to the door of my vehicle. Perhaps the journey of 30 Decas had its toll on me! I glanced at my watch; it was 45 ticks past 6 UMT (Universal Meridian time). I looked out and up towards the sky of Xenon. It seemed I had about 25 ticks before dark.

As I set foot on the surface, I felt the stronger gravity. I am pulling and dragging each step forward, such as weights tied to my ankles, and heavy bags of more than 5 kgs are placed on my shoulders to dampen my movement. I put my atmosphere sensor out. It showed stable readings of Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon, and methane. I started taking the soil sample. The upper soil is dark greyish-blue in color. As I brushed it and collected some in my sampler, the underneath became visible. It was dark blue.

I filled half of my sampler and stood up. It was getting darker. I had walked about 5 or 6 yards from my vehicle. I was approximately at the centre of the two small mountains. I looked around and took photographs. Then I took out my binoculars and looked towards one of the mountains. I zoomed in 50 % vis. The mountain seemed of the same greyish-blue color. A slight breeze was blowing across the valley.

I looked at the mountain’s surface up towards its flat peak. I saw a shadow, no, it was a figure! Wearing a long black robe! I zoomed in 80 %; yes, it was human-like! Having a proper human body! Hurriedly, I zoomed in 100 %. yes, it was very much like a human, facing toward me, but its face was hidden in the hood of the robe. I was astonished! Startled to the very soul, my eyes froze at the figure as it moved its hand and tightened its hood as if it felt cold in the Xenon breeze! Was it an alien?

But we never found any such being on our journeys throughout the empire. Was it another captain? That sounded probable, but why is he wearing a black robe? My mind couldn’t find an explanation neither could it contemplate my next move. I kept staring at the figure through my binoculars as the darkness began to deepen. The robed figure kept facing me and seemed to turn its head as if looking around. Then suddenly it started to run down the mountain! I had difficulty walking on this surface, and that “robe thing” was running on it! Now, increasing my astonishment with fear, it was running towards me!

Also Read: NASA’S RESEARCH PROGRAM ON UFOS

Astrobiology: Microscopic life on a macroscopic scale

News

Muniba Usman

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December 16, 2022

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Astrobiology: Microscopic life on a macroscopic scale

Life on Earth is possible with the ideal and optimal conditions that support the existence of all forms of life on its surface. The atmosphere up and around, the humidity, the temperature and countless other biotic (like plants, animals, microorganisms) and abiotic factors (air, water, soil, energy, forces) contribute to the proliferation of life forms from the microscopic level to the organisms of most giant magnitude on Earth.

Life in space requires superhuman chemistry to survive from the dangers of extreme radiation exposures, oxygen-less atmosphere and devastating sunburns. One can barely survive in this environment unless it is an extremophile (capable of surviving extreme environmental conditions) like the Deinococcus radiodurans bacterium.

EXTREMOPHILES IN SPACE

Microbiologists have spent decades studying extremophiles, the organisms that can withstand extreme limits of survival, to find out the origin of life on Earth. Some extremophiles can live unprotected in space for several days; others can endure for years, but only by carving out a home inside rocks.

Now, new findings published in Frontiers in Microbiology, based on that experiment on the International Space Station, show that the bacteria Deinococcus radiodurans can survive at least three years in space. Akihiko Yamagishi, a microbiologist at Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences who led the study, says the results also suggest that microbial life could travel between planets unprotected by rock.

microscopic — The bacteria *Deinococcus radiodurans* can survive at least three years in space

BIOLOGY OF EXTREMOPHILE TETRAD*

Deinococcus radiodurans is an extremophilic bacterium and one of the most radiation-resistant organisms known. It can survive cold, dehydration, vacuum, and acid, and therefore is known as a polyextremophile.

Lab studies have found that Deinococcus radiodurans is capable of withstanding an acute dose of 5,000 grays (Gy)**, or 500,000 rad, of ionizing radiation with almost no loss of viability, and an acute dose of 15,000 Gy with 37% viability.

Let’s compare for a better understanding that the dose of 5,000 Gy is estimated to introduce several hundred double-strand breaks (DSBs) into the organism’s DNA. For comparison, a chest X-ray or Apollo mission involves about 1 mGy, 5 Gy can kill a human, 200–800 Gy will kill E. coli, and more than 4,000 Gy will kill the radiation-resistant tardigrade (segmented micro-animal ).

REFLECTING RADIATIONS

D. radiodurans, are normally resistant to damage from radiation. Their genes code for unique proteins that repair DNA. While human cells carry about two copies of DNA, and most bacterial cells carry one, D. radiodurans contain up to 10 redundant copies. Having more copies of essential genes means the cells can synthesize more copies of proteins that fix DNA damaged by radiation. This inherent defence mechanism, combined with protective outer layers of cells, kept the microbes alive despite radiation levels over 200 times higher than those on Earth.

THE LIST IS GETTING LONGER!

However, Deinococcus radiodurans is not the only microbe known to survive in space. The list is getting lengthier day by day. There are over 250 species known now to thrive in outer space, including Aeromonas proteolytica, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus thuringiensis, Chroococcidiopsis, Deinococcus Aerius, Deinococcus geothermalis, Escherichia coli, Micrococcus luteus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa⁶ and so on.

REFERENCES:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/scientists-discover-exposed-bacteria-can-survive-space-years 180975660/#:~:text=radiodurans%20isn%27t%20the%20only,with%20protection%20from%20toxic%20radiation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinococcus_radiodurans
Moseley BE, Mattingly A (1971). “Repair of irradiated transforming deoxyribonu- cleic acid in wild type and a radiation- sensitive mutant of Micrococcus radiodu- rans”. J. Bacteriol. 105 (3): 976–983. doi:10.1128/JB.105.3.976-983.1971. PMC 248526. PMID 4929286
Murray RGE. 1992. “The family Deino- coccaceae”. In The Prokaryotes, ed. A Ballows, HG Truper, M Dworkin, W Harder, KH Schleifer 4:3732–3744. New York: Springer-Verlag
^ Ito H, Watanabe H, Takeshia M, Iizuka H (1983). “Isolation and identification of radiation-resistant cocci belonging to the genus Deinococcus from sewage sludges and animal feeds”. Agricultural and Biological Chemistry. 47 (6): 1239–1247. doi:10.1271/bbb1961.47.1239
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_microorganisms_tested_in_outer_space

Also, read: Cryptic Viruses- Spreading the RNA repertoire

Why pollution increases in winter

News

Adnan Mirza

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December 16, 2022

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As winter approaches, a sinister grey cover blankets the city of Lahore, Pakistan. On 17th Nov 2021, Lahore was declared the most polluted city on the planet. The air quality index (AQI) value reached 348, more than the mentioned hazardous level of 300 by the World Health Organisation (WHO). A similar situation was observed in the city of Delhi, India, where the hospitals suddenly reported an increased number of patients with respiratory problems. Other symptoms include irritation in the nose as well as itchy eyes. The authorities have shut down schools and colleges due to the worst air quality. About 50% of the private sector staff were told to work from home amid the smog.

This air quality index value of 348 was unprecedented. Those wondering what these numbers mean can refer to the table below:

Daily AQI colour	Levels of Concern	Index value	Description
Green	Good	0-50	Satisfactory. No risk or threat
Yellow	Moderate	51-100	Acceptable. But it may affect people who are sensitive to air quality
Orange	Unhealthy for sensitive groups	101-150	Sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is less likely to be affected
Red	Unhealthy	151-200	The general public may experience health effects. Sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects
Purple	Very unhealthy	201-300	Health alert: the risk of health effects increased for everyone
Maroon	Hazardous	301+	Health warning or emergency: everyone is more likely to be affected

_{(Source: https://www.airnow.gov/aqi/aqi-basics/)}

Something’s in the air

So the question here is, why does air quality decline in winter?

To understand this, we have to take a look at what smog is! Smog is a combination of two words – smoke and fog. The main constituents of smog are generally hydrocarbons, vehicular emissions, industrial smoke and agriculture waste burning, and dust. One must consider weather and climate to understand how and why the concentration intensifies, especially in winter.

We all have learned in school that warm air rises and cool air sinks. This is because the colder air is denser than, the warmer air. Being denser means the gas molecules have less space between each other than in warm air. We also know that because particles in smog are suspended in the air, the particles do not have much free space to move or escape in the colder air. Also, cold air does not move as quickly as warm air and does not allow the pollutants to disperse. Hence why, air pollution in winter remains for much longer. This increases people’s exposure to polluted air for extended periods, causing respiratory problems.

Rain acts as a natural cleanser of contaminants in the atmosphere. Additionally, cold air is dryer and generally cannot sustain moisture. This leads to lower levels of precipitation in winter. The lower level of precipitation means there just isn’t enough rain to wash away the pollutants.

‘Tis the season

During winter, energy demand substantially increases to keep up with the weather. More and more electricity and gas are consumed to keep our homes warm. We often leave our cars idle to defrost or to wait till a point where the heater starts to warm up the car. These activities contribute to increased air pollution. People in rural areas burn wood and coal to keep themselves warm.

Considering Lahore, one of the reasons for hazardous air quality is the burning of stubble and other agricultural waste in the surrounding region, which significantly increases pollutants in the atmosphere. Other sources include using low-grade fuels for farming purposes, emissions from brick kilns, industries including steel mills and vehicles, etc., and construction sites. Incomplete data makes it difficult to point out the exact sources and their contribution in this regard.

In contrast to the areas of the world that have moist winters, the seasonal experience can differ. Moist air brings high precipitation, cleansing the pollution from the air by natural means.

Why it matters

Air pollution has been a major cause of respiratory diseases as well as heart and kidney problems. An estimated seven million people die due to diseases related to air pollution every year in the world. A recent estimate by WHO (March 2019) shows the mortality rate has increased to 8.8 million people annually. That’s roughly 75% more than the deaths caused by COVID-19 until Dec 31, 2020. China and India are the worst-affected regions, where air pollution accounted for 9.85% and 8% of total deaths in 2017, respectively.

Steps to reduce air pollution

We have seen that most of the air pollution is caused by vehicular, industrial, and agricultural emissions. In order to prevent air pollution, every one of us has to play our part in it. The reason is that we and only us are responsible for this. We can start by taking little steps towards a better society.

Drive less and take public transport. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), vehicles cause 75% of the total carbon monoxide emissions. Less number of cars on the road will definitely help in reducing air pollution. Using cars that follow the standards of cleaner emission standards. The use of greener and cleaner fuels can help lessen vehicular emissions. Furthermore, people often walk or ride bicycles to work. This is not just a healthy activity but better for the environment. The government can help by funding research towards greener and cleaner technologies.
Conserve energy. Turning off extra lights and using less power-consuming appliances and energy-efficient devices at home can help conserve energy. Insulating your homes properly helps reduce energy consumption and bills. By doing this, you will also reduce energy production, which is a major cause of air pollution
Shift to renewable energy sources. Solar energy is an efficient way to reduce your carbon footprint and help minimize your electricity bills. However, the installation cost can be high, but it will be worth it in the longer run.
Plant trees and stop deforestation. Trees absorb carbon dioxide gas from the atmosphere and provide us with oxygen, consequently reducing the greenhouse effect. Trees planted in urban areas can also reduce the warming effect caused by the concrete, providing a natural cooling system.

Final words! If every one of us, as an individual, cared about our environment rather than pointing fingers at each other, our world would be a better place for us and others. Secondly, we should start promoting green technologies and ventures. The government should promote and fund projects that do not cause pollution in the first place. Investing in cleaning technologies does help, but promoting intrinsically green technologies helps a lot more. In short, just do your part well!

References:

https://www.who.int/health-topics/air-pollution#tab=tab_1

https://ourworldindata.org/outdoor-air-pollution

https://www.iqair.com/pakistan/punjab/lahore

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/17/pakistan-lahore-smog-air-pollution-aqi-health

Also, read: Air Pollution: The Invisible Murderer

NASA’s research program on UFOs

News

Kanza Tahir

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December 16, 2022

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For decades, UFOs have raised questions about the existance of extraterrestrial life in the universe. The first sighting of a mysterious, flying, saucer-like object was witnessed by a pilot named Kenneth Arnold in 1947 while flying his small plane near Mount Rainier in Washington State. Since then, a surfeit of such sightings have been reported. The fascination with these unidentified flying objects led to the birth of UFO organizations at national and international levels in the 1950s and 60s.

At the peak of Cold war, UFO sightings were linked to national security. Most people believed that they were either the US military’s secret weapons or the US military or secret aircraft of the USSR. To resolve this conundrum, multiple government-sponsored programs were initiated to investigate whether UFOs posed a national security threat to the US.

By the end of the cold war, the interest in UFOs had subsided. However, this interest was reignited in 2017 with the revelations about the secret UFO project in Pentagon. Furthermore, for the first time in over 50 years, a rare public US congressional hearing into UFO sightings took place on May 17, 2022. But, it ended with few answers about the unexplained phenomenon.

On June 9, 2022, just a few weeks after the historic congressional hearing, NASA announced that it would initiate an independent study into UAPs, popularly known as Unidentified Flying Objects or UFOs. To date, most of the research on UAPs has been conducted by military and intelligence agencies, and they were not interested in the phenomenon as a scientific issue.

However, NASA has undertaken an initiative to study the Unidentified Ariel Phenomenon (UAPs) from a scientific perspective. The Agency wants to apply scientific rigor to this vexing issue. For that, it has commissioned a study team comprising 16 individuals to participate in its independent study of UAPs. This study began on October 24, 2022, and will continue for a period of nine months. Over the course of this time, the study will lay the groundwork for future studies on the nature of UAPs. This study is reportedly independent of Pentagon’s efforts to study the UAPs and will cost less than $100,000.

By the end of the cold war, the interest in UFOs had subsided

Moreover, instead of focusing on classified encounters with military jets, the agency will focus on unclassified data, including the videos captured by civilians. This study will focus on three things.

Firstly, the agency will identify the existing set of data available on UAPs gathered by civilian, government, non-profit or commercial entities that could be potentially helpful in shedding light on this phenomenon. Secondly, it will recommend a roadmap for collecting data on UAPs in the future because access to an extensive data set is required to verify, understand or explain any observations.

Thirdly, this study will also shed light on how NASA could use this data to scientifically discern the nature of UAPs. Moreover, the goals of NASA include ensuring air traffic safety and national security. Hence, it is critical to understand the already available data surrounding UAPs to draw scientific conclusions about the happenings in our sky. Establishing which unidentified phenomenon is natural is important because identifying the cause would help mitigate it and ensure aircraft safety.

At the heart of NASA’s work is exploring the unknown in space and the atmosphere. Exploring this issue fits the agency’s mission of looking for life beyond Earth. The space agency is well-equipped to investigate the UAPs, as it has the tools and team needed for the scientific inquiry into the unknown. It has access to a broad range of observations of Earth from space that could be helpful in this study.

Astrophysicist David Spergel, the president of the Simons Foundation, led the independent study team of NASA. The team includes Scott Kelley, a former NASA astronaut, and Nadia Drake, a science journalist, as well as the world’s leading scientists, astronomers, astrophysicists, biologists, oceanographers, aerospace safety experts, data and artificial intelligence experts. Once the study is completed, the team’s findings will be publicly released in a report by mid-2023 according to NASA’s scientific integrity, transparency, and openness principles.

To conclude, this study will provide a comprehensive understanding of UAPs by giving a scientific perspective to the efforts already underway by the intelligence organizations and Pentagon to make sense of such sightings. This study will forward scientific knowledge of UAPs. By the end of this study, even if all of the questions are not answered, this study will hopefully move us forward in our understanding of UAPs and perhaps lay a roadmap to make future progress.

References:

Also, read: SENTIENCE in the Cosmos: Possibilities and Implications

Finding extraterrestrial life: Are we ready enough?

News

Sandeep Poddar

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December 13, 2022

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Finding extraterrestrial life: Are we ready enough?

According to humans, the most intelligent creature on the planet is- human. You agree with this statement if you are presumably aware of the monumental achievements humans have bagged within their short time span of existence on Earth at the cosmic scale. Humans have been hanging around on the earth for just the last few seconds on the cosmic calendar. To understand this, just imagine the time elapsed from the Big Bang to the present as one calendar year, with the Big Bang marking January 1st while the current time is the 31^st of December at midnight.

On this scale, all the recorded human achievements and industrial and technological advancements have shown up for the past 12-14 seconds. We are just a blip in this cosmic year, yet we have been intelligent enough to have a pretty good understanding of the laws and the rules that run this cosmos and the driving forces behind it. For most of our existence, we have been wanderers, hunters, and gathers, relying on our environment for our safety and survival. It has been just a few thousand years since we devised tools and methods to survive and thrive by exploiting our planet’s resources. This could have been possible because of our intelligence, driven partly by the creed for survival and partly by our curiosity.

Since the advent of our collective consciousness, we have been quenching our curiosities through explorations of our surroundings. From domesticating fire to fantasizing about life on other planets, we have tried to satisfy the intelligent beings within us. Space explorations have become a new area of interest for a class of intelligent people worldwide. There has been a plethora of questions that these people have been attempting to search answer for to. Some of them have and will pave the way for successful applications of space exploration, while some of them have been and are merely meant for the satisfaction of our intellectual ego.

Nevertheless, many of these questions are more significant than others and have an excellent reputation in the club of cosmic mysteries. One such big mystery is the possibility of intelligent life outside the Earth. But, before we hunt for life in the cosmos, we must have an introspection within our planet. Before we step outside our world in search of life, let’s first examine how much we know of life as it is on Earth.

Prof. Stephen Hawking, in an interview, once said that he would be more worried than excited if an alien civilization were able to find us and would visit us. There is a mere chance of them trying to enslave us for their benefit.

Life on the Earth probably germinated around 25^th September on the cosmic calendar. The nature of life that originated on Earth was based on the chemical elements and their inter-relations with each other. These elements were original, manufactured in the core of the supermassive star that prevailed before our sun was born from its remnants when it exploded at the time of its death in a fierce explosive event called a supernova. The considerable amount of heavy elements like carbon, oxygen, iron, nickel, etc., got scattered with the star’s debris, star’s debris which later condensed to give birth to the balls that we call ‘Planets’.

These planets revolve around the next generation of stars, called our ‘Sun.’ Our planet, Earth, is among the newly formed balls (planets) that form the Sun’s family, which is that supermassive star’s next generation. When life on Earth originated, the raw material required to create life was already present in the form of the same heavy elements that create our planet and were once manufactured in the core of a supermassive star. Life on Earth is made of the same elements that compose the life of a star. So, technically, we are all made up of ‘Stardust’.

Now that we know that life on earth is based on its chemical composition, by analyzing the chemical composition of all the life forms that ever were present on earth, we can state that life on earth is based on the element carbon. Carbon is an extraordinary element that sports the property of making long chains of stable chemical bonds with itself and all other elements found on the periodic table. This property of carbon is called Catenation. This extraordinary element is the backbone of the diversity of life forms on our planet.

Life forms on Earth may seem very different in nature, color, shape, and size. There may be drastic differences in how they eat, reproduce, catch their prey, avoid predators, communicate or perform their daily activities. However, one factor common in all life forms on earth is that all these life forms are based on the element Carbon. Now, the only life form that we know is based on Carbon. But are we sure that, if there is some other life form present outside our planet, it would also be based on Carbon?

The answer to this can be a straight- No. We can never be sure about the possibility of carbon or some other element being the rudimentary base of life in the cosmos. Who knows, there can be a life form based on silicon, magnesium, or even hydrogen, the most abandoned element in the cosmos. Do we understand the role of chemical elements in the formation and sustenance of life? Or do we know the possible number of elements that can serve as the bases of life formation? So, before we find an evidence-based answer to this, we cannot move ahead with the hunting of life any further.

It has been for just a few thousand years since we devised tools and methods to survive and thrive by exploiting our planet’s resources.

Now, let’s discuss the possibility of finding ‘Intelligent Life’ out in the cosmos. As for the earth, we end the debate by stating that humans are arguably the most intelligent form of life. And there have been reasons and evidence in support of this statement. I mean, just look at the monumental achievements we have embossed on the face of this planet. The Pyramids of Egypt, the use of computers and machines, the understanding of natural phenomena and their predictions, etc., testify to the fact that humans are the prime representation of ‘intelligent life on earth as we know it. Now, there is one question that we must ask before we begin searching for intelligent life.

Do we understand ‘Intelligence’ in the first place? Intelligence, as we define it on earth, is the ability to exploit our surrounding resources effectively and progressively for our existence and to be able to evade potential hazards that may pose a threat to us. Now, one can argue that even beavers can exploit their surrounding natural resources and avoid predators, so do we categorize them as the same intelligent life as us?

Maybe yes, but the counter-argument can be put in this way- since the beavers or any other relevant species is not able to forge new things out of the natural resources and spare time to develop the advanced understanding of the natural world only to exploit the resources, in many ways imaginable, we cannot categorize them as intelligent as humans.

Now, this idea of intelligence can be self-defying for us. Let’s think of an alien who locates our planet and makes a maiden visit to us. Suppose he manages to peek through a snake while in the action of hunting its prey down. Upon his return to his world, his report to his senders can be like this- I saw life form on this planet. It had non-limbs but could move to places, yet can detect its prey through infrared technology and kill its prey by injecting venomous chemicals.

Even if we succeed at finding a form of life elsewhere in the cosmos, there are chances that the planet is yet to host intelligent beings.

This report is of some extraordinary display of intelligence present on earth. Through this example, we can be sure of the fact that we cannot define intelligence in a generic term implementable to the whole universe. In some cases, we find a rock on Mars that grows in size yearly, and we discard it as a non-living thing.

Another point needs to be discussed before we raise our excitement toward witnessing intelligent life. Statistically, the possibility of finding intelligent life can be very low in the vast cosmos, contrary to the fact that the cosmos is filled with billions and billions of galaxies, stars, and exoplanets (planets outside our solar system). This idea is well-known as the ‘Fermi Paradox’. Suppose we look back at the history of life on earth.

For billions of years, it has been dominated by single-celled life forms. The existence of complex life can be traced back around a billion years. If we zoom into the history of the existence of intelligent life, we might find it dating back to just a few million years. So, this indicates that even if we succeed at finding a form of life elsewhere in the cosmos, there are chances that the planet is yet to host intelligent beings. We might wait and return in the distant future to be able to communicate with them. At present, we have, according to the facts of science, developed tools to communicate with our counterparts if and when they show up.

Now, let’s presume we succeed at finding an alien civilization outside our planet and even establish communication with them. We are unsure whether that rendezvous would result in our favour or turn out to be our ultimate mistake! Renowned science fiction writer Arthur C. Clark said whether we are alone in the universe or not, both scenarios are worth freaking out about.

We are free to debate the question of the possibility of life for hours and might return to the same question again. We might be the leading representation of life on Earth with the potential to be the leader for the whole universe sometime in the future. Still, we cannot ignore the fact that something in contrast to this has an equal possibility of occurrence. After all, the only model we know of representing intelligent life is ours.

Now, this sounds scary to me. Prof. Stephen Hawking, in an interview, once said that he would be more worried than excited if an alien civilization were able to find us and would visit us. There is a mere chance of them trying to enslave us for their benefit. Now, you may ask what makes him think such a sceptic like that! Then, read the human history of colonization. Our history is full of evidence that we, as human beings with better intelligence, have tried to enslave inferior human beings. The same can be done to us if we encounter some superior intellectual life form from outside our planet.

So, now we have the last but most important question to answer. After this much analysis, should we keep our search for extraterrestrial life anymore? I would say –Yes. Despite many unanswered questions, we must satisfy our curiosity to know everything. This is what we live for. These explorations define our ingenuity and calibre to mark our names in the history of life at the forefront of life forms as ever.

Also, read: Black Hole In The Backyard

SENTIENCE in the Cosmos: Possibilities and Implications

News

Dr. Syed Hunain Riaz

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December 12, 2022

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SENTIENCE in the Cosmos: Possibilities and Implications

The Cambridge Dictionary defines Sentience as ‘the quality of being able to experience feelings. ‘Sentient’ is an adjective encompassing a complex whole of cognitive and other high mental functions which definitely cannot be explained abridged.

We have come to know of and associate sentience with humans ( many of us do so ) since we occupy the top of the food chain and proudly sit at the apex of the complex pyramid of life on Earth. So, what is it that makes us sentient? Is other life on earth sentient as well? What about life beyond our planet and in some far-off solar system in ours or a distant galaxy?

SENTIENT LIFE ON EARTH

Humans are social animals, as they say. We live our lives based on what we feel, imbibe and imprint from those around us and the environment. Our complex minds enable us to feel, analyze, assimilate and react to the different stimuli around us. Our lives are shaped by our emotions. We laugh, cry, lament and despise all through. This is done primarily through our senses, both physical and, yes, through those hunches you call gut feelings.

Our minds perceive the world in relation to our identities, which are unique. We are physically distinct from each other, but there is another more profound construct at work here. That is the ‘I’. The ‘I’ is called self-awareness, which tells me I am not part of someone else but rather a unique entity. That ‘I’ is unique in having boundaries, e.g., physical or spiritual.

Our existence on earth for millions of years has depended on our complex emotional skillsets, which have enabled us to survive, interact, reproduce and build complex civilizations. Though, as a species, we have done a lot of harm by perpetuating extremes of emotions in hatred, animosity, and fear-mongering. This, too, obviously has come along with the complex package of being ‘Sentient’. Some people wear their emotions on their sleeves ostentatious in expressing their inners.

While others do not express themselves at all, making it difficult for others to actually peer into the reclusive minds as to what they think or feel. Therein lies our inaptness to actually deal with these dilemmas daily, which is where our other skill sets come into play. We try to assess the reactions of others to what we do or say and then respond accordingly, considering the risks and benefits of our responses. This awareness of ourselves and our interests in relation to the environment and other beings is what makes us sentient. An agglomeration of emotions, consciousness, and intelligence.

Being human, we know that hurting someone will cause anguish, pain, and suffering, which is why we try to abstain (well, mostly). However, as previously mentioned, we do not necessarily know what the other person or animal, for that matter, is feeling at a particular moment. If we apply that to animals since we cannot ascertain their feelings, are we at liberty to cause harm to them? Assuming that they won’t feel a thing? Experiments have been carried out repeatedly, showing that many animals, like cats, dogs, and octopuses, show self-awareness and complex thinking patterns.

The same goes for plants; we know they react to environmental variables quite drastically, showing they are aware of themselves and the environment’s effect on them. Ruthless deforestation and hurting or killing animals makes you question our intelligence as a species where we consider no being sentient beyond our bubble of the human ego. Respecting other sentience may be too much to ask for, considering the loss of innocent human lives in ongoing bloody wars.

SENTIENT LIFE BEYOND EARTH

Our highly complex mind of ours, with all its perks, has one issue. It can be very rigid in terms of adhering to preconceived notions and ideas. It can have a hard time thinking out of the box and beyond specific patterns with which it is already familiar. We ‘assume’ that life would have developed based on the same principles whereby it flourished here on earth. We also ‘assume’ that the same molecular building blocks would be required to develop life elsewhere: ribose sugars, nitrogenous bases, and phosphoric acid. While life on earth depends on water to sustain itself, who knows, life elsewhere might need some other vital ‘elixir’ to thrive.

sentience — What if some Aliens have totally different emotional skill sets from ours? *Credit: Hunain Riaz*

Maybe it’s the least we can do, thinking about life beyond Earth in the image of our own civilization. What really adds more intrigue to the possibility of Alien life elsewhere in the cosmos is that the universe has been around for around 13.5 billion years. While our solar system came into existence roughly 4.5 billion years ago. Our presence here on earth is merely a few hundred million years, which probably would account for a minute on the cosmic clock that has been ticked up till now.

There is a possibility that intelligent life developed elsewhere earlier on the cosmic time scale and probably exhausted itself in terms of achieving the pinnacle of civilization. Or maybe intelligence is flourishing somewhere but has not reached the point whereby it can reach out to live in the cosmos. The vast distances mean that our means of communication are pretty shorthanded in terms of reach. We use radio waves to send out messages and expect to receive the same from some distant part of our galaxy or beyond.

Make no mistake; when I talk about sentient life, I refer to life with intellectual, emotional, and functional capacities that can enable them to develop civilizations. We as humans have a tremendously broad spectrum of emotions and feelings and probably expect alien life to have a bit of the same faculties or maybe the same. What if they are on a totally different wavelength? What if they possess advanced intelligence and functional abilities or even advanced means of communication with each other, say utilizing telekinesis?

Hollywood has been riding the bandwagon of ‘Aliens coming here for nefarious purposes for far too long now. It gets obnoxiously unfair to portray any galactic neighbours as only sinister. Humans love to love, and yes, we have also loved to kill throughout history, and it seems to go on and on. What if some Aliens have totally different emotional skill sets from ours? Maybe they aren’t humanoids with brains or similar structures. Maybe they have minds which work in unison and have senses which can feel and communicate across long distances (quantum entanglement, if you will)

What if they are devoid of destructive emotions of greed, selfishness, envy, and hatred? And they only care about harmony, stability, and love for the universe and its contents. On the contrary, it could be the other way round, mirroring how the entertainment world presents aliens, Nefarious, warmongering, and usurpers of resources (I highly doubt this idea).

SENTIENT ALIEN LIFE AND EARTH, A RABBIT HOLE!

We as a species appear to be quite content with our apparent isolation in the known universe till now. What would it mean to human life knowing that there are beings who are more, if not equally, sentient? How would the human race react to this reality? Over the past many years, there has been a great debate and mystery surrounding unexplained phenomena in the skies. With different opinions regarding the subject matter, with experts divided. That, however, is a pandora’s box and beyond this article. However, the common folk generally have an opinion that if Aliens have, in fact, visited our planet and currently are doing so ( as per some enthusiasts ), why haven’t they made themselves known to life on Earth?

This opinion can be challenged in an intellectual manner. Suppose we assume that they are here and have been coming here for some time now. Now assuming that one would also have to assume that they are at a technological standpoint where they are hundreds if not thousands of years ahead of us. And maybe they are space-faring or even dimension-faring entities. Such a species would definitely be highly developed in terms of intellectual prowess.

Why haven’t the aliens made themselves known to life on earth? — Why haven’t the aliens made themselves known to life on Earth?

While observing us humans, would it make sense to intervene in our matters or reveal themselves in all their glory only to make people run amok? That does not just feel like the right thing to do, meddling with the social & religious status quo of a civilization. Yes, they could be observing us, or maybe even concerned for us, considering how we are ruining our environment with all the fossil fuel usage and even nuclear weapons. This is the point that I would like to highlight: such sentient life, which can traverse light years and dimensions, would know how to survive and sustain itself and would want other life elsewhere to do the same.

THE SEARCH AND WHAT TO EXPECT

Scientists are doing their best to send out signals and awaiting a return message using our radio tech. And the recently launched groundbreaking James-Webb telescope will look out for exoplanets and habitable atmospheres. Our rovers rolling about on our neighboring planets. We certainly do our part in looking out there. And here on Earth, we have intricate and large telescope array systems like the ALLEN telescopic array, which has the added edge of listening for signals across large swathes of the sky.

But as I mentioned earlier, maybe sentient life somewhere is too advanced to use the technology which we use to communicate. We aren’t even aware of the true nature of dark matter, which is to say we know that sentient Alien life would use the same means of communication and, for that matter, follow the same ladder of civilization evolution. Scientists and organizations should keep open minds and preserve the niche of abstract ideas and possibilities.

Regarding how evolved a civilization could be regarding technological progress, a scale was devised by Russian Astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev in 1964. The Kardeshev Scale. The scale categorized possible Alien civilizations according to the energy they can utilize. The scaling was from 0 to III. Type I would be one that would be able to harness all the energy of the nearby star and store and use it as required ( we aren’t even a type 1 civilization as yet since it would need us to bolster our energy production by thousands of times to reach the first step).

Type II civilization would be able to use starlight energy and control the star’s production of energy utilizing colossal structures (Dyson spheres). The hypothetical III civilization would be what one could call a genuinely galactic race that has mastered everything about energy production, storage, and utilization. If you consider humans to reach this pinnacle of progress, we would probably have developed sentient robots or even human/robot hybrids by then. Beings that could traverse the vastness of space without the worries of biological vulnerability. Astronomers have extended this scale up to V, which eventually includes the omega point of civilizational progress, where the whole universe’s energy is at its disposal.

To round off, It would be pertinent to question our preparation to disclose and un curtain Sentient Alien life. Are the world Governments ready? Is there an organization that has made specific rules and regulations concerning contact? What will concern right and wrong in dealing with such sentience? These ideas might seem sci-fi right now, but this will be inevitable, and we need to be prepared for it.

The fear-mongering done by media and other outlets makes me fear the freakishly panicky response humans might have to unequivocal disclosure. This would call for bringing together people of expertise and repute who could formulate specific guidelines and solutions to tackle the ruckus disclosure may cause.

Current news and media outlets are teaming up with articles and news regarding the possibility of life elsewhere and whether we are being visited or not, considering the revelations regarding UAP/UFO’s. For one, I would keep my views regarding potential sentient Alien life as being benevolent and benign whether we are faced with disclosure in our lifetimes or not.

Also, read: Extraterrestrial life: A conversation with Dr. Bruce Damer

Pakistani students make history in Aerospace competition

News

Saadeqa Khan

-

December 7, 2022

0

Pakistani students make history in Aerospace competition

Samsun, Türkiye: A group of students from the Institute of Space Technology won 1st place while representing Pakistan in Turkey’s largest technological festival named TEKNOFEST 2022. The students participated in the Black Sea Competition (held in Samsun) and the International Free Mission UAV category (held in Kütahya) and competed with more than 96 teams internationally.

The students from IST formed a team, named AIRoSE (AI-based Robotic Systems Engineering) which had developed a swarm of UAVs (2 quadcopters and 1 hexacopter) to help in search and rescue missions in remote areas and presented their project in front of judges. These students also won the ‘Incentive Award’ for their demonstration of this project.

_{The team won medals, a shield and a cash prize awarded by the Turkish Government. Photo winner team}

“Our project was a biomimicry of ant behavior on UAVs. When ants hunt for food, they deposit a chemical trail known as pheromone which can be sensed by other ants. This encourages attraction towards the trail to food, which is why you observe long lines of ants towards a food source” Rehmoz said in a statement. “We implemented this process by doing the opposite: the UAVs deposit pheromone to discourage search of areas they are searching, i.e., the search is more distributed, which is what you’d expect to see in search missions. Expansion of search parties lead to more area coverage, which is the basis for this algorithm.”

We participated in this event to show that Pakistan is no less than any other country when it comes to talent.” said Asad while talking to Scientia Pakistan. — _{We participated in this event to show that Pakistan is no less than any other country when it comes to talent.” said Asad. Photo winner team}

The team won medals, a shield and a cash prize awarded by the Turkish Government. “Aerospace is a relatively secluded field in Pakistan. We participated in this event to show that Pakistan is no less than any other country when it comes to talent.” said Asad while talking to Scientia Pakistan.
“Unfortunately, only 3 out of 8 members of our team made it here due to lack of financial support,
but we are glad that we proved our mettle here. We will continue to further such endeavors in the
future.”

The overall student team was composed of: Asad Mahmood, Ahmed Hassan, Rehmoz Ayub, Abdullah Afzal, Dilawaiz Saghir, Faryal Batool, Roohan Ahmed and Nauman Rauf.

Also, read: Navigating the aerospace industry with Anique Ajmal Siddiqui

SCIENTIA

SCIENTIA

Scientia Magazine

Scientia

Probing into the Atmospheres of Exoplanets with Dr. Munazza K. Alam

Fermi Paradox— A scary realization

THE GREAT FILTER

We have crossed it

We would be the first to experience it!

We will experience it soon!

EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL NEIGHBORS

REFERENCE:

Detecting alien life in the solar system— A talk with Dr Nozair Khawaja

The Galactic Traveler

Astrobiology: Microscopic life on a macroscopic scale

EXTREMOPHILES IN SPACE

REFLECTING RADIATIONS

THE LIST IS GETTING LONGER!

REFERENCES:

Why pollution increases in winter

Something’s in the air

‘Tis the season

Why it matters

Steps to reduce air pollution

References:

NASA’s research program on UFOs

Finding extraterrestrial life: Are we ready enough?

SENTIENCE in the Cosmos: Possibilities and Implications

Pakistani students make history in Aerospace competition

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