Invited Billingham Cutting Edge Lecture
- Paper number
IAC-11,A4,2,1,x10143
- Author
Dr. Pete Worden, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Ames Research Center, United States
- Year
2011
- Abstract
As we continue to see for evidence of life beyond earth two sources of new data come to the fore. The first is our search for places that could support life. Locations where liquids and sources of energy exist have been the focus of NASA’s recent efforts. We’ve found a number of such places in the solar system where these requirements might be met. Recently we’ve begun to identify numerous planets in other solar systems that could, in principle have liquid water on their surfaces. A second new source of insight into our search for life comes from our own technology development. In particular the emerging field of synthetic biology suggests that we ourselves – and presumably extra terrestrial intelligence could engineer life to exist in much broader ranges of conditions that we find on the earth’s surface. In this lecture I will discuss the status of these two developments and their implications for our search for life. Dr. Simon P. Worden
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-11,A4,2,1,x10143.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.