Are We Alone?

The "Alien Earths" exhibit addresses several basic questions that scientists ponder:

• How does our knowledge of life on Earth inform the search for life beyond Earth?
  
• Are we more likely to find intelligent life or microbes?
  
• How does life alter its environment?
  
• How can we learn about a distant planet's habitability from just a few pixels of light?
  
• When search for signs of intelligent life, what should we look or listen for?

The search for distant planets and life beyond Earth requires enormous creativity. Through hands-on interactive components, visitors to Alien Earths learn about the methods and technology that scientists use to search for planets and signs of life.

With hands-on and multi-media components you can:

• Compare the life cycle of our sun to other stars
  
• Set planets in motion around a star and watch what happens
  
• Experiment with an infrared camera and ordinary objects
  
• Feel the difference in density between three known planets
  
• Explore the methods used to search for extra-solar planets
  
• Learn about the most abundant life form on Earth, and possibly elsewhere – microbes
  
• Smell the difference between various microbial colonies
  
• Listen to sounds from space and find out what signals from intelligent beings might sound like
  
  

Video Trailer (http://www.alienearths.org/traveling/trailer.html)

Informational Links

Alien Earths (www.alienearths.org)

Space Science Institute (www.spacescience.org)

Planet Quest - Information about NASA's research programs and missions involved in

the search for habitable worlds orbiting stars other than our sun.

(http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov)

NASA Astrobiology Institute - How does life begin and evolve? Is there life

elsewhere in the Universe? What is the future of life on Earth and beyond?

(www.nai.arc.nasa.gov)

The SETI Institute - The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Institute.

(www.seti.org)

Fun Links

Ask an Astrobiologist - Got a question? Have it answered by an astrobiologist.

(www.nai.arc.nasa.gov/astrobio/index.cfm)

Powers of 10 - Start out 10 million light years from the Milky Way Galaxy and end up

face to face with a proton in Florida.

(http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html)

Near/Far Game - (http://www.spaceweathercenter.org/living_with_a_star/01/nearfar.html)

Big Small Game - (http://www.spaceweathercenter.org/living_with_a_star/01/smalllarge.html)

Cool Cosmos - Explore the infrared universe. (http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/)

New World Atlas - View a database of all planets that have been discovered around

stars other than our sun. (http://planetquest1.jpl.nasa.gov/atlas/atlas_index.cfm)