Life in the Universe (4th Edition)
4th Edition
ISBN: 9780134089089
Author: Jeffrey O. Bennett, Seth Shostak
Publisher: PEARSON
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Chapter 1, Problem 17TYU
To determine
Time taken by spacecraft to reach nearest star other than sun.
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Use the equation E = mc^2 where E is energy in Joules (J), m is mass in kilograms (kg) and c is the speed of light 3 x 10^8 m/s to answer the following: a) One ton of TNT releases 4.18 gigajoules of energy. The metric prefix giga means billion. a) How much mass would be required to release an equivalent amount of energy? b) How much energy (J) is equivalent to 1 kilogram of mass?
Most of the stars we can see with the unaided eye in our night sky are hundreds or even thousands of lightyears away from Earth. (The very closest ones are only a few dozen lightyears away, but most are much further.) The vast majority of stars in our galaxy are many tens of thousands of lightyears away. IF intelligent life existed on planets orbiting some of these stars – and that’s a huge IF! – comment on the likelihood and practicality of (a) visiting, (b) communicating with, or (c) verifying the existence of those life forms. Describe how you might go about approaching EACH of these three tasks, or if you think they are even possible. (One or two sentences for each part would be appropriate.)
1 million kilometers can be expressed in scientific notation as:
10x10^6 km
10x10^-6 km
none of these
1x10^6 km
1x10^-6km
Chapter 1 Solutions
Life in the Universe (4th Edition)
Ch. 1 - Why are scientists interested in the possibility...Ch. 1 - People have long been interested in life beyond...Ch. 1 - Prob. 3RQCh. 1 - Prob. 4RQCh. 1 - What do we mean by a habitable world? Does a...Ch. 1 - What do we mean by the universality of physics and...Ch. 1 - Besides Earth, what worlds in our solar system...Ch. 1 - Prob. 8RQCh. 1 - Prob. 9RQCh. 1 - What do we mean by astrobiology? What are the...
Ch. 1 - An extrasolar planet is (a) a planet that is...Ch. 1 - A habitable planet is (a) a planet that has oceans...Ch. 1 - Prob. 13TYUCh. 1 - Prob. 14TYUCh. 1 - The correct order for the eight official planets...Ch. 1 - Today, the research known as SETI is conducted...Ch. 1 - Prob. 17TYUCh. 1 - Scientists today are interested in searching for...Ch. 1 - Based on current evidence, the object in our solar...Ch. 1 - Prob. 20TYUCh. 1 - Universal Laws. Briefly discuss how the idea that...Ch. 1 - The Science of Astrobiology. The study of...Ch. 1 - Conducting the Search. Given the large number of...Ch. 1 - Funding for Astrobiology. Imagine that you are a...
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- Suppose astronomers discover a radio message from a civilization whose planet orbits a star 35 lightyears away. Their message encourages us to send a radio answer, which we decide to do. Suppose our governing bodies take 2 years to decide whether and how to answer. When our answer arrives there, their governing bodies also take two of our years to frame an answer to us. How long after we get their first message can we hope to get their reply to ours? (A question for further thinking: Once communication gets going, should we continue to wait for a reply before we send the next message?)arrow_forwardAn isotope of a radioactive element has half-life equal to 9 thousand years. Imagine a sample that is so old that most of its radioactive atoms have decayed, leaving just 25 percent of the initial quantity of the isotope remaining. How old is the sample? Give your answer in thousands of years, correct to one decimal place.arrow_forwardAccording to modern science, Earth is about 4.5 billion years old and written human history extends back about 10,000 years. Suppose the entire history of Earth is represented with a 100-meter-long timeline, with the birth of Earth on one end and today at the other end. a. What distance represents 1 billion years? b. How far from the end of the timeline does written human history begin? a. 1 billion years is represented by meters of the timeline. (Type an integer or decimal rounded to the nearest tenth as needed.) millimeters from the end of the timeline. b. Written human history begins about (Type an integer or decimal rounded to the nearest hundredth as needed.)arrow_forward
- Which of the following appears to be a necessary ingredient for the development of life, intelligence, and civilization? Carbon atoms. An earth-like atmosphere and ocean. A sun-like star. Time. All of these.arrow_forward200 years has passed and now it is year 2220. The Earth is out of basic resourcesas they have been drastically drained in the past 200 years. The president of theUnited World Council (UWC) has approved you and your crew’s Mission toMars. You will pilot the most advanced spaceship the world has ever known, theExcelsior! It will carry equipment that will help to transform Mars so as toresemble the Earth, especially so that it can support human life.Before the mission can launch a few items need to be figured out. What is thecapacity of the fuel tank? How long should the fuel burn to achieve escapevelocity (otherwise the Excelsior will be stuck in the Earth’s gravitational pull)?How long will it take the Excelsior to arrive at Mars?1. The ground crew is filling the fuel tanks. You know tharrow_forwardIf the speed of light is given as 299,792,458 meters per second and the wavelength is 560 nm. what is the frequency of this light? Give your answer in THz!arrow_forward
- Suppose you are talking by interplanetary telephone to a friend who lives on the Moon. He tells you that he has just won a newton of gold in a contest. Excitedly, you tell him that you entered the Earth version of the same contest and also won a newton of gold! Who is richer? (a) You are. (b) Your friend is. (c) You are equally rich.arrow_forwardIn a globular cluster, astronomers (someday) discover a star with the same mass as our Sun, but consisting entirely of hydrogen and helium. Is this star a good place to point our SETI antennas and search for radio signals from an advanced civilization? Group of answer choices No, because such a star (and any planets around it) would not have the heavier elements (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, etc.) that we believe are necessary to start life as we know it. Yes, because globular clusters are among the closest star clusters to us, so that they would be easy to search for radio signals. Yes, because we have already found radio signals from another civilization living near a star in a globular cluster. No, because such a star would most likely not have a stable (main-sequence) stage that is long enough for a technological civilization to develop. Yes, because such a star is probably old and a technological civilization will have had a long time to evolve and develop there.arrow_forwardAn isotope of a radioactive element has half-life equal to 5 thousand years. Imagine a sample that is so old that most of its radioactive atoms have decayed, leaving just 20 percent of the initial quantity of the isotope remaining. How old is the sample? Give your answer in thousands of years, correct to one decimal place. Age : ___ thousand years.arrow_forward
- How many times longer than the length of recorded history is the age of the universe? I was also given that the length of recorded history is 10E11 s, and that the age of the universe is 10E18 s. But, when putting 10E18/10E11 = 10E7, I get the wrong answer.arrow_forwardA certain radioactive material has a half-life of 8 minutes. Suppose you have a large sample of this material , containing 10^25 atoms. 5x10^24 atoms decay in the first 8 minutes and 2.5x10^24 atoms decay in the second 8 minutes. What is the ratio of the number of atoms that decay in the first 8 minutes to the number of atoms that decay in the second 8 minutes A 5/1 B 2/1 C 1/5 D 1/2arrow_forward
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