Life in the Universe (4th Edition)
4th Edition
ISBN: 9780134089089
Author: Jeffrey O. Bennett, Seth Shostak
Publisher: PEARSON
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Chapter 2, Problem 5RQ
To determine
The difference in views of the atomists and the Aristotelians on the subject of extraterrestrial life.
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Which of the following is least reasonable regarding the difficulty in contacting extraterrestrial life using space flight and radio communication.
Group of answer choices
Space flight to the nearest star would take thousands of years with current technology.
Even if another intelligent civilization is within a few hundred light-years of us, conversations would be very slow with a turnaround time of decades or even centuries.
The spacecraft that NASA sent to Proxima Centauri a few years ago should be approaching its target within a decade or two, depending on solar wind conditions.
Earth has been broadcasting at radio wavelengths since the 1930's, so any civilization within a radius of about 100 light-years or so could have received the broadcast by now.
Without some major breakthrough, interstellar space flight is totally impractical.
Which of the following seems least reasonable regarding life on Earth?
Group of answer choices
There is much scientific evidence suggesting that all creatures living on Earth today appear to have evolved from a common ancestor.
Louis Pasteur discredited the concept of spontaneous generation by demonstrating that even bacteria and other microorganisms arise from parents resembling themselves.
There is ample physical evidence that the earliest life forms on Earth were multicellular creatures, perhaps resembling some of our primitive fish.
When the earth formed some 4.6 billion years ago, it was a lifeless, inhospitable place.
Before the mid-17th century, most people believed that God had created humankind and other higher organisms and that insects, frogs, and other small creatures could arise spontaneously in mud or decaying matter
About billion years into its development, the Earth it was teeming with organisms resembling blue-green algae.
Which of the following is not considered a likely solution to the question of why we are not currently aware of an extraterrestrial civilization?
Group of answer choices
There is no civilization because civilizations are not common.
The civilization is probably undetectable to us because it makes use of technologies that do not obey the known laws of physics.
There is no galactic civilization because civilizations do not leave their home worlds.
There is no civilization because most civilizations destroy themselves before achieving interstellar travel.
The civilization is deliberately avoiding contact with us.
Chapter 2 Solutions
Life in the Universe (4th Edition)
Ch. 2 - Describe at least three characteristics of Greek...Ch. 2 - What do we mean by a model of nature? Summarize...Ch. 2 - What is apparent retrograde motion, and why was it...Ch. 2 - Who first proposed the idea that Earth is a planet...Ch. 2 - Prob. 5RQCh. 2 - What was the Copernican revolution, and how did it...Ch. 2 - Why didnt Copernicuss model gain immediate...Ch. 2 - State and explain each of Keplers laws of...Ch. 2 - Briefly describe three reasonable objections to...Ch. 2 - How did Newtons discoveries about the laws of...
Ch. 2 - How did the Copernican revolution affect scholarly...Ch. 2 - What is the difference between a hypothesis and a...Ch. 2 - Describe each of the three hallmarks of science...Ch. 2 - What is Occams razor? Give an example of how it...Ch. 2 - Why doesnt science accept personal testimony as...Ch. 2 - In what sense is gravity both a fact and a theory?...Ch. 2 - What is Newtons universal law of gravitation?...Ch. 2 - Prob. 18RQCh. 2 - Lionel Messi is the best soccer player of his...Ch. 2 - Several kilometers below its surface, Europa has...Ch. 2 - My house is haunted by ghosts, who make the...Ch. 2 - There are no lakes or seas on Mars today.Ch. 2 - All life in the universe must use DNA as its...Ch. 2 - Children born when Jupiter is in the constellation...Ch. 2 - Prob. 25TYUCh. 2 - Newtons law of gravity explains the orbits of...Ch. 2 - God created the laws of motion that were...Ch. 2 - Prob. 28TYUCh. 2 - In Ptolemys geocentric model, the retrograde...Ch. 2 - Which of the following was not a major advantage...Ch. 2 - Earth is closer to the Sun in January than in...Ch. 2 - According to Keplers third law, (a) Mercury...Ch. 2 - Tycho Brahes contributions to astronomy included...Ch. 2 - Galileos contributions to astronomy included (a)...Ch. 2 - Which of the following is not true about...Ch. 2 - Which of the following is not true about a...Ch. 2 - How did the Copernican revolution alter...Ch. 2 - When Einsteins theory of gravity (general...Ch. 2 - Greek Models. As we discussed in this chapter, the...Ch. 2 - Copernican Players. Using a bulleted list format,...Ch. 2 - Atomists and Aristotelians. The ancient Greek...Ch. 2 - Influence on History. Based on what you have...Ch. 2 - Sedna Orbit. The object Sedna orbits our Sun at an...Ch. 2 - Eris Orbit. The dwarf planet Eris, which is...Ch. 2 - New Planet Orbit. A newly discovered planet orbits...Ch. 2 - Halleys Orbit. Halleys Comet orbits the Sun every...Ch. 2 - Newtons Universal Law of Gravitation. a. How does...Ch. 2 - Science and Religion. Science and religion are...Ch. 2 - The Impact of Science. The modern world is filled...Ch. 2 - Absolute Truth. An important issue in the...Ch. 2 - Pseudoscience. Choose a pseudoscientific claim...Ch. 2 - Prob. 60WP
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- What are the advantages to using radio waves for communication between civilizations that live around different stars? List as many as you can.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_forwardThe principle cause of our intense interest in Mars in the decades before the dawn of the space age was that Answers: A. a few astronomers believed that they saw evidence of an intelligent civilization on Mars. B. Mars has seasons just like the Earth and therefore should be inhabitable by humans. C. Mars has an unusual surface color and global dust storms, creating strange weather patterns. D. Mars has unusual orbital properties making our understanding of its motion around the Sun very difficult.arrow_forward
- Tutorial A radio broadcast left Earth in 1923. How far in light years has it traveled? If there is, on average, 1 star system per 400 cubic light years, how many star systems has this broadcast reached? Assume that the fraction of these star systems that have planets is 0.50 and that, in a given planetary system, the average number of planets that have orbited in the habitable zone for 4 billion years is 0.40. How many possible planets with life could have heard this signal? Part 1 of 3 To figure out how many light years a signal has traveled we need to know how long since the signal left Earth. If the signal left in 1923, distance in light years = time since broadcast left Earth. d = tnow - broadcast d = 97 97 light years Part 2 of 3 Since the radio signal travels in all directions, it expanded as a sphere with a radius equal to the distance it has traveled so far. To determine the number of star systems this signal has reached, we need to determine the volume of that sphere. V, = Vb…arrow_forwardTutorial A radio broadcast left Earth in 1925. How far in light years has it traveled? If there is, on average, 1 star system per 400 cubic light years, how many star systems has this broadcast reached? Assume that the fraction of these star systems that have planets is 0.30 and that, in a given planetary system, the average number of planets that have orbited in the habitable zone for 4 billion years is 0.85. How many possible planets with life could have heard this signal? Part 1 of 3 To figure out how many light years a signal has traveled we need to know how long since the signal left Earth. If the signal left in 1925, distance in light years = time since broadcast left Earth. d = tnow - tbroadcast d = light years Submit Skip (you cannot come back)arrow_forwardIn this chapter, we identify these characteristic properties of life: life extracts energy from its environment, and has a means of encoding and replicating information in order to make faithful copies of itself. Does this definition fully capture what we think of as “life”? How might our definition be biased by our terrestrial environment?arrow_forward
- If we do find life on Mars, what might be some ways to check whether it formed separately from Earth life, or whether exchanges of material between the two planets meant that the two forms of life have a common origin?arrow_forwardA radio broadcast left Earth in 1911. How far in light years has it traveled? If there is, on average, 1 star system per 400 cubic light years, how many star systems has this broadcast reached? Assume that the fraction of these star systems that have planets is 0.50 and that, in a given planetary system, the average number of planets that have orbited in the habitable zone for 4 billion years is 0.20. How many possible planets with life could have heard this signal?arrow_forwardWhich of the following is least reasonable regarding the concept of a habitable zone? Group of answer choices M-type stars have wider habitable zones than G-type stars. It is a region around a star where liquid water could be found on a planet's surface. The habitable zone of a less massive star would be closer to the star. In the course of millions of years, our habitable zone will slowly shift from Earth to Mars. The Galactic habitable zone cannot be too close to the Galactic center because the radiation from the bright stars and supernovae in the crowded inner part of the Galaxy would probably be detrimental to life.arrow_forward
- 25. When Mars is 90 million km from Earth, a) How long would it take for a radio wave from a video camera mounted on the back of a Mars Rover to tell ground control on earth that the Rover is about to go over a cliff? b) How long would it take for a radio signal from Earth to reach the Rover saying "STOP". c) Why do our Mars Rovers have to be "intelligent" enough to figure out how to deal with obstacles themselves?arrow_forwardFor which of the following reasons (select all that apply), is it useful/important to send rovers to other planetary bodies in our solar system? O a. The engineering innovations developed to produce successful/viable rovers and landers on other planets can help lead to developments in the technology used here on Earth that may have taken far more time to develop without the limitations provided by space travel to foreign worlds. O b. The data collected can help improve our understanding of the evolution/development of our solar system. O. Rovers/landers can be outfitted with various tools and equipment that can be used to inform of us of the geological histories of each of the planets they visit. O d. More direct probes of the planetary surface are possible to detect signs of the building blocks of life. O e. Rock samples can be used to calibrate our estimations of the age of the solar system.arrow_forwardWhy do we think we would be able to decode a message deliberately sent to us by an alien civilization? Group of answer choices The message will probably be in video format, allowing us to watch it even without knowing the alien language. We can assume that aliens will also have 10 fingers and 10 toes and therefore that they can send a message that relies on this fact. They undoubtedly have already received our television broadcasts and would therefore be likely to send the message in English. The aliens presumably know the same laws of mathematics and physics as we do and therefore could develop a simple code based on these laws.arrow_forward
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