Little Green Men: The Search for Life Beyond Earth
The Search for Life Beyond Earth
Description
The age-old question, “Are we alone?” This lesson explores the steps humanity has taken to try and answer that question. How have we inadvertently signaled to the universe that we are here and how have we tried to send purposeful signals? What are some of the difficulties we face in trying to communicate over great distances? Have we had false alarms thinking that we had contacted life on other planets? What would life on other planets have to be like to survive there? Can life that exists on Earth tell us anything about life that might exist on other planets?
This Course includes great BONUS LESSONS:
What on Earth is Astronomy?
Mini-Lesson: Eclipses
Mini-Lesson: Meteor Showers
Mini-Lesson: Aurora
Little Green Men – the Search for Life Beyond Earth
1. Objective
2. Warm-up activity
3. How the question, “Are we alone?” affects us
4. Historical examples of more advanced societies impacting less advanced ones
5. Defining life and why the definition matters
6. Microbial life vs. advanced life
7. The possibility of life on other planets
8. Methods of detecting life from very great distances
9. Lessons from Venus on pollution
10. The possibility of life in our own Solar System
11. Our society’s fascination with life on Mars
12. Martian canals and ice caps
13. The Drake equation
14. SETI
15. Habitable zones
16. Spacecraft leaving the Solar System: Voyager 1 and 2, and Pioneer 10 and 11
17. Messages to aliens
18. Extremophiles on Earth and what they teach us about the possibility of life on other planets
19. The hadal zone
20. Exoplanets
21. Radio and television broadcasts from Earth to space
22. Signal strength and distance
23. False alarms and pulsars
24. Challenges of communication: common language and distance
25. Ramifications of discovering life on other planets
26. Test questions
27. Cross-curricular activities
What You Will Learn!
- A better understanding of our search for life beyond the Earth.
Who Should Attend!
- Anyone who would like to know more out Astronomy and the search for life beyond the Earth