1. Describe two times in our galaxy\'s history or future when it might have been
ID: 284942 • Letter: 1
Question
1. Describe two times in our galaxy's history or future when it might have been, or might once again become, a quasar. Describe how that would be different from our galaxy's current state.
2. Describe at least two of our attempts to find evidence for life on other planets, either primitive life forms or intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations.
3. Describe at least two of our attempts, either deliberate or unintentional, to communicate our own existence to other possible intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations.
Explanation / Answer
1. A quasar is really rare in a lifetime for a galaxy and usually happen at the early stages of its formation. However, here I have chosen one quasar even that likely would have happened just 6 million years ago and another that might happen about 4 billion years in future. The former is believed to have happened when our galaxy’s central black hole fed by a huge amount of gas went through the quasar stage creating a shock wave that has now crossed 20,000 light-years of space. The latter is believed to happen 4 billion years into the future when Andromeda might approach milky way too close enough to disrupt the cores of both the galaxies that might result in a quasar.
2. The two attempts I would like to describe are the Phoenix lander and the NASA's exoplanet program. The Phoenix spacecraft landed on Mars on May 25, 2008. The main aim was to study the presence of any liquid water on the Mars surface that might have led to a habitable place for life. The lander did find some evidence of water on the surface but no evidence of life. The ongoing mission of searching life on exoplanets is yet to yield any fruitful results owing to the distance. The search may take very long given the odds but the scientists are confident to find something by next two decades.
3. Two attempts to communicate with extraterrestrial life were the 'Crop Triangles and Burning Canals' and the 'Arecibo Message'. A scientist in 1820s actually tried to create triangles in the Siberian forest by systematic tree cutting. There were many similar attempts through crop triangles and burning canals during the same period. Frank Drake and Carl Sagan attempted a contact through a message through radio waves. The message consisted a human image, DNA structure, atomic numbers of some elements, etc. Subsequently, in 1974, few other astronomers used the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico to communicate with life near the star cluster M13.
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