Impact on Jupiter caught by amateur astronomers

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Something just struck Jupiter, and two amateur astronomers captured it on video

Two amateur astronomers in different countries captured space images that astronomers say depicts an amazing cosmic event: something basically crashing into the planet Jupiter.
Experts say it wasn’t aliens, alas, but space debris–either an asteroid or a comet. It’s cool but not too terribly surprising, because Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system, with the most mass.

more
http://boingboing.net/2016/03/29/something-may-have-just-struck.html

If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens … WHERE IS EVERYBODY?

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If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens … WHERE IS EVERYBODY?: Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life

by Stephen Webb

In a 1950 conversation at Los Alamos, four world-class scientists generally agreed, given the size of the Universe, that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations must be present. But one of the four, Enrico Fermi, asked, “If these civilizations do exist, where is everybody?” Given the fact that there are perhaps 400 million stars in our Galaxy alone, and perhaps 400 million galaxies in the Universe, it stands to reason that somewhere out there, in the 14 billion-year-old cosmos, there is or once was a civilization at least as advanced as our own. Webb discusses in detail the 50 most cogent and intriguing solutions to Fermi’s famous paradox.


A few real reviews for the book on Amazon:
Science and science fiction collide to pose answers to a fundamental question about our universe

If the universe is so old and so big, shouldn’t there have been ample opportunities for other solar systems, planets, life forms, intelligence, and technology to form? Some these civilizations must be millions of years older than us on Earth, so surely should have developed the capability to communicate and travel through from star to star and galaxy to galaxy. But we haven’t heard from or seen anybody else. Where is everybody?
This a big and provocative question that has scientific, philosophical, and religious implications. Webb breaks the question down by posing 50 possible solutions to this paradox. He brings in concepts from physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology, history, geology, science fiction, sociology, cognition, and engineering. To think about this question involves the combination of so many disciplines, and that’s why it’s so very intriguing. Not only that, our best answers are at the frontiers of most of these fields of knowledge. So, in this book you get a whirlwind tour of the biggest thinking, cutting edge, and open questions in so many different areas. I recommend this book to science lovers and science fiction lovers.

Get it at Amazon

Rosetta probe Philae discovers organic molecules on comet

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Wall Street Journal
By Gautam Naik
The probe that landed on the surface of a comet has discovered organic molecules, the most rudimentary building blocks of life, according to the German agency involved in the mission.

Philae-landerAn instrument aboard the Philae lander detected the molecules after “sniffing” the comet’s atmosphere. An organic compound is one whose molecules contain the carbon atom, the basis of life on earth.

Scientists are analyzing the data to see whether the organic compounds detected by Philae are simple ones—such as methane and methanol—or a more complex species such as amino acids, the building blocks for proteins. A drill on Philae also obtained some material from the comet’s hard surface, but data about organic molecules from that experiment have yet to be fully analyzed.

Comets contain some of the most pristine materials in the solar system, dating to about 4.5 billion years ago. Previous studies have suggested that comets forge organic material in their dusty atmospheres.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/articles/rosetta-probe-directly-discovers-organic-molecules-on-comet-1416256078