{"id":346,"date":"2018-08-06T15:47:56","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T20:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csp\/?p=346"},"modified":"2019-02-20T14:22:27","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T19:22:27","slug":"featured-in-bu-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csp\/2018\/08\/06\/featured-in-bu-research\/","title":{"rendered":"BU Research: Looking for Extraterrestrial Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a recent BU Research<\/a> article, CSP’s Professor Michael Mendillo<\/a>, Professor John Clarke<\/a>, and Associate Professor Paul Withers<\/a>, as well as PhD candidate Paul Dalba (Astronomy), discuss narrowing the search for extraterrestrial life with Barbara Moran.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat more important question could we ask? Are we alone?\u201d asks Boston University professor of astronomy Michael Mendillo. \u201cI don\u2019t know of any more fascinating question in science.\u201d<\/p>\n

For decades, astronomers have been searching these distant exoplanets for signs of life, mostly looking for that most essential molecule, water. But Mendillo and his colleagues have a different idea. In a paper published in Nature Astronomy on February 12, 2018, Mendillo, BU associate professor of astronomy Paul Withers, and PhD candidate Paul Dalba (GRS\u201918) suggest looking instead at an exoplanet\u2019s ionosphere, the thin uppermost layer of atmosphere, which is whizzing with charged particles. Find one like Earth\u2019s, they say, packed with single oxygen ions, and you have found life. Or, at least, life as we know it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest of the Article here:<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.bu.edu\/research\/articles\/habitable-exoplanets\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
The search for extraterrestrial life has focused mostly on exoplanets like Kepler-186f, shown here, which circle M-class stars in a \u201chabitable zone\u201d where water may exist. But \u201cnot all habitable zones are created equal,\u201d says Mendillo, who notes that some exoplanets are dangerously close to their stars, exposing them to hazardous radiation that might prevent life as we know it. \u201cEarth\u2019s habitable zone has a little more hospitality.\u201d Photo credit NASA Ames\/SETI Institute\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent BU Research article, CSP’s Professor Michael Mendillo, Professor John Clarke, and Associate Professor Paul Withers, as well as PhD candidate Paul Dalba (Astronomy), discuss narrowing the search for extraterrestrial life with Barbara Moran. \u201cWhat more important question could we ask? Are we alone?\u201d asks Boston University professor of astronomy Michael Mendillo. \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,21,1,27],"tags":[12,7],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9387"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":943,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions\/943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}