Fire in the sky: Chasing the annular solar eclipse 2023 on the Extraterrestrial Highway

ELY, Nevada   — The state of Nevada is the perfect place to watch for strange things in the sky.  And it’s easy to see why as you head north out of Las Vegas and turn onto state route 375, the “Extraterrestrial Highway.” This straight stretch of windblown road crosses mostly empty desert, offering vast vistas of open sky and long-distance views of the surrounding mountain ranges in the distance. Dotted along the route are UFO– and alien-themed attractions like the Alien Research Center in Crystal Springs, Nevada, a metal Quonset…

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In the search for alien life, should we be looking for artificial intelligence?

Is biological life common in the universe, or should we be looking for artificial, robotic intelligence in the search for alien life?  An increasing number of scientists suspect that if we ever do make contact with alien life, we will be communicating with a computer. This thinking revolves around an event called the singularity. This term, borrowed from mathematics, signifies a point where our knowledge of math and physics breaks down and we can no longer accurately characterize what we’re trying to describe. A black hole singularity is a good…

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Next stop, Europa? Nano subs to get test beneath Antarctic ice in 2026

Submarines, it turns out, could have a big future in space exploration. The subsurface oceans of the Jupiter moon Europa and Saturn satellite Enceladus are perhaps the most tantalizing places in the solar system in the search for alien life. But these water bodies remain out of reach, hundreds millions of miles away and beneath thick icy crusts. Now, a European collaboration aims to break through some of the technological and physical barriers in the way of future exploration of icy moons and their waters, using Antarctica as a proving…

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