​Life on Earth may be a relic from the universe’s very distant past ● The future space station may be private ● The Perseverance rover is changing our view of Mars

Life on Earth may be a relic of the universe’s very distant past

The fact that humanity stumbled upon an extraterrestrial reality and began to wonder where the rest of the world is in the universe happened relatively recently. Let’s say this question is a little over two thousand years old, and only a few hundred since we started doing research in this area. At the level of the universe, it means a grain of sand.

According to David Garofalo, an astrophysicist from the University of Georgia, USA, the answer may lie in how stars are formed and the influence of black holes on this process. In short, today’s view of exoplanets that may have water, atmospheres, and other ingredients necessary for life is simplistic.

Rather, we must calculate where the probability of such planets forming was. And to do that, says Garofalo in a study published in the journal Galaxies, we need to pay attention to black holes and how they affect the birth of new stars.

From his calculations, it follows that about 11 billion years ago, almost 2.8 billion years after the Big Bang, the conditions for the appearance of stars and planets capable of supporting life were already in place. If we take into account that it took about 4.5 billion years for intelligent life to appear on Earth, we do a simple calculation and see that possible extraterrestrial civilizations could have appeared about 7-8 billion years ago, that is, long before the formation of our own solar system.

Now, says an American researcher, it may be true that I’m a little late to the party. The others had already left when we arrived. Yes, but that doesn’t mean we’re the last ones in the vast space graveyard. Others may appear, or may appear even in time with us. Or, more importantly, some of the originals might still be here. And this means that we should count on contact with civilizations that have already reached the maximum level of development according to the Kardashev scale.

These are Type III civilizations that have developed the ability to harness the energy of an entire galaxy. We are at our level only at level I, where we use only the resources of the planet on which we appeared. The next step, the second, would be to become a Type II civilization, that is, to be able to capture all the energy of the star.

The future space station may be private

VAST, a startup founded by millionaire cryptocurrency entrepreneur Jed McCaleb, plans to launch a bus-sized space station by 2025. The station will be delivered into space by a Falcon 9 rocket in partnership with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The cylindrical station, called Heaven-1, will replace the International Space Station, which is due to be decommissioned in 2030. Already in 2021, when the decision was made to terminate the work of the SSI, NASA allocated funds to it in the amount of 415 million dollars. private companies to develop projects for the future space station.

VAST was not among them, but the company’s management hopes to receive funds from the American space agency by 2028. However, most of the world perceives the chances of success with skepticism. Especially since NASA has not given an official response to the VAST proposal.

With an estimated net worth of $2.4 billion, Jed McCaleb invested about $300 million in VAST and the space station project, while the ISS required about $100 billion.

However, Space X remains open to any proposals, and the idea of ​​a commercial space station, according to company representatives, could become a model for the future.

The Perseverance rover is changing the way we think about Mars

New images provided by the Perserverance rover of Lake Crater, an area the rover has been exploring for more than two years, show what appears to have been the former bed of a giant river. The photos show a river bed with rough traces of sediment and polished rocks.

All the data, according to NASA’s official statements, show traces of a powerful river capable of moving a huge amount of matter. The flow of the former river has been observed for years, but this is the first time the rover has been able to take close-up pictures.

According to experts, the river should have significant dimensions, similar to the Mississippi. Its high banks may have been much larger in the distant past, but wind erosion would have reduced them to their present size.

Essentially, what the Perseverance rover is showing now is a picture of Mars’ past on a scale never seen before. The level of petrified sediment over time is huge even by Earth standards, and this indicates an extremely rich and powerful coastal system that existed in the distant past of the planet.

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