I wouldn't even call it indirect evidence, but rather a prerequisite for life as we know it.  To claim that it's evidence for life, would be  affirming the consequent . It's a very long way from these organic molecules to unicellular life.  The presence of limestone in Italy is not indirect evidenc...

I love the YouTube channel The Thought Emporium ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV5vCi3jPJdURZwAOO_FNfQ ). It is HIGHLY educational and I have attempted to duplicate some of their projects with varying levels of success, this one being the first: aeah3fFYlnA This next one is a wee bit beyond my s...

I meant unicellular. I doubt if intelligence resides within our solar-system - aside from humans on Earth, and of course those other very intelligent animals on Earth like chimps, dolphins, octopi and the corvids etc. But the definition of 'intelligence' is very slippery and I always try to avoid us...

I have a suggestion that may or may not be easy to integrate into the game system: Since the newest add-ons for the recent editions of SE are planetary compositions and chemistry, I was wondering if it is possible to add a detail on the planetary window regarding the amount of radiation (like gamma,...

I should add a caveat here: Although as of yet the data on exoplanets probably will not include signs of life, I would be surprised if there was not even a methane-farting microbe detected on the studied exoplanets from hereon out via the Kepler, TESS etc projects in the next 20 years or so. Certain...

Has anyone watched any of John Michael Godier's videos? They are pretty interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEszlI8-W79IsU8LSAiRbDg

A recent example:

I agree with the sentiments presented here in answer with my questions, thank you for sharing your thoughts on the matter. I'm glad I can share these musings with you and get a fairly educated opinion - most of the time when I try to engage the people I know (in real life or in the cyberspace) with ...

Yep, the main problem with discussing exoplanets and all their characteristics is that the universe is just too darn big - and we've observed too little of it with all our instruments - THOUGH the amount of data that they collected we are STILL sorting through, even for out of commission projects (n...

Man, I love those grainy asteroid pics. Here is a question (actually three disguised as one) that probably has an easy answer or a long answer (I'm interested in the long answer): I remember reading in Carl Sagan's [i]Cosmos[/i] about FTL technology and what year AD we may discover it, based on plot...

TESS will be an interesting project to follow, and no doubt will yield many amazing discoveries - and for its size it is a technological marvel, but I have my reservations as to whether or not it will make as big an impact on the scientific community as Kepler did or James Webb will. For all its hyp...

Nobody has mentioned Star wars yet? Okay I'll say Star Wars - although I have not watched 'em in a long while and have since seen better sci-fi on the screen, the originals like Last Hope, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi sparked my interest in space and alien life- nothing after that exce...

Modded Mass Effect (all releases), heavily modded Skyrim, heavily modded Crysis (all releases) recognizably modified Warhammer 40k Dawn of War Soulstorm... yeah, I like to stretch my games. And yes - Space Engine (although I've uninstalled version .98 for memory purposes - I'm just waiting for .99 t...

The never-ending memes of Giorgio Tsoukalos. Will they ever end? No. Cuz they're funny. He is the court jester of space.

Looking at all the data available on the exoplanets we know of, its unlikely ANY of them have life. Most are just too large, too hot, too cold and thus too strange to have anything more then a extremophile ecology. That is just their detection method bias. Life (beyond microbes) and intelligent life...

To be honest, although I really like the visuals of the planets and nebulae, I sort of groove on the idea of seeing them (a space picture) through clear letters or motifs. It looks more professional.