The Search for Life: Are We Alone? || Teacher's Guide

The Search for Life: Are We Alone? is an immersive journey. It whisks audiences from the bottom of the ocean to the edge of the universe to learn about the possibilities for life beyond our planet. The journey begins by listening: A sound collage of terrestrial life surrounds us, leading us into a view of the brilliant night sky, where we ponder the possibility that someone might be out there wondering if we exist. We then descend to the bottom of the ocean, exploring a world where life thrives without sunlight. A deep sea hydrothermal vent is one of the many recent discoveries that leads us to think that if life can exist in harsh environments here on Earth, then perhaps it can do the same in space as well. From here, we burst through the ocean's surface to learn that the one thing on Earth that all life needs is liquid water. Understanding these parameters for life on Earth, we are ready to launch into space, to search for life on other planets in our solar system—and then beyond.

Mercury and Venus have no water—and no life—so our first stop is Mars. Mars is a lot like Earth, with regular seasons, polar ice caps, and a 24-hour day. But the surface of Mars is a barren desert, and there is no life above ground. Underground, however, there may be enough heat and pressure to keep water in its liquid state and to support microbial life. If we do find life here—on a place in many ways like Earth—then perhaps life is common elsewhere in the universe. We next land on Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. Europa's icy surface covers a deep ocean of water—organisms live here in conditions much like those we saw at the bottom of the ocean back on Earth.

If there is life inside our own solar system, we may find it soon. But what about life outside it? The stars are millions of times farther away than the planets of our solar system. Could there be planets orbiting those faraway stars? We journey out among those other suns to learn that, indeed, there are planets out there—and lots of them. In fact, these so-called exoplanets may well outnumber the stars. And where did all these planets come from? These exoplanets formed the same way Earth did some 5 billion years ago. We fly outside our galaxy, and into the past to view the birth of our planet, from its beginnings as a swirling mass of gas and dust, to a rotating disk of ice and rock, and then finally to a planet teeming with life.

If the process that made Earth has made perhaps billions of other worlds, what are the chances that our planet is the only one with life? We fly to an imaginary extra-solar system to see a world lit by two suns—a small terrestrial moon circling a great gas giant planet like our own planet Jupiter. Our radio, television, and radar waves have been spreading out into space at the speed of light for the last century or so. If there is somebody living on a planet like this, perhaps they have picked up our signals already. We ourselves have also been listening for their signals. So far we have heard nothing, but we keep listening.

As we travel out of our galaxy once more and into a vast expanse of galaxies, we ruminate on the idea that, with so many billions—and possibly trillions—of worlds in our galaxy, multiplied by the billions of galaxies in the known universe, the possible number of worlds that may support life is staggering. We conclude by returning to Earth, where we reflect on the uniqueness of our planet and the need to protect it and the spectacular diversity of life found here.

	SPACE SHOW the search for life: are we alone?
synopsis synopsis come prepared! key concepts and orientation background before your visit while you're at the museum back in the classroom references credits	The Search for Life: Are We Alone? is an immersive journey. It whisks audiences from the bottom of the ocean to the edge of the universe to learn about the possibilities for life beyond our planet. The journey begins by listening: A sound collage of terrestrial life surrounds us, leading us into a view of the brilliant night sky, where we ponder the possibility that someone might be out there wondering if we exist. We then descend to the bottom of the ocean, exploring a world where life thrives without sunlight. A deep sea hydrothermal vent is one of the many recent discoveries that leads us to think that if life can exist in harsh environments here on Earth, then perhaps it can do the same in space as well. From here, we burst through the ocean's surface to learn that the one thing on Earth that all life needs is liquid water. Understanding these parameters for life on Earth, we are ready to launch into space, to search for life on other planets in our solar system—and then beyond. Mercury and Venus have no water—and no life—so our first stop is Mars. Mars is a lot like Earth, with regular seasons, polar ice caps, and a 24-hour day. But the surface of Mars is a barren desert, and there is no life above ground. Underground, however, there may be enough heat and pressure to keep water in its liquid state and to support microbial life. If we do find life here—on a place in many ways like Earth—then perhaps life is common elsewhere in the universe. We next land on Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. Europa's icy surface covers a deep ocean of water—organisms live here in conditions much like those we saw at the bottom of the ocean back on Earth. If there is life inside our own solar system, we may find it soon. But what about life outside it? The stars are millions of times farther away than the planets of our solar system. Could there be planets orbiting those faraway stars? We journey out among those other suns to learn that, indeed, there are planets out there—and lots of them. In fact, these so-called exoplanets may well outnumber the stars. And where did all these planets come from? These exoplanets formed the same way Earth did some 5 billion years ago. We fly outside our galaxy, and into the past to view the birth of our planet, from its beginnings as a swirling mass of gas and dust, to a rotating disk of ice and rock, and then finally to a planet teeming with life. If the process that made Earth has made perhaps billions of other worlds, what are the chances that our planet is the only one with life? We fly to an imaginary extra-solar system to see a world lit by two suns—a small terrestrial moon circling a great gas giant planet like our own planet Jupiter. Our radio, television, and radar waves have been spreading out into space at the speed of light for the last century or so. If there is somebody living on a planet like this, perhaps they have picked up our signals already. We ourselves have also been listening for their signals. So far we have heard nothing, but we keep listening. As we travel out of our galaxy once more and into a vast expanse of galaxies, we ruminate on the idea that, with so many billions—and possibly trillions—of worlds in our galaxy, multiplied by the billions of galaxies in the known universe, the possible number of worlds that may support life is staggering. We conclude by returning to Earth, where we reflect on the uniqueness of our planet and the need to protect it and the spectacular diversity of life found here.
© 2002 American Museum of Natural History. All rights reserved.