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Alan Boss: The Crowded Universe

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Commonwealth Club of California

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Alan Boss Predicts NASA's Kepler Finds Inhabited Planets

03 min 06 sec

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Astrophysicist Alan Boss discusses Nasa's Kepler Mission and its search for Earth-like planets orbiting other stars.

He is confident that Kepler will find hundreds of Earth-like planets, many of which will probably be "inhabited with something."
Alan Boss: NASA Budget a Drop in the Federal Bucket

04 min 10 sec

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Astrophysicist Alan Boss discusses why, even in an economic downturn, it is important to fund NASA.

He explains that NASA's funding is a small fraction of the total federal budget and argues exploration "gives us a purpose in life."
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01 hr 04 min 23 sec

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There are 17 comments on this program

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Marco Cardoso

Posted: 10.28.11, 01:56 PM

Kiitos!

Emilio Marengo

Posted: 01.24.11, 03:45 PM

''A reason for being''...way to go Boss!!

Matt Young

Posted: 10.02.10, 06:05 PM

You have to wonder what kind of impact will be felt (re: our many cultures), IF life is found on another planet; whether simple or complex.

JuNie

Posted: 10.01.10, 08:10 PM

I agree.

InfinitOne

Posted: 09.28.10, 06:54 PM

Cool stuff... This guy talks so fast, he gives 3hrs worth of content in 1hr -)

devayyr

Posted: 08.05.10, 09:28 AM

Does anyone know whether the SETI teams have pointed their radio telescopes at the discovered 'earth-like' candidates.

jmac

Posted: 02.25.10, 11:06 PM

well said!

jmac

Posted: 02.25.10, 10:52 PM

the claim that we were not found by this so-called aliens is not sufficient proof that they do not exist.

jmac

Posted: 02.25.10, 10:51 PM

the claim that we were not found by this so-called aliens is not sufficient proof that they do not exist.

MarkHick

Posted: 12.28.09, 06:49 PM

"The ultimate proof that exrtraterrestial life doesn't exist is, that we haven't been found. We would probably know." This is an incredibly naive statement. Humans have only been intelligent enough to broadcast out into space for less than 100 years and civilized for 10,000 out of our planet's 4.5 billion years. The galaxy is 100,000 light years across. The galaxy! Even if there were only 10 other intelligent lifeforms in our galaxy, per conservative estimates on the Drake equation, the chances are minute that they would find us in the time that we've been intelligent enough to distinquish that it's actually another intelligent lifeform contacting us. People grossly underestimate how long humans have been on our planet versus other life. Extraterrestial life could have come and gone, but Tyrannosaurus Rex, which lived far longer than we have, certainly wouldn't have responded. We will find an exoplanet with oxygen that could harbor life in the next 10 years from the Kepler mission or others. But the problem is that an advanced civilization could have come and gone many times over by the time we find it.

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