The 365 Days Of Astronomy, The Daily Podcast Of The International Year Of Astronomy 2009

Are we alone, and if so can we have all the planets? Dear Cheap Astronomy – Alien diplomacy? A recent paper by John Gertz called Interstellar Diplomacy suggests some kind of contact with aliens is inevitable, which seems reasonable with respect to some kind of radio transmission, but the paper then goes on to suggest that contact might involve a robotic scout vehicle sent here from an a distant alien civilization, which seems somewhat less inevitable and then it descends into farce by further suggesting such scouts might have flown through our atmosphere already, you know like those UAP things that the US Airforce and NASA are investigating. Yikes.   Dear Cheap Astronomy – The ultraviolet habitable zone? Current lists of potentially life-bearing exoplanets are determined by them being in their star’s circumstellar zone in which temperatures would allow liquid water to form – also known as the Goldilock’s zone. The other main required feature is that they be rocky rather than gaseous, which is determined throu