Skip to ContentGo to accessibility pageKeyboard shortcuts menu
OpenStax Logo
Astronomy

Thought Questions

AstronomyThought Questions

Thought Questions

14.

Would a human have been possible during the first generation of stars that formed right after the Big Bang? Why or why not?

15.

If we do find life on Mars, what might be some ways to check whether it formed separately from Earth life, or whether exchanges of material between the two planets meant that the two forms of life have a common origin?

16.

What kind of evidence do you think would convince astronomers that an extraterrestrial spacecraft has landed on Earth?

17.

What are some reasons that more advanced civilizations might want to send out messages to other star systems?

18.

What are some answers to the Fermi paradox? Can you think of some that are not discussed in this chapter?

19.

Why is there so little evidence of Earth’s earliest history and therefore the period when life first began on our planet?

20.

Why was the development of photosynthesis a major milestone in the evolution of life?

21.

Does all life on Earth require sunshine?

22.

Why is life unlikely to be found on the surface of Mars today?

23.

In this chapter, we identify these characteristic properties of life: life extracts energy from its environment, and has a means of encoding and replicating information in order to make faithful copies of itself. Does this definition fully capture what we think of as “life”? How might our definition be biased by our terrestrial environment?

24.

Given that no sunlight can penetrate Europa’s ice shell, what would be the type of energy that could make some form of europan life possible?

25.

Why is Saturn’s moon Enceladus such an exciting place to send a mission?

26.

In addition to an atmosphere dominated by nitrogen, how else is Saturn’s moon Titan similar to Earth?

27.

How can a planet’s atmosphere affect the width of the habitable zone in its planetary system?

28.

Why are we limited to finding life on planets orbiting other stars to situations where the biosphere has created planet-scale changes?

Order a print copy

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Citation/Attribution

This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's permission.

Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution License and you must attribute OpenStax.

Attribution information
  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a print format, then you must include on every physical page the following attribution:
    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/astronomy/pages/1-introduction
  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a digital format, then you must include on every digital page view the following attribution:
    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/astronomy/pages/1-introduction
Citation information

© Jan 28, 2022 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.