By the end of this century, says astrophysicist Martin Rees, we should be able to ask whether or not we live in a multiverse, and how much variety of the laws of physics its constituent ‘universes’ display. The answer to this question, says Rees, “will determine how we should interpret the ‘biofriendly’ universe in which we live (sharing it with any aliens with whom we might one day make contact).”
Avi Shporer, Research Scientist, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. A Google Scholar, Avi was formerly a NASA Sagan Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). His motto, not surprisingly, is a quote from Carl Sagan: “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
This week’s “Heard in the Milky Way” episode, narrated by dailygalaxy.com founder, Val Landi, takes you on a journey with two stories that change our knowledge of Planet Earth, our Galaxy, and the vast cosmos beyond.
“Other important building blocks of life have been found in meteorites previously, including amino acids (components of proteins) and nucleobases (components of DNA and RNA), but sugars have been a missing piece among the major building blocks of life,” said Yoshihiro Furukawa of Tohoku University, Japan about the discovery. “The research provides the first direct evidence of ribose in space and the delivery of the sugar to Earth. The extraterrestrial sugar might have contributed to the formation of RNA on the prebiotic Earth which possibly led to the origin of life.”
The discovery of the language of life, an ancient, long molecule called DNA with eight nucleotide letters suitable for storing and transmitting information, was a breakthrough in our knowledge of the range of possibilities necessary for life on Earth and beyond. Now, new studies suggest that alternatives to DNA-based life, as we know it on Earth, may be possible on other worlds.
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The Search for Axions – “Detection Will Have Profound Implications”
Will We Image Planet Nine Within the Next Decade? 
NASA Scientists: On What the Perseverance Mars’ Rocks Return Samples Could Tell Us
Physicist Who Denies that Dark Matter Exists to What if Other Human Species Hadn’t Died Out –Planet Earth Report
In Search of Dark Energy –Probing 11-Billion Years of Cosmic History
Primordial Object the Age of the Universe to Jupiter’s Metallic Oceans –Last Week’s Top 5 Space & Science Headlines
Moore’s Law– Homo Sapiens May be the Milky Way’s First Intelligent Civilization
Does Any Civilization in the Universe Survive Climate Change to Stephen Hawking’s ‘Lost’ Nobel Prize
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Black Hole Enigma –Does the Event Horizon Exist?