Cosmic Queries: Aliens

Copy of the original “Wow!” computer printout, taken several years after the arrival of the strong narrowband radio signal detected by Jerry R. Ehman on August 15, 1977 while working on a SETI project. Credit: Photo Credit: Ohio State University Radio Observatory; North American AstroPhysical Observatory (NAAPO).
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About This Episode

Could the “Wow!” radio signal recorded by a SETI researcher have been alien in origin? What laws of physics might limit the forms alien life could take? How near would alien civilizations have to be to detect life on Earth? What senses might an alien life form have beyond the ones humans possess? These are just a few of your questions that astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Leighann Lord answer in this Cosmic Queries episode. You’ll find out what Dr. Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium, would ask an extraterrestrial if he met one – and if he thinks we could even understand them. It’s an out-of-this-world episode filled with science, chemistry, exobiology, physics and informed speculation – whether you believe in the possibility of alien life or not.

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In This Episode

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