Thought Experiments

Roughly 5 billion years from now, the Sun will begin to swell as a red giant. But life on Earth will feel the effects of an aging Sun long before then. What can we do to survive?

Observations of distant stars tell us about our own future. Roughly 5 billion years from now, the Sun will begin to swell as a red giant, and the solar system will be transformed into a very different place.

The Evogrid is a proposed computerized version of the primordial soup. Digitally simulating virtual particles could help answer the question of how life originated on Earth, and perhaps even spread life to other worlds.

Super-Earths, terrestrial planets many times the mass of Earth, have been discovered orbiting distant stars. In this essay, Ray Villard details a possible future expedition to visit one of these alien worlds in order to study the life that could exist there.

In the past few years, astronomers have discovered super-Earths, terrestrial planets many times the mass of Earth, orbiting distant stars. In this essay, Ray Villard discusses how we could study life forms that may exist on those alien worlds.

In the third in our series of "gedanken" thought experiments, Carol Cleland explores the idea that there could be undiscovered alien life forms on Earth.

In the second in our series of 'Gedanken,' or thought experiments, Bernard Foing suggests that the moon could act as a lifeboat in case Earth is ever struck down by a major catastrophe.

In the second in our series of 'Gedanken,' or thought experiments, Bernard Foing suggests that the moon could act as a lifeboat in case Earth is ever struck down by a major catastrophe.

How many technically advanced civilizations exist in our galaxy? With this essay by Steven Soter, Scientist-in-Residence in the Center for Ancient Studies at New York University, Astrobiology Magazine initiates the first in a series of 'Gedanken', or thought, experiments - musings by noted scientists on

A recent European Space Agency report details the most promising investments for future technology, based on a studied wish-list borrowed from diverse arts. Their unique methodology prepared more than two hundred technical dossiers about what might be 'the next big thing' along with hints on