The SETI program has been operating for many years, its sole purpose to listen closely to the sounds of the universe for any clue that extra-terrestrial life exists. So far, the SETI program has heard nothing. Unfortunately, the SETI program has a set of ears that can only hear basic radio waves, a form of communication that, universally speaking, must be about as low-tech as you can get. Chances are pretty good that if an alien civilizations exists, they have long since evolved past the radio-band.

Now a group of scientists, led by Paul Davies of Arizona State University, will recommend that researchers begin looking for alien life right here on Earth. It’s not little green men with big cat eyes that Mr. Davies is hunting for, but micro-organisms that that came from other planets in a variety of ways and now find themselves living in remote and secluded locations.

Addressing the meeting to mark the 50th anniversary of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) programme — a quest that has fallen far short of its objectives — Professor Davies will argue that demonstrating that life has appeared more than once on Earth would be the best evidence yet that it must exist elsewhere in the Universe.

He told The Times: “We need to give up the notion that ET is sending us some sort of customised message and take a new approach.”

According to Professor Davies, “weird” microbes that belong to a completely separate tree of life, dubbed the “shadow biosphere”, could be present in isolated ecological niches in which ordinary life struggles to survive. Likely hiding places include deserts, scalding volcanic vents, the dry valleys of Antartica or salt-saturated lakes.

One team, led by Felisa WolfeSimon, of the US Geological Survey, is investigating the possibility that places that are heavily contaminated with arsenic, such as the Mono Lake in California, might support forms of life that use arsenic in the same way that other life forms use phosphorus.

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The Drudge Report wasted no time yesterday in spreading a minor panic, slapping up a headline that made it appear Earth was in imminent danger from a “mysterious object” careening towards our planet. Well, reality is slightly different and far more boring.

The mystery object is a tiny asteroid dubbed AL30. It’s only 33-feet-wide and will miss Earth by 80,000 miles, which is pretty damn close by any measure. However, this rock is so small it would explode in the atmosphere, unable to cause any damage on the ground.

A Nasa spokesman said the asteroid did not pose a risk with stony asteroids under 25 meters in diameter more likely to “burn up in our atmosphere, causing little or no ground damage”.

He also dismissed claims it was a man-made object.

“Because its orbital period is nearly identical to the Earth’s one year period, some have suggested it may be a manmade rocket stage in orbit about the sun,” he said.

“However, this object’s orbit reaches the orbit of Venus at its closest point to the sun and nearly out to the orbit of Mars at its furthest point, crossing the Earth’s orbit at a very steep angle. This makes it very unlikely that 2010 AL30 is a rocket stage.

“Furthermore, trajectory extrapolations show that this object cannot be associated with any recent launch and it has not made any close approaches to the Earth since well before the Space Age began.”

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A major discovery has revealed a stunning planet 40 light-years away that sports a striking resemblance to Earth. Dubbed GJ 1214B, which isn’t the most marketable name I’ve seen, is 2.7 times larger than Earth and is loaded with water to the tune of 75% of its mass with a solid core of iron and nickel, an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. Sound familiar? It should, as those specs are very close to to our little home here on Earth, giving credence to the theory that there are probably billions upon billions of Earth-like planets spread across the universe.

But in most other ways, the planet is a “very different beast” from our home world, the researchers say.

“It’s basically one big ocean,” said study leader David Charbonneau of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“There are no continents of rock floating on top or peaking up through the water.”

Moreover, GJ 1214b is hotter than Earth and its atmosphere is ten times thicker than our own, the study authors say.

This would make things difficult for life as we know it. For starters, the atmospheric pressure on the planet’s surface must be immense, and very little light would be able to penetrate the haze to reach the oceans.

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I held out a little hope that asteroid Apophis would slam into Earth in 2036, wiping out all life on the planet. A solid asteroid impact is a great way to solve our problems; it fixes the economy, solves overpopulation and renders the Climate Change debate moot. Unfortunately, it now appears we’ll have to solve these problems ourselves.

Asteroid Apophis has been downgraded by JPL, placing the odds of an impact at 4-in-a-million, which is considerably better than the original estimate of 1-in-45,000. Good news for cynics like me, however: Apophis still has a good chance of hitting Earth in 2068, but I won’t be around to enjoy the light-show.

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Deep Impact (Blu-Ray)

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Death from the Skies!: The Science Behind the End of the World

From L.A. Times:

At nearly three football fields in diameter, Apophis would cause widespread damage if it hit the Earth, though not as much as the 6-mile-wide asteroid thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs.

The danger of a collision in 2029 was later downgraded, leaving 2036 as the encounter posing the greatest danger.

The latest calculations were based on observations with the University of Hawaii’s 88-inch telescope on Mauna Kea, as well as the 90-inch Bok telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona.

In 2029, Apophis will pass within 18,000 miles of Earth, closer than some satellites. Even though scientists are certain it won’t hit the Earth, they are less sure about how the close approach will affect the asteroid’s orbit.

“The deflection caused by the 2029 encounter will be significant,” Chesley said. “We’re not worried about 2029. We’re worried about its future trajectory.”