Is There A Needle In The Haystack? Using Python To Narrow Down The Search For Life In Our Galaxy

The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, but what you might not know is that life in any planet - or moon, or basically anything - that crosses one of the Galaxy's arms is (probably) doomed.

Looking for life in other planets is a herculean task, there are just too many of them. But what if we can look only into those that, like our solar system, swirls calmly around, never crossing the danger zone? That can make the task doable.

Why are the arms dangerous? Why does our sun look safe? What does it have to do with code (hint: it has something to do with Python and galpy)? Well, come aboard and see it yourself.

Transcript

2. Using Python to narrow down the search for life in our galaxy Is there a needle in the haystack?
3. hello! I am Artur @artur_caliendo I am Lucas @lucassamp
4. “ Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe, in which there are far more galaxies than people. 一 Carl Sagan
5. What are we looking for? Basically, we are looking for developed life beyond Earth. But there are too many planets out there. Can we narrow down our search? 1.
6. 2. Conditions for life as we know it
7. Basic conditions for life ✘ Source of stable energy ✘ Water ― liquid and vapor ✘ Benign environment (rocky planet, magnetic field etc.) As we know it
8. Complex conditions for life ✘ Planet with continuous geological activities ✘ Long-lasting host star ✘ Distance from galactic arms As we know it
9. Galaxy arms And why it will crush you into powder 3. Supernova
10. Corotation Rotation Curve
11. 4. DIY Or "Do it yourself"
12. Don't do it without adult supervision Python Why? It is frequently used for high-performance scientific applications. It is widely used in academia and scientific projects because it is easy to write and performs well. Jupyter Because it is a planet The Jupyter Notebook App is a server-client application that allows editing and running notebook documents via a web browser. GAIA Data It is so far the most accurate data release of positions and velocities of stars in our galaxy and in others nearby. One billion stars have already been mapped.
13. Corotation It is Jupyter time!
14. 5. *oversimplified representation Search area for developed life
15. Despair not We are safe for now
19. thanks! Any questions? You can find us at @artur_caliendo @lucassamp
20. Credits Special thanks to all the people who made and released these awesome resources for free: ✘ Jo Bovi ✘ Dr. ACSR Carvalho - Astrobiologist - USP ✘ NASA ✘ ESA ✘ EarthSky ✘ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival ✘ Photographs by Unsplash