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

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2. Using Python to narrow down
   the search for life in our
   galaxy
   Is there a needle in the
   haystack?
   

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3. hello!
   I am Artur
   @artur_caliendo
   I am Lucas
   @lucassamp
   

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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
   

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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.
   

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6. 2.
   Conditions for life
   as we know it
   

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7. Basic conditions for life
   ✘ Source of stable energy
   ✘ Water ― liquid and vapor
   ✘ Benign environment
   (rocky planet, magnetic field etc.)
   As we know it
   

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8. Complex conditions for life
   ✘ Planet with continuous geological activities
   ✘ Long-lasting host star
   ✘ Distance from galactic arms
   As we know it
   

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9. Galaxy arms
   And why it will crush you into powder
   3.
   Supernova
   

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10. Corotation
    Rotation Curve
    

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11. 4.
    DIY
    Or "Do it yourself"
    

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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.
    

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13. Corotation
    It is Jupyter time!
    

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14. 5.
    *oversimplified representation
    Search area for
    developed life
    

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15. Despair not
    We are safe
    for now
    

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19. thanks!
    Any questions?
    You can find us at
    @artur_caliendo
    @lucassamp
    

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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
    

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