NOVA: Finding Life Beyond Earth

Special Collection

We used to think of our neighboring planets and moons as mostly cold, dead rocks where life could never take hold. Today, however, we have discovered life in unexpected environments on Earth, and scientists are finding a wide range of dynamic environments elsewhere in the solar system — places where life forms might also flourish.

This collection features videos from NOVA: "Finding Life Beyond Earth".

The NOVA: Finding Life Beyond Earth Collection is produced in cooperation with NASA and the National Institute of Aerospace.

This material is based on work supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Langley Research Center under the Research Cooperative Agreement No. NNL09AA00A awarded to the National Institute of Aerospace. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of WGBH and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Institute of Aerospace.

RESOURCE	GRADE LEVEL	MEDIA TYPE
All Planet Sizes This illustration from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory shows the approximate sizes of the planets relative to each other. Note that the planets are not shown at appropriate distances from the Sun.	3-12	Image
Are We Alone? This video segment adapted from NOVA features a variety of scientific perspectives on the age old question, "Are we alone in the universe?" Animations make vivid the improbability that we could intercept a radio wave signaling extra terrestrial intelligence.	6-12	Video
Basic Ingredients for Life In this lesson, students make impact craters to gain insight into how comets and asteroids deliver water and chemicals to the Earth and other places in the solar system.	1-6	Lesson Plan
Caves: Extreme Conditions for Life This video segment adapted from NOVA raises the provocative idea that if life can exist in the most extreme environments on Earth — such as in dark, toxic caves — then perhaps living things can also survive in harsh environments on other planets.	6-12	Video
Characteristics of the Sun This video segment adapted from NASA describes the basic characteristics of our star, the Sun.	3-12	Video
Comets Bombard the Early Earth Visualize how comets carrying chemicals necessary for life could have made their way to Earth billions of years ago in this video segment adapted from NOVA.	6-12	Video
Comets Deliver Amino Acids to Earth Amino acids, essential ingredients for life, may have been delivered to Earth by comets billions of years ago, as visualized in this video segment adapted from NOVA.	6-12	Video
Detecting Life on Other Planets In this video from NOVA scienceNOW, learn how scientists detect potential signs of life on distant planets.	6-12	Video
Extreme Living Using cards that show extremophiles and some of Earth’s extreme environments, students match a microbe to an extreme environment in which it could live.	1-6	Lesson Plan
Galileo: Discovering Jupiter's Moons This video segment adapted from NOVA shows how Galileo, using his newly developed refracting telescope, observed four of Jupiter's moons, the first astronomical bodies to be discovered since ancient times.	3-12	Video
The Habitable Zone This illustration is an approximate representation of the planets in our solar system and their relation to what scientists call "The Habitable Zone." The planet distances from the sun are measured in Astronomical Units (AU) and are not to scale.	6-12	Image
Home Sweet Home In this lesson, students choose a card describing one of six possible planetary environments and design a form of life that can thrive in the conditions outlined on the card.	1-6	Lesson Plan
How the Inner Solar System Formed In this video segment adapted from NOVA, explore the theory that small bits of gas and dust combined to form protoplanets billions of years ago, which in turn collided to create the four rocky planets of the inner solar system.	6-12	Video
How to Search for Life In this lesson, students participate in a range of demonstrations that illustrate different techniques for searching for life.	1-6	Lesson Plan
Ingredients for Life: Carbon This video segment adapted from NOVA illustrates why carbon is at the center of life on Earth. It also asks whether carbon-based life might exist on other planets.	6-12	Video
Ingredients for Life: Water This video segment adapted from NOVA goes on a whimsical journey in search of life forms thriving in extreme conditions on Earth and in outer space. Animations show ice on Jupiter's moon, Europa, and signs that water once existed on Mars.	3-12	Video
Io and Volcanism In this video segment adapted from NOVA, a scientist explains the unexpected heat source fueling widespread volcanic activity on Io, a moon of Jupiter that many had previously assumed to be frozen.	6-12	Video
Jupiter: Earth's Shield Jupiter's immense gravity protects Earth from asteroids. In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists searching for signs of life in the universe identify solar systems with Jupiter-like planets that may be shielding smaller nearby Earth-like planets from comets and asteroids.	6-12	Video
Life Beyond the Solar System This video excerpt from NOVA describes the search for disks of dust particles forming around new stars.	6-12	Video
Life on Enceladus? In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists are startled to discover evidence for the three key ingredients for life on Saturn's moon Enceladus.	6-12	Video
Life on Europa? This video excerpt from NOVA suggests there is an ocean beneath the surface of Europa.	6-12	Video
Life on Mars? This video excerpt from NOVA describes the discovery of water ice on Mars.	6-12	Video
Life on Titan? This video excerpt from NOVA describes the discovery of methane lakes on Titan.	6-12	Video
Life's Basic Ingredients This video excerpt from NOVA introduces the basic ingredients of life.	6-12	Video
Life's Extreme Environments This video excerpt from NOVA explores microbes thriving in extreme environments.	6-12	Video
Mammals Get Their Chance In this video segment adapted from NOVA, animations of an asteroid hitting Earth are used to illustrate this widely accepted theory of dinosaur extinction and the resulting conditions that favored mammals.	K-5	Video
Mars Dead or Alive: A Hostile Environment This NOVA video segment describes the challenges presented by the frozen desert environment of Mars to NASA engineers designing two robots that will journey millions of miles to the red planet.	6-12	Video
Mars Dead or Alive: Mars Up Close NASA scientist Steve Squyres narrates this visual tour from NOVA Online of the most revealing discoveries made by the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars.	6-12	Interactive
Mars Dead or Alive: Welcome to Mars This video segment from NOVA features the dramatic landing of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars.	6-12	Video
Mars Dead or Alive: Where to Land? In this video segment from NOVA, engineers and scientists designing the Spirit and Opportunity rovers struggle to choose landing spots both safe enough for landing and geologically promising.	6-12	Video
Meet the Planets In this lesson, students will identify the planets in the solar system, observe and describe their characteristics and features, and build a scale model out of everyday materials.	1-6	Lesson Plan
Microbial Life in Antarctica This video excerpt from NOVA shows life thriving in Mars-like conditions.	6-12	Video
The Origin of the Elements This video segment adapted from NOVA explains the origin of the elements and how scientists use unique element profiles to identify supernova types.	6-12	Video
The Origin of the Moon This video segment adapted from NOVA follows the Apollo 15 astronauts as they collect samples of ancient rock from the Moon's crust, whose discovery helps lead to a radical new theory about the Moon's origin.	6-12	Video
Planet-Hunting Learn about NASA’s Kepler mission and how scientists search for planets orbiting stars outside our solar system in this video segment adapted from NOVA.	6-12	Video
Revealing the Origins of Life Learn how scientists explore the chemistry behind the first life on Earth and discover one way it may have arisen from simple chemicals and natural pathways, in this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW.	9-12	Video
A Strange New Planet This video segment adapted from NOVA features the first planet to be discovered outside our solar system. Its surprisingly large size and short orbit sent scientists back to their data and led them to discover similar planets.	6-12	Video
Thriving on the Arctic Seafloor This video excerpt from NOVA shows life thriving deep in the Arctic ocean.	6-12	Video
Water Formation Hypothesis In this video segment adapted from NOVA, learn about an experiment investigating whether liquid water on Earth could have resulted from a massive planetary impact billions of years ago.	6-12	Video
What Is a Planet? This video segment, adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, presents the ongoing debate over the definition of a planet, including the status of Pluto.	3-12	Video
What Is Life? In this lesson, students observe a number of objects, make a list of life’s characteristics, and develop a working definition of being alive.	1-6	Lesson Plan
Where to Look for Life Students examine environment cards that describe planets and moons in terms of their temperature and atmosphere and the availability of water, energy, and nutrients. They then select the best candidates to search for life.	1-6	Lesson Plan

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