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Before yesterdayTechnology

Are We Alone In The Universe?

1 March 2024 at 13:36
Europa, one of Jupiter

Are we alone in the universe?

It's a question that's been posed again and again. Carl Sagan posed it in the 1970s as a NASA mission scientist as the agency prepared to send its twin Viking landers to Mars.

And nearly 50 years after the first of two landers touched down on Mars, we're no closer to an answer as to whether there's life β€” out there.

Scientists haven't stopped looking. In fact, they've expanded their gaze to places like Saturn's largest moon, Titan and Jupiter's moon Europa.

The search for life beyond planet earth continues to captivate. And NASA has upcoming missions to both moons. Could we be closer to answering that question Carl Sagan asked some 50 years ago?

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

(Image credit: Heritage Space/Heritage Images)

Morning news brief

6 March 2024 at 05:14

Donald Trump dominates GOP primaries. Democrat Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey advance in California's U.S. Senate race. Change Healthcare is hit with a cyberattack and it's causing problems.

Are we on the brink of a nuclear fusion breakthrough?

15 March 2024 at 03:00
The National Ignition Facility used lasers to generate net energy from a pellet of fusion fuel in 2022. But the experiment is still a long way from truly producing more electricity than it requires.

Nuclear fusion could one day change the world by producing energy at lower costs than we generate it now β€” without greenhouse gas emissions or long-term nuclear waste.

If we can get it to work.

People have been promising nuclear fusion as a new, clean source of power for decades without much tangible success. But lately, billions of dollars from venture capitalists and tech entrepreneurs have flowed into the field. Science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel shares his reporting on some of the companies racing towards what could be the world's first commercial fusion power plants.

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