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posted by janrinok on Thursday March 20 2014, @02:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the in-a-parallel-Vatican-somewhere-in-the-universe dept.

Papas Fritas writes:

"Megann Gannon reports that nearly 200 scientists are attending a conference, called "The Search for Life Beyond the Solar System: Exoplanets, Biosignature & Instruments," co-hosted by the Vatican Observatory with the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory.

The goal of the conference is to bring together the interdisciplinary community required to address this multi-faceted challenge: experts on exoplanet observations, early and extreme life on Earth, atmospheric biosignatures, and planet-finding telescopes. 'Finding life beyond Earth is one of the great challenges of modern science and we are excited to have the world leaders in this field together in Tucson,' says Daniel Apai. 'But reaching such an ambitious goal takes planning and time. The goal of this meeting is to discuss how we can find life among the stars within the next two decades.'

According to the organizers, the conference will cover the technical challenges of finding and imaging exoplanets and identifying biosignatures in the atmospheres of far-flung worlds. Other presentations will discuss the study of life forms that live in extreme environments on Earth, which could be apt analogs for life on other planets. Scientists will give more than 160 research presentations (PDF) during this week's conference and NASA's Astrobiology Institute will broadcast a live feed of the sessions. Catholic leaders say that alien life can be aligned with the Bible's teachings. 'Just as a multiplicity of creatures exists on Earth, so there could be other beings, also intelligent, created by God,' says Father Jose Funes"

 
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  • (Score: 1) by TK on Thursday March 20 2014, @05:51PM

    by TK (2760) on Thursday March 20 2014, @05:51PM (#18981)

    He also wrote a short story about the crew of a rocket that lands on an alien world right after their version of JC has been there, performing miracles and preaching. It's called The Man.

    In another story, The Fire Balloons, is about a Catholic priest proselytizing to energy-based aliens that have transcended their bodies and therefore moved beyond sin.

    Good stuff.

    --
    The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum