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Subtopic: Conditions Necessary for Planetary Life

Change grade range

Resource	Grade Level	Media Type
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	QuickTime Video
Dark Energy In this video adapted from QUEST, learn about the discovery of a form of energy, called dark energy, which has the potential to alter our theories of how the universe is structured.	10-12	QuickTime 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	QuickTime Video
Development of a Habitable Planet Students investigate the origin of the elements, the process of planet formation, the evolution of life on Earth, and the conditions necessary for life as we know it.	6-12	Lesson Plan
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	JPEG Image
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	QuickTime 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	QuickTime 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	QuickTime Video
Life's Little Essential: Liquid Water Why is water necessary for life? Why is it the best and possibly only liquid to do the job? This illustrated essay from NOVA Online answers these questions, explaining why planetary scientists are on the lookout for water elsewhere in the solar system.	6-12	HTML Document
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	QuickTime 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	Flash Interactive
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	QuickTime Video
The Search for Another Earth This NASA video provides an overview of technology under development to explore the planets and stars outside our solar system. These will be the most sensitive instruments built to date.	3-12	Flash Video
Seeing Stars This video segment, adapted from QUEST, explores the modern techniques employed by astrophysicists to detect planets in orbit around stars in the universe other than our own.	11-12	QuickTime Video