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Picturing alien life forms using science

Smaller than a penny, the flower-like rock artifact on the left was imaged by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the end of its robotic arm. The image was taken on Feb. 24, 2022, the 3,396th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Smaller than a penny, the flower-like rock artifact on the left was imaged by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the end of its robotic arm. The image was taken on Feb. 24, 2022, the 3,396th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

Stop and think about all the aliens you’ve ever seen on tv and in the movies, from the Klingons on Star Trek to Jabba the Hutt in Star Wars, to the short little child-like beings in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

But what would a "real" alien look like? Well, Professor Matthew Pasek is one of the scientists who spend time wondering about things like this. He’s a planetary scientist, geochemist, and cosmochemist at Southern Florida University and on Friday, Sept. 2 he'll be at Boise State to talk about aliens and what they might look like.

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As Senior Producer of our live daily talk show Idaho Matters, I’m able to indulge my love of storytelling and share all kinds of information (I was probably a Town Crier in a past life!). My career has allowed me to learn something new everyday and to share that knowledge with all my friends on the radio.

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