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The distribution of smaller satellite galaxies around large central galaxies has attracted attention because peculiar spatial and kinematic configurations have been detected in some systems. A particularly striking example of such behavior…
Astrobiology, the study of life as a planetary phenomenon, aims to understand the fundamental nature of life on earth and the possibility of life elsewhere. To achieve this goal, astrobiologists have initiated unprecedented communication…
Pulsar astronomy is currently enjoying one of the most productive phases in its history. In this review, I outline some of the basic observational aspects and summarise some of the latest results of searches for pulsars in the disk of our…
The biosignatures of life on Earth do not remain static, but change considerably over the planet's habitable lifetime. Earth's future biosphere, much like that of the early Earth, will consist of predominantly unicellular microorganisms due…
The intuition suggested by the Drake equation implies that technology should be less prevalent than biology in the galaxy. However, it has been appreciated for decades in the SETI community that technosignatures could be more abundant,…
A brief report on recent work on the sphere-packing problem.
In this article, a broad perspective of supernovae, their classification and mechanism is given. Later, the astrophysical significance of supernovae is discussed in brief.
The propagation of high-energy cosmic rays in the Galaxy is investigated. Solutions of a diffusion model are combined with numerically calculated trajectories of particles. The resulting escape path length and interaction path length are…
The search for life elsewhere in the universe is a pivotal question in modern science. However, to address whether life is common in the universe we must first understand the likelihood of abiogenesis by studying the origin of life on…
Increasingly good statistical data on the galaxy population at high and low redshift enable the development of new phenomenological approaches to galaxy evolution based on application of the simplest continuity equations. This has given new…
In this paper, we analyze a new possible biological surface feature for habitable worlds orbiting other stars: biofluorescence. High ultraviolet (UV) and blue radiation fluxes drive the strongest biofluorescence in terrestrial fluorescent…
We generalize the standard Penna bit-string model of biological ageing by assuming that each deleterious mutation diminishes the survival probability in every time interval by a small percentage. This effect is added to the usual lethal but…
We consider a branching model introduced by Kimmel for cell division with parasite infection. Cells contain proliferating parasites which are shared randomly between the two daughter cells when they divide. We determine the probability that…
In the coming years and decades, advanced space- and ground-based observatories will allow an unprecedented opportunity to probe the atmospheres and surfaces of potentially habitable exoplanets for signatures of life. Life on Earth, through…
Classical Be stars are introduced as object class and their particular potential for space based photometry is highlighted. A brief summary of the various types of variability observed in Be stars makes clear that an interpretation of every…
We motivate and explore the basic features of generalized contagion, a model mechanism that unifies fundamental models of biological and social contagion. Generalized contagion builds on the elementary observation that spreading and…
It is sometimes asserted that the rapidity of biogenesis on Earth suggests that life is common in the Universe. We critically examine the assumptions inherent in this argument. Using a lottery model for biogenesis in the Universe, we…
The fungi disperse spores to move across landscapes and spore liberation takes different patterns. While many species release spores intermittently, others release spores at specific times of day or night according to intrinsic rhythms.…
This paper investigates the possible use of space probes to explore the Milky Way, as a means both of finding life elsewhere in the Galaxy and as finding an answer to the Fermi paradox. I simulate exploration of the Galaxy by first…
The existence of faint blue stars far above the galactic plane, which have spectra that are similar to nearby Population I B stars, present several interesting questions. Among them are: Can a Population I B star travel from the disk to a…