full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Augusto Carballido: There may be extraterrestrial life in our solar system

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So what might indicate that life exists on these or other worlds? If it is out there, astrobiologists speculate that it would be mcoiicosrpc, comparable to the btaciera we have on earth. This would make it dflficuit to directly observe from a great distance, so astrobiologists seek clues clelad biosignatures. Those may be cells, fossils, or mineral traces left behind by living things. And finding any biosignatures will be challenging for many reasons. One of the biggest concerns is to make sure we szlteirie our probes extremely thoroughly. Otherwise we could accidentally contaminate ocean worlds with Earth’s own bacteria, which could destroy aeiln life.

Open Cloze


So what might indicate that life exists on these or other worlds? If it is out there, astrobiologists speculate that it would be ___________, comparable to the ________ we have on earth. This would make it _________ to directly observe from a great distance, so astrobiologists seek clues ______ biosignatures. Those may be cells, fossils, or mineral traces left behind by living things. And finding any biosignatures will be challenging for many reasons. One of the biggest concerns is to make sure we _________ our probes extremely thoroughly. Otherwise we could accidentally contaminate ocean worlds with Earth’s own bacteria, which could destroy _____ life.

Solution


  1. called
  2. difficult
  3. sterilize
  4. alien
  5. bacteria
  6. microscopic

Original Text


So what might indicate that life exists on these or other worlds? If it is out there, astrobiologists speculate that it would be microscopic, comparable to the bacteria we have on earth. This would make it difficult to directly observe from a great distance, so astrobiologists seek clues called biosignatures. Those may be cells, fossils, or mineral traces left behind by living things. And finding any biosignatures will be challenging for many reasons. One of the biggest concerns is to make sure we sterilize our probes extremely thoroughly. Otherwise we could accidentally contaminate ocean worlds with Earth’s own bacteria, which could destroy alien life.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
liquid methane 2
ocean worlds 2


Important Words


  1. accidentally
  2. alien
  3. astrobiologists
  4. bacteria
  5. biggest
  6. biosignatures
  7. called
  8. cells
  9. challenging
  10. clues
  11. comparable
  12. concerns
  13. contaminate
  14. destroy
  15. difficult
  16. distance
  17. earth
  18. exists
  19. extremely
  20. finding
  21. fossils
  22. great
  23. left
  24. life
  25. living
  26. microscopic
  27. mineral
  28. observe
  29. ocean
  30. probes
  31. reasons
  32. seek
  33. speculate
  34. sterilize
  35. traces
  36. worlds