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Idaho Matters

Picturing alien life forms using science

Have you ever wondered what aliens might look like? Well, you're not alone.

Broadcast on:
30 Aug 2022
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.
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)

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.