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| Life at bottom of the ocean thriving with sunlight. |
This is a good article but I must admit to being miffed, all the scientist, researchers and astrophysicist's seemed to be hellbent on finding life in "the habitable zone", I maintain that is just thinking like a human. Why does life need to develop in a habitable zone? After all we have found life thriving in the depths of Earths oceans, devoid of any sunlight whatsoever, living in extreme heat and surround by elements that would kill human beings and virtally all land animals. These experts still believe without water and sunlight life cannot exist, that is just not the case. At any rate it probably makes little difference because the universe is most likely teeming with intelligent life and we have not been brought into the fold of the greater community. Time will tell.
Richard
Only one planet has been proven to support life: Earth. But evidence is mounting that we are not alone. Biogeochemist Ariel Anbar and astrophysicist Steven Desch, professors in ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration, are quoted in the story "The Case for Alien Life" in Popular Mechanics' July/August 2013 issue about the search for life beyond Earth.
Astrobiologists say that the watery worlds in stars' habitable zones, where life is most likely to be found, are still the likeliest places to search for life.
New studies show that organisms may thrive far beyond the boundary of a star'shabitable zone in more extreme environments, including desert worlds and hurtling asteroids. In our own solar system, Jupiter and Saturn are outside of the sun's habitable zone, according to the standard definition, yet several of their moons are considered among the most promising sites to search.
Desch is quoted in the article as saying, "If life might exist in the subsurface oceans of moons, heated by their own radioactivity, then no distance from the sun is too far. It's beginning to look like the definition of a habitable zone is out the window."
Anbar points out that distant star systems will have varying proportions of elements such as carbon, oxygen and silicon. Such variety could drive evolution in hard-to-imagine directions. "The things we can conceive of are probably a very small set of the possibilities that are out there," Anbar says. "We know we're going to be surprised."
However, there is no guarantee we'll ever find life on distant worlds.
"Is life a universal phenomenon, a planetary process just like plate tectonics?" Anbar asks. "Or is life some weird statistical fluke? The only way we can answer that is by searching."
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| Who knows what life will be like when contact is a made |
Generations of scientists and science-fiction fans have thought we would find life strewn throughout the stars. But for decades the evidence was thin. Now, thanks to sophisticated probes, space telescopes and rovers, the data is on the side of the believers.
Astrobiologists say that the watery worlds in stars' habitable zones, where life is most likely to be found, are still the likeliest places to search for life.
New studies show that organisms may thrive far beyond the boundary of a star'shabitable zone in more extreme environments, including desert worlds and hurtling asteroids. In our own solar system, Jupiter and Saturn are outside of the sun's habitable zone, according to the standard definition, yet several of their moons are considered among the most promising sites to search.
Desch is quoted in the article as saying, "If life might exist in the subsurface oceans of moons, heated by their own radioactivity, then no distance from the sun is too far. It's beginning to look like the definition of a habitable zone is out the window."
Anbar points out that distant star systems will have varying proportions of elements such as carbon, oxygen and silicon. Such variety could drive evolution in hard-to-imagine directions. "The things we can conceive of are probably a very small set of the possibilities that are out there," Anbar says. "We know we're going to be surprised."
However, there is no guarantee we'll ever find life on distant worlds.
"Is life a universal phenomenon, a planetary process just like plate tectonics?" Anbar asks. "Or is life some weird statistical fluke? The only way we can answer that is by searching."
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