Life in the Universe

published August 27, 2009

One of the questions that drives astronomers is the question of life. Is there other life in the solar system? In the universe? Is it 'intelligent' life? NASA has several projects in the works to answer these questions. While the oddmakers can count on there definitely being life in the universe, the big questions is where? The 10 most likely places are listed below, and some are surprising.

 

Venus - Ray Bradbury described Venus in the Illustrated Man as a thick jungle where there was constant rain. We know now that this isn't the case. Venus is widely regarded as incapable of harboring life, but it still is a possibility. Venus is very close to the same size of Earth, and at one point (about 4 billion years ago) the sun was 40% cooler, making Venus a perfect candidate to have water and to harbor life. As far as we know, life requires water and carbon based life forms. We don't know if the thick clouds of Venus could have a different type of life. It's been suggested that bacteria could be floating within the thick clouds of Venus.

I'm your Venus. I'm your fire, your one desire.

 

Mars - Mars has been a constant disappointment. We've thought there were canals, sprawling cities, active rivers, and even a huge dome shaped like a human face. We even found a Martian rock in Antarctica that supposedly had bacteria fossils on it. After extensive study, it remains inconclusive if it was a fossil or just a geological formation. Lately there have been encouraging finds on Mars. Water ice has been found there, and the presence of methane in the atmosphere is considered a potential byproduct of life somewhere on Mars. However if there is life on Mars, it's likely microorganisms underground and not a super advanced civilization that will take over Earth.

Alien life on Mars was once believe to look like this. They communicate using noises like "Arghg, Arghghgharghg. Argaraaaarghgha."

 

Europa - The Earth is primarily made of silicate rock with an iron core, with an oxygen rich atmosphere. Europa is also like this. Europa is a moon of Jupiter, just smaller than our own moon. It's completely covered in ice. The intriguing thing is that Europa has tides, which means there is liquid water layer under the ice. Europa has water, oxygen, tides, and seasons, but could it have life? Europa is quite possibly the most likely place life can exist in our solar system. Researchers have went into similar conditions in Antarctica, and while no large life forms like fish were found, there certainly was microbial life.

One of King Jupiter's fine bitches.

 

Enceladus - This is one of the smaller moons of Saturn, not Spanish for salad. Not much was known about this moon until about 2005. Enceladus is essentially a miniature Europa. It has the icy surface and potential for a layer of saltwater under it. It's better described in this quote from Robert H. Brown.

"So you've got subsurface liquid water, simple organics and water vapor welling up from below. Over time -- and Enceladus has been around 4.5 billion years, just like Earth and the rest of the solar system -- heating a cocktail of simple organics, water and nitrogen could form some of the most basic building blocks of life,"  - Robert H. Brown of The University of Arizona.

A perfect snowball in the sky.

 

Titan - Titan is Saturn's largest moon, about 50% larger than our own moon. Potential for life on this moon may seem remote because of the lack of liquid water. Titan does have liquid hydrocarbon lakes. It also has a nitrogen rich atmosphere with traces of methane. Whether or not this combination can support life is unknown.

If we run out of oil on Earth, we could be able to get it from Titan.

 

Planemos - Planemos are an interesting idea. A Planemo is essentially a planet without a star - a planet just wandering through the darkness of space. There is also the curious case of planets that are too small to become a star, yet larger than any planet we know of. Cha 110913 is an example of this. The lack of any type of energy from a star could prove difficult for life to exist on any of these planemos, but it's hard to count them out with all the life potentials in moons of our own solar system.

Sun on the left, Jupiter on the right. Cha 110913 in the middle.

 

Extrasolar Planets - Life on extrasolar planets is not a potential, but an inevitability. Researchers have concluded that there are at least 351 intelligent civilizations in our galaxy, and as many as 38,000. This takes into effect all the stars like our own, the probability of a planet in the habitable zone, and the development and unlikeliness of life. We've discovered around 400 planets outside of our solar system, but all are too massive to harbor life (we think). NASA's Kepler Mission is out to discover exactly this. It's not just after planets, it's after Earthlike planets. We may discover a perfect Earthlike planet within 5-10 years.

 

Wandering Spaceships - This theory is straight out of Wall-E or Battlestar Galactica. Imagine human technology in a mere million years. Now imagine if we had knowledge of the Earth's destruction and had to abandon our dear home. It's quite possible that we'd have the potential to have a massive ship to head to other systems. Technology would provide enough power to run it indefinitely, and we could have onboard agriculture. The possibility definitely exists, and perhaps there are civilizations already out there in a similar situation.

Time to get the hell out of there!

 

Comets - There is a strange idea called "Panspermia," in which comets deposited life on Earth, rather than Earth developing it. Essentially comets impregnated mother Earth. It is true that comets have organic molecules within the ice and rocks. While life would not survive on a comet, these organic molecules can. Placed into a nurturing environment like Earth, they would thrive. So while we will probably never find actual life on a comet, there is that strange feeling of comets being 'cosmic sperm' looking for an 'egg' like ancient Earth to impregnate.

"Panspermia" isn't a coincidental term.

 

Parallel Universes - Now we get into the theoretical where there are infinite possibilities to an infinite amount of universes. Maybe you're a viking in one universe, and a pirate in a different one. A lesbian who directs women's films could be a U.S. Senator (Lindsey Graham) in a different universe. Maybe the laws of gravity do not apply in a different universe. Perhaps there actually is a 'Bizarro' universe where everything is opposite. Who knows?

 

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