Life on Other Planets When we talk about life on other planets we are probably just skimming over the subject. This subject has to be examined with a lot more depth than we currently see. I think our minds are not open enough to the fact life may be able to exist even in space without any atmosphere at all. Currently, scientists tell us there are certain planets within what is known as the Goldilocks zone. This is just an area where a planet receives enough light and heat which scientists think is necessary for life. If a planet is outside of this zone scientists think it will either be too hot or too cold to sustain life. Of course, there are many other factors according to scientists such as having an atmosphere. I am not talking about just any atmosphere, I am talking about one which they perceive could support life as we know it and that is the very problem. The problem is the “as we know it” part of that statement. Maybe the statement should say maybe an atmosphere might not be necessary for life and even a poisonous one might be able to support a type of life we know nothing about. I don’t know how many people have noticed the news article which states our moon once had an atmosphere which lasted for seventy million years. Supposedly it was created by volcanic eruptions. The statement volcanic eruptions, does make me wonder, since NASA has found the moon to be hollow, but for now let’s assume there was volcanic eruptions. One can only imagine how caustic the atmosphere created by this method might be. You could say nothing could be sustained in this type of atmosphere, but how do we know that for sure? We are assuming every living thing has to breathe and has skin which would be susceptible to this type of atmosphere. We used to think this about life on this planet until we found forms of life which lived near the boiling water in ocean vents at the bottom of the sea. This boiling water had absolutely no effect on the life and this life would gather around these vents for nutrition. Why is it many scientists don’t consider this fact when they are looking for alien life? If we consider the fact some ocean life can exist under tremendous pressure at the bottom of the sea and yet function normally, maybe we should consider the fact there could be life in places which we thought no life could exist. Let’s look at the planet Venus. Venus is the closest planet in size to the earth and nearer to the sun than we are. Venus is closer to us than Mars and yet Mars is the target for future colonization, why is that? One of the reason is Venus has a very thick atmosphere which keeps the heat in and it is so hot on Venus lead will melt on the surface. The atmosphere itself is so heavy on the surface probes which were sent there got crushed. Even if this fact wasn’t true the atmosphere is not breathable for humans. Looking at these facts and comparing them to the conditions at the bottom of our oceans shows some similarities. As I said, the area around the vents at the bottom of the ocean has boiling water coming out of it, the pressure at the bottom of the ocean is intense. In a way these two conditions are similar to the conditions on Venus and yet life exists at the bottom of the ocean. Could it be life exists on Venus and we just don’t know it? As crazy as it sounds maybe some type of life can exist everywhere. Wouldn’t it be something if there was life on the sun, which reminds me of an old joke. Astronauts from a small country were getting ready to land on the sun when somebody asked them isn’t the sun too hot to land on? The head astronauts said that’s why we are going at night. I don’t really think life could exist on the sun in any form, but not knowing what all forms of life would look like and what they would need to exist means we can’t rule out anything. Maybe there is some sort of hot vapor life, or plasma life we know nothing about. There is life which can live in space and we have proved that. Microscopic life known as Tardigrades and better known as Water Bears was sent into space in the year 2007 for the first time. The temperature was sub-zero and they were raked with solar winds which contain radiation and deprived of oxygen since they were in the vacuum of space. It was said they couldn’t exist forever in space, but they could last for quite a while. The animals are able to shut down almost all of their biological functions when they are put in an environment which is not conducive to supporting life. Only the very basic functions remained to keep them alive. They are amazing creatures which can be found everywhere on the planet earth from the frozen tundra to the hot deserts. This in itself is interesting, because it shows almost any environment will do well for these creatures. Perhaps there is life somewhere which is able to duplicate the biological functions of the Tardigrades. When we think of barriers to life we might even be on the wrong track, since there may be some form of life which can overcome a particular barrier and maybe even all barriers. As a matter of fact, this is one of the dangers we face when we explore other planets. Let me give you an example of what I am talking about. There have been many problems with species which were not native to certain lands on earth which stowed away on ships or were brought somewhere as pets and such. Some of these species were dominant and destroyed the local wildlife. Can you imagine what would happen if we brought back life from another planet and it took over areas on this planet and destroyed the local wildlife or worse yet, we brought back microscopic life which infected all of us and we had no cure? I know it sounds like the stuff of horror movies, but it is entirely possible. We have already infected other planets, since NASA admitted to not having sterilized a part correctly on one of the Rovers we sent to Mars. Our entire way of thinking about alien life both intelligent and not intelligent could be completely wrong. As we travel through space we may be in for some big surprises, we might even find intelligent races living not on a planet, but in space itself. |
