Space, The Final Frontier
9 March, 2008. | Post by Adam RNow we know theres a lot of mysterious things out there, and this is just what the government actually lets us know, but what do you really think of space?
A catchy line made by a very broadly watched t.v show, star trek was among the first to explore the possibilities in outer space, but was it all just stories, or is there really life out there? This blog has been a while because I decided I wanted to do some research into what we know about It all.
Space being as big as it is, there must be other planets like our own that can sustain life, therefore I believe there must be life out there, if it happened on earth, it must have happened elsewhere. But would they really be more advanced than us? Maybe there at the same stages, or maybe (as explored in Stargate SG1) there are civilisations such as ours, but they skipped certain events, such as the Dark Ages, over 800 years where there was no significant scientific breakthroughs.
Has the human race fulfilled its potential, or are we all just major slackers? There are so many questions to ask, but will we ever truly know the answers. Surely if there was such thing as a superior race out there, they would limit our knowledge so not to match their own civilisation, because I would bet my left hand at some point we would try to wipe them out.
So up to now, what has been released to the public, the most likely planets in our solar system able to sustain life are Mars, Europa and Titan. Mars being our neighbours, if there was sustained life as a civilisation, they could not be as advanced or more advanced than us, or contact would be made, unless they are simply monitoring our progress?
As a general theory, many scientists working into life in space believe that since:
The Earth is a rocky planet, so it seems sensible to look for life on other rocky planets too. We can ignore Mercury, because it’s too close to the Sun, so it’s too hot. And Pluto is too cold and far away to support life.
At first glance, Venus is an inhospitable planet. It is cloaked in thick clouds of sulphuric acid. These trap heat and fry the planet to over 500ºC.
Unsurprisingly, Venus was assumed to be a dead world. But now some scientists think life could survive in the clouds.
But the most likely candidate is Mars. Out of all the planets in the Solar System, Mars is most like Earth. And it’s also the most likely to contain life.
Maybe we are looking for life in the wrong places? There are no rules in the universe stating that no type of life can exist in temperatures of that mercury has, or the cold of pluto. Even with the moon having no atmosphere, maybe thats the right setting for one of the billions of life-forms that could be out there.
Mars is the planet in our solar system most similar to earth, Primitive life could thrive close to the thermal-vents that are dotted around the planets surface. It’s said that it is too cold right now for life to exist on mars, but that doesn’t prove it never has, or never will. Or even that it doesn’t. Some other pointers arguing that life could, or could have existed on mars are:
It has a similar temperature
At present, it’s too cold for liquid water to exist on the surface. But the planet may have been warmer in the past.
It has an atmosphere
The atmosphere is much thinner than on Earth. Plus there’s not much ozone to protect the planet from the Sun’s harmful UV rays. But the atmosphere may have been thicker millions of years ago.
It has a rocky surface
This makes it easier for life to get a foothold. On rocky planets, all the necessary chemicals for life can collect in one place, rather than floating freely through a gassy atmosphere.
It has polar ice caps
These expand and contract with the planet’s seasons. Although the ice is mostly frozen carbon dioxide, there is probably water there too. So like the Earth, Mars could also have a water cycle.
Its all very interesting, that our neighbouring planet could sustain life similar to our own, or could have. Even discovering fossils, or a form of bacteria on the planet would prove that there is other life in our solar system, which is a tiny spec in the vast span of the universe.
In 1996, NASA scientists announced that they may have proof of life on Mars. They had found what looked like fossilised bacteria in a meteorite that had once been part of the Red Planet.
The scientists knew the meteorite was from Mars because it contained traces of gas similar to that found in the Martian atmosphere. By studying it, there were able to tell that it had once had liquid water flowing through it. They also detected organic chemicals similar to those found when bacteria decay.
But many experts are still not convinced that the objects in the meteorite are fossils. They are a lot smaller than bacteria on Earth. They are also a similar shape to many naturally occurring mineral deposits. The argument rages on.
Europe, one of the moons of jupiter, has a surface temperature of -170 degrees celsius. Thats pretty cold, but underneath the surface, there is no way to prove is there is an ocean or not. Water being, as we know it, the main essential for sustaining life. Jupiter’s huge gravity holds it in orbit. But Europa also feels a pull from the other moons around the planet. Different forces, all pulling in different directions, yank Europa’s surface out of shape as it travels through space. These are called ‘tidal forces’.
These tidal forces heat up the moon’s core. If the forces are strong enough, then the core could heat up enough to melt the frozen water surrounding it. Nasa plan on launching a prove called Europe Orbitar this year, to further study this mysterious frozen moon.
Titan, also a moon, but one coated with gas that could house chemical rain, storms, gas pockets, thermal vents, or even possibly life? Another which is said to be too cold to sustain life, but maybe once it did, or maybe it houses an advanced alien civilisation with the capabilities to survive at such a low temperature.
Carbon is the building blocks to human life, a mineral of which Titan is rich off. It would easily be a very fertile moon, or world. Titan is a world very different to our home planet. Shrouded by a thick orange haze, clouds possibly, the only way to see past is to land on the place itself.
In January 2005, the Huygens probe landed on this mysterious moon. The images sent back showed what looked like channels draining liquid into some sort of dark lake, or maybe a sea. This may be the only place in our solar system, other than earth, that still has liquid running across it’s surface. Although liquid is not water, it is Liquid Methane or Ethane.
The atmosphere on this world is based on nitrogen, but contains Methane and traces of organic materials, very similar to what Earth’s atmosphere was said to be when our existence began. This world as named, aptly, after the Titans in Greek mythology. Two of Saturn’s other moons also are named after characters from this mythology.
Basically what im trying to say it, there is in fact, at this moment in time proving if there is more life out there, or not. But isn’t it exciting to imagine what could be?
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