Earth is small. Many people find it hard to believe, but when one thinks of earth in its context, amongst billions of galaxies, stars, planets, and an infinite universe, earth is a mere grain of sand on the beach that is space. With this in mind, one may, quite understandably, find it hard to believe that earth is the only planet that sustains life. With today’s advanced technology and science, extensive evidence has been found suggesting a great likelihood of life on other planets. The discovery of life on other planets has huge implications for humankind, as it would likely give a more thorough understanding of what human life is, how it came to be, and possibly even insight into why humans exist.
Oftentimes, people ignore rhetoric regarding the possibility of life on other planets. This may be for religious reasons or because many people see it as more science fiction that scientific, but there is a substantial difference between Hollywood’s perception of aliens and what is likely to be the first extraterrestrial life discovered (Borenstein). In all reality, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and a few other basic elements are all it takes to create the miracle of life, and these chemicals could exist in countless places other than earth (Bryson 2). Some life may not even require that, like the microbe found in a lake in California, which was able to survive on arsenic and phosphorus alone (Borenstein). According to Borenstein, the “life” that scientists are looking for is more accurately described as a life form or microbial slime, much like the microbes that became humans via evolution.
Approximately 140 billion galaxies inhabit the universe, with somewhere between one hundred billion and four hundred billion stars in Earth...
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Bryson, Bill. A Short History of Nearly Everything. New York: Broadway Books, 2003. Print.
Cohen, Daniel. The Ancient Visitors: Have Creatures from Other Planets Ever Lived On Earth? Garden City, NY: Double & Comp., Inc., 1976. Print.
Kaufman, Marc. “Reaching for the Stars: It’s Alive Out There! Scientists Seek Out the Evidence.” McClathy-Tribute News Service. 17 June 2011: n.p. Web. 15 Mar 2012.
Spotts, Pete. “In Search of Life, More Planet ‘Candidates’ Are Found. Are Any Just Right?” Christian Science Monitor. 12 Sep 2011:n.p. Web. 15 Mar 2012.
"Story of the Universe." European Space Agency, 2011. Web. 15 Apr 2012.
There is a cultural assumption that there are many alien civilizations in the universe. However, what do we really know about extraterrestrial life? With recent findings of water on Mars and the discovery of Trappist-1, there could be hope for extraterrestrial life out in the universe. Even though the water on Mars is frozen under the polar ice caps and Trappist-1 could be far from finding any alien life, there are still many articles supporting the research and looking forward to finding additional news. In the article “Could the TRAPPSIT-1 worlds harbor alien life?’ written by Liz Fuller-Wright, she reports the announcement of astronomers that they found a miniature solar system of seven Earth-sized planets. Furthermore, the argument is effective towards bright individuals because it makes one think about what it will be if there was actually life outside of Earth.
It is during this phase of planetary formation that all the requirements for life were most likely gathered (Lammer et al., 2009)
Linden, Eugene. "Ideas: How the Earth Maintains Life an Intriguing Scientific Theory Continues to Win Adherents." {Time} 13 Nov. 1989: 114.
The vastness of space holds many mysteries. One such mystery has puzzled scientists for hundreds of years; that of the abiogenesis of life. Exactly how can such complex organic structures blossom from nothing more than large chunks of elementally simplistic rock?
[9] Ward, Peter D.; Brownlee, Donald (2000). Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe. Copernicus Books (Springer Verlag). ISBN 0-387-98701-0.
The existence of life – Aliens, beyond our planet has been a controversial topic for several centuries, and is a debatable issue even today in the 21st century. What is our topic you may ask? Aliens, Do, Exist. According to theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking, it would be improbable for life not to exist somewhere other than Earth. This is a bold claim, but there is evidence to support this statement. The evidence we seek is in the many Alien occurrences we have experienced throughout human history.
It is without a doubt that the most fascinating thing about space is the possibility of life elsewhere beside Earth. It is estimated that the Milky Way Galaxy itself contains about 300 billion stars. Each star contains planets and some planets might even have moons. With these findings, the question is no longer whether life exists elsewhere. The probability that Earth is the only place where life exists in the universe is far too slim. NASA has identified many planets that have similar conditions to Earth but most of these planets are hundreds of light years away so traveling there to find out if there’s any living organism is not easy. Luckily, scientific evidences have pointed out that one of the moons of Jupiter, Europa, could be one of the places where life can exist. If the theories proposed by astronomers about Europa are true, life on Europa might not even be entirely different than life near the bottom of Earth’s oceans.
Have you ever looked up in the sky and wondered if there is life elsewhere in the universe? Have you ever looked at a photograph of Mars and wondered if there really was ever life on it? People have a wide variety of opinions regarding these questions and with good reason. As far back as the broadcast of H. G. Well's novel, "The War of the Worlds", the world has been fascinated with the possibilities of what Mars may hold. Over time, the majority of people have come to realize that there is no way that life can currently be on Mars. Those who are uncertain think there may be microscopic bacteria underground.
The findings in this book could easily be compared to real findings, throughout history we have been looking at finding proof for existence of life out in the universe and we have found several meteorites throughout times. Though they are not as significant as the discovery in the book where they are found during presidential elections and with fossils on it, but today when people are looking in space and saying our future lies there; reading the book has made everything just more interesting and exciting. "If this discovery is confirmed, it will surely be one of the most stunning insights into our universe that science has ever uncovered. Its implications are as far-reaching and awe-inspiring as can be imagined. Even as it promises answer to some of our oldest questions, it poses still others even more fundamental"
The Universe is a collection of millions of galaxies and extends beyond human imagination. After the big bang, the universe was found to be composed of radiation and subatomic particles. Information following big bang is arguable on how galaxies formed, that is whether small particles merged to form clusters and eventually galaxies or whether the universe systematized as immense clumps of matter that later fragmented into galaxies (Nasa World book, 2013). A galaxy is a massive area of empty space full of dust, gases (mainly 75% Hydrogen and 25%Helium), atoms, about 100-200 billion stars, interstellar clouds and planets, attracted to the center by gravitational force of attraction. Based on recent research, 170 billion galaxies have been estimated to exist, with only tens of thousands been discovered (Deutsch, 2011).
According to these verses, God created man in His image to inhabit the Earth, not to dwell on Mars. Five planets in the night sky are visible with the naked eye—Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury. Named after the Roman gods, these celestial bodies have been observed since the earliest of time. Associating the reddish color with the bloodshed of war, the Romans named the fourth planet from the sun after their god of war—Mars. The search for the life on this planet has cost billions of dollars, and scientists have focused so much on Mars because it is the only other planet in the habitable zone of our solar system. Although much research has been done on the habitability of Mars, the necessary elements to sustain human life have yet to be discovered. Based on distant observation and robotically retrieved data, scientists have long speculated that the conditions on Mars give hope of life. However, closer examination of the conditions on Mars, the necessary elements for life, and the findings of multiple rover missions will reveal that the environment on Mars is ultimately incapable of supporting human life.
While this idea may seem straight out of a science fiction movie, some evidence suggests that an extraterrestrial origin of life may not be such impossible idea.
Two galaxies which are believed to revolve around our own are the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds. Only visible from the Southern Hemisphere, Magellan, the famous European explorer, was the first to describe these galaxies. Even though we know a great amount more than the astronomers in the past, there is still an even larger amount we do not know about the universe to this day. Even our own solar system contains many questions yet to be answered. Some of these include the possibility of a planet beyond Pluto (Planet X), the means by which the system was created, and even the possibility of a sister star to the Sun named Nemesis.
One of the most common unanswered questions scientists find themselves asking is "Is there life on other planets?" Since the first famously documented UFO sighting in 1947, the idea of extra-terrestrial life has been debated almost non-stop. The subject has inspired many TV programs, such as The X-Files, and films (Mars Attacks, Independence Day, and the Men in Black films to name but a few). Scientists have come up with many new ideas and ways of trying to either prove or disprove the existence of life elsewhere.
Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA, has said that “the origin of life appears to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have to be satisfied to get it going” (Horgan 27).2 Noted evolutionary astronomer Frederick Hoyle has described the chances of life having evolved from nonlife to be about as likely as the chances that “a tornado sweeping through a junkyard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein” (Johnson 106). Why do respected scientists doubt what textbooks teach as fact? It would appear that these scientists know something that current theories describing the origin of life fail to explain. While current theories describe scenarios in which genetic material such as RNA becomes entrapped in a protective cell membrane as a likely recipe for the formation of life, they generally do not focus on the difficulties of forming and concentrating all of these components in the first place.3 To clarify, current theories suffer from what I call the “cookbook mentality.