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6 arguments in favor of what we are about to find life in space
Wait is nedolgoPo said a woman named Ellen Stofan, over the next 30 years we will have proof of the existence of extraterrestrial life. And no, it is not a psychic with a television and not the author of the National Enquirer. She - the leading scientist of NASA, so that probably knows what he's talking about. For decades, science has kept telling us that the prospects of finding life on other planets is no more realistic than in the plot of the series "Star Trek." Gradually, however, science is beginning to change their minds, especially in light of recent discoveries, such as ...
1. NASA have proved that life can arise in an open kosmosaNesmotrya the fact that the fungus grows well on the bathroom walls, life can not occur anywhere. Open space, for example, is so inhospitable that even the basic components of life can not survive there.
More specifically, we thought, until recently, researchers from NASA experiment, during which they were able to reconstruct the building blocks of life, and the primary particles of the genetic material in the space. Under the outer space here means environment artificially modeled in the Research Center Ames in Silicon Valley. The experiment demonstrated that the cosmos is infested with all sorts of biological goodies that may crumble on the planet and wreak life.
See our stupid cave ancestors (read: we are five months ago), we believe that the first terrestrial organisms arose from something akin to stew stew, what was the early Earth as a unique combination of hydrothermal vents and solar radiation has resulted in it elements of life. But the experiment by NASA shows that the genetic basis for the formation of life, not only do not need the unique environmental conditions, you do not even need a planet. NASA took all organic compounds that occur in space, put them in a "cosmic microwave" and exposed to UV radiation as long as there have not been received key components of RNA and DNA: uracil, cytosine and thymine.
And most importantly, this scenario is likely, suitable for any part of the universe. All that is needed to implement it - are some quite affordable chemical compounds so little solar radiation - and that you already have a molecule with the potential for the emergence of life. Just do not forget to wash your hands afterwards.
2. It turns out there are a lot of planets suitable for zhizniKonechno, you can create all the molecules in space, what you want, but the sense from them is not too much, until they are on some planet where they can survive. And the earth - the only such a planet, right?
Yes, it is, but it is still a damn wrong. Let's start with our own Milky Way: a broad spiral size of 100,000 light-years, which, obviously, is home to the only intelligent species. Or not, because in 2013, astronomers from Berkeley and the University of Hawaii have come to the conclusion that the number of potentially habitable property in our galaxy is staggering: it is believed that revolves around their stars at least twenty billion planets like Earth. And at least one of them may be a reasonable life.
Astronomers have extrapolated the number of data received by the Observatory Kepler. Orbital space telescope detects planets by observing certain stars and fixing the times when a star falls the shadow belonging to a potential planet that can rotate around the star.
Over the past five years, 150,000 stars Kepler traced and discovered more than 4,000 planet candidates, on which life could exist. After processing the data Kepler became clear that about 20% of stars in our galaxy have their own planet. The closest counterpart Earth lives about 12 light-years from us, and it is often possible to see even the naked eye.
And what this leads to a universal scale? In addition, there are at least several hundred billion galaxies, which are potentially a billion trillion Earth-like planets - and that's just about stars like our sun. In addition, this does not include exomoon that may be just as suitable for life as a planet.
3. Life began on Earth billions of years before we dumaliKonechno, so that life began on the planet, it does not just have to be in the perfect place for this. Her age must also be perfect. Remember, the earth - the four billion years of change, but life on it there was somewhere in the middle of this period of time.
At that time the earth was steaming garbage with toxic atmosphere. Even if habitable planets pass through billions of years of infertility, the chances of finding life on them at this particular time is quite slim, right?
Not really. In February this year, scientists announced that they have evidence that life arose from the primordial soup in a billion years earlier than previously thought, and that the first organisms arose 3, 2 billion years ago. They found that, after analyzing the very old rocks in Australia and finding in them the ancient evidence of the transformation of nitrogen. A nitrogen for the earliest organisms were something like catnip.
These simple creatures as the theory goes, migrated from their submarine shelters and quickly spread over the ground, forming a living film, traces of which were found in rocks. These organisms devoured nitrogen from the atmosphere, replacing it with oxygen and forming an atmosphere suitable for breathing multicellular organisms future.
4. We found examples of life existing in extreme conditions, right here on ZemleVozmozhno, evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial life can be found directly on our planet, where even the most hostile environment often becomes home to a variety of creatures, whose views range from simply disgusting to " hell, what is it ?! »
A piece of rotting skin, which you can see below - is the deep-water fish ever discovered.
It belongs to the family Snailfish - this is all that is known about it, for the reason that the scientists involved in the classification can not look at it without tears. This fish lives at a depth of 8,000 meters under the water, and there it looks like a hell of lettuce garnish for Cthulhu. Her thin body does not fit with the enormous pressure of water, which she has to endure, and through the transparent, paper-thin skin looked through the liver and genitals.
And the deeper we go, the uglier it becomes life.
At a depth of more than 7 kilometers away, scientists have discovered a giant "albino shrimp" that look like the main course, bring to the table in Giger's nightmares. By the way, scientists believe that these creatures are about a year without food.
Active ecosystems were found even at the bottom of the ocean. In the Mariana Trench, the depth of which is nearly 11 kilometers away, is a real breeding ground for bacteria and other small creatures.
No less hardy species have been found in other extreme conditions: recently, for example, researchers have learned 30,000-year-old virus from its ancient Antarctic grave. Despite this long peremorozku, the virus has become dangerous once thawed. And since we are talking about viruses ...
5. Molds and lichens kosmosKak like we've already figured out, life is stronger than we thought, and some organisms thrive by being placed in a hostile environment. Mold spores sent into space, returned unharmed after 18 months on the external surface of the ISS. Some of them are less resistant to UV radiation, were killed in that great space travel, but a large part is still back home.
The same thing happened in the course of exobiology research conducted by the European Space Agency. They launched into low Earth orbit machine, full of lichens (tiny communities of algae and fungal cells). The deadly vacuum of space affected the lichen within 14 days, and then they returned to Earth without damage to itself.
In fact, life in outer space was so strong that it has become a problem for NASA. Microbes in the inner parts of the space station multiply incredibly quickly. Even breathing astronauts can carry living creatures that settle on surfaces station and destroy the fragile boundaries separating people at the station from a painful death. In light of all this, NASA are trying hard not to pollute the earth station microflora.
6. Water in the solar system povsyuduKakoe while, it seemed that the space is drier than the Sahara today. However, NASA and other space agencies authoritative believe that the universe - a giant water park and even our solar system where the wetter place than we expected.
To illustrate this, NASA released infographic detailing the status of several (potential) sources of water, each of which is located close enough that it can be investigated with the help of modern technology. Even distant Pluto's tiny and has a potentially wet ecosystem with spectacular geysers.
Recently, we sensed on Ganymede, a large illegitimate child of Jupiter and the largest moon in the Solar System, the smell of sea salt. Or rather - in Ganymede, as astronomers believe that in the bowels of the satellite is the ocean, which can reach a depth of 60 km. Obviously, in this satellite water reserves greater than the Earth's surface, and this water makes it look like an enormous matryoshka.
Still there is Enceladus, moon of Saturn, who never ceases to amaze us with their hospitality. There has just been mentioned geysers and subterranean oceans, but the recent discovery of geothermal sources on Enceladus give astrobiologists strong reason to pause. Geothermal vents on Enceladus suspiciously like those that litter the bottom of our own oceans, and one erupts the same type of organic sludge, as on Earth.
And Mars was obviously a tropical paradise 4, 5 billion years ago. On its northern hemisphere it has a huge sea water which was more than in the Arctic Ocean. For hundreds of millions of years, water has covered a fifth of the planet, and only after that it gradually evaporated, leaving us the desert we see today.
So if we do not soon find evidence of extraterrestrial life, it is probably only because she was hiding from us.
via www.cracked.com/article_22338_6-reasons-were-closer-to-discovering-aliens-than-you-think_p2.html
1. NASA have proved that life can arise in an open kosmosaNesmotrya the fact that the fungus grows well on the bathroom walls, life can not occur anywhere. Open space, for example, is so inhospitable that even the basic components of life can not survive there.
More specifically, we thought, until recently, researchers from NASA experiment, during which they were able to reconstruct the building blocks of life, and the primary particles of the genetic material in the space. Under the outer space here means environment artificially modeled in the Research Center Ames in Silicon Valley. The experiment demonstrated that the cosmos is infested with all sorts of biological goodies that may crumble on the planet and wreak life.
See our stupid cave ancestors (read: we are five months ago), we believe that the first terrestrial organisms arose from something akin to stew stew, what was the early Earth as a unique combination of hydrothermal vents and solar radiation has resulted in it elements of life. But the experiment by NASA shows that the genetic basis for the formation of life, not only do not need the unique environmental conditions, you do not even need a planet. NASA took all organic compounds that occur in space, put them in a "cosmic microwave" and exposed to UV radiation as long as there have not been received key components of RNA and DNA: uracil, cytosine and thymine.
And most importantly, this scenario is likely, suitable for any part of the universe. All that is needed to implement it - are some quite affordable chemical compounds so little solar radiation - and that you already have a molecule with the potential for the emergence of life. Just do not forget to wash your hands afterwards.
2. It turns out there are a lot of planets suitable for zhizniKonechno, you can create all the molecules in space, what you want, but the sense from them is not too much, until they are on some planet where they can survive. And the earth - the only such a planet, right?
Yes, it is, but it is still a damn wrong. Let's start with our own Milky Way: a broad spiral size of 100,000 light-years, which, obviously, is home to the only intelligent species. Or not, because in 2013, astronomers from Berkeley and the University of Hawaii have come to the conclusion that the number of potentially habitable property in our galaxy is staggering: it is believed that revolves around their stars at least twenty billion planets like Earth. And at least one of them may be a reasonable life.
Astronomers have extrapolated the number of data received by the Observatory Kepler. Orbital space telescope detects planets by observing certain stars and fixing the times when a star falls the shadow belonging to a potential planet that can rotate around the star.
Over the past five years, 150,000 stars Kepler traced and discovered more than 4,000 planet candidates, on which life could exist. After processing the data Kepler became clear that about 20% of stars in our galaxy have their own planet. The closest counterpart Earth lives about 12 light-years from us, and it is often possible to see even the naked eye.
And what this leads to a universal scale? In addition, there are at least several hundred billion galaxies, which are potentially a billion trillion Earth-like planets - and that's just about stars like our sun. In addition, this does not include exomoon that may be just as suitable for life as a planet.
3. Life began on Earth billions of years before we dumaliKonechno, so that life began on the planet, it does not just have to be in the perfect place for this. Her age must also be perfect. Remember, the earth - the four billion years of change, but life on it there was somewhere in the middle of this period of time.
At that time the earth was steaming garbage with toxic atmosphere. Even if habitable planets pass through billions of years of infertility, the chances of finding life on them at this particular time is quite slim, right?
Not really. In February this year, scientists announced that they have evidence that life arose from the primordial soup in a billion years earlier than previously thought, and that the first organisms arose 3, 2 billion years ago. They found that, after analyzing the very old rocks in Australia and finding in them the ancient evidence of the transformation of nitrogen. A nitrogen for the earliest organisms were something like catnip.
These simple creatures as the theory goes, migrated from their submarine shelters and quickly spread over the ground, forming a living film, traces of which were found in rocks. These organisms devoured nitrogen from the atmosphere, replacing it with oxygen and forming an atmosphere suitable for breathing multicellular organisms future.
4. We found examples of life existing in extreme conditions, right here on ZemleVozmozhno, evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial life can be found directly on our planet, where even the most hostile environment often becomes home to a variety of creatures, whose views range from simply disgusting to " hell, what is it ?! »
A piece of rotting skin, which you can see below - is the deep-water fish ever discovered.
It belongs to the family Snailfish - this is all that is known about it, for the reason that the scientists involved in the classification can not look at it without tears. This fish lives at a depth of 8,000 meters under the water, and there it looks like a hell of lettuce garnish for Cthulhu. Her thin body does not fit with the enormous pressure of water, which she has to endure, and through the transparent, paper-thin skin looked through the liver and genitals.
And the deeper we go, the uglier it becomes life.
At a depth of more than 7 kilometers away, scientists have discovered a giant "albino shrimp" that look like the main course, bring to the table in Giger's nightmares. By the way, scientists believe that these creatures are about a year without food.
Active ecosystems were found even at the bottom of the ocean. In the Mariana Trench, the depth of which is nearly 11 kilometers away, is a real breeding ground for bacteria and other small creatures.
No less hardy species have been found in other extreme conditions: recently, for example, researchers have learned 30,000-year-old virus from its ancient Antarctic grave. Despite this long peremorozku, the virus has become dangerous once thawed. And since we are talking about viruses ...
5. Molds and lichens kosmosKak like we've already figured out, life is stronger than we thought, and some organisms thrive by being placed in a hostile environment. Mold spores sent into space, returned unharmed after 18 months on the external surface of the ISS. Some of them are less resistant to UV radiation, were killed in that great space travel, but a large part is still back home.
The same thing happened in the course of exobiology research conducted by the European Space Agency. They launched into low Earth orbit machine, full of lichens (tiny communities of algae and fungal cells). The deadly vacuum of space affected the lichen within 14 days, and then they returned to Earth without damage to itself.
In fact, life in outer space was so strong that it has become a problem for NASA. Microbes in the inner parts of the space station multiply incredibly quickly. Even breathing astronauts can carry living creatures that settle on surfaces station and destroy the fragile boundaries separating people at the station from a painful death. In light of all this, NASA are trying hard not to pollute the earth station microflora.
6. Water in the solar system povsyuduKakoe while, it seemed that the space is drier than the Sahara today. However, NASA and other space agencies authoritative believe that the universe - a giant water park and even our solar system where the wetter place than we expected.
To illustrate this, NASA released infographic detailing the status of several (potential) sources of water, each of which is located close enough that it can be investigated with the help of modern technology. Even distant Pluto's tiny and has a potentially wet ecosystem with spectacular geysers.
Recently, we sensed on Ganymede, a large illegitimate child of Jupiter and the largest moon in the Solar System, the smell of sea salt. Or rather - in Ganymede, as astronomers believe that in the bowels of the satellite is the ocean, which can reach a depth of 60 km. Obviously, in this satellite water reserves greater than the Earth's surface, and this water makes it look like an enormous matryoshka.
Still there is Enceladus, moon of Saturn, who never ceases to amaze us with their hospitality. There has just been mentioned geysers and subterranean oceans, but the recent discovery of geothermal sources on Enceladus give astrobiologists strong reason to pause. Geothermal vents on Enceladus suspiciously like those that litter the bottom of our own oceans, and one erupts the same type of organic sludge, as on Earth.
And Mars was obviously a tropical paradise 4, 5 billion years ago. On its northern hemisphere it has a huge sea water which was more than in the Arctic Ocean. For hundreds of millions of years, water has covered a fifth of the planet, and only after that it gradually evaporated, leaving us the desert we see today.
So if we do not soon find evidence of extraterrestrial life, it is probably only because she was hiding from us.
via www.cracked.com/article_22338_6-reasons-were-closer-to-discovering-aliens-than-you-think_p2.html
