Is There Any Life Elsewhere?

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Is There Any Life Elsewhere?

We all know that there is life on Earth, but we don’t know where it came from. The title question is one that has failed to be answered with a definite response. This essay will focus on the question, but not intend to answer it, only give the reader an opportunity to answer it for themselves.

The search for Protolife

The search for protolife (the beginnings of life) and extremophiles (organisms that live in extreme environments and often requires the extreme condition for growth) is a hot new subject encompassed in Astrobiology. This because all of research into this field is a step towards knowing if we really are alone in the Universe.

As we already have a good idea of how our solar system was created, it is not outlandish to say that other systems formed in a similar way. Already scientists have discovered water masser emissions (microwaves that are likely to have been emitted from water) by using a 32 metre radio telescope. These emissions have been detected coming from a Gas Giant in the Upsilon Andromedae system.

The search for water is key to looking for life else where in the solar system. As it is believed that water is the main ingredient of life. When scientists say that they have discovered water elsewhere in the galaxy, they do not mean that have found seas of H2O, they mean that water is present but probably not is the situation that we know it. The findings in the above paragraph are a good example, the planets that are suspected to have water are Gas Giants. Therefore the water is probably in gaseous form mixed with Hydrogen and Helium and other gases found in the atmospheres of gas giants. Other things to search for are amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. Which are also important for the construction of life.  

The Moon

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The Moon is very close to the Earth, so close that man has already been there, but still we are not sure if there was or could have been any living organisms there. It is believed that there is an amount of ice underneath the lunar ice caps, in shadowed areas, which would act as a deep-freezer for anything that once lived there. If protolife was there it could have lived in the water when the Moon was warmer, and froze in the water when it cooled and would be persevered by the conditions. Also as it is in ...

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