If life can thrive here .......

[John]

Amazing discoveries from beneath the Antarctic ice sheet:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-56268439

If life can work things out there, I wonder where else in the solar system it might be lurking ?

 

 

[Nakedgun]

 

If you should ever hear of any, elsewhere, do give me a ring. 😉

[Sunshine]

Amazing, this brings to mind Saturnian moon Enceladus which is thought to have an moon wide ocean under its ice sheet.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

5 hours ago, John said:

If life can work things out there, I wonder where else in the solar system it might be lurking ?

Yes, would love to know what's going on in these sub-surface oceans under icy moons. If life is present on Europa or Enceladus it could well represent the most common form of life in the universe, there are far more moons than planets with liquid water on the surface.

But would it be complex life? Life on Earth was simple for most of its history, the first animals only appeared 800 million or so years ago once the atmosphere (and ocean) was supercharged with oxygen.

[Guest]

It is my belief that the authorities who send explorers to Mars feel that there is life or signs of past life there. The next stop is Europa. They seem to be planning their next programmes to explore Europa extensively as soon as the technology is available to them. So they must have a strong notion that they will be successful in their search. Just my views.

[johninderby]

The Europa Clipper

https://europa.nasa.gov

[wulfrun]

I think if life were found somewhere like Europa, or signs of past life found on Mars, it would point the finger at the idea of it being likely where conditions permit. That, in turn, suggest life could be commonplace throughout the universe. If it's not found despite permissible conditions, that suggests it's rare. Neither possibility is confirmed by a few observations though, so I think the search would or should continue regardless.

One thing I think few people actually consider though (except astronomers, probably) is that the size of the universe isn't the only problem. It's also the age - is contemporaneous life commonplace (or not) or is life just commonplace at any point in time (or not)? Not sure we could ever answer the second question, even given the means to explore anywhere. We can only explore the "now" (give or take) and that's an utterly insignificant part of "all". Meaning we'll never have a definitive answer - which is not a suggestion we shouldn't bother looking.

[scotty38]

Agreed, we all know that given the sheer magnitude in time and space that we're dealing with the odds are there is something, somewhere. That same space and time makes finding it (or those of us alive seeing or knowing about it) pretty much nigh on impossible especially given our infinitesimally short lifespan.

We should not stop searching though.

[Carl Au]

From here I can see a tree attemping to grow in a crack in the wall of the house opposite, where life can occur it will. Since the laws of the universe are universal it would be against all logic to imagine a universe where only one planet habours life.

Edited March 4, 2021 by Carl Au

[Davey-T]

We've made a lot of assumptions based on our own Solar System and if astronomical progress has taught us anything so far it's that there's no such thing as a normal system and if something akin to ours is needed we've found nothing remotely similar yet.

I think there's more chance of extraterrestrial life finding us than us finding it 😂

Dave

[Macavity]

I suppose, for me, the big question is... whether the [IMO] remarkable fusion of
disparate components into Eukaryotic (Thanks B.Cox) life, is found elsewhere. 🤔

Recently read an interesting article where scientists claim to identify Ancient
Pandemics via Viral DNA fragments common to ALL (surviving?) life on earth!
We may even be slightly/mostly Virus? Just the irony of it:  "Viruses are us"?!? 🙃

[Guest]

Replicating Spacecraft | Future | Fandom https://future.fandom.com/wiki/Replicating_Spacecraft

 

Von Numman probes were once discussed by Carl Sagan. I think in Carl Sagans Cosmos book.He said that one day many planets with simple life forms may see evidence of extraterrestrial visitors appear on their planets. It could be humans from Earth. It could be that we are the most advanced civilisation in our galaxy. Other beings may be pondering the question "are we alone" . They would receive their answer when we arrive on their world.

Just my penny worth.

Edited March 4, 2021 by Guest
Added text.

[Highburymark]

The ability of life to thrive in the most unlikely environments on Earth doesn’t in my view change the fact that the chances of life developing in the first place - anywhere in the cosmos - is staggeringly unlikely. 
As for intelligent life? When we consider that the Universe is 13.8 billion years old, the Earth 4.5 billion years old, and of the 3.7 billion years that life has existed, Homo sapiens only appeared 300,000 years ago..... it took evolution nearly a third the age of the Universe in  perfect conditions (on Earth) to produce Stephen Hawking, Stephen Fry, or any other brainy bloke called Stephen for that matter.

As the equally intelligent James Lovelock says: “Had the evolution of the solar system or Homo Sapiens taken a billion years longer, we wouldn’t have had time to develop the technology to cope with the heat from the ageing Sun. Ancient though our Cosmos is, it’s simply not old enough for the staggeringly improbable chain of events required to produce intelligent life to have occurred more than once. Our existence is a freakish one-off.”

Am still fascinated to find out how the rest of the Solar System developed, and we should carry on exploring, but can’t help but think discovering evidence of life is extremely unlikely.

[Frank the Troll]

Try Drakes equation

Ps my name isnt Stephen

Edited March 7, 2021 by Frank the Troll

[Stu]

45 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

Am still fascinated to find out how the rest of the Solar System developed, and we should carry on exploring, but can’t help but think discovering evidence of life is extremely unlikely.

I agree that it is unlikely we will find anything, but disagree that we are a freakish one off. Given the count less galaxies, let alone the almost immeasurable number of stars, plus the number of those stars which have planets, to me it is inevitable that life exists elsewhere.

The blocker for finding it is, as has been pointed out, the vast time spans and distances between us and ‘them’.

Oh, and I’m definitely not called Stephen either 🤣

[osbourne one-nil]

I pondered the same question after visiting Hartlepool not so long ago. 

[bish]

I"m very optimistic of some form of life other than on  the Earth. A lot less optimistic of any conclusive proof.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Earth is full of organisms that live in extreme environments. Boiling hot water in natural volcanic springs etc, so why not under or in an ice sheet. They are classed as extremophiles.

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

6 hours ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

Earth is full of organisms that live in extreme environments. Boiling hot water in natural volcanic springs etc, so why not under or in an ice sheet. They are classed as extremophiles.

I'm sure it's possible Enceladus or Europa may harbour life of some sort. Hopefully we don't have to wait too long to find out.

As for intelligent life. It's wholly possible they're out there given the size of the Milky Way and the number of galaxies generally.

Whether we will bump into them. Highly unlikely given the distances but I'm not beyond hoping a radio contact is made in the future.

While waiting it's interesting reading the musings of Frank Drake, Carl Sagan, Enrico Fermi, Stephen Hawking etc. It's rather nice looking up through the little telescope and wondering if anything else squidgy lives up there.

 

 

[bish]

9 hours ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

 It's rather nice looking up through the little telescope and wondering if anything else squidgy lives up there.

 

 

That was probably the biggest draw to astronomy for me as a kid. My biggest interest is still exoplanets and the search for life. I hope something is found on one of the solar system moons in my life time. More so than the answer to dark matter or energy.