Life

Life thrives almost everywhere on the planet. In this article, I will explore and describe the various forms of life, its definition, and if you could expect to find it on other planets.

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”

-Albert Einstein

Great words, from a great man. Most of the modern marvels we have today, you have nature to thank for. If it wasn’t from nature, then it was inspired by nature. Scientist have observed nature and all its feats and so far only tried to imitate it. One day we will learn how to surpass and even create it. Until that day comes we should preserve nature, and study it for the benefit of all.

The journey for life, has taken scientist to many unexpected places. Such as the Dead Sea, this was once thought to be “dead” due to the high salinity. Recently microbial life was found at its depth’s. The Dead Sea has no plant or animal life, because of the high volume of salt and minerals. It has become a shining example of how resilient life can be.

We have even found life in a poison to us, arsenic. When searching for life on other worlds, we used examples such as this to make a template for life. Predators will have eyes on the front of their head; herbivores tend to have them on the side to see predators coming. Arms and legs are a must for land based creatures, legs are useless for amphibians. Complex life has been known to exist in up to 150 degrees Fahrenheit and with low temperatures the less complex the creature tends to be. Pressure never seems to be an issue; we have found life 7 miles under the ocean in a place called the Challenger Deep.

Once we have collected all these rules to go by, we first look at the right star; the planet has to be in the goldilocks zone and all that is in place. The trouble with the goldilocks zone is that it moves from star type to star type based on a number of variables. Then we go there with robots to find out if were right. The hope is to finally once and for all solve the question of are we the only one of our kind. A lot of things have been made up, or even wild guesses thrown out in an attempt to answer this one question.  To some it may seem pointless, or a waste of money. To others we see the profit in knowledge in solving our own existence and even advancing our technology for the common man.

Some places we think there might be life or they was once life include but are not limited to, Mars(so many links to pick from), Titan, Europa, Gliese 581c, and various other locations. The fabled Alpha Centari though is likely to be a bone dry system due to no gas giant to cast comet’s to the inner solar system.

As for how we ended up on our rocky planet, we may never know. Thanks for reading

-Adam Boozer