Life in the Solar System -A Daily Galaxy Poll

Where in our Solar System do you expect life will be found? Jupiter's Europa, the hidden oceans of Saturn's moons Enceladus or Titan, the subterranean lakes of Mars, the clouds of Venus?

What will form will the life mostly be? Carbon-based, non-carbon? Microbial? Possibly advanced?

Post your thoughts in Comments. We'll publish the results this coming Monday, August 3rd.

"One lifeform's deadly radiation may be another lifeform's lunch."

David Grinspoon, member of the science team for NASA's Mars rover, and interdisciplinary scientist for the European Space Agency's Venus Express mission.

Prominent astrobiologists have warned that we humans may be blinded by our familiarity with carbon and Earth-like conditions. In other words, what we’re looking for may not even lie in our version of a “sweet spot”. After all, even here on Earth, one species “sweet spot” is another species worst nightmare. In any case, it is not beyond the realm of feasibility that our first encounter with extraterrestrial life will not be a solely carbon-based occasion.

Alternative biochemists speculate that there are several atoms and solvents that could potentially spawn life. Because carbon has worked for the conditions on Earth, we speculate that the same must be true throughout the universe. In reality, there are many elements that could potentially do the trick. Even counter-intuitive elements such as arsenic may be capable of supporting life under the right conditions. Even on Earth some marine algae incorporate arsenic into complex organic molecules such as arsenosugars and arsenobetaines. Several other small life forms use arsenic to generate energy and facilitate growth. Chlorine and sulfur are also possible elemental replacements for carbon. Sulfur is capably of forming long-chain molecules like carbon. Some terrestrial bacteria have already been discovered to survive on sulfur rather than oxygen, by reducing sulfur to hydrogen sulfide.

Nitrogen and phosphorus could also potentially form biochemical molecules. Phosphorus is similar to carbon in that it can form long chain molecules on its own, which would conceivably allow for formation of complex macromolecules. When combined with nitrogen, it can create quite a wide range of molecules, including rings.

So what about water? Isn’t at least water essential to life? Not necessarily. Ammonia, for example, has many of the same properties as water. An ammonia or ammonia-water mixture stays liquid at much colder temperatures than plain water. Such biochemistries may exist outside the conventional water-based "habitability zone". One example of such a location would be right here in our own solar system on Saturn's largest moon Titan.

Hydrogen fluoride methanol, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen chloride, and formamide have all been suggested as suitable solvents that could theoretically support alternative biochemistry. All of these “water replacements” have pros and cons when considered in our terrestrial environment.

What needs to be considered is that with a radically different environment, comes radically different reactions. Water and carbon might be the very last things capable of supporting life in some extreme planetary conditions.

Join in the Poll...Enjoy the comments! Add your thoughts.

Our Thanks, The Daily Galaxy Editorial Team

Comments

[jamerz3294]

Life, here on our own little rocky, wet ball of planet, it turns out is quite adaptable to any number of hostile environments! As we find more, and varied Extremophiles, I see that our Solar System could possibly host some form of life as well. My romantic vote would go to Mars, especially under the polar ice caps. And honestly, I think that we'll have the politics, and money (sorry to have to introduce those topics into an otherwise polite conversation) to do the kinds of explorations there, that will then yield other discoveries elsewhere in our Solar System.

[hameed]

Iam sure that there is life outside galaxy but where it could be needs some more research. As of now we can only expect the life in other planets.

[DinaCardillo]

I think that all those worlds are equally probable to host life. As the first comment says, life can be found in extremely 'hostile' environments in our own blue planet.

Now, the question I have around in my head is: if we find life out there, will we find an isolated species or a whole ecosystem with several species and different environments just like on Earth? I guess it depends of how long ago the life was originated.

Anyways, my vote goes to Europa due to my love for "2001: A space odyssey"

[Mr Rodgers]

id say anyware is equally likely. My personal favorite would be Europa. For the type, id say microbial carbon-based lifeforms are fairly likely.

[Sagan]

While Titan is a dynamic world with abundant organics, I would still put my money on Europa instead.

Europa as tidal heating and a potentially VAST subsurface ocean. If life never did get started in the oceans of Europa I would interpret that to mean that life, even microbial life, must be far rarer than we might like to think.

[Bill]

What about Ceres.. It is a dwarf planet that resides between Mars and Jupiter and is the size of TX. It has a very weak atmosphere, possible liquid water and rocky core also a strange lighted anomaly on the surface of it. There is a mission to be there in 2015. The satellite is called the Dawn Project.

You never know.

[stargazer]

I think the possibility of airborne life forms on Venus is too much of a stretch -- at least for me. However, based on our growing knowledge of extremeophyle life on earth, the possibility or probability of finding life in one or more of the other settings you described seems reasonably good.

The best bet, it seems to me, would be subterranian bacteria of some sort on Mars, probably near some geothermal vents where water can still be liquid and deep enough below the surface to protect them from the the other hazards of the Martian planetary surface. Certain moons of Jupiter and Saturn also present interesting possibilities.

Regarding substances that can form the basis of life -- while ammonia is intriguing, for the time being lets stick with water.

Last point -- would we recognize alien life if we found it? I think this might be one of the strongest reasons for sending humans on these exploratory missions. The robot sensors we have sent up to this point are just too limited in terms of sensors and capabilities to handle the vast number of possibilities that need to be considered/explored in an exhaustive search for life on a planet like Mars. Time to get off our collective butts and get some people up there to take a look around.

[SCUBBA]

Yea! great "slime" who cares, lets get out there and terraform, and colonise, we are going to kill it off doing this anyway.
So let get a plantary fleet up and running and get out there already.
Talk about can't see the forest for the trees.

[SiliconJon]

Life is waiting in seemingly every nook and cranny of the cosmos. However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and our limited understanding of life and the cosmos will filter our findings. Initially we will find life similar to our planets own developments even if only in ancient preservations. As we progress in our understanding of this omniverse we will learn to recognize life in forms not previously imagined outside of paperbacks. Though we may only find superior life forms when they decide to find us as our destructive nature and limited understanding have us still riding the shortbus of the galaxy.

[EvilCosmicMonkeyfrom Knoxville]

Mars looks surprisingly Terrestrial, but I'm almost willing to put my money on Europa, Titan & Enceladus to win, place & show. The 3 moons have tidal pull from larger bodies ( Jupiter & Saturn ) possible sources of heating from same, & Titan has a substantial atmosphere. Europa possibly has sub - surface liquid seas or lakes where life could take hold, & ice to shield life from the radiation of Jupiter's belts. Enceladus appears to have equal conditions.

We might find life on Mars, but it would be micro - fossils, I would be sure.

[Evan]

You know, im not sure there's a real clear "winner" per ce for where the best chance of life in our local block of space;

Matter of fact, it may even be possible that WE're the lucky ones that managed to form an existance out of carbon and water- it may be easier and more occurant for life to form in everything but co2 and h2o lol.. Sorta funny.

I would love to know what's under mars' surface, aswell as Europa and Encladeus except the later seems to be falling apart...

The clouds of venus would be an ideal place to look for airborne bacteria and other microbes, and our closest minor planet/asteroid Ceres would be nice to study aswell for its composure of what is basically if not exactly mud n ice.

However we seem to overlook things here on Earth-
It may not be as ideal as exploring the real thing, but for hells sakke we're trecreating the conditions of a star with CERN, I doubt we couldn't recreate atleast the conditions for prelife that may exist on any astrobiological goldmine object..

Ya know?
--
Sent from my T-Mobile Sidekick®

[Barrie O'Leary]

Life forms have already been discovered on Mars in the sizeable beds of white diamataceous earth uncovered by the crippled wheel of one of the Rover Explorers. Formed intermittently between beds of basalticlava harbouring water just as it has here on earth. These beds are composed of the silica exoskeletons of the diatoms, which were based on carbon. Yeah, oher things might harbour life, but always it will be carbon, the atom is just so more abundant and versatile. The other forms might arise in another 14 billion years or even double that. then again, what would happen if the pod of creation was splattered by a meteorite strike?

[Will T]

Id go for Titan or beneath the ice on Europa.

[Dirk Chardet]

Sitchin has made it VERY clear in all his books - there is a 12th planet that is part of our solar system and it has intelligent LIFE.
This planet - NIBIRU, planet of crossing - has the orbit of a comet and passes once in 3600 years through the centre of our solar system.
I avoided reading Sitchin for a long time because I expected the guy to be a nut. Then I had to do it, to prove my youngest son that he should spent his time in a better way. I expected to have sufficent proof of Sitchin's insanity after a few pages, but the contrary happened : I got completely convinced, couldn't find any inner inconsistencies and even found answers to questions that I had been asking myself for a long time (for instance :'why is the Pacific so deep'). So ........... Sitchin is brilliant, mankind has been created as slaves by aliens who came here to mine gold. They genetically engineered available primates, adding some of their own genes.
Yahweh/Jehova was an alien, he was a junior member of the ruling class and involved in a territorial conflict with his eldest brother. He 'choose the children of Israel' to fight the conflict for him - they were his 'cannon fodder' so to say.
Knowing the truth about our past, makes the bible's O.T. finally understandable and a LOUSY basis for a religion.
Also the Nag Hammadi scriptures mention aliens on our planet (two kinds) and in the Indian Vedas even seven different kinds are mentioned. Those called 'NAGAS' in the Vedas, are the ones Sitchin calls 'ANUNNAKI' ('Nefilim' in the bible).
Of course Sitchin is BAD for business, when it comes to churches and religion and BAD for the status quo as well.
So ........... people prefer to ignore him. Nevertheless, Sitchin has proved that Von Däniken was right 'The GODS were astronauts'.
This 12th planet caused the FLOOD in the year 11.200 BC when passing through our solar system, when the Arctic ice cap had become unstable. The Anunnaki/Nefilim KNEW that the gravitational pull would make it slide into the ocean and that huge waves would roll all over our planet. Therefore when Nibiru (a brown dwarf, by the way) was nearing, they took off and saw it happening. Since they were fed up with humans (our sexual behaviour apparently left much to be desired), they had agreed NOT to warn any of us. The brother of the ruler had broken his word and informed a certain ZIUSUDRA (known as Noah, in the bible) about the events that would take place. Ziusudra built some kind of submarine, was given the DNA of all kinds of species and survived the Flood.
The alien planet is on it's way back to our solar system, will arrive in 900 years, but already has been seen.

[EvilCosmicMonkeyfrom Knoxville]

I think life could take root ruddy well ANYWHERE in our Solar System. It could be anaerobic viral / bacterial forms ( like botulinum ) or some kind of plant life. The clouds of Jupiter or Saturn could have airborne life. It wouldn't be intelligent or able to make or use tools, but it would be life possibly on a large scale.

Any place could be a haven for life in this system. Just don't expect cities, artwork, tools or spacecraft.

Agree ? Disagree ?

[Velocity Wave]

Ceres is where it's at!

For some reason everyone has overlooked this miniplanet between Mars and Jupiter... but I have a hunch life is lurking there! (Lots of water there.)

It's kinda like a mini version of Mars, but with water all over the place, supposedly.

And if it doesn't have life, then it would be an ideal spot for a first human colony. (It's a better choice than Mars given that Ceres has lower gravity than Mars, and would not trap the first explorers in a difficult to exit gravity well).

From Ceres you could launch new missions to nearby Mars or Europa, since Ceres is between those 2 points.

Europa is the obvious second choice for me, in terms of probability for life.

[Bruce E Masters]

It still seems to me that life, if we can know it when we see it, should most likely be found on Europa. However, it;s just a hunch but I suspect it will probably turn up in the most unlikely place we can imagine.

[Vernon Goins]

To me it seems inevitable that extra-terrestrial life will first be discovered on Mars. There have been so very many asteroidal impacts on earth, after life was well established, that it would seem neglectful to think that microbial organisms did not ride a stone rocket from our planet to Mars. I feel certain we'll find life forms on Mars that had their origins on earth.

[Tim Seitz]

The known fact is that most of the matter in the universe exists as plasma.(approx. 99.4%)
Therefore could it not also be reasonable to speculate/hypothesize that extraterrestrial life may also exist in some kind of plasmic state?
That begs this next question; What kind of 'telescope' might we fabricate in order to explore that hypothesis?
Technophiles please come to the rescue.

[Andrew T]

I give Europa and Enceledas maybe a 25% chance each of having microbial life, and maybe 10% for having multicellular life. I think it's a safe bet that humans are the most advanced lifeforms in the solar system, certainly the only life that uses a high degree of technology.

Life in the clouds of Venus or any of the gas giants is just too problematic in too many ways. High radiation levels, scarcity of resources, extremely high or low temperatures & pressures, high turbulence, etc. Perhaps an extremely rugged bacteria could pull it off (I doubt even any extremophiles could though), but even then, evolving to that point would require a much more stable environment for the hundreds of millions of years to reach that point. Venus' surface is just way too hot, the gas giants have no surface to speak of at all, and none of them has any meaningful amounts of water vapor, never mind liquid water.

As for life on Mars, I suppose it's possible, but probably not very likely. It would certainly have to be subterranean, which would probably limit it to being microbial, or at most simple multicellular. It would of course be very cool to find life on Mars, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Constance]

Just the idea that people are discussing this boggles my mind! Who knew that scientists are working on understanding this? Which tells me there ARE other life forms in the universe. If you think it, it can happen. Amazing. Simply amazing!

[EvilCosmicMonkeyfrom Knoxville]

As to the poster that invoked Z. Sitchin & the Nebiru:
This is really NO PLACE for " fringe " or " new age " pseudo - scientific stuff like ancient astronauts, etc., anymore than it's a place for " Bible - thumping reigious drones* " ( * my personal beliefs aside.

Save it for the websites dealing in flying saucers & the Face on Mars, please, please, please.

ANYWHO -
Mars might still be an abode for life, but Europa, Titan & now Enceladus are still looking mighty good. Anyplace is possible, even sans oceans & thick recognizable atmospheres.

[sam]

Define 'life'.

[EvilCosmicMonkeyfrom Knoxville]

sam -

Define " life ".
Breathing,
consuming food, sustenance, fuel,
excreting gaseous or solid / liquid waste products,
Neural activity on some level, up to & including thought & expression of same
Reproduction,
circulation of bodily fluid bearing oxygen or similar gas.

Just the basics. Extra - terrestrial life might involve other criteria, like glowing, giving off radioactivity, or forming thick shields of zinc or ferrous plating for all we now know.

[Boldrix]

@EvilCosmicMonkeyfrom Knoxville

thats a pretty weak definition of life you got there. It might be adequate for life here on earth at best... As far as we know (and we realy don't know shit) all these characteristics are only local and might not count for a potential alien life form (if there is any). For example, how about an alien who lives in your thoughts/mind ?