The Habitable Zone
There are approximately seven billion people living on the Earth right now. Who can picture 1 million people, let alone 7 billion people? Yet the total incomprehension of it does not make the fact any less true. Nobody has ever seen an alien or an organism that has not originated from Earth, yet it does not make the prospect any less valid. Most citizens of Earth cannot imagine living anywhere else but on this blue planet, but that should not make the possibility of it any less real. Space, like the future, is always ahead of us, and no one can predict what it has in store for us or what ideas will be found. Outside of the Earth, life in the universe is not such an inane thought as was once believed. Firstly, there are a number of variables that affect the habitable zone of stars. There is also an insurmountable number of possibly habitable planets that could support life. Finally, evidence of life in outer space have been found, though the evidence is slim.
IN 1953, Hubertus Strughold and Harlow Shapley were the first to mention habitable zone, though the term they used was “Liquid Water Belt” (Handover). Put simply, the definition of a habitable zone is the distance from a host star a planet has to be to maintain liquid water (Palmer). To calculate the length of a star’s HZ, variables such as a planet’s luminosity, temperature, solar irradiance, and distance from the sun are needed. ("Habitable Zone”). Since Earth has such large amounts of H2O, it is not unreasonable to think everywhere else is the same, but in reality it is not. Unbeknown to some, water is actually quite the hot commodity in the universe. A planet has to within a HZ to support water and subjectively to support complex life. If a planet is ...
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There is a cultural assumption that there are many alien civilizations in the universe. However, what do we really know about extraterrestrial life? With recent findings of water on Mars and the discovery of Trappist-1, there could be hope for extraterrestrial life out in the universe. Even though the water on Mars is frozen under the polar ice caps and Trappist-1 could be far from finding any alien life, there are still many articles supporting the research and looking forward to finding additional news. In the article “Could the TRAPPSIT-1 worlds harbor alien life?’ written by Liz Fuller-Wright, she reports the announcement of astronomers that they found a miniature solar system of seven Earth-sized planets. Furthermore, the argument is effective towards bright individuals because it makes one think about what it will be if there was actually life outside of Earth.
Finding life in our solar system could potentially answer the questions humanity has been asking for thousands of years. Sarah Seager, a professor at MIT, mentioned some of these thought provoking questions, “why are we here? Why does our universe exist? How did Earth form and evolve? How and why did life originate and populate our planet?” Answers to these questions could give humanity a deeper understanding of who we are and what our place in the universe is. Steven Dick believes that humanity has “… deep psychological yearnings for companionship, superior wisdom, or ‘an ineradicable desire to see the skies filled with life’.” Those opposed may argue that a biological universe will have little effect on humanity’s understanding of our place in the universe because a biological universe simply does not exist. One may argue that life is exceedingly complex and the odds of conditions being just right for the production and the sustainment of life are slim. Our civilization may have managed to beat the odds, but many its unlikely to for this to occur elsewhere in our solar system. The proof to back this argument is the N =1 equation. The only solid evidence we have proves that only one planet has beaten these insurmountable odds and produced life. While this argument makes logical sense, relying solely on evidence we have at the moment, takes our focus away from the
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...is life? We may not know what’s out there, beyond this world and beyond the infinite number of galaxies and universes, which dwell out of our reach. However, what we do know is this, the only things that are guaranteed in life are the present and the knowledge that one day each life will reach an inevitable end. We will all choose to take different routes in life with different careers and goals. We will all grow to accomplish different things and each of these will play an important role in the big picture of life.
From Venus’s atmosphere, we can see that a stronger greenhouse effect would create a barren, volcanic wasteland unable to sustain life. Such a greenhouse effect could even be man-made through the human production of CO2 and Earth has already noticed a greenhouse effect forming, though it is much less damaging than Venus’. Similarly, Mars’ lack of an ozone layer shows us what our own thinning ozone layer could mean for hydrogen atoms within Earth’s atmosphere and water, and also demonstrates how a planet’s size and distance from the sun could have affected Earth and made life on it impossible. Through the thinning of our atmosphere, Earth could suffer from the same effects plaguing its neighbor, Mars
Right alongside the fifth and largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, orbits a moon only about the same size as Earth’s moon. On this moon, is an icy surface that scientists are trying to uncover. Due to the presence of what they believe to be water, there is the possibility of life on this moon named Europa.
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Have you ever looked up in the sky and wondered if there is life elsewhere in the universe? Have you ever looked at a photograph of Mars and wondered if there really was ever life on it? People have a wide variety of opinions regarding these questions and with good reason. As far back as the broadcast of H. G. Well's novel, "The War of the Worlds", the world has been fascinated with the possibilities of what Mars may hold. Over time, the majority of people have come to realize that there is no way that life can currently be on Mars. Those who are uncertain think there may be microscopic bacteria underground.
Since the beginning of human fascination with outer space, the question “Is there life on other planets?” has existed and has waited to be answered. Early astronomers looking to find life on other planets were brutally punished by the Catholic Church. For years, people saw these astronomers as heretics for going against the church and undesirable, but today there might be evidence that supports these astronomers. Today, we find that people are still split between believing in alien life or not. People devoted to a religion tend to disagree with the possibility of life anywhere but Earth as it goes against their beliefs. However, with the increase of realistic movies about aliens and very convincing theories, many young people are beginning to believe that life on other planets does not seem so radical after all. Each day, scientists find more and more predictive evidence that leads most of them to believe that there is life on other planets.
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Should we as humans expect to find intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe? There are many reasons for and against this concept, but first we should trace just how our terrestrial life started.
Since the beginning of time, mankind has sought after learning about and exploring the universe. This yearning drove us to achieve such great things as the journey to the moon and the discovery of water on Mars. Nowadays, several people argue as to whether or not space exploration is worth the effort. I believe that it is humanity’s instinctual nature to pursue a better understanding of ourselves, and our universe. Further understanding of our universe will lead to the discovery of new technologies and ways to secure humanity’s survivability.
The argument suggesting life existing on other Earth-like planets has been present since man first looked into space and questioned his own existence and the existence of others like him. Today there are many theories on the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, but only one theory goes beyond them and into an even larger realm. The contents of this theory, known as the “multiverse” theory, suggest that humans on Earth live within one universe of many others that reside within a primordial vacuum containing many other universes (Jenkins and Perez). Each of these universes possesses potentially different natural constants and physical laws that govern them differently, thus calling forth some logical questions. First, what is the likelihood such universes even exist, and second, how can we test the constants and laws that still result in the possibility of intelligent life in other universes? Moreover, what implications does this theory have on the ideology that this universe is designed specifically for human beings?
Water covers about seventy one percent of Earth’s surface. Earth is the only planet to have stable bodies of liquid water on its surface which is crucial for all known life forms. Water is a substance which acts as a solvent in which organic compounds can mix, and it is the substance which is thought to be necessary to facilitate the formation of life. There are many forms of water which include ice, liquid, and gas. Because water can exist as a gas, it can be stored in the atmosphere and be delivered as precipitate. Water also helps regulate the climat...