Life On Other PlanetsBy: Greg Geanon

Basics

• Ever since people have started observing the sky, there has been the question of whether we are alone or not.

• Frank Drake, the scientist who invented the Drake equation which is an equation to find the number of civilizations in our galaxy, estimates that there are 10,000 communicating civilizations in our galaxy alone.

• Nasa estimated in 1999 that there were 125 billion galaxies in our universe.

Basics pt. 2

• Very conservative estimates say that there are approximately 6.25 billion life supporting solar systems in the universe.

• It is very probable that there is a least one planet out there that is currently supporting life.

Habitable ZoneThis diagram shows where planets could be in relation to where the star is and size of the star in order to support Earth-like life.

Venus• It’s possible that there were large oceans on

Venus’s surface 4 billion years ago, when the sun wasn’t as bright.

• Some scientists believe that early life forms were blasted off the surface of Venus by meteor impacts and managed to land on Earth, and start life on Earth.

• There may still be small microbes living in Venus’s atmosphere, 31 miles above the surface.

Mars

• Long thought to contain life.• Many believe that water existed on Mars in

the past, and there may still be water below the surface.

• A test by a Mars rover in 2008 showed that there was water in the soil.

• There is evidence that water flowed on the surface within the past 10 years.

Jupiter

• Despite the fact that Jupiter is a gas planet, many people believe that there could be life on it.

• Some people believe that there are fish type creatures that live on Jupiter in the atmosphere, but the atmosphere is very intense and would likely kill any life.

• Microbes would have to go very far into Jupiter to find an area where water doesn’t freeze, but the pressure would be very intense.

Moons in the Solar System

• There are 138 known moons in our solar system and several of them appear to be capable of supporting life.

• Europa is one of Jupiter’s moons. It’s possible that below the ice there is water that is heated by vents, supporting plant life.

Titan and Enceladus

• Enceladus is one of Saturn’s moons and is thought to be able to support life. There is strong evidence supporting the theory that there is a large salt ocean below the surface, possibly supporting life.

• Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, has lakes of liquid methane on the surface and a heavy atmosphere. This is the first body outside of Earth known to have surface liquids.

Pictures of Titan and Enceladus

Picture showing Titan’s methane lakes

Picture of the moon Enceladus

Life Outside of our Solar System

•It is more than likely that there is life outside of our solar system that exists, but we haven’t discovered.•Scientists send out radio signals in space hoping to get a response from aliens, but this would be highly unlikely, because if another civilization was using radio technology now, by the time it gets there they might have moved on, or not even discovered it yet.•Scientists are looking in distant solar systems for planets that are a certain distance from the sun and have the right planetary conditions to support life.

Life Outside of our Solar System pt.2

• On April 24, 2007 scientists discovered an extrasolar planet, a planet that’s not in our solar system, that orbits the right distance from it’s star to support life.

• The planet was named Gliese 581 c, and was at first thought to have liquid on the surface. Recent research has found that there could be an atmosphere with lots of greenhouses that would cause high temperatures, lessening the chance of discovering life on the planet.

Life Outside of our Solar System pt. 3

• Scientists are now looking at Gliese 581 d which is also inside the habitable zone. It is approximately 20 light years away in the constellation Libra.

• So far, scientists have discovered over 400 extrasolar planets, and scientists are discovering even more every month increasing the chance that we will make contact with alien life soon.

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<http://www.solstation.com/life/ven-life.htm>. • "A Second Earth in Our Solar System - AAAS conference - io9." io9. We come from the future.. N.p., n.d.

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<forums.gametrailers.com/.../954098>. • "planet." www.worldofwierdthings.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Feb. 2010. <worldofweirdthings.com/.../>.• tes. "File:Planet Gliese 581 d.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Feb. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Planet_Gliese_581_d.png>. • "titan's lakes." www.nasa.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Feb. 2010.

<www.nasa.gov/.../multimedia/pia09183.html>. • "venus." zuserver2.star.ucl.ac.uk. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Feb. 2010. <

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