Life on Other Planets?
January 27, 2010, World Economic Forum
Scientists confirmed the discovery of the first Earth-like planet outside the boundaries of our solar system in 2009.
How will space research redefine life as it is known?
Key Points
• Life is defined as the existence of biochemistry – is our biochemistry unique in the universe, or does the tree of life have many roots?
• Finding planets with similar characteristics to Earth will indicate where a biochemical system may exist
• If other biochemical systems are possible, then life on other planets is possible
• Life forms on other planets may be asking the same questions as we are; searching for signs of advanced technologies is a means of locating them
• We may have to redefine what we understand as life; what we find may not be what we expect
Synopsis
The search for life is based on the existence of biochemical systems. What we do not know is whether the tree of life on Earth is unique to this planet, whether it is the only system that can create life, or whether there are different trees with different roots capable of creating different biochemistries.
One way to answer these questions is to search for planets with similar characteristics to Earth. Some 100 million planets are estimated to have habitable potential: 420 planets have been discovered in our galaxy so far, and it is believed that we should be able to discover 60 habitable planets by 2012. The Kepler mission space observatory launched in 2009 looks for Earth-like planets and is able to analyse their composition.
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What Is Life?
January 27, 2010, World Economic Forum
We create life, we search for it, we manipulate and revere it; but, surprisingly, we have yet to agree on a common definition for what life really is.
What insights to this important topic offer new advances in astrobiology, synthetic biology and genomics?
The session “What is life?” seemed to take on a life of its own, proliferating into dozens of other questions.
Microbes, atmospheric chemical disequilibrium and a sacred community were alternatively used to define life. Ultimately, it was suggested that finding a definition for life should not be the goal. Rather, identifying the theory of life should be the focus.
Since it first came into existence some four billion years ago, planet Earth has been covered with what scientists call life, most of which consisted of microbes – also the main component of our bodies. While many define Earth as home or a support system, the planet is actually life itself, if one studies it at the chemical level.
Unique in the eyes of many, Earth, however, might only be one of several planets hosting life on their surface. How can scientists determine the existence of life on other planets? They study their atmosphere, and if they find a chemical disequilibrium in their composition, they assume that there is a biological presence emitting gases that interact with that planet’s atmosphere, thus upsetting its equilibrium. In other words, scientists can infer biology from the disequilibrium in the chemistry of a planet’s atmosphere.
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Life on other planets
January 27, 2010, The Washington Post
Is there intelligent life on other planets and, if so, would it get anywhere near the World Economic Forum? That depends, I guess, on whether we are talking about ET (who would probably prefer kids on bicycles playing monotonous tonal music) or some extraterrestrial version of Bill Gates (if that isn’t redundant).
To ruminate on this problem, and reduce my weltschmerz quotient, I wandered over to a session on “Life on other planets” after the bleak luncheon talk by George Soros. The session featured a remarkable scientist named Jill Tarter, who holds a chair at the SETI Institute (as in Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence). The basic question she posed: What if someone out there is asking (and answering) the same questions we are?
Tarter explained that even with all the work being done to capture signals that might be sent from other worlds, this work has only begun. “To get a good numerical approximation, all the SETI searching we’ve been able to do on and off for the part 50 years is equivalent to examining just one glass of water from the Earth’s oceans.”
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Davos diary: Leaders stress good water management
January 30, 2010, Gulf News
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Jill Tarter, head of the SETI Institute, spoke of her Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, which has been going on for 40 years.
She pointed out that Earth is one of 100 million planets that have the potential to support life, making it likely that something is out there somewhere.
Dimitar Sasselov of Harvard University spoke of how we will need to redefine life as we search the stars so that we recognise what we find.
He distinguished between various different levels of ability, with the most basic being the ability to replicate.
A more advanced lifeform is be able to communicate, and further advancement leads to being able to form societies.
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