Scientists have discovered Gliese 12 b, an exoplanet similar in size to Venus and only 40 light-years away, with investigations ongoing to determine its atmosphere and potential to support life. In a rare and tantalizing discovery, astronomers have found an Earth-like exoplanet 40 light-years awa
There are surprising edge-cases for life on Earth. Microbes that live off the energy from undersea vents for example. Tidally locked planets may have day-night border zones that are habitable. I think it’s worth spreading the net wide. We don’t know for sure what’s impossible, and we’re only starting to understand all the myriad ways other solar systems & planetary systems might function.
I can respect that and appreciate it but fighting Occam’s Razor for the minute chance of edge cases, without telling everyone the obvious, that we’re ignoring the 99.9% to chase the 0.1% because we never built the right tool for the job is wrong. I love that we are willing to chase the absurd and obscure possibilities. I just believe it is important to say, we have made absolutely no attempt to try for the real objective of finding life. We’ve done one extra credit project for a university course without taking the course and we like to claim we deserve a degree for our work, maybe even a Nobel prize. It’s a great effort on a little project, and no one should take away from that, but it is not even completion of the course. Perspective is important. Type-G stars are known to host life. A survey of all Type-G stars within a few hundred parsecs is absolutely critical before any relevant statement of life and habitability can be made. We could have that information already if we really cared to try. It would be the greatest scientific project of the millennium and likely answer one of humanity’s biggest questions, but we’ve chosen to pass up that opportunity. I personally find that sad. None of us get everything we wish for, but it must be okay to call out the missed opportunities when they are being obfuscated and people make claims like they have achieved that which they have not. It’s still great work on the 0.1%.
There are certainly a lot of species that live in what we might consider inhospitable conditions, and there have been massive ecosystem and environmental shifts in the history of life on earth.
However, the chemistries and conditions needed to form macromolecules and lipid globules that could protect and contain them (which is one candidate for proto-life) might not have that full range of adaptability. Keeping chemical integrity in potentially harsh conditions (in terms of temperature or environmental chemistry) depends on a whole cascade of cellular chemistry that’s unavailable to proto-cells.
Finding even a single example of extraterrestrial life - even bacterial mats - would absolutely revolutionize biology, and I hope we manage to do it, especially if I’m still around to see it.
There are surprising edge-cases for life on Earth. Microbes that live off the energy from undersea vents for example. Tidally locked planets may have day-night border zones that are habitable. I think it’s worth spreading the net wide. We don’t know for sure what’s impossible, and we’re only starting to understand all the myriad ways other solar systems & planetary systems might function.
I can respect that and appreciate it but fighting Occam’s Razor for the minute chance of edge cases, without telling everyone the obvious, that we’re ignoring the 99.9% to chase the 0.1% because we never built the right tool for the job is wrong. I love that we are willing to chase the absurd and obscure possibilities. I just believe it is important to say, we have made absolutely no attempt to try for the real objective of finding life. We’ve done one extra credit project for a university course without taking the course and we like to claim we deserve a degree for our work, maybe even a Nobel prize. It’s a great effort on a little project, and no one should take away from that, but it is not even completion of the course. Perspective is important. Type-G stars are known to host life. A survey of all Type-G stars within a few hundred parsecs is absolutely critical before any relevant statement of life and habitability can be made. We could have that information already if we really cared to try. It would be the greatest scientific project of the millennium and likely answer one of humanity’s biggest questions, but we’ve chosen to pass up that opportunity. I personally find that sad. None of us get everything we wish for, but it must be okay to call out the missed opportunities when they are being obfuscated and people make claims like they have achieved that which they have not. It’s still great work on the 0.1%.
There are certainly a lot of species that live in what we might consider inhospitable conditions, and there have been massive ecosystem and environmental shifts in the history of life on earth.
However, the chemistries and conditions needed to form macromolecules and lipid globules that could protect and contain them (which is one candidate for proto-life) might not have that full range of adaptability. Keeping chemical integrity in potentially harsh conditions (in terms of temperature or environmental chemistry) depends on a whole cascade of cellular chemistry that’s unavailable to proto-cells.
Finding even a single example of extraterrestrial life - even bacterial mats - would absolutely revolutionize biology, and I hope we manage to do it, especially if I’m still around to see it.