Life IN space

[C1ay]

Originally Posted by orbsycli

Is it possible that somewhere in the universe, that life has formed IN space itself? Maybe on a rock like the moon without an atmosphere. This seems to me a bit extreme...

I don't think it's extreme at all. We have discovered life here on Earth living in volcanic vents and we recently discovered life that had been frozen for 32,000 years that still lives after being thawed out. There could be a wealth of extreme life forms we've never imagined, particularly when you include plant life. There could be exotic algaes living on Venus or Mercury or other places in the Universe. Perhaps some type of plankton living in a methane sea on Titan. IMO, I think it's very possible that there is other life out there.

[Nismoskyline]

Im not exactly sure if im right, but I heard life can also exist in the form of pure energy. This kind of life could develope anywhere in space, could it not?

[Tormod]

Originally Posted by Nismoskyline

Im not exactly sure if im right, but I heard life can also exist in the form of pure energy. This kind of life could develope anywhere in space, could it not?

I have never heard of such a claim outside of my sci-fi books...this would be the realm of cyberpunk and The Matrix.

But if we look at the big picture, matter is energy, so all life is basically concentrated energy consuming and radiating energy.

[Nismoskyline]

That must have been where I heard that from. Some sci-fi movie or show maybe. Sorry for the mistake.

[BlameTheEx]

Originally Posted by C1ay

I don't think it's extreme at all. We have discovered life here on Earth living in volcanic vents and we recently discovered life that had been frozen for 32,000 years that still lives after being thawed out. There could be a wealth of extreme life forms we've never imagined, particularly when you include plant life. There could be exotic algaes living on Venus or Mercury or other places in the Universe. Perhaps some type of plankton living in a methane sea on Titan. IMO, I think it's very possible that there is other life out there.

You are going a bit off the topic here. Life could certainly exist on planets, or for that matter on moons. The question in front of us is if life can FORM in free space.

Those volcanic vents are in liquid water. Hardly a likely environment in free space.

Life can be preserved in a frozen state, but in that state it is not being formed. growing, reproducing or evolving. Before it can do that it will have to be defrosted. You have to show some possibility of it growing or reproducing after it is defrosted in space.

[paultrr]

Actually, and while this was some 2 to 3 years ago there was an article about a possible detection of microbes high in the earth atmosphere and if memory serves me the altitude was something like 60 miles up. However, given that I have never seen a follow up article on this I have tended to assume they found out the microbes were from earth itself. The link on that is:

CNN.com - Space - Scientists discover possible microbe from space - November 24, 2000
An international team of scientists claim they have recovered a microorganism in the upper reaches of the atmosphere that originated from outer space. ... reaches of the atmosphere that could have originated from outer space, a participant in the study said Friday ... be arriving from space. " If we find microbes at great heights ... archives.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/11/24/alien.microbe.claim

Also, Microbes Rain Down from Space, a Second Scientist Says
A controversial finding last year of microbes high in Earth's atmosphere and thought to have come from space gained another scientist's support this week. ... Report: Microbes Rain Down from Space? More Support for Controversial Theory ... Germs from Outer Space! Researchers Say Flu Bugs Rain Down from Beyond ... http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...gs_021217.html

In general, its possible.

[orbsycli]

this thread is amazing.

[Jay-qu]

this thread is old.. I never even saw it the first time round..

I would like to think that life could adapt and exsist almost anywhere - it would just be very wierd and we probably wouldnt recognise it for what it is if we where staring at it!

[Eclogite]

Orbsycli,
the possibility of life originating in space, to me, is more likely than it emerging on a planet. Here are some reasons:

Organic Molecules Abundant in Space: (partial list)
In total more than one hundred and twenty five types of organic molecule have been detected in space.

acetylene (mono-, di-, and tri-)
hydrogen cyanide
benzene
cyanodecapentayne
Acetone
Propanal
Ethylene
Methanol
Dimethyl ether
Ethyl formate
vinyl alcohol
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
glycine (amino acid)

In addition more than seventy kinds of amino acid, the building block of proteins, have been found in meteorites.(And interestingly, the L-isomer dominates.)

Abundant Water in GMCs (Giant Molecular Clouds)
Water constitutes the most common molecule found in hot GMCs. (Their temperature raised by star formation.) It is not detected in cold GMCs, whose temperatures are close to absolute zero, because the water is quite decidedly frozen.

Adequate Temperatures
As noted above, temperatures of the GMCs cover a wide range. The range comfortably includes that in which liquid water is stable.

Reaction Surfaces
Abundant dust particles provide extensive surfaces on which molecules can gather and interact. The primeval soup envisaged by Darwin, confined to a tiny planet, pales into insignificance with the scale of even a single GMC, which can measure light years across.
More than enough reactive surfaces on which that first self replicating organism can arise.

In short, the conditions within warm GMCs are ideal for life to arise. We may owe the puzzlingly rapid emergence of complex life (and anyone who thinks a prokaryote isn't complex, isn't paying attention) on Earth to seeding from the GMC that fostered our sun and homeworld.

[TheFaithfulStone]

Originally Posted by Jayqu

I would like to think that life could adapt and exist almost anywhere - it would just be very wierd and we probably wouldnt recognise it for what it is if we where staring at it!

I've often wondered on this myself. How would we recognize intelligent life if we found it? Alien life we could probably puzzle out, but what if we ARE the only species for a long, long distances that gives a crap about skyscrapers, and radios, and interstellar cruise ships?

I'm picturing a race of hyperintelligent broccolli beings, able to work out tensor calculus in their head, and with beautiful operas - but they don't have cars or trains or buildings or space ships. We call them "The Singing Brocolli of Eta Carinae" and we eat them with cheese. After all - they're only a plant that makes weird noises!

What if intelligence is all around us all the time, but it's just so different that we don't even notice it? Maybe the drake equation is missing a term - "similarity of priorities to humans" and the Fermi Paradox isn't a paradox at all.

Of course, that's a "prove me wrong" argument, so it's pretty well useless as an actual position - but it raises some interesting questions - are we anthropomorphizing nature by insisting that we be able to instantly recognize "life" or "intelligence" for what it is?

What if Jupiter is hanging up in the sky right now, contemplating the motion of the spheres and thinking - "Man when those monkeys from the third planet get here, it's gonna be BAD news."

TFS