The other life

Since humans have been walking around this planet, we been facinated by the world beyond our atmosphere. Space and the stars allow us to dream and ponder and speculate. Advances in technology, has allowed us to peer deeper and deeper into space. We are able to see and study objects and non objects with greater knowledge and understanding than ever before. We have even established the existence of anti-matter.

Yet, the speculation of life 'out there' remains a big mystery. I am not going to go into a study of UFO's or government cover ups- we will leave that for another day. Nor will I delve into archeological finds that may, or may not, indicate space ships visiting earth. This, like the UFO and conspiracy theories, would take up an entire essay by themseleves and will be tackled in the future.

European astronomers have found a planet, Corot-7b, that they say is solid, like Earth. Apparently the first solid planet out of the more than 300 already discoved beyond the solar system. The rest comprise of gas it seems.

Small problem is this new planet is so close to the star around which it rotates, that it's annual orbit is a mere 20 hours. This means the temperature is around 1 980 degree celcius. It has a radius one and a half times that of Earth, with a mass five times that of our planet.

Now they are speculating the prospect of life on this remote planet, as they presume that life needs a solid surface to exist.

I see this as a very closed minded point of view. The universe is gigantic, to use a very weak word to describe it's size. It is also diverse. Scientists are looking for signs of organic life and thus, are searching worlds with parameters that would meet our understanding of an environment that would sustain life. I think they should look for life everywhere. We have a specific definition of life- but this definition may not meet the reality of extraterrestrail biological entities.

Just as we have, or even virus's and bacteria have, adapted to conditions around us, so could any other life forms. Biologosts and exo- biologists have established that simple bacteria can thrive in extreme conditions, for example, at the ridge of volcanos, in hot air vents under the sea, deep under ice sheets at the poles-Not all of these bactaria need oxygen to survive. There are bactaria living in our atmosphere, proving that life does not need a solid base on which to live.

Then surely it follows that life may exist on other planets, astroids, moons or even other bodies, including gaseous planets. This life will more than likely NOT meet our small definition of life. Perhaps there is intelligent life, looking down on earth, thinking life won't exist on that planet because there is too much oxygen.

Scientists should accept the fact that they do not know everything, that extraterrestrial life will probably be unlike what we expect. If we are looking for the classic aliens which regularly invade earth, we may be looking under the wrong rock. The first life forms we find will probably be simple bactaria like organisms, nothing wow or spectacular- but it will be life other than terrestrial life, and that not only will be massive, but will allow us to speculate the strong possibility of many more finds to come.

I am a strong believer in life elsewhere ,and I am sure, in time, it will be found.