Life Will Be Found First...

[Sayonara]

A quick an easy poll this time around.

 

Don't forget to add your reasoning!

[YT2095]

I vote Europa, it`s got an extremely high chance of having liquid water and there`s evidence of volcanic activity that would provide a "warm" core.

we have Mars rocks here on Earth from hits on mars that have sent fragments here. we also know that we also have been hit (Arizona for instance) that hit would have easily sent fragments into space fragments containing life (spores bacteria etc...). it`s possible that some could have easily hit Europa (as well as other planets and moons), but on Europa there`s hardly an atsmosphere to burn the fragments up, although it could penetrate quite deeply into its ice at those velocities and then breed.

 

Europa is also quite Visitable, probably more so than a planet or other star systems in the poll options.

 

although it`s all speculative at best

[Glider]

I vote Europa for much the same reasons as YT listed. Now we know about the deep sea life around volcanic vents ('black smokers' etc.) in our own oceans, it seems to increase the probability of finding similar life forms on Europa.

[Ophiolite]

I have voted for Mars, since I believe there is a reasonable chance that the Viking landers in 1976 detected life. For those of you unfamiliar with this possibility, here is a good starting place:

http://www.biospherics.com/mars/

This is an extract from the site:

In 1997, Biospherics' President and CEO,

Dr. Gilbert V. Levin, announced his new conclusion that his 1976 Viking Labeled Release (LR) life detection experiment found living microorganisms in the soil of Mars.

Objective application of the scientific process to 21 years of continued research and to new developments on Mars and Earth forced this conclusion. Of all the many hypotheses offered over the years to explain the LR Mars results, the only possibility fitting all the relevant data is that microbial life exists in the top layer of the Martian surface.

 

 

Edit: Staying on the 'But extra-terrestrial life has already been discovered' theme, I could have voted for the moon.

 

On April 20, 1967, the Surveyor 3 spacecraft landed on the moon, and arriving with it was a creature from Earth - Streptococcus mitis.

When Surveyor 3 was being prepared for launch, somebody apparently coughed on it, and a colony of the common, harmless bacteria was established on a piece of foam insulation that covered one of Surveyor's circuit boards.

The bacteria contamination was discovered in 1969 when Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean brought back a piece of Surveyor's insulation. The bacteria had been freeze-dried in space, but were quickly revived once back on Earth. So bacteria, the earliest and most common form of life on Earth, were also the first life form to travel to the moon. The Surveyor contamination accident revealed that bacteria could survive a launch, travel unprotected through the vacuum of space and survive three years on the moon's surface - a place of high radiation, temperatures near absolute zero, and no nutrients. Once dropped into a nutrient-rich petri dish back on Earth, the bacteria came out of "hibernation" and popped back to life. The lesson of the streptococcus space colony wasn't lost on NASA. It showed that life could survive in very harsh environments, even extraterrestrial ones.

 

The above extract is from http://www.crystalinks.com/bioastro.html

[ydoaPs]

Europa---WATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[YT2095]

this isn`t meant to swing votes eitherway (it`s unlikely to anyway) but I found this: http://www.resa.net/nasa/europa_life.htm

 

it`s a pretty good Q&A session, and a good read to boot for anyone interested

[Ophiolite]

Intersting link YT and it triggered an off-topic, but related thought.

 

One of the challenges facing the human exploration of space is our adaption to the zero-g environment. (Or rather the problems associated with re-adapting to a normal 1-g). Were intelligent beings to evolve in an ocean environment they would surely be less susceptible to such problems. They would be well suited to pottering around deep space. Their problems would emerge when they had to 'swim' on the surface of Mars.

[Gilded]

Even though Europa has conditions that are somewhat pleasant to small carbon-based micro-organisms, I find it rather unlikely that there is any life. I went for the "outside this star system", if we ever even get there.

[gene]

same as YT. i think we all need water. that's why there is the compound called water in this world.

[SubJunk]

you can't say water exists to serve life. Even if water is necessary for life to exist, water would've existed before life obviously.

[Gilded]

Remember the possible silicon based lifeforms - they don't necessarily have a need for water.

[Sayonara]

Argh, likelihood mangling detected.

[SubJunk]

Gilded I agree with you, I think it's naive to say or believe water is a prerequisite for all forms of life.

I was just referring to gene's statement "that's why there is the compound called water in this world."

[YT2095]

well it`s not actualy a "Water" or anything else based thread in specifics. what`s the most likely place we`ll find life 1`st

 

Titan would be my second guess, but with only those "horses" in the race... you know my vote, and I`de put a fiver on that one

 

subtle: back on topic hint

[Gilded]

"Argh, likelihood mangling detected."

 

Just because no one has never seen a silicon based lifeform, or even proved that it's actually possible, doesn't mean there isn't a huge colony of silicon based spacemen on Europa.

 

Usually I prefer -hoods not mangled though. Especially manhoods and Robin Hoods.

[Sayonara]

Just because no one has never seen a silicon based lifeform, or even proved that it's actually possible, doesn't mean there isn't a huge colony of silicon based spacemen on Europa.

The difference being that we know there is almost certainly water on Europa, which opens the door to possible carbon-based life.

 

Whereas there is no reason to believe there are silicon-based life forms there, and still wouldn't be any reason if there was no water.

[TimeTraveler]

I vote Titan. Although I believe there is a better chance of life forming on Europa, if life is on Titan I believe we will discover it there first.

[J'Dona]

I vote for Mars, not because I think it's more likely to harbour life than, say, Europa, but simply because it'll be a while before we send probes that can penetrate the thick crust of Europa to reach the liquid water, and we're sending quite a few more probes to Mars (I've just heard that Beagle 3 is in the works, and Beagle 2 was specifically designed to try and find traces of life), and evern the Spirit and Opportunity rovers are still operational. Perhaps they're working on a Europa probe right now that I haven't read about yet, but it would be a while before launching at any rate.

 

I don't personally think that Titan is likely to harbour life any more complex than, say, a strand of DNA (at least not that we can detect), simply because it is so cold. I'm not saying it doesn't have life, but it just seems a little hostile, unlike the liquid water of Europa or (as it now seems) Mars. Of course, if what we think we know about Titan's surface is true then the conditions are similar to the Earth's when it was young, so I would imagine that after Huygens lands the conditions necessary for life won't seem quite so uncommon as was previously thought.

[RICHARDBATTY]

I voted out side this star system due to the odds. Evolution was a fluke to start with and I think the chance of it happening again in such a small area is very slim.

[Rakdos]

We need to find intelligent life on EARTH first

[Sayonara]

Intelligence was not a requirement for the poll

[Spaceman]

I vote never....it is just us...no martians...just dead dead dead planets.And whats really sad is we are never going to be here again.We spend our time bickering and arguing when we should be in awe of our existance.We should meet people and cheer,hug and sing.Every day should be magical my friends,we all take it for granted that they will be a tommorrow,but tommorrow someone is going to die.Be thankfull for the time you all have left and yes worship a God.For one day tommorrow will be your last,your life will end..they will be no garden, or the meeting of love ones departed.Only the blackness of death awaits us.....so be thankfull for tommorrow for some never see it

[SubJunk]

I vote Titan. Although I believe there is a better chance of life forming on Europa, if life is on Titan I believe we will discover it there first.

 

Me too

Also, I've done a lot of research on Titan but not much on Europa other than basics on NASA sites

[SubJunk]

a hippy spaceman! I agree that we should make the most of life, but it's extremely ignorant to think there is no life anywhere other than earth.

For a start, do a google on meteorite ALH84001

[Tetrahedrite]

On April 20' date=' 1967, the Surveyor 3 spacecraft landed on the moon, and arriving with it was a creature from Earth - Streptococcus mitis. [/i']

When Surveyor 3 was being prepared for launch, somebody apparently coughed on it, and a colony of the common, harmless bacteria was established on a piece of foam insulation that covered one of Surveyor's circuit boards.

The bacteria contamination was discovered in 1969 when Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean brought back a piece of Surveyor's insulation. The bacteria had been freeze-dried in space, but were quickly revived once back on Earth. So bacteria, the earliest and most common form of life on Earth, were also the first life form to travel to the moon. The Surveyor contamination accident revealed that bacteria could survive a launch, travel unprotected through the vacuum of space and survive three years on the moon's surface - a place of high radiation, temperatures near absolute zero, and no nutrients. Once dropped into a nutrient-rich petri dish back on Earth, the bacteria came out of "hibernation" and popped back to life. The lesson of the streptococcus space colony wasn't lost on NASA. It showed that life could survive in very harsh environments, even extraterrestrial ones.

 

The above extract is from http://www.crystalinks.com/bioastro.html

 

As per the above observations, that primitave organisms can survive in the vaccumm of space, I believe that it is equally possible that the original life on Earth originated from another planet or moon! Mars, Europa and Titan (among others) have much less gravity than earth, so meteorite impacts and volcanic eruptions could easily fling material into space, eventually landing on Earth. We may all be descendents of extraterrestrial life.