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Life in the Solar System. Where have all the Martians gone?. What is Life?. While we can list characteristics of living organisms (and the book does), many non-living systems will exhibit many, if not all, of these characteristics Is life about reproduction ? Is a sterile human alive? - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Life in the Solar Life in the Solar SystemSystem
Where have all the Martians gone?
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What is Life?• While we can list characteristics of
living organisms (and the book does), many non-living systems will exhibit many, if not all, of these characteristics– Is life about reproduction? Is a sterile
human alive? – Maybe it's about arising from
reproduction? If we took a copy of you by copying all the atoms of your body, would the copy be alive?
• The bottom line is:We have no useful definition of life.
http://www.lifeinuniverse.org/noflash/Lifedefinition-04-01.html
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Types of Life on Earth
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Origin of Life on Earth
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Life in Extreme
Environments:
Extremophiles
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What do we know?• We don’t know exactly what life is.• We don’t know exactly how life began.• What do we know?
– Where does life live? Almost everywhere on Earth.
– What are the requirements for life to exist and thrive?
• This isn’t too bad. After all, to find life, we first need to know where to look.
• Step 1: Decide what life needs and identify the places that meet these requirements so we know where to look.
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What is needed for life?
• The presence of liquid water• The elements needed for metabolism
and reproduction (biogenic elements)• A biologically useful source of energy• Suitable environmental conditions
http://www.lifeinuniverse.org/noflash/Conditions-04-02.html
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Limiting factor
• Biogenic elements (CHONSP…) are all over the Solar System (even in asteroids and meteorites)
• Sources of energy:– Sunlight (photosynthesis)– Many chemical reactions generated by heat– Others?
• Liquid water requires temperatures of 273-373 K (0-100 C).
• Environment– Mainly, no harmful UV rays
• Bottom Line: Follow the water
http://www.sciam.com/specialissues/0398cosmos/0398jakosky.html
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Follow the Water• What planetary bodies have liquid water?• Water needs warmth (273-373 K), so heat is
necessary.• Where does heat come from in the Solar
System?– Internal heat– Solar heat– Tidal heat
• That lead us to…– Earth (duh)– Mars– Europa
http://passporttoknowledge.com/solarsystem/life/water.html
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Mars
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Water on Mars
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/science/index.html
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Viking mission
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ALH84001
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Missions to Mars
• 2001 Mars Odyssey • 2003 Mars
Exploration Rovers• 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter• Beyond 2007
– Smart Lander and Long-range Rover – as early as 2007
– Sample Return – as early as 2011, likely 2014
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Mars Exploration Rovers
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Europa
http://www.spaceviews.com/2000/04/14b.html
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Missions to
Europa?
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/europaorbiter/
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Questions
• How important will it be if we discovered other life in our Solar System?
• How would we know it wasn’t life from Earth?
• Is NASA right in concentrating much of its resources on searching for life? (ie., is Europa more important than Io?)