So how will we know if we have found life?
Scientists can tell the composition of a planets atmosphere by how light is refracted by it. Different chemicals refract light differently. They call it spectromentry. If a planet had an oxygen atmosphere, or if there was methene in the atmosphere (from living creatures), it would have a distinctive signature that would be readable through a spectrograph.
Knowing this, the good folks at NASA figured they had a good idea what Earth should look like. When they launched the first probe they sent that had a spectrograph on it, they pointed it back at Earth.
It looked just how they thought it would.
Now all astonomers are searching for a new Holy Grail, a planet that has the distinct signature of a planet that carrys Life.
:)
3 comments:
Space, the Final Frontier :D
Me too. The statisical odds says it should be out there. We are finding out that life isnt as delicate as we first thought. It seems that life is the natural conclusion of certain environmental and chemical reactions.
We've found life in lakes of acid, at 200 degrees in volcanoes. Minus 50 buried in ice, 5 miles under the water at 20 atmospheres of presure.
Its out there, but can we find it?
PS> The answer is YES. Just get to Europa. Its under the ice!!!
:)
Found this video someone made on YouTube, Martin. LOL. Thought you'd like it. In my opinion, it should have been a mobile phone. Because Humanity seems to be worshipping the mobile phone these days :D
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