A new review argues that we must adopt the wonderful diversity of the external planets discovered over the past two decades and we are thinking about a broader set of environments that can host life, reports, Universetoday.com.
As the James Web telescope is now operating and able to analyze the atmosphere of the external planets, researchers, led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sarah Seajar, pushes for a more comprehensive approach to identifying biomed design gases, and chemical signs of life in the distant worlds.
The traditional focus on finding the “earth twins” that revolve around the sun -like stars may be very narrow, given the scarcity of these goals and an incredible variety of the existing planetary environments.
The research highlights how vocabulary of life on Earth. Bacteria can survive and flourish in gases -rich atmosphere such as hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, which thought about life -ever.
These extremists, living organisms that flourish in extreme or chemical extremist conditions, show that life requirements may be more flexible than before.
Perhaps the most attention, the team explores the scenarios in which life may exist without any solid land under it. In the so -called “cloudy ocean”, life can float in the atmosphere of planets where rock surfaces are very hot to support traditional life forms. These ecosystems may be found in the thick atmosphere of the super land, in the cloud layers of the gas giants.
Researchers also look at life in alternative solvents outside the water, and in the virtual planetary international oceans where the entire worlds are covered in the liquid. However, it confirms one basic requirements: life needs mineral ions for basic incentive reactions.
This creates an interesting challenge to the environments without a superficial contact, as the brinky birth may be the only way to supply these decisive elements.
This new perspective has practical effects on telescopes. Instead of focusing only on biomed oxygen and ozone, scientists develop comprehensive lists of possible gases for life based on a wide range of metabolic secondary products that produce microbes on the ground.
The “small molecule” approach is any gas that life may produce through metabolism, regardless of whether we see it here on Earth.
The shift is a fundamental change in astronomy from the question, “Is this planet like Earth?” To “Can this planet support any form of life that we can imagine?” With thousands of well -known external planets that display a remarkable diversity in the mass, size and orbits, this broader approach greatly expands our chances of discovering life outside the Earth.
While we stand on the edge of the discovery that is likely to discover vital lives in strange atmosphere, embrace this diversity may be the key to finding life finally in the forms that we have never expected, in places where we have never thought.
