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Life - The possibility of extraterrestrial life

Life - The possibility of extraterrestrial life: Encyclopedia II - Life - The possibility of extraterrestrial life

Main articles: Extraterrestrial life, Astrobiology At this time, Earth is the only planet in the universe known by humans to support life. The question of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe remains open, but analyses such as the Drake equation have been used to estimate the probability of such life existing. There have been a number of claims of the discovery of life elsewhere in the u ...

Life: Encyclopedia II - Life - The possibility of extraterrestrial life

Life - The possibility of extraterrestrial life

Main articles: Extraterrestrial life, Astrobiology

At this time, Earth is the only planet in the universe known by humans to support life. The question of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe remains open, but analyses such as the Drake equation have been used to estimate the probability of such life existing. There have been a number of claims of the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe, but none of these have yet survived scientific scrutiny.

Today, the closest that scientists have come to finding extraterrestrial life is fossil evidence of possible bacterial life on Mars (via the ALH84001 meteorite). Searches for extraterrestrial life are currently focusing on planets and moons believed to possess liquid water, at present or in the past. Recent evidence from the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity supports the theory that Mars once had surface water. See Life on Mars for further discussion.

Jupiter's moons are also considered good candidates for extraterrestrial life, especially Europa, which seems to possess oceans of liquid water.

Other highly speculative and somewhat doubtful places for present or past life include the atmosphere of Venus, Titan cryovolcanoes, or even Enceladus.

Other related archives

ALH84001, Animal, Artificial life, Astrobiology, Bacteria, Biological kingdom, Biological life cycle, Biologists, Biology, Cells, DNA, Death, Drake equation, Earth, Enceladus, Europa, Extraterrestrial life, Francisco Varela, Fungi, Growth, Humberto Maturana, Jupiter, Life on Mars, Lila: An Inquiry into Morals, Lynn Margulis, Mars, Metabolism, Monera, Motion, Odic force, Opportunity, Origin of life, Phospholipids, Plant, Prehistoric life, Protista, RNA, Reproduction, Robert Pirsig, Species, Spirit, Stuart Kauffman, Titan, Urey-Miller experiment, Venus, ants, autonomous agent, autopoietic, bacterial, biology, carbohydrates, carbon, carbon chauvinism, cell, cell membrane, chance, chemistry, computer, conception, cryovolcanoes, death, descent, dissipative structures, energy, entropy, environment, evolution, evolve, existence, feedback, genes, genetic programming, genetics, homeostasis, infertile, kin selection, lipid, lipid bilayers, lipids, mass, metabolism, molecular, mules, multi-agent system, negentropy, nucleic acid, nucleic acids, organic molecules, organism, organisms, prions, protein, proteins, ribozymes, software, species, sterility, stimuli, system, systemic, universe, virus, viruses, water

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The possibility of extraterrestrial life", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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