Life

[orin stepanek]

My Son believes that Earth is the only place place where there is life anywhere! I told him with all the suns in the galaxy; & all the galaxies in the universe; I find that hard to believe! But, I don't know if we will ever find out for sure! Who knows; we might be the seed of life on other worlds; or we may be the product of someone else's seed!

[Chris Peterson]

My Son believes that Earth is the only place place where there is life anywhere! I told him with all the suns in the galaxy; & all the galaxies in the universe; I find that hard to believe! But, I don't know if we will ever find out for sure! Who knows; we might be the seed of life on other worlds; or we may be the product of someone else's seed!

Given the ease with which life apparently formed here, and the large number of planets that must be similar to Earth, it is hard to imagine how life could be anything but fairly common. But for most of the time life has existed on Earth, it was nothing but single celled organisms, with little diversity. We were a pond scum planet.

For me, the more interesting question involves complex life. Multicellular organisms that compete fiercely and drive evolutionary explosions of diversity. The conditions that allow for that might be much less common.

[neufer]

Given the ease with which life apparently formed here, and the large number of planets that must be similar to Earth, it is hard to imagine how life could be anything but fairly common. But for most of the time life has existed on Earth, it was nothing but single celled organisms, with little diversity. We were a pond scum planet.

• Algae (i.e., pond scum) needed to first apply 'cosmetic rouge'
  in order to kelp encourage the algae next door to fūcus:

<<Algae is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular microalgae, such as Chlorella and the diatoms, to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelp, a large brown alga which may grow up to 50 metres in length.

The singular alga is the Latin word for 'seaweed' and retains that meaning in English. The etymology is obscure. Although some speculate that it is related to Latin algēre, 'be cold', no reason is known to associate seaweed with temperature. A more likely source is alliga, 'binding, entwining'.

The Ancient Greek word for 'seaweed' was φῦκος (phŷkos), which could mean either the seaweed (probably red algae) or a red dye derived from it. The Latinization, fūcus, meant primarily the cosmetic rouge. The etymology is uncertain, but a strong candidate has long been some word related to the Biblical פוך (pūk), 'paint' (if not that word itself), a cosmetic eye-shadow used by the ancient Egyptians and other inhabitants of the eastern Mediterranean. It could be any color: black, red, green, or blue. The name fucus appears in a number of taxa.>>

For me, the more interesting question involves complex life. Multicellular organisms that compete fiercely and drive evolutionary explosions of diversity. The conditions that allow for that might be much less common.

<<Multicellularity has evolved independently at least 25 times in eukaryotes, and also in some prokaryotes, like cyanobacteria, myxobacteria, actinomycetes, Magnetoglobus multicellularis or Methanosarcina. However, complex multicellular organisms evolved only in six eukaryotic groups: animals, fungi, brown algae, red algae, green algae, and land plants. It evolved repeatedly for Chloroplastida (green algae and land plants), once or twice for animals, once for brown algae, three times in the fungi (chytrids, ascomycetes and basidiomycetes) and perhaps several times for slime molds and red algae. The first evidence of multicellularity is from cyanobacteria-like organisms that lived 3–3.5 billion years ago. To reproduce, true multicellular organisms must solve the problem of regenerating a whole organism from germ cells (i.e., sperm and egg cells). Animals have evolved a considerable diversity of cell types in a multicellular body (100–150 different cell types), compared with 10–20 in plants and fungi.>>

[orin stepanek]

I think we already contaminated some of the solar system with life. All they need now is favorable growing conditions! A few million years; and Walla! JMO.

[Ann]

I think we already contaminated some of the solar system with life. All they need now is favorable growing conditions! A few million years; and Walla! JMO.

Yes, who knows what some dandruff can do on Mars or on Titan?

And who's to say that our probes didn't accidentally bring along a few tardigrades, too?

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

I think we already contaminated some of the solar system with life. All they need now is favorable growing conditions! A few million years; and Walla! JMO. :mrgreen:

It's really, really unlikely that any living things we've accidentally brought along on our probes could survive long. The concern is that they could confuse the sensitive instruments intended to look for local organics.

[orin stepanek]

I think we already contaminated some of the solar system with life. All they need now is favorable growing conditions! A few million years; and Walla! JMO.

It's really, really unlikely that any living things we've accidentally brought along on our probes could survive long. The concern is that they could confuse the sensitive instruments intended to look for local organics.

How true Chris; but we will never know!

[Chris Peterson]

I think we already contaminated some of the solar system with life. All they need now is favorable growing conditions! A few million years; and Walla! JMO. :mrgreen:

It's really, really unlikely that any living things we've accidentally brought along on our probes could survive long. The concern is that they could confuse the sensitive instruments intended to look for local organics.

How true Chris; but we will never know!

Unless a tardigrade crawls under the microscope, of course.

[orin stepanek]

It's really, really unlikely that any living things we've accidentally brought along on our probes could survive long. The concern is that they could confuse the sensitive instruments intended to look for local organics.

How true Chris; but we will never know!

Unless a tardigrade crawls under the microscope, of course.

+1;

[neufer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

It's really, really unlikely that any living things we've accidentally brought along on our probes could survive long. The concern is that they could confuse the sensitive instruments intended to look for local organics.

How true Chris; but we will never know!

Unless a tardigrade crawls under the microscope, of course.

[rogerbell1990]

we don't know if there is life on other planets or not till yet. Hopefully we will know soon

[neufer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Crash site of Beresheet as seen by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

---

<<Beresheet (Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית‎, "Bərēšīṯ", "In the beginning"; Book of Genesis) was a demonstrator of a small robotic lunar lander and lunar probe operated by SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries. Its aims included inspiring youth and landing its magnetometer, time capsule, and laser retroreflector on the Moon. The lander's gyroscopes failed on 11 April 2019 causing the main engine to shut off, which resulted in the lander crashing on the Moon. In August 2019, scientists reported that a capsule containing tardigrade micro-animals in their natural cryptobiotic state may have survived the crash and lived on the Moon for a while. On previous space missions, tardigrades were exposed to the open vacuum of space and some were able to live for a period of time.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) overflew the area where Beresheet's telemetry ended, and took photos of the surface. When those photos were compared against earlier photos of the same location, one set of new features was obvious. A faint lighter line leads to a lighter halo surrounding a dark crater. A lump is visible at the head of the crater opposite the line. The light halo may either be gas associated with the craft's wreckage or fine soil particles blown outward by the impact. A small NASA payload known as the Lunar Retroflector Array (LRA) is hoped to have survived the crash but may have separated from the remaining wreckage. The Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) instrument on the LRO is pulsing laser images at the crash site in hopes of finding the LRA.>>

[Orca]

Tardigrades. Water bears or moss piglets? That is the question!

Their survival trick is to become emaciated and inanimate while conditions are intolerable, then come back to normal when those conditions improve. I would imagine any moss piggies that inadvertently hitch a ride to Mars or Titan will remain inert because things are not going to improve for them. And even if they found a new home that was more hospitable, say the liquid oceans of Europa or Enceladus (on some distant future mission) there'd be no food for them once they revived.

[neufer]

Tardigrades. Water bears or moss piglets? That is the question!

Their survival trick is to become emaciated and inanimate while conditions are intolerable, then come back to normal when those conditions improve. I would imagine any moss piggies that inadvertently hitch a ride to Mars or Titan will remain inert because things are not going to improve for them. And even if they found a new home that was more hospitable, say the liquid oceans of Europa or Enceladus (on some distant future mission) there'd be no food for them once they revived.

Moss Higglet about to use Axion to "clean up" a problem?

---

<<The strong CP problem is a puzzling question in particle physics. CP stands for the combination of charge conjugation symmetry (C) and parity symmetry (P). According to the current mathematical formulation of quantum chromodynamics, a violation of CP-symmetry in strong interactions could occur. However, no violation of the CP-symmetry has ever been seen in any experiment involving only the strong interaction.

The strong CP problem is sometimes regarded as "the most underrated puzzle in all of physics." There are several proposed solutions to solve the strong CP problem. The most well-known is Peccei–Quinn theory, involving new pseudoscalar particles called axions or "Higglets."

In 1977, Roberto Peccei and Helen Quinn postulated a more elegant solution to the strong CP problem, the Peccei–Quinn mechanism. This is accomplished by adding a new global symmetry that becomes spontaneously broken. This results in a new particle, as shown independently by Frank Wilczek and Steven Weinberg, naturally relaxing the CP-violation parameter to zero. Wilczek named this new hypothesized particle the "axion" after a brand of laundry detergent because it "cleaned up" a problem, while Weinberg called it "Higglet." Because it has a non-zero mass, the axion is a pseudo-Nambu–Goldstone boson.>>

[JackWhite]

The only time will show is there anything out there. Probably, your son will be right. Who knows?

[Fred the Cat]

In case someone hadn't noticed, the US has a cornucopia of corn! Which might one think it leads to CO too.

[Memaw31]

My Son believes that Earth is the only place place where there is life anywhere! I told him with all the suns in the galaxy; & all the galaxies in the universe; I find that hard to believe! But, I don't know if we will ever find out for sure! Who knows; we might be the seed of life on other worlds; or we may be the product of someone else's seed!

It is like the ocean that we are not sure what more we can discover.

[orin stepanek]

My Son believes that Earth is the only place place where there is life anywhere! I told him with all the suns in the galaxy; & all the galaxies in the universe; I find that hard to believe! But, I don't know if we will ever find out for sure! Who knows; we might be the seed of life on other worlds; or we may be the product of someone else's seed!

It is like the ocean that we are not sure what more we can discover.

No one knows as nothing has been discovered yet! I think it will happen! I remember when we first landed on Luna; all of a sudden
Moon Maid appeared in Dick Tracy! I'm getting pretty old; I'd like to see it before I go!

[Wafty1996]

It is life of discover on other planet that can inspire us to live on other planet