Once again NASA has announced that life must have had at least a shot at getting going on an astral body other than Earth.
“A deep ocean under the icy crust of Ganymede opens up further exciting possibilities for life beyond Earth,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator at NASA, in a news release.
How do they know there’s just such an ocean under the miles of ice crust? Basically, Ganymede is the only moon in our solar system with a magnetic field. And it’s those magnetic fields on Earth that cause the pretty green aurora near our polar regions that dazzles us.
So, when looking at Ganymede’s auroral belts, scientists could see they were not fluctuating as much as they would if there wasn’t an ocean under the ice. The results of their studies have led them to believe that not only is there an ocean under the ice, but that ”subterranean ocean is thought to have more water than all the water on Earth’s surface,” the agency said.
“Scientists estimate the ocean is 60 miles (100 kilometers) thick – 10 times deeper than Earth’s oceans – and is buried under a 95-mile (150-kilometer) crust of mostly ice,” NASA added.
So what’s so special about an ocean?
Scientific America explains: “One of the leading theories for the origin of life on Earth postulates that it began in hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean, where seawater percolating through hot rocks created energy- and nutrient-rich environments favoring the formation of the first cells. Today, Earth’s active hydrothermal vents are seafloor oases, harboring ecosystems that flourish in the darkness, isolated from the surface world. Find someplace else beyond Earth where hot rock and water intermingle, and even if it’s far from the sun life might flourish there, too.”
Here’s a section of a story we wrote looking into what’s behind our global desire (need?) to find life somewhere other than our own planet.
So what is it about finding life somewhere other than our planet that gets us so worked up?
Some say it will “change our place in the universe” or challenge our religious views (a happy prospect for some and a challenge to others) or take us closer to finding intelligent life that we can communicate with … but what would it really change?
Won’t it mostly just be a curiosity – Oh, see. We’re not the only life around. OK, who’s doing the dishes tonight? And, how the heck are we going to move all our coastal cities inland when the sea rises?
I mean, it’s not like it will change our circumstances here on Earth.
And, even if there is intelligent life out there, University of Washington paleontologist Peter D. Ward has argued pretty convincingly that given the fact we’ve been listening for signs of civilizations for many years and have ZERO confirmed indication … if we ever do hear their radio waves or something else, they are going to be so far away we’ll never be able to reach them.
“Perhaps our technology will get to the point that we could pinpoint, not just the immediate area, which is all that we’re good for now, and spotlight the entire galaxy. Or perhaps we’ll get good enough that we can really start looking at other galaxies. I think then we’ll start picking up evidence that there’s other life out there, but if you’re talking about places hundreds of thousands of light years away, there’s no conversation you’ll want to have waiting 100,000 years to get your response,” Ward said in an interview on Big Think.
Although, he does say in the interview that the vast number of stars, planets and moons make it almost certain their is intelligent life or at least life out there somewhere.
Guided by fiction
It’s almost more remarkable that we haven’t found life. It seems like we know a lot about extraterrestrial life, but it’s a cold reminder to acknowledge that everything we think we know about alien life is a fiction … so far.
And, as the gallery above shows, we have no shortage of images for what extraterrestrial life might be like or what it might want from us … or do to us!
Our culture is awash in alien speculation – but why?
Do we simply want something smarter than us to be interested in us?
Is finding alien life just one of those items on our species to-do list and we’re just anxious to cross it off?
