The Lottery of Life

I recently attended a lecture at the Carnegie Science Institute. It was a lecture about astrobiology, which is essentially the study of life on other planets in outer space.The "life on other planets" concept has been pondered by the human race probably since our ability to be aware of the stars has been present. Every time we look up at the sky into space, there's almost always a wondering of whether it is just us; but as it seems there's a good chance that it may not just be us.

In our galaxy there are millions of other stars that could fit the description of our sun. And that is just one galaxy out of hundreds of millions in outer space. All across the universe there are billions of other stars with planets that are very much like ours. Scientists use a doppler method to discover what size planets are orbiting a star, or they use a light reduction measurement method to detect the size of some planets passing over their sun. Think of it like this: when you observe a star, it's orbiting planets pass over it, the light that the star gives off decreases, and the amount of which it decreases yields the size of the planet passing over it.

Additionally, while observing these stars and planets, scientist's have made monumental discoveries such as the fact that the needed elements to build life are already out there in the cosmos. It has been observed that many nebulae in outer space have complex hydro-carbons, which are the building blocks for life. And not only that, but those same hydro-carbons are incorporated in the 30,000 tons of cosmic dust that falls to earth every year. So if we're getting sprinkled on our home planet, its a safe bet that many other planets in our universe are getting the same showering.

But then to make matters more interesting scientists also have traveled the far and wide to test some of the most extreme environments for life. Guess what they found? They found that from the coldest extremes in Antarctica, to the hottest steam beds in the deep ocean, to some of the deepest mines dug by us were inhabited by microbial life. The same microbial life that hails from our single-celled ancestors that inhabited this planet for 3 billion years before becoming complex.

So let's add it all up. Life is able to thrive in the harshest conditions. There are still debates going on now about methane that is concentrated in certain areas on our distant neighbor Mars. Are these methane concentrations due to microbial life by-products? The debate goes on. But one thing seems certain as these scientists continue to find planets in perfect positions from their suns (this makes it so water can remain mostly in liquid form), the odds of us being alone in our universe drops drastically. We start to find that life will thrive even in the most extreme conditions (ever seen grass grow through concrete).

It was shared that there are space exploration organizations that are continually broadcasting a signal to outer space with "I Love Lucy" re-runs on the band. What would we do if we received an incoming communication of a re-run of some crazy program from another planet? We'd better figure out how we're going to respond, because the odds are, you can bet we could.

Robert J. Childs
Information Agent
Observer Industries