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Astronomy and Biology
They meet in Mars exploration.
Since quite a time, humans are roving the planet, "looking for life". Sadly, I think that this is not the case. Biology has taken the smallest part of exploration, with Geology getting the headlines. There are no specific sensors looking for life in those machines (there isn't even a microscope), and all information comes from side effects of other observations. Anyway, it is better than nothing of course. Life has metabolism, and the effects of that metabolism are gases that are produced as side effects of being alive. Methane is one such a gas. Methane is detected regularly in Mars and has a seasonal pattern. Curiosity, the U.S. rover wandering around in Mars, detected a spike in methane concentration that surpassed greatly the almost inexistent background concentration of that gas. Did the rover turn around and return to the hot spot to investigate this matter? No. It just went on wandering around. Two peer reviewed journals publish articles from micro-biologists that identify fossils in the ground. Did the rover turn around and investigate what really those things are? No, it just keep on going, wandering about. In desperation I wrote in an ISS astronaut's web site a letter to him. Please Sir, can you tell anybody to turn those rovers around and investigate that? Never got any answer. NASA is driving those rovers, and it is not looking for any life. A Viking lander engineer remarked that the rock in front of the camera changed color in spring. Spectral analysis gave similar spectra to lichens. Magnetite is found in Mars meteorites, photographs of small worms are published, etc. Humans have acquired a lot of data, but no conclusions are drawn. Life in Mars exists, and it is very similar to earth life. Is this a new planetary genesis? Or both Mars and Earth life have a common origin? We will get an answer to this question when we examine the genetic code of Mars life. If it is the same code, odds are high that it is a common origin. If the code used is different, the common origin becomes more improbable. Farther away we have the biggest ocean of the solar system in Europa. Colored, red material is detectable in the surface. We know that life can thrive in total darkness, as sea floor bacterial communities testimony here on earth. In all those places, we could find life as we know it, since the temperatures are mostly earth like. Titan, however, is much more a challenge for life. Methane is there in BIG quantities, and there is a very complex organic chemistry happening in the atmosphe an orange haze that clouds the whole satellite. There is a fluid cycle, with lakes of methane and ethane, rivers, rain, etc, at around -200 Celsius. That would be life as we do not know it. Water is rock solid at those temperatures, and methane and ethane are the universal solvents. Recently, researchers proved that a membrane can be constructed in those solutions. Those beings would be radically different from us. Life as we do not know it. Farther away we have evidence of molecular clouds with complex organic compounds. Organic molecules are discovered in huge quantities. OK. Microbes. But aliens? Intelligent beings? Life can evolve intelligence, symbolic language, and even astronomy. We are the product of natural evolution. Physical laws are the same here and elsewhere. There are billions and billions of planets in our galaxy. Why aren't "they" talking to us? Where is everybody? said von Neuman. Well, in any case they do not use radio waves, why should they? Neutrinos are much better for communications since they aren't deflected by matter as photons are. But we are unable to listen to anything using neutrinos, so we do not hear anything. Scientific work implies a belief. This sounds preposterous but it is at the base of every scientific observation. You make the hypothesis that this or that phenomena exist, and you try to figure out and measure the consequences. To find something, you have to believe it exists. For instance dark matter. Many astronomers believe this thing exists and they try (with no success so far) to measure a consequence of that hypothetical object. We have to get to the same level when looking for alien life. If you are convinced that it doesn't exist, you will never find it. |
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