What can we learn from Earth about life on other planets?

What can we learn from Earth about life on other planets?

We can also find on Earth direct evidence of the interactions of life with its environments, and the dramatic changes that life has undergone as the planet evolved. This can tell us much about the adaptability of life and the prospects that it might survive upheavals on other planets.

How do we know how life originated on this planet?

The short answer is we don’t really know how life originated on this planet. There have been a variety of experiments that tell us some possible roads, but we remain in substantial ignorance.

Will there ever be life on another planet?

It is unlikely, however, that familiar life forms will be found on any planet within our solar system. Life as we know it—everything from single-celled organisms to human beings—consists largely of liquid water.

Do molecules like oxygen in the atmosphere of another planet prove life?

So molecules like oxygen in the atmosphere of another planet would be one indication—not proof—that there are living things there. Scientists have been studying the planets of our own solar system for more than 50 years, looking for evidence of past or present life, among other things.

Could there be life elsewhere in the universe?

It’s probable, they say, that life could have arisen on at least some of the billions of planets thought to exist in our galaxy alone — just as it did here on planet Earth. This basic question about our place in the Universe is one that may be answered by scientific investigations. What are the next steps to finding life elsewhere?

Why is it so hard to find Earth-like planets?

Finding smaller planets, the Earth twins, is a tougher challenge because they produce fainter signals. Technology to detect and image these Earth-like planets is being developed now for use with the future space telescopes.

What processes lead to life?

Under­standing the processes that lead to life, however, is complicated by the actions of biology itself. Earth’s atmosphere today bears little resemblance to the atmosphere of the early Earth, in which life developed; it has been nearly reconstituted by the bacteria, vegetation, and other life forms that have acted upon it over the eons.