Which planet is most suitable for life?

[magma]

Wich planet(s) in our solar system do you think life can survive on?

The most likely candidate is Mars. The Earth is a rocky planet, so it seems sensible to look for life on other rocky planets too. We can ignore Mercury, because it's too close to the Sun, so it's too hot. And Pluto is too cold and far away to support life. Out of all the planets in the Solar System, Mars is most like Earth. And it's also the most likely to contain life.

The giant gassy planets have no solid surface on which life could roam. But could life still fly around in the atmosphere of a gassy planet?

[01101001]

Wich planet(s) in our solar system do you think life can survive on?

None of them. Not life as I know it, anyway. But, you earthlings seem to do OK where you are.

[aurora]

Moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

[Van Rijn]

Wich planet(s) in our solar system do you think life can survive on?

It might be possible for something like bacteria to survive in Mars. That is, it's unlikely life could survive above ground, though there conceivably could be survivable microclimates not too far below the surface in some areas. And by "survive" I mean to actually carry on metabolic functions. Bacteria spores (not active) might survive above surface temporarily.

It is just possible that life could survive in Europa as well, if there are energy sources available, and depending on the actual nature of the suspected "ocean."

To go much beyond bacteria, it would need to be life as we don't know it.

[Jakenorrish]

I'd be surprised if the Earth were the only place in the solar system to sustain life. I fear we will neither prove or disprove its existence in my life time. I think that Mars is not necessarily the most likely candidate, but it would certainly be less difficult to search there than elsewhere.....

[Bearded One]

Currently I think the best candidate for life to be Europa. The possibility that it may have liquid water oceans put's it at the top of my list. Europa may have life forms higher than bacteria or simple multicellular organisms. I wonder what an Europan fish would taste like?

[jamini]

Europa is certainly a likely candidate but it's a little far away to be a realistic first choice. Mars will likely be the first planet our species will terraform and colonize if we survive technology.


Artist's concept of how a Mars colony may look on a terraformed Mars

Eventually (billions of years) our sun will expand to a point that will make life on earth impossible. By then we will likely be a class IV civilization with colonies throughout the galaxy. If not, Mars would buy us a little time (millions of years) until our sun expands even farther, making life on Mars impossible.

Eventually, we will have to leave our solar system altogether to survive after our sun explodes. Any species has a finite amount of time to either become space faring or face extinction.

[Midnight_Toker]

Europa is certainly a likely candidate but it's a little far away to be a realistic first choice. Mars will likely be the first planet our species will terraform and colonize if we survive technology.


Artist's concept of how a Mars colony may look on a terraformed Mars

Eventually (billions of years) our sun will expand to a point that will make life on earth impossible. By then we will likely be a class IV civilization with colonies throughout the galaxy. If not, Mars would buy us a little time (millions of years) until our sun expands even farther, making life on Mars impossible.

Eventually, we will have to leave our solar system altogether to survive after our sun explodes. Any species has a finite amount of time to either become space faring or face extinction.

stuff like this just absolutely fascinating!

[Delvo]

Pretty grim, though, if (as appears to be the case) there will just never be any possibility of FTL travel (no warp drive, no hyperspace jumpgates, no usable wormholes, nothing), because STL can only do so much...

...but then, even with FTL travel, the "cold & black" death of the universe is pretty grim anyway...

[greenfeather]

Pretty grim, though, if (as appears to be the case) there will just never be any possibility of FTL travel (no warp drive, no hyperspace jumpgates, no usable wormholes, nothing), because STL can only do so much...

...but then, even with FTL travel, the "cold & black" death of the universe is pretty grim anyway...

Ahhhyeah... astronomy is sooo depressing. "We're all gonna die in the end and the whole universe will implode to nothing, so what's the point of getting up in the morning!?"

Unless the rumor is true, that "the Big Bang" was only a bubble in an even LARGER multiverse!! Well in that case maybe our implosion will be put off by a few more trillion years. There's still hope...

[Doodler]

Eventually, we will have to leave our solar system altogether to survive after our sun explodes. Any species has a finite amount of time to either become space faring or face extinction.

The Sun is not going to explode. Shed a lot of mass, maybe, but not in an explosive manner.

[MentalAvenger]

Wich planet(s) in our solar system do you think life can survive on?
We can ignore Mercury, because it's too close to the Sun, so it's too hot.

Wile the dayside of Mercury reaches about 427˚C, the nightside dips down to about -183˚C. The 58 Earthday day would allow plenty of time to burrow down during the daytime. Interestingly, the gravity of Mercury is virtually the same as Mars, .38 Earth normal. Although Mercury has a magnetic field, radiation would also be very high, but not a problem if everyone was well underground.

[MentalAvenger]

Currently I think the best candidate for life to be Europa. The possibility that it may have liquid water oceans put's it at the top of my list. Europa may have life forms higher than bacteria or simple multicellular organisms. I wonder what an Europan fish would taste like?

Aren’t we forbidden to go to Europa?

[Neverfly]

as long as its a Floyd that lands there we should be forgiven

[mattweather]

Earth is simple answer!

[Darrrius]

I would say little Enceladus - Saturns enigmatic, geologically active moon. I prefer Enceladus to Europa because of recent Cassini observaions of potential liquid water: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/pres...cfm?newsID=639

Although its quite likely that Europa does have oceans under the Ice, It seems more certain that Enceladus has water due to Cassini's results.

[MaDeR]

I would say little Enceladus

Unfoturnately, not so good.

http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules...rder=0&thold=0

[Mihaita]

Wich planet(s) in our solar system do you think life can survive on?

Look around: Earth! Although I sometimes wonder how can I live here.

[Siguy]

I'll have to say mars. I bet that bacteria from earth can survive on mars. Mars would be the easiest to terraform, too. But smaller possibilities are Titan, Europa, Enceladus (if it does contain an ocean), and of course, Earth. But intelligent life certainly does not exist in this solar system.

On that note, the best way to tell that intellegent life exists elswhere in the universe is that they havn't tried to contact us.

[RalofTyr]

I wonder if insects and other creatures with an exoskeleton could be genetically modified to be able to survive on Mars?

I imagine, beetle like creatures that burrow in the ground in massive colonies. They go to the surface to collect the sun's energy, perhaps photosynthesis during the day and when night comes, they go under ground to fill up on permafrost water and sleep, to escape the freezing nights. Perhaps their bodies could be more efficient in their use of oxygen.

[Zadiel]

The Moon with Colonies and the Mars of course...

[BigDon]

The Moon with Colonies and the Mars of course...

One post and he's gone? Sockpuppet?

[lpgeorge123]

Currently I think the best candidate for life to be Europa. The possibility that it may have liquid water oceans put's it at the top of my list. Europa may have life forms higher than bacteria or simple multicellular organisms. I wonder what an Europan fish would taste like?

I've read something about Europa having quite a bit of ice, and an internal heat sourse (tidal heating?), which means that there might be liquid water there. There could be a huge ocean under a thick layer of ice. After Europa I'm thinking a few of the other moons in the solar system are the next likely candidates.

Now I'm wondering what an Europan fish would look like. It's quite entertaining.

[RalofTyr]

I once read an article that said if there's higher life on Europa, they should be in a frozen orbit around Jupiter. When an asteroid impacts Europa, it would blow some of these fish into orbit, where they'd freeze (and die).

Europa fish would look a lot like Earth fish, I'd imagine, however, the lower gravity would make swimming easier? If so, then they'd be eel like.


They probably wouldn't have eyes and "see" through sound. Also, since life would be centered around volcanic vents, I'd think any "fish" would have to swim from vent to vent for food. They'd probably be smart fish, since they'd have to remember where the vents are.

[eburacum45]

Actually I don't think lower gravity would make swimming much easier, if at all. The only experiment concerning that sort of thing I know of was one carried out some time ago in freefall on Skylab; the fish thought they were falling, (as indeed they were) so they swam 'upwards' in a strange 'looping behaviour to compensate.

After a while they stopped doing this and swam normally. In a low gravity, rather than microgravity environment, fish would probably swim quite normally, perhaps after a short period of adjustment.

[PenguinGuard]

I hear lots of Europa talk, why not Ganymede? It is similiar to Europa, and it has ozone and Oxygen detected on it (small amounts, but still there)

[eburacum45]

Or Enceladus, which seems to be a smaller clone of Europa with a bit of Ganymede thrown in.

[MythozDog]

I'll have to say mars. I bet that bacteria from earth can survive on mars. Mars would be the easiest to terraform, too. But smaller possibilities are Titan, Europa, Enceladus (if it does contain an ocean), and of course, Earth. But intelligent life certainly does not exist in this solar system.

On that note, the best way to tell that intellegent life exists elswhere in the universe is that they havn't tried to contact us.

Beneath the surface of Mars may be the safest and best place for life and possibly the best place for man to establish a foothold with which to colonize Mars.

[Thanatos]

The moons of Jupiter and Saturn may well be better candidates for life than even Mars, given they appear to have copious amounts of the one ingredient essential all life on Earth - dihydrogen oxide [water]. Volcanic vents would arguably be the most viable energy source. It appears highly probable this is where the earliest life forms on earth originated. Microbial life is probably as complex as it gets, although something advanced as tube worms is not off the radar. Oxygen appears essential for stuff like fish, given no complex anaerobic life forms are known to exist on Earth. For discussion see:

Life on Earth and Elsewhere
http://www.solstation.com/life.htm

Enceladus is the most recent entries in the abundant water derby. It is unique in that the water appears to be open to the surface, as opposed to entombed beneath miles of ice. If there are indeed surface volcanic vents spewing steam, this would be a very appealing place to explore [getting beneath several miles of ice to look for life poses is viewed as impractical by a surprising number of scientists]. A link to the initial report:

Radical! Liquid Water on Enceladus
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2..._enceladus.htm

As noted in the more recent link given by MaDer, water may not be a major component of the observed plume, but this very appealing type of place to look for life elsewhere in the solar system. Similar apparent volcanic plumes have been observed on Io and Triton.

Here are the other leading contenders:

Report: Jupiter's moons possess food for life
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/TECH/sp...ife/index.html

[RalofTyr]

Earth is simple answer!

Not for much longer. Humans are seeing to that.