Life on Other Planets

Life on Other Planets By: Sidney Wittman and Thomas Pautler

Introduction Since the dawn of the new age, humanity has pondered the thought of there being life elsewhere in the Universe. With technology advancing everyday, we come closer to finding proof of life on other planets. Although it may not be intelligent like our own, if life is found, it will have a great impact on humanity and our very existence. It will help us to understand the universe more than we ever could before.

History • Extra-terrestrial life has been depicted in almost every culture from every corner of the world throughout history. Ancient astronauts been depicted by the ancient Mayans, the Egyptians, India, Australia, China, ancient cave drawings, the Japanese, and even major literature such as the bible and Qur’an have references and even describe extra-terrestrials.

"Men came from the stars, knowing everything, and they examined the four corners of the sky and the Earth's round surface.“ – the mayan Popul Vuh Nepal, 7000 BC The birth of Jesus Nazca, astronaut “…I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north—an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, 5 and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was human, 6 but each of them had four faces and four wings. 7 Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze…” (Ezekiel 1:1-28)

Exploration • In the ongoing search for extra-terrestrial life, it is not necessarily intelligent life we are looking for. It is highly likely that the first signs of discovered life elsewhere than Earth will be micro-biological. Organizations such as NASA that are currently looking for life, look for specific building blocks of life, the main one being water or H2O.

Exploration • In order to find life elsewhere in the universe, teams such as NASA and SETI look for planets that are identical for Earth and orbit their sun in what’s deemed “the habitable zone.” the habitable zone is the distance from the sun that would give the planet a sufficient amount of heat and light to support life, but not too much that it will kill it off.

Missions Keplar The main goal of the keplar mission is to search for earth sized planets that are in the habitable zone. It was specifically designed to search our portion of the milky way. It also determines the variety of the different types of planets orbiting different types of stars in the milky way galaxy. Viking Mars Mission The Viking mission was launched on August 20th, 1975. The primary goal of the Viking mars mission was to take high resolution images of mars, take sample of the atmosphere, and determine the possibility and find evidence of life. SETI SETI is the largest project in the search for extra-terrestrial life. SETI was founded in 1959. They perform multiple studies such as astrobiology, optical, and radio communications. SETI owns many telescopes and radio communications that are part of an ongoing effort to find and make contact with extra-terrestrial life. Terrestrial Planet Finder The terrestrial planet finder is currently in a test phase by NASA. The idea behind it is that using multiple satellites search for Earth like planets and what appears to be liveable environments. COROT Corot is a French mission in pursuit of finding extra-terrestrial life. COROT was launched on December 27th 2006. Using telescopes, they look at terrestrial planets in hopes of finding the possibility of organic material.

Possibility of life in the universe • It is highly likely that there is life on another planet elsewhere in the universe. Many people and organizations such as NASA and Stephen Hawkins have stated that there is without a doubt other life in the universe, we just have to find it. • It is strongly believed that some moons in our solar system such as Europa and Titan, along with many other’s have a possibility of containing life.

Possibility of Life in the Universe • Our galaxy alone contains over 200 Billion stars, each star with its own set of planets orbiting them, each planet with the possibility of containing life. With this in mind, there are still a seemingly infinite number of other galaxies, we are yet to find the ends of the universe. Stating that we are the only life in the universe, intelligent or micro-biological, can be a very ignorant comment.

Conditions Required for Life • Life can survive some quite extreme conditions. We currently do not know the exact conditions required for life to exist but we do have a great idea on the conditions required that will help us to find life elsewhere in the universe. • The main building blocks of life on Earth are: Sulfer, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorous, and most of all, Carbon. These are used to create organic materials under the right conditions such as amino acids and proteins which are needed to give life.

Interesting Facts • In the year 2011, UFO sightings in Canada have jumped 42% • Winston Churchill reported seeing a UFO. It was the first officially recorded UFO. • William Shatner claims to have been saved by extra-terrestrials while lost in the Mojave desert, they guided him to society. • The First ever documented UFO sighting is in the bible and is seen by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1) • There is an average of 192 UFO sightings per day.

Sources • http://www.crystalinks.com/ancientastronauts.html • http://kepler.nasa.gov/ • http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/home/index.html • http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html • http://www.seti.org/

Sources • http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPF/tpf_index.cfm • http://smsc.cnes.fr/COROT/ • http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/question/?id=53 • http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/02dec_monolake/

Sources • http://journalofcosmology.com/Life100.html • http://journalofcosmology.com/Life101.html • http://www.eridu.co.uk/Author/human_origins/ancient_astronauts.html

Life on Other Planets