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Originally posted by SaviorComplex
Not coincidential in the least. There are far more microorganisms on Earth than larger, more complex beings. So it would stand to reason that this would be the first life we find, especially in what could be considered primative ecosystems.
Originally posted by KIRKSTERUK
Finding bacteria is boring.
We are a freak of nature. All life that exists outside Earth is inhuman, by that I mean bacteria. Earth just happens to be lucky and the only reason life exists on Earth is because of the conditions.
Originally posted by KIRKSTERUK
Finding bacteria is boring.
We are a freak of nature. All life that exists outside Earth is inhuman, by that I mean bacteria. Earth just happens to be lucky and the only reason life exists on Earth is because of the conditions. We're just lucky. As soon as the Ozone layer is damaged and flares from the sun are no longer blocked, we're screwed.
Originally posted by mattpryor
I wonder how many billions of years of evolution it took for those first simple proteins and acids to organise themselves into the cell-like structures that we're familiar with on Earth, capable of near-perfect reproduction and infinitely complex adaptation?
Larger organisms such as snails, shrimp, crabs, tube worms, fish, and octopuses form a food chain of predator and prey relationships above the primary consumers. The main families of organisms found around seafloor vents are annelids, pogonophorans, gastropods, and crustaceans, with large bivalves, vestimentiferan worms, and "eyeless" shrimp making up the bulk of non-microbial organisms.
In 2006, Robert Pappalardo, an assistant professor within the University of Colorado's space department, said:
"We’ve spent quite a bit of time and effort trying to understand if Mars was once a habitable environment. Europa today, probably, is a habitable environment. We need to confirm this … but Europa, potentially, has all the ingredients for life … and not just four billion years ago … but today."
Analysis of the outgassing suggests that it originates from a body of sub-surface liquid water, which along with the unique chemistry found in the plume, has fueled speculations that Enceladus may be important in the study of astrobiology
Originally posted by bloodsearch
I agree, however for most of the worlds population statistics are not enough.
Originally posted by bloodsearch
Add to this the fact that we have detected the signs of lighting in the atmosphere and that we believe lighting was what sparked the chemical reactions that led to the origins of life on this planet.
link
Originally posted by Good Wolf
To be fair, abiogenesis scientists have been saying since the fifties that lightning wouldn't do this, but rather just simple chemistry.
Good thread BTW.
But a new study reports faint signs of a natural electric field in Titan's thick cloud cover that are similar to the energy radiated by lightning on Earth.
Lightning is thought to have sparked the chemical reactions that led to the origin of life on our planet.