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Life in the Universe

Searching for Life in the Solar System by Professor Timothy Swindle. When Renaissance scholars figured out that the planets are, like Earth, orbiting the Sun, an immediate assumption was that they are inhabited worlds. In the last 50 years, spacecraft have determined that life on the surfaces of planets and moons in the Solar System is rare - if it exists at all. However, there are places where a search for life in the Solar System may still be fruitful. Although the current surface of Mars is a hostile environment, early Mars may have been much more clement to life. Jupiter's moon Europa is almost certainly barren on the surface, but has an 'ocean' of liquid water underneath a crust of ice, where some terrestrial organisms might be able to thrive. Finally, Saturn's moon Titan would not be suitable for life from Earth, but has rain and seas of liquid hydrocarbons, raising questions about whether life needs liquid water, or just needs some abundant liquid.

Searching for Life in the Solar System


Go to the Series Home or watch other lectures:

1. What is Life?
2. Planet Formation and the Origin of Life
3. Life on Earth: By Chance or by Law?
4. Complexity and Evolvability: What Makes Life so Interesting?
5. Searching for Life in the Solar System
6. Amazing Discoveries: A Billion Earth-like Worlds
7. Intelligent Life Beyond Earth