NATS 1880 Chapter 7: SEARCHING FOR LIFE IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
5 Sep 2016
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Ch7: searching for life in our solar system. The nature of solar system formulation gives us reason to expect the elements of life to be common on other worlds. Likely that life elsewhere is carbon-based, however we cannot rule out the possibility of life with another chemical basis. C, o, h, n make up 96% of mass of living organisms* Should search on worlds where organic materials are likely to be involved in chemical reactions (i. e. have either an atmosphere or a surface or subsurface liquid medium, such as water, or both) Required to fuel metabolism, whether from sunlight through photosynthesis, consumption of organic molecules, or through chemical reactions with inorganic compounds of iron, sulfur, or hydrogen. Sunlight becomes weaker with increasing distance from the sun: energy available in sunlight decreases with the square of the distance from the sun.
