The futurist Freeman Dyson suggests looking for flowers on the frozen moon Europa, some believe that an ocean of flowing water resides in its depths, such as flowers that grow in arctic regions on Earth
Panspermia is an assumption that life on Earth is not a one-time affair. It's possible that the seeds of life spread throughout the solar system and beyond via rock chunks or comets that, when they hit larger planets, carried loads of bacteria to the other world. In short, we may be descendants of a microbial ecosystem that spans the interplanetary universe.
However, the panspermia hypothesis remains in the realm of speculation because we have yet to find examples of extraterrestrial life, let alone the discovery of the ability of bacteria to roam freely in the vacuum of space. However, the fact that we did not find it does not detract from the possibility of panspermia as a mechanism for the propagation of life to remain a legitimate possibility.
Now, the famous and future physicist Freeman Dyson comes up with an idea and suggests what we need to look for in order to confirm the panspermia hypothesis. Dyson believes that the search for intelligent beings is flawed, and it is better to search for detectable living things - and what is more detectable than... flowers. The flowers can spread to the edge of the solar system - maybe even to places like the Kuiper Belt and maybe even the Oort Cloud.
"A search strategy for life in the universe should be based on what is discoverable, not what is likely to exist," Dyson said last Saturday at a conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
"We have a tendency among theorists in this field to guess what is likely to happen. In fact, our guesses are likely to be bad," said Dyson. "We never had as much imagination as there is in nature."
We just need to learn about nature on Earth. This is the only life we know. Certain rules must be defined about life on Earth (meaning life exists here because it has evolved to suit the temperatures, atmospheric pressure and food availability), there is a possibility of the existence of extreme life forms on the other planets, but until we find these life forms, we do not know what the rules are that life is lived by. Therefore, scientists must logically search for possible life forms.
However, Dyson points out that we should look for the discoverable life forms. One such example is the flower. The Arctic Chapter (pictured) is a flower famous for its parabolic shape. This shape maximizes the light reflected from the inside of the petal so that the inside of the plant can utilize the sun's energy. In the Arctic region, light is rare, so the flower must adapt to the full use of all the sunlight it can receive. From a distance, these small solar collectors reflect a lot of light, and can be a good indicator that the plant is alive and thriving.
Now considered the icy fair moon Europa, it is now believed to contain an ocean of liquid water beneath the icy crust, and astrobiologists are very keen to launch a mission to examine this potential habitat. Unfortunately, it would be very difficult for a robotic dwarf submarine to dig into the depths of the subterranean sea because the thickness of the ice layer could reach 100 kilometers.
Therefore, Dyson suggests sending a compass to Europe rather than landing a spacecraft, and searching from space for living creatures that can be located like the flowers in the frozen regions of the Earth.. After all, many types of plants grow in extremely cold places on Earth, perhaps extreme plants may also thrive on the surface of Europe?
"We can imagine flowers that feed from below, and can develop and be independent" says Dyson.
He points out that once these plants establish themselves on an icy body such as Europa, there is a possibility that the seeds of these plants could be spread throughout the solar system. If we ignore the fact that "life as we know it" requires a certain amount of solar energy to survive (at an orbital distance that is not too close or too far from the sun, an area known as the life zone), plants that are able to survive even in cold temperatures may be suitable for life in remote areas such as the Belt Kuiper (near Pluto's orbit) or beyond it.
Still, the thought of arctic poppies growing in Europe is an interesting idea. If the idea of panspermia turns out to be possible, then it is possible that the arctic poppies of Europe are distant relatives of their terrestrial counterparts.
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So point is actually right!!
You should live looking for polar bears and not flowers!!
: )
Refresh (I just saw your comment),
I know about hibernation, especially of the animal called "water bear" (in its foreign name: Tardig). I referred to this - this is the same animal that I said is capable of living for a certain time in space, but not forever!
There is an article, I believe on the website, that tells about it. Hibernation slows down his actions and protects him to some extent from the space environment, but not forever especially in the radiation environment that exists in space.
The water bear is considered the only animal in space that is able to survive for an extended period of time in space - which is about 10 days.
From Wikipedia:
"hey can withstand the extremely low pressure of a vacuum and also very high pressures, more than 1200 times atmospheric pressure. It has recently been demonstrated that tardigrades can survive the vacuum of open space and solar radiation combined for at least 10 days"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade
And from an article:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14690
That is, indeed - animals have been found with a certain survival that gives the panspermia theory a chance. But they certainly don't prove it beyond any doubt - they don't even partially prove it, they just say it's a possible theory but no proof has been found yet that it's really possible.
Raanan, could you direct us to the sources of information on which you base your columns? Are they backed up by any article/research?
Tomer??? Arrogance? Take care of yourself if length and connection are so important to you.
Tomer:
I don't admire his ideas either, but let's give some respect to his undisputed achievements:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson
Interesting... isn't this the same Dyson who suggested looking for Dyson balls around windshields to find civilizations and signs of life?
The man is just a walking joke...
fresh:
maybe yes, maybe no.
I am not yet aware of an experiment that lasts forever.
In any case, it is still only about potential and not about reality.
It seems to me that in the end this will indeed *be* a reality when we - intentionally or unintentionally - infect some neighboring planet with bacteria that we bring from Earth.
Hibernation does not expire, it lasts forever or until there are conditions that allow awakening
fresh:
The maximum you can conclude from the facts you know (and that too with a lot of compromise) is that panspermia is possible.
The conclusion that it exists cannot be drawn without the discovery of extraterrestrial life.
Pine:
Bacteria can enter a state of hibernation, which is a state of deep coma spring, and in this state they can even be seen as a kind of inanimate, and they come to life when the conditions are suitable for it, they can survive radiation of all kinds at enormous intensities, temperature of extreme heat and cold, mechanical shock at intensities Mighty and still stay alive. For me, this is enough to conclude that panspermia is a thing that exists, although it does not necessarily mean that we were also created that way.
fresh,
Evolution as a scientific theory relies on countless evidences. And as we mentioned earlier - there is not a single piece of evidence for panspermia, since no living things were found outside of Koda'a. Not that if they were found, it would require the correctness of panspermia, but at least it increases its credibility. They were able to see under laboratory conditions that there are very resistant creatures in Koda'a, but no Found one that can survive a journey of years for example. This is the only evidence that supports the theory - that there are lives with a high ability to survive, and from this it can be assumed that there may be some that can survive in more difficult conditions. But again, this is the only evidence and it is certainly not comparable to the evidence that supports evolution.
fresh:
Nor does it mean they evolved elsewhere.
As long as there is no evidence of life in a place other than Earth - there is no evidence of panspermia.
This admission is a priori knowledge, since certain primitive bacteria are almost indestructible, and this is confirmed by many experiments that NASA did, to see under what extreme conditions bacteria can survive, so their probability of being used as the "seeds of life" is very high, of course That there are bacteria that seed life on the planets still does not mean that life on Earth did not develop independently from those bacteria.
fresh:
I don't know where the "certainty" you are talking about comes from, and there is certainly no confirmation, since life has not yet been found anywhere outside the earth.
Panspermia is speculation to the same extent that evolution is speculation, that is, panspermia is 99.99999999% certain and there is a lot of confirmation for this
I just wrote a comment that did not appear on the website, after which I received the above message
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39079142@N02/3595034914/sizes/o/
And then when I went back the response disappeared, after I wrote it and invested in writing it, it simply disappeared.
to me,
It doesn't matter which planet life originated from. In order for seed plants to appear, it is also necessary to claim that the aforementioned meteorite hit KDA after seed plants had developed there, also that there were seeds on the lumps that were scattered from the impact, also that the seeds survived the journey in space, also that they finally hit Europe and that they survived there, despite the conditions that were not Only difficult but completely different from the conditions to which they evolved.
It is even less likely than the theory of convergent evolution in Europe and the Middle East.
Or, the source of life could also be like this, it doesn't matter, this or that asteroid that hit us might have blown away lumps, or even continued on its way with bacteria and seeds, whatever it may be, and then transfer some of it to all kinds of places.
If by chance the organic material arrived in its entirety before some planet, it may adapt there.
Anyway, props to Dyson for all his original ideas. A few more of these wouldn't hurt.
Even if we accept the assumption that the origin of life in the Earth is from outer space (and I have not yet been exposed to evidence for this), we must assume that they arrived at the stage when plants evolved, or alternatively that some sort of convergent evolution resulted in the creation of "flowers" in Europe (ie, flower/plant-like organisms). And evolution is not hocus pocus and is not planned, what are the chances that it did happen that way, considering the very different environmental conditions that prevailed in Europe and the Middle East? What is the proposed ecological-evolutionary mechanism that should explain the development of plant-like organisms in the Middle East?
In short, the claim seems unfounded to me.
A. Ben-Ner:
He's probably talking about plants.
Certain plants can live and develop even without insects and it is a fact that there were plants in the world before there were insects in it.
We've never had as much imagination as Dyson has
The assumption (false in my opinion) built into the basis of the panspermia idea is that the "flower" is an independent life form that exists on its own. However, I believe that all flowers are nothing but a reproductive system of plants and also, all flowers (that is, plants) maintain a symbiotic system with insects that carry out the transfer of the pollen (the plant seed) to the ovary (the plant egg). This is despite the fact that it is also possible to describe flowers that perform self-pollination, without the transfer of pollen from flower to flower by an insect. However, this method alone cannot maintain intra-sexual genetic mixing, which is necessary for the existence of the species. In fact, according to the standard botanical interpretation, a role The flower is to attract or mark the insect its location and existence.
In short, for a "flower" there must be at least a "plant" and an "insect" but, in fact, probably much more is needed. We need a large and diverse population of species, which form a food substrate, one for the other.
anonymous
The intention is to wander inside rock blocks that have detached from the planet.
Not every type is capable but some are.
Scientists have done simulations and seen that it is possible (I can say for sure about between Mars and Earth).
anonymous user,
"However, the panspermia hypothesis remains in the realm of speculation because we have yet to find examples of extraterrestrial life, let alone the discovery of the ability of bacteria to roam freely in the vacuum of space."
Read the whole sentence again and then you will understand - he says that finding life on other planets has not yet been found, and more than that - bacteria that can roam freely in space have not yet been found (although there are some that can be exposed for long periods of time).
"Not to mention the discovery of the ability of bacteria to migrate freely in the vacuum of space"
If I'm not mistaken, I once read that the space station exposes the feces to the vacuum of space to kill the bacteria and prevent the spread of diseases on the station, and that doesn't quite match what is written here.
point,
: )
Flowers will be hard to find.
I would start by looking for polar bears.