Take one look at the earth and you will find life everywhere, even where it would be almost impossible for humans to survive, you will find some kind of life form making a living there, from the heat and drought of the deserts to the pressure and darkness of the bottom of the oceans. So, because life appears to be so abundant on earth then is it not plausible that life could be found elsewhere in the solar system, and not only in this solar system, what about the entire universe? What is required for life to exist, can we use the existence of life on earth to find similar conditions on other bodies in the universe where life could possibly exist? This article will be looking at the existence of life in extreme conditions on Earth and trying to find similar situations and conditions in our solar system. It will also be exploring recent discoveries such as the ALH84001 asteroid from Mars.
Clues to Extra Terrestrial Life in Extreme Circumstances.
In the last few years scientists have noticed that wherever there is water on earth there appears to be some kind of life making it's home there. This has led these scientists to the logical conclusion that wherever there is water then the likelihood that there will be life there becomes much higher. This has made the search for life outside the earth more plausible. If life is exist in extreme circumstances then it needs to find a way of doing so, whether it is finding the ability to create the chemical energy that it needs whilst in an extreme condition or finding a way or preventing the extreme condition from interfering with the creating of the energy.
Temperature creates many problems, from the structural devastation caused by the formation of ice crystals in an organism at one extreme, to the denaturation of biomolecules at the other. If the temperature of an organism reaches up to 100 ∘C, the proteins and nucleic acids will begin to denature.