3 ms·

Another soft announce of extra-terrestrial life. I predict we'll see more and more of these for the next 2-3 years, and then an announcement of ET life, probabl

• PaulHoule 3y ago
  For one I think earthlings have a definite chauvinism towards life being on inner solar system worlds whereas the slogan at NASA has been “follow the water” which is not rare at all in outer solar system and interstellar bodies like comets, Europa, Ceres, Pluto, etc. The generic outer solar system body has a high fraction (up to 50% or more) water and between geothermal heat, tides and such, it is probably liquid somewhere inside most good sized objects. (Even asteroids about the same distance from the Earth could harbor liquid water inside if there is some geological trapping structure to keep it inside, but it is not a long term, more than a few million years, situation because earth crossing asteroids have unstable orbits) Bodies like Europa could have hydrothermal vents that would support life and that may the generic place you find it in the universe but it is hard to see how you could support a really complex ecosystem that could develop intelligence in a place like that. Though I just imagine some of them manage to drill their way out through the ice and get blown away by what they discover but for one thing their metabolism would require very high pressures and surviving the trip would be challenging for them.