Amusing how they assume that alien life has got to be just like us. Besides, it's by no means clear that plate tectonics had anything to do with the emergence

Amusing how they assume that alien life has got to be just like us. Besides, it's by no means clear that plate tectonics had anything to do with the emergence of life on Earth. Consider: (1) CHON are four of the five most abundant elements in the Universe. (2) When these reactive elements are exposed to energy sources such as UV radiation or atmospheric lightning, they form monomers. (3) In an aqueous environment, which shields monomers from degradation via excess UV exposure, these monomers can concentrate, assemble, and order themselves, potentially on surfaces like drying clays or tars, to form polymers. (4) A subset of polymers can contain proto-genetic information and self-ordering and catalytic activity. Basically what's required is something along the lines of tar struck by lightning. It could be that dry land is required, or something along the lines of a shallow pool, but permanent plate tectonics are not required for biogenesis in a general sense. Mars at some point had seas and weather, but it's not clear that it ever had plate tectonics.