Jovian Life: The Moons Versus the Planets: Part Three

In our solar system, the planets are divided between the inner terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars and of course the Earth) and the outer gas giants, collectively called the Jovian planets (after Jupiter, but including Saturn, Uranus and Neptune), which along with their many moons form the Jovian system. Since it’s easier to look in our own planetary backyard neighbourhood first for alien life, there’s been much speculation about what pieces of solar system real estate, if any, might be suitable abodes for extraterrestrial life. While Mars has always been top-of-the-pops, a once heavily favoured Venus fell by the wayside a while back, only to be replaced with a few bits of real estate somewhat further out. It’s those “somewhat further out” bits of real estate that are now under-the-gun. While most speculation is on selected Jovian satellites, I put the accent on the parent bodies.

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

Uranus: CHON: Uranus is similar in atmospheric and chemical composition to Neptune (see below), but both are slightly different in their chemical composition than their larger gas giant sisters, Jupiter and Saturn. As such, astronomers sometimes place them in a separate category called the "ice giants" because these planets contain a lot of – wait for it – “ices” like water (the O in CHON), ammonia (the N in CHON), methane plus other hydrocarbons (your C and your H in CHON) that includes ethane, acetylene, methylacetylene, and diacetylene. In short, instead of say liquid water vapor, you have ice crystals. Uranus's atmosphere is however similar to the “gas giants” in having the majority of its stuff consists of hydrogen and helium, hence followed by methane (there’s some more of your C). Even more C is present in carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide which has been detected. While carbon consists of only about 3% of the composition of Uranus, that’s still vastly more carbon relative to the solar percentage, so Uranus has been enriched in carbon.

Uranus: Environment: Uranus (as well as Neptune), are often refereed to as the “ice giants” instead of the “gas giants” as noted above. One other distinction is that relative to Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus (and Neptune) are way smaller in volume. That apart, the “ice giants” are way more akin to the “gas giants” than to any of the Jovian moons or any of the terrestrial planets for that matter, both in terms of composition and in terms of relative volume. While pretty god-awful from a human’s perspective, some hardy microbes might love to call Uranus home.

Uranus: Mixing: Any lump of gas molecules, or molecules in a liquid, almost by definition, isn’t going to sit still, unlike say the molecules in a lump of rock. A puff of smoke emitted into Earth’s atmosphere gets dispersed; a drop of ink plonked into a bowl of water will equally get dispersed, or mixed in and throughout.  I’d expect nothing less in the non-solid soupy atmosphere of Uranus. In any event, wind speeds have been clocked at up to 900 km/hour – that’s pretty breezy!

Uranus: Energy: Uranus radiates just ever slightly more heat than it receives in the form of solar radiation. In case you think that makes Uranus frigid through-and-through, you’d be wrong. The interior core temperature still approaches over ten to twenty times the maximum temperature of your average home oven! So, while solar energy is just about zilch, energy percolating upwards nevertheless is present for utilization by the locals – if any. However, of all the four Jovian planets, Uranus is probably the least likely planet to have achieved the distinction of harbouring local (Uranian) life forms.

Neptune: CHON: Neptune’s atmosphere is mainly, as you’d expect one that consists mainly of hydrogen and helium, but with substantial amounts of water, ammonia and methane. CHON is present, as are various sulphide compounds.

Neptune: Environment: While the top of the atmosphere is very cold, as you’d expect being so far out from the Sun, the interior core is hot indeed – many thousands of degrees hot. Obviously, somewhere in-between, you’ll get a happy Goldilocks medium as far as biology is concerned.

Neptune: Mixing: Neptune has lots of varied weather and storm systems, all contributing to atmospheric mixing. The temperature differential between interior temperatures and the atmospheric ‘surface’ temperatures, like on Earth, will drive wind systems leading to mixing of the chemicals that make up the CHON-rich atmosphere

Neptune: Energy: Despite being farther away from the Sun than Uranus, Neptune radiates quite a bit more heat than it actually receives from Sol. In fact, slightly over two and a half times more heat. From the point of view of this analysis, the exact reason(s) aren’t overly relevant, just the fact that it does so. Of course being so very, very far away from the Sun there’s no chance in hell of photosynthesis; chemosynthesis is possible, even probable.

In conclusion, I suggest that the soupy atmospheres of the giant planets have all the fundamentals required not only for the origin of life, but long-term habitability for any biological organisms that have been and are being provided with appropriate CHON, a Goldilocks environment (at least in places), an energy supply, and mixing. The CHON box is ticked on all four Jovian planets. With respect to CHON, there are probably all sorts of way more complex organic molecules present in the four Jovian atmospheres but in such relatively small quantities that are dispersed widely and deeply so as to have escaped detection to date from our relatively faraway fly-by and orbiting probes. The habitable environment box on all four Jovian planets is also ticked; ditto the mixing box; and ditto the available energy supply box. You also have had over four and a half billion years for interesting biological happenings to have occurred. In addition, there’s a lot of volume in each of the Jovian planets for interesting stuff to happen in. The odds of things all coming and getting their act together in a small pond is small relative to a large ocean.

That all four Jovian planets have evolved life is problematical; that at least one has become a biological abode is much more certain, IMHO. Throw in one or more of their satellites like Europa and Enceladus that offer a liquid water ocean environment – well that’s a bonus. On top of all that, the Jovian planets have the highest gravities apart from the Sun. Now that means they suck in more than their fair share of other solar system debris – like comets and asteroids. Now comets and asteroids, the leftovers of that initial stuff out of which our solar system was made, also tend to be rich in CHON. No doubt they, via impacts with the Jovian planets, have contributed their CHON bit to the already potential suitability of those abodes as habitable abodes.

So what sort of Jovian life might we expect? On Planet Earth there is a sharp boundary between the atmosphere and the hydrosphere. On the four Jovian planets one just slowly merges into the other as one goes deeper and deeper. Terrestrial but airborne microbes, bacteria, germs, and other single-celled beasties, and their marine equivalents, like plankton and other unicellular critters, occupy both environments and are happy little campers. There’s no reason for there not to be Jovian equivalents that ‘swim’ and multiply in whatever region of the various four varieties of Jovian atmospheric ‘soups’ that have a comfortable, Goldilocks temperature regime. Of course that Goldilocks region could extend over hundreds of vertical kilometres in range. Some organisms might be better adapted to the thinner cooler upper regions; others to the murkier but warmer depths. Regardless, it gets dark fast so eyesight in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum might be problematical. Of course phosphoresce, not all that uncommon in marine life here on Earth, can’t be ruled out of course.    

If simple life forms originated and evolved on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and/or Neptune, then more complex and far larger ‘marine’ and ‘aerial’ life forms might be present too. Their trick, in order to stay in the Goldilocks zone, will be to have evolved the capability to maintain neutral buoyancy, but also to be able to rise if turbulence pushed them downwards towards greater heat; be able to sink if currents push them too high where chill factors come into prominence. So ‘gas bag’ floaters or ‘fish’ with ‘airbags’ might be possible Jovian alien life-forms. There’s no reason such critters couldn’t have developed a relatively sophisticated degree of intelligence. It’s possible to have intelligence without the means of developing technology as our whales and dolphins and even the humble octopus demonstrate.

The fly in the ointment is that our on-site investigation is going to prove to be an extremely daunting technological task, one that most certainly won’t happen in the next several decades – probably much longer. In the short term, the best bet is to use remote spectroscopic analysis of the atmospheric ‘surfaces’ or actual surfaces (in the case of the satellites) to identify biological signatures – compounds that just cannot be accounted for by non-biological processes. An example would be the pinkish-red areas on Europa noted above. 

Jovian Life: The Moons Versus the Planets: Part Two

In our solar system, the planets are divided between the inner terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars and of course the Earth) and the outer gas giants, collectively called the Jovian planets (after Jupiter, but including Saturn, Uranus and Neptune), which along with their many moons form the Jovian system. Since it’s easier to look in our own planetary backyard neighbourhood first for alien life, there’s been much speculation about what pieces of solar system real estate, if any, might be suitable abodes for extraterrestrial life. While Mars has always been top-of-the-pops, a once heavily favoured Venus fell by the wayside a while back, only to be replaced with a few bits of real estate somewhat further out. It’s those “somewhat further out” bits of real estate that are now under-the-gun. While most speculation is on selected Jovian satellites, I put the accent on the parent bodies.

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

Now on to the major players! It’s time to introduce the main players, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and those four essentials: CHON, environment, mixing and energy. If there is life-as-we-know-it on these four planets, then we need CHON, we need a proper environment, we need mixing to bring essentials together at one time and place, and we need a source(s) of energy.

One clarification is in order first. Although the Jovian planets are usually called “gas giants”, that is a slight misnaming. While it’s true that relative to Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, the Jovian planets are indeed great big balls of gas, they still must have at their centre a solid rocky core, due to, if for no other reason, that over 4.5 billion years of their existence, asteroids, maybe even small planets, meteors, dust, and comets have all slammed into them. The rocky stuff, ultimately, must sink to the bottom forming a solid heavy element core. With that clarification made, let’s see what there is to be speculated upon. 

Jupiter: CHON: Jupiter, a gas giant, is composed mainly of molecular hydrogen (the H in CHON) and helium (much like the Sun’s composition and in roughly the same ratios). There are certainly ammonia (probably as ice crystals) and ammonia compounds (like ammonium hydrosulphide) in the atmosphere, adding nitrogen (the N in CHON) to the mix. Methane (which contains the C in CHON), as does the carbon contained in carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are also present in the upper atmosphere. Water vapour (the O in CHON) is certainly present, even though in small proportions relative to hydrogen and helium. The colourful bands of latitude could easily be suggestive of complex, even organic chemistry involving not only CHON but sulphur and phosphorus and other trace elements. The upper atmosphere of Jupiter contains small amounts of simple hydrocarbons such as ethane and acetylene, which forms from methane under the influence of the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation and the highly charged particles incoming from the Jupiter’s magnetosphere.   

Jupiter: Environment: There’s no disputing that the cloud tops are bitterly cold; the deep interior is way too hot. But, that alone suggests that there will be a Goldilocks area in-between, probably extending vertically for hundreds of kilometres, and extending as well horizontally around the globe. That volume, given Jupiter’s size, comprises a lot of Goldilocks territory. 

Jupiter: Mixing: Since Jupiter has a very hot interior core and the top of the atmosphere is extremely cold, and since heat rises and cold descends, that alone suggests that mixing in Jupiter’s primarily gaseous/quasi-fluid body must take place. Quite apart from that, all one needs to do is view time-lapse photography of Jupiter’s upper atmosphere to see all the turbulent motion that takes place. A tranquil pond Jupiter isn’t.

Jupiter: Energy – Solar energy is highly unlikely to drive any Jovian biology because the atmosphere is very thick, and just like with our terrestrial oceans, things get very dark very quickly as one descends. However, chemical energy is a possibility, like that which drives terrestrial hydrothermal vent communities. Then there’s infrared (instead of visible) radiation. Jupiter radiates much more heat that it receives from the Sun, the heat being slowly radiated outward from Jupiter’s original quota of primordial heat energy largely stored in the core of the planet.  Jupiter is a fantastic place to visit if you’re fond of thunderstorms. Lightning really lights up the Jupiter’s skies. Lightning is a prime source of energy for driving chemical reactions. Translated, all up, Jupiter is awash with potentially useful energy sources to drive any local biology.

Saturn: CHON: The atmosphere of Saturn (which is what the mainly planet is – a ball of gas) consists of one hell of a lot of molecular hydrogen and some helium, a really skewed ratio relative to those elements found in the Sun, but that’s another story. However, it does explain why Saturn, if you could find a freshwater ‘pond’ large enough, would float in it! That aside, the atmosphere contains trace amounts of ammonia (there’s your nitrogen), acetylene, ethane and methane (and your carbon), plus phosphine - all have been detected. The upper atmosphere has clouds composed of ammonia crystals, while the lower atmospheric clouds appear to be composed of ammonium hydrosulfide and/or water (thus some oxygen).

Saturn: Environment: The same discussion that applies to Jupiter applies to Saturn, although because Saturn is a smaller planet (albeit massive relative to Earth) the habitable volume of Saturn’s quasi-liquid atmosphere will be somewhat less.

Saturn: Mixing: Saturn also has that hot interior, cold exterior dichotomy that exists in this gaseous/fluid planetary ball. It’s akin to the convection that occurs when you heat water on your stove. Hot water rises; cooler water descends. And while not as dramatic as time-lapse films of Jupiter’s atmosphere, it’s also obvious that Saturn’s visual ‘surface’ is anything but tranquil. In fact the winds on Saturn are among the highest of any planetary body in the solar system. However, being farther from the Sun, Saturn’s chemistry is not going to be quite as dramatic as closer-in Jupiter, and thus Saturn’s atmospheric ‘surface’ is a lot blander appearing.

Saturn: Energy – As is the case for Jupiter, and for much the same reason, solar energy (photosynthesis) is out on Saturn; chemical energy and infrared radiation (heat energy) will be the way to go. Saturn also radiates more heat that it receives from the Sun – two and a half times more in fact; Saturn is also a fantastic place to visit if you’re fond of thunderstorms. Lightning also lights up the skies of Saturn.

To be continued...

Jovian Life: The Moons Versus the Planets: Part One

In our solar system, the planets are divided between the inner terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars and of course the Earth) and the outer gas giants, collectively called the Jovian planets (after Jupiter, but including Saturn, Uranus and Neptune), which along with their many moons form the Jovian system. Since it’s easier to look in our own planetary backyard neighbourhood first for alien life, there’s been much speculation about what pieces of solar system real estate, if any, might be suitable abodes for extraterrestrial life. While Mars has always been top-of-the-pops, a once heavily favoured Venus fell by the wayside a while back, only to be replaced with a few bits of real estate somewhat further out. It’s those “somewhat further out” bits of real estate that are now under-the-gun. While most speculation is on selected Jovian satellites, I put the accent on the parent bodies.

If you are a professional scientist interested in astrobiology (exobiology), searching for life in the Universe, your mantra is “follow the water”. If you want to find life, find liquid water first. But liquid water isn’t the total be-all-and-end-all when it comes to finding LGM – Little Green Microbes. Water, based on Planet Earth’s own terrestrial life as the only statistical sample we have, is certainly critical, but so to are lots of other things as we shall soon see.

Astronomy textbooks written until around or about the 1970’s gave little shrift to the Jovian system as an interesting place to look for extraterrestrial life. The Jovian planets and moons were obviously outside the solar system’s habitable or Goldilocks zone, of which Planet Earth was square in the middle of. My how times change, because, following our robotic exploration of the outer solar system, that point of view has had to partly fly out the window, at least with respect to three pieces of Jovian real estate – the moons Europa, plus Titan and Enceladus (orbiting Jupiter and Saturn respectively). Actually Titan is only really interesting from a pre-biotic perspective. While rich in organic molecules/compounds, it’s considered way too cold for really active chemistry and biochemistry to take place. Titan froze before life could actually grab hold. It lacks a viable energy supply, one of the key items required for life-as-we-know it.  

Alas, the parent bodies, including those gas giants further out (Uranus and Neptune) continue to be overlooked as habitable abodes for ET. The logic of this escapes me as we shall soon see, for the idea that the Jovian planets could in theory harbour life forms as complex as jellyfish or other quasi-aquatic life forms even up to and including the equivalents of Jovian dolphins and whales can’t be ruled out. While Jovian extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) might be possible, Jovian ETI with technology can pretty much be ruled out, and for much the same reason as to why dolphins and whales here on Earth aren’t a technological species - they can’t build things in the environment to which they have adapted to.

So what’s needed to build us an ET? Well, minimum requirements are 1) appropriate life-as-we-know-it chemicals (CHON – Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen – and of course water or water vapour); 2) a proper comfortable environment for life-as-we-know-it (an appropriate temperature range for liquid water or water vapour); 3) mixing that brings the various inorganic and organic chemicals required into proximity; and 4) an energy source(s) to drive things along, like solar energy does for many terrestrial organisms on Earth.

Mars, though not part of the Jovian system, has been associated with extraterrestrial life for over the past century and then some. That association remains to this very day. Mars is still the poster-boy and remains the prime target in the hunt for ET – even though that association has suffered a downgrade from Martians with ray-guns (as in “The War of the Worlds”) to Martians as microbes – though a microbial ET is just as significant a discovery as a Martian pointing a ray-gun at you. The principle is the same; otherwise it’s just a matter of relative biological complexity. 

Europa (Moon of Jupiter): Science fiction writers can sometimes really hit the proverbial nail on the proverbial head. Take Arthur C. Clarke’s “2010: Odyssey Two” (1982) and “2061: Odyssey Three (1988). Clarke had aliens taking an interest in the primitive life forms under Europa's ice. They transform Jupiter into a star to kick-start their evolution. Fifty years later, Europa has become a tropical ocean world from which humans are banned. Well, the aliens, transforming Jupiter and the tropical ocean are flights of fancy, but the primitive life under the ice of Europa might be something else yet again.

Actually Clarke was tipped off by the two Voyager space probe flybys in 1979. The data and images that were captured strongly suggested to scientists that Europa had to have a salty ocean, perhaps a hundred kilometers deep, but an ocean underneath a vast ice sheet, perhaps up to ten kilometers thick. The energy source was tidal friction, the endless to-and-fro tugging via gravity on the moon by Jupiter and Europa’s companion sister moons. The flexing heated up Europa’s interior, and as heat escaped upwards, melted the covering of ice. The freezing temperature of outer space (Europa has no atmosphere to speak of) freezes the surface which then insulates the heated ocean below from further freezing.

So, you have water, an energy source, mixing, and given the water is in a liquid form, you apparently have a suitable habitat for life-as-we-know-it, well sort of. There’s not going to be any photosynthesis, not that far out and sunlight is not going to be very effective in any event after penetrating kilometers of ice. Translated, the oceans of Europa are going to be pitch-black. The analogy with terrestrial biology is life in our marine hydrothermal vent communities – life driven by Earth’s interior heat and the venting of various chemicals from beneath the ocean floor, and chemosynthesis instead of photosynthesis. Europa’s interior composition mirrors the terrestrial rocky planets – iron and silicates and stuff like that. What is less certain is whether there are abundant sources of carbon and nitrogen.

The one really interesting feature we can see on Europa’s surface is numerous streaks of pinkish-red lines and markings. The source is probably upwelling of the waters below as the surface ice rotates and cracks, sort of like ice floes in our polar oceans. There are lots and lots of organics with pinkish-red colors, though organic chemistry doesn’t of necessity mean biochemistry. Still, perhaps examples of Europa’s life (probably microbial) lie as frozen fossils on the surface. That pinkish-red stuff would be prime material for sampling when and if a probe lands on Europa. In conclusion however, the C and the N in the CHON is the big question mark IMHO.

Enceladus (Moon of Saturn): Europa has competition in our local solar system’s ‘where are the aliens?’ extraterrestrial life debate. We move now from the fifth to the sixth ‘rock’ from the Sun. In 2005 the Cassini spacecraft performed several close flybys of the moon of Saturn, Enceladus, revealing a water-rich plume venting from the moon's South Polar Region. This discovery, along with the presence of escaping internal heat and very few (if any) impact craters in the South Polar Region, suggests that Enceladus is geologically active today. The water vapor spewing from Enceladus's surface would indicate the presence of liquid water immediately under the surface of the moon, which, using NASA’s mantra of “follow the water” might make it possible for Enceladus to support life. The presence of liquid water under the crust means there has to be an internal heat source. That heat source is actually sources, a combination of radioactive decay and tidal heating as tidal heating alone is not enough to explain the amount of heat required.

So the data from instruments on the Cassini spacecraft produced evidence of what’s now termed cryovolcanism - cold volcanism - where water and other volatiles comprise the ‘molten’ stuff that gets erupted from these cold ‘volcanoes’ instead of molten iron and silicate rock – like terrestrial lava that is erupted from our own hot volcanoes.

These cold volcanic eruptions – basically ejections of vapor clouds into space - have been, as noted above, discovered on Enceladus. The detailed composition of these gas clouds are in the main mostly water vapor, plus some other minor volatile components like molecular nitrogen, ammonia, methane, and carbon dioxide. Additional observations have revealed further chemicals in the plume, including both simple and complex hydrocarbons such as propane, ethane, and acetylene. These chemicals and their relative abundances are similar to those seen in many comets. Perhaps Enceladus was once a super-giant comet that got captured by Saturn’s gravity!

All up, these findings raise the possibility for the existence of potential life forms existing beneath the surface of Enceladus. The composition of the gas cloud plume strongly suggests that its source is a subsurface salty ocean or subsurface caverns filled with salty water. Enceladus is therefore a prime candidate for those wishing to investigate non-terrestrial sites harboring potential extraterrestrial life. We have CHON, energy sources, an appropriate temperature regime underneath the surface, and probable mixing, since liquid water facilitates mixing.

Titan (Moon of Saturn): I’ve already noted that while Titan is fascinating from an astrobiology point of view, that point of view is from those interested in pre-biotic organic chemistry that leads to biochemistry, not those hopeful of actually seeing things wiggle. Translated, while it has the CHON, and probably mixing, that’s just about it. The environment is way too cold which suggests that energy available to drive biology is in pretty short supply.

To be continued...

Astrobiology: It’s Life Jim, But Not As We Know It: Part Three

Terrestrial life, extinct and past; or alive and present is amazingly diverse – in appearance anyway, but also in the environments they inhabit and the abilities they have to survive and thrive. But under the skin, our fundamental biochemistry, be you T-Rex, or be you a maple tree, or be you a bacteria, or be you, you, well you’re all as closely related as makes no odds. Extraterrestrial life will also be amazingly diverse – in appearance. However, the fundamental biochemistry that makes them, them, might be equally diverse relative to what makes you, you.

Traditional Hollywood fare, when it comes to envisioning aliens, tends to take the cost-friendly option and place actors in strange looking, but humanoid form costumes and associated makeup. Or, forget the costumes, maybe they just give the actors pointed ears or paint a few dots on them or wrinkle their noses! The question remains, will real, as opposed to Hollywood’s version of intelligent alien beings be humanoid, or something quite less than humanoid? At a more fundamental level, will the aliens, regardless of appearance, be composed of the exact same sorts of bio-friendly bio-elements and bio-molecules as we (we being terrestrial life forms collectively) are? Will our neighbors among the stars resemble life-as-we-know-it or life-not-as-we-know-it? And what really counts as life-not-as-we-know-it? Is it appearance, environmental habitat, abilities or is it chemistry?

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

Chemistry: Life-Not-As-We-Know-It: Humanoid, or non-humanoid life forms, with biochemistry very different from ours, is a reasonable rarity in science fiction. When such beings are depicted, they tend to be pure energy entities (fairly easily done via special effects), or something resembling terrestrial life forms albeit given an exotic biochemistry. Star Trek’s Horta are a case in point. 

It’s going to be chemistry, not physiology that ultimately dictates life-not-as-we-know-it. Substitute liquid ammonia or ethane for water; silicon for carbon; copper for iron in the blood (Mr. Spock, anyone?), the literature of speculative astrobiology, not to mention the literature of science fiction as well as sci-fi TV series and films are relatively rare of really alien aliens, everything from pure energy beings to solid rock and crystalline life forms, but hardly non-existent. Alas, life-not-as-we-know-it, that is non-CHON (Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen & Nitrogen) life has been at best a ‘what if’ scientific and literary speculation of the purest kind. When subjected by biochemical specialists to critical examination, non-CHON biochemistries were found wanting as likely viable alternatives. For example, replacing carbon with silicon would have oxygen breathing aliens exhale not carbon dioxide but silicon dioxide – sand! Translated, we find the devil’s in the biochemical details as it were. While the possibility for alternative biochemistries can not be totally dismissed, we know CHON life can exist, so taking that certainty, we run with that first and foremost, when, in the first instance, looking for ET.

Really Far Out, Star Scout: Dark Life Composed of Dark Matter and Fueled by Dark Energy: However, while on the subject of life-not-as-we-know-it, you’re in for a bit of a surprise.

You are a minority, and it has nothing to do with your sex, age, blood type, religion, racial or ethnic characteristics, I.Q., or any other similar or related thing.

You are a minority, even a rarity, in that all the stuffs (matter and energy) that make you, you, and make you tick, is in itself a minority or a rarity in the cosmos, and it’s not because most of the cosmos is ‘empty’ space (not that in quantum theory space can ever be 100% empty). All that you experience (see, hear, feel, smell and taste) around you, be it from your immediate surrounds out to the farthest reaches of the cosmos is the result of just 4% (or thereabouts) of the ‘stuff’ we know and love – electrons and positrons, protons (composed in turn of quarks) and antiprotons, neutrons (again in turn composed of quarks) and antineutrons, neutrinos and antineutrinos, photons (electromagnetism), the theoretical to date undetected gravitons (gravity), gluons (the strong nuclear force), etc. And 4% of anything represents a minority, even approaches the definition of rarity.

The other 96% (or thereabouts) of the cosmos is made up apparently of both ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’, which isn’t your run of the mill electrons, protons, neutrons, electromagnetism, gravity (although ‘dark matter’ exhibits a positive gravity akin to normal matter.), etc. yet can and does interact with the cosmos and its contents. It’s sort of like having a room full of 100 people, only 96 of them are ghosts, albeit physical enough to interact with the contents of the room (just like real ghosts allegedly do).

One needs to point out that thus far at least, there’s no actual known connection between ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’ apart from the fact that neither is visible to us in the way that a star or light bulb is visible; thus, the common term ‘dark’. Both ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’ have been detected by more indirect means, primarily their influences on the 4% of stuffs we can see.

The subject of astrobiology (as outlined above) deals mainly with the question of finding extraterrestrial life-as-we-know-it. That is, finding life like us based around traditional forms of matter and energy; life with similar chemistry, energy needs, and environmental requirements. However, astrobiologists do like to speculate and cast their minds far and wide and envision possible forms of life that fall in the category of life-not-as-we-know-it; life that makes use of exotic chemistries, unfamiliar energies, and (to us) extremely hostile environments. 

So, the question proposed is could a form of ‘dark life’ originate and evolve out of some combination of ‘dark matter’ and/or ‘dark energy’? (This would be an ultimate life-not-as-we-know-it prize for astrobiologists.)  Well, since we don’t really know what ‘dark matter’ is – its chemistry and other properties – and since we don’t have a handle on the nature of ‘dark energy’ either, one can’t conclude one way or another at this stage. Let’s just call it a whopping big “maybe”. Perhaps (the late) Sir Fred Hoyle’s Black Cloud concept as expressed in his sci-fi novel of that name, might not have been that far off the mark after all!

The major fly in this ointment is, I suspect, that ‘dark energy’ is a repulsive force, which at first glance, seems incompatible with life of any kind. Thus, for the moment, I’ll include it as a ‘dead end’. However, it’s early speculative days yet and there’s a long way to go before ruling anything either in, or out.

An idle thought however, we wonder what the missing 96% of the Universe is – just calling it ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’ doesn’t tell us what it is. Perhaps a ‘dark energy/matter’ being wonders what the missing 4% of their Universe is composed of!

Further recommended readings:

Barlowe, Wayne Douglas & Summers, Ian; Barlowe’s Guide to Extra-Terrestrials; Methuen of Australia, Sydney; 1980:

Cockell, Charles S.; Impossible Extinction: Natural Catastrophes and the Supremacy of the Microbial World; Cambridge University Press; Cambridge; 2003:

Friend, Tim; The Third Kingdom: The Untold Story of Archaea and the Future of Biotechnology; Joseph Henry Press, Washington, D.C.; 2007:

Gates, Evalyn; Einstein’s Telescope: The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe; W.W. Norton & Co., New York; 2009:

Hooper, Dan; Dark Cosmos: In Search of Our Universe’s Missing Mass and Energy; Smithsonian Books, New York; 2006:

Huyghe, Patrick; The Field Guide to Extraterrestrials; New English Library, London; 1997:

Krauss, Lawrence M.; Quintessence: The Mystery of Missing Mass in the Universe; Vintage, London; 2001:

Naha, Ed; Science Fiction Aliens: A Starlog Photo Guidebook; Starlog Magazine, New York; 1977:

Siegel, Richard & Suares, Jean-Claude; Alien Creatures; Harper & Row, Sydney and Melbourne; 1978: 

Ward, Peter; Life As We Do Not Know It: The NASA Search for (and Synthesis of) Alien Life; Penguin Books, New York; 2005:

Wharton, David A.; Life at the Limits: Organisms in Extreme Environments; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; 2002:

Astrobiology: It’s Life Jim, But Not As We Know It: Part Two

Terrestrial life, extinct and past; or alive and present is amazingly diverse – in appearance anyway, but also in the environments they inhabit and the abilities they have to survive and thrive. But under the skin, our fundamental biochemistry, be you T-Rex, or be you a maple tree, or be you a bacteria, or be you, you, well you’re all as closely related as makes no odds. Extraterrestrial life will also be amazingly diverse – in appearance. However, the fundamental biochemistry that makes them, them, might be equally diverse relative to what makes you, you.

Traditional Hollywood fare, when it comes to envisioning aliens, tends to take the cost-friendly option and place actors in strange looking, but humanoid form costumes and associated makeup. Or, forget the costumes, maybe they just give the actors pointed ears or paint a few dots on them or wrinkle their noses! The question remains, will real, as opposed to Hollywood’s version of intelligent alien beings be humanoid, or something quite less than humanoid? At a more fundamental level, will the aliens, regardless of appearance, be composed of the exact same sorts of bio-friendly bio-elements and bio-molecules as we (we being terrestrial life forms collectively) are? Will our neighbors among the stars resemble life-as-we-know-it or life-not-as-we-know-it? And what really counts as life-not-as-we-know-it? Is it appearance, environmental habitat, abilities or is it chemistry?

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

So, here’s just one logically possible outward description of an advanced extraterrestrial intelligent life force with technology. In basic outline, I imagine a centaur-like structure, a being with four locomotion stubby tentacles ending in splayed out thick pads for ‘feet’. There are also four relatively long manipulative tentacles emanating from roughly chest height. Two of the tentacle’s tips manipulate objects in much the same way as one hand’s finder and opposable thumb manipulate objects. The four tentacles in total equal the manipulative abilities of our two hands. There are four eyes on elevated stalks at the top of the ‘head’ giving a 360 degree field of view. Any two adjacent eyes give a stereoscopic view – depth perception – covering 180 degrees, though it can see farther into the infra-red relative to ourselves because it’s parent star is cooler and radiates more energy in the infra-red than the visible part of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. The body has a protective carapace and our being can withdraw its ‘leg’ and ‘arm’ tentacles inside if necessary like a turtle; ditto the soft ‘head’ structure, which has – you guessed it, four ears. Over all, the ‘skin’ is akin to thick tough leather. The being’s CPU ‘brain’ is located deep within the central body, not in the ‘head’, and so is well protected. Breathing is pretty much the same as ours – it has lungs. Ditto the digestive system. Like ourselves, it’s a carbon based life form and requires the same sorts of water intake as we require. The alien is native to a slightly lower gravity world than ours; its land based, and has a size roughly that of a large terrestrial dog or small sheep. There’s no tail.  

Apart from my quickie off-the-top-of-my-head imaginary creation, well, you also gotta give some, and I stress some, Hollywood and sci-fi writers’ full credit for at least trying to think a bit outside of the box. The central question remains the biochemistry one, not the appearance one. Terrestrial life forms are so diversified in appearance that it’s difficult to imagine any pattern, any symmetry (or lack of same) that hasn’t already been experimented with. However, physical appearance diversification is yet united in that diverse terrestrial life forms have collectively just a single overall biochemistry. Microbe or man; virus or vampire; plant or platypus; we’re all at the biochemical level near clones. So, we’ve had the diversification in outward appearance; might there equally be a diversification in what makes life, well, life?

But first, life has to have some abilities, and life has to exist within an environment that’s fit for, well, life. Both abilities and environments go way beyond life-as-we-know-it, if by that we restrict life-as-we-know-it to the very everyday familiar life forms that we perceive around us – even then, surprises abound.

Abilities: When it comes to special abilities relative to ourselves, well fish gotta swim (but so do dolphins, a paramecium, squid, penguins, some turtles; even we humans make a rather feeble go at swimming but we’re not in the same league, far less the same ballpark as fish, etc.). And birds gotta fly (but so do bats and many insects; humans are natural flyers too – as long as it’s straight down). Clearly lots of organisms can move faster than we can. Many organisms have had abilities that have enabled them to survive for multi-millions of years; billions if you include microorganisms. We’ve got a long way to go before we start making it in that ‘Guinness Book of Records’. Your dog can hear higher frequencies than you; your cat has a better sense of smell; many birds have sharper vision and many organisms can ‘see’ parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that we can’t.

But, not to worry, at least we tend to come top of the pops in the I.Q. category! Now the natural question is, what sort of evolved abilities or capabilities might intelligent aliens have that haven’t been thought of in anyone’s philosophy, apart from perhaps being mental giants and putting us to shame in that I.Q. category? 

Environment: When we think of the typical environment that life finds itself in, we tend to think of our own traditional environment, one that has a fairly narrow temperature range; predictable alternating daylight and darkness intervals; one relatively free of harmful radiation; a fairly narrow pressure range; also a very narrow range of an environment that’s not too acidic, not to alkaline; a near constant atmospheric composition, etc. We don’t often tend to think that life in general, terrestrial life in particular can survive, even thrive outside what’s comfortable to us. How wrong we are if we think that! Relatively few complex organisms exist in extreme environments, though examples would fill many an essay all by itself. We all know about animals that can live in Earth’s Polar Regions and in her ultra dry and hot deserts. We know that fish survive at the high pressure, eternally dark abyssal depths, and that some fish can bury into mud and cocoon themselves from drought for extended periods. Still, that’s peanuts compared to what some microorganisms can achieve. Without doing an exhaustive survey, you’ll find microbes surviving and thriving: high up in the atmosphere; kilometers beneath the surface of the earth; inside your digestive system; inside rocks; in battery acid equivalent environments; in extremely high saline environments; in extreme alkaline environments; in total darkness; in pressures that would crush you like an eggshell; in boiling water; in the near absence of water; in temperatures way below freezing; in toxic sludge; inside nuclear reactors; in environments totally free of oxygen. Some microbes can survive (but not thrive in) exposure to near absolute zero temperatures and the vacuum of outer space. The upshot is that the range of non-terrestrial planetary environments where we might detect, at least relatively simple life, has expanded to just about anywhere and everywhere. 

To be continued...

Astrobiology: It’s Life Jim, But Not As We Know It: Part One

Terrestrial life, extinct and past; or alive and present is amazingly diverse – in appearance anyway, but also in the environments they inhabit and the abilities they have to survive and thrive. But under the skin, our fundamental biochemistry, be you T-Rex, or be you a maple tree, or be you a bacteria, or be you, you, well you’re all as closely related as makes no odds. Extraterrestrial life will also be amazingly diverse – in appearance. However, the fundamental biochemistry that makes them, them, might be equally diverse relative to what makes you, you.

Traditional Hollywood fare, when it comes to envisioning aliens, tends to take the cost-friendly option and place actors in strange looking, but humanoid form costumes and associated makeup. Or, forget the costumes, maybe they just give the actors pointed ears or paint a few dots on them or wrinkle their noses! The question remains, will real, as opposed to Hollywood’s version of intelligent alien beings be humanoid, or something quite less than humanoid? At a more fundamental level, will the aliens, regardless of appearance, be composed of the exact same sorts of bio-friendly bio-elements and bio-molecules as we (we being terrestrial life forms collectively) are? Will our neighbors among the stars resemble life-as-we-know-it or life-not-as-we-know-it? And what really counts as life-not-as-we-know-it? Is it appearance, environmental habitat, abilities or is it chemistry?

Appearance: This isn’t so much an exercise as in a general ‘design an alien life form’ but what might a technologically advanced intelligent life form look like – inevitably humanoid, or perhaps not? Let’s start with the general humanoid form as likely – or maybe not. If you were designing an intelligent alien being from scratch, say our technological equals or better, what would you have to include?

Well, you’ll need sensory organs. No life form that has developed technology will be blind and/or deaf; touch has obvious survival value, as does taste and smell, but these are secondary to vision and hearing. You don’t have to have external ears to hear though, so the one essential feature will be eyes. Eyes have evolved independently many times in terrestrial biology, so vision is as close to essential as makes no odds. The eyes could be unusual in that they might have evolved to detect different areas of the electromagnetic spectrum than just visible light. The one other point about vision is that the higher up the eyes are placed the better in order to see farther. I mean if your eyes were located at the tips of your big toes you’d be visually handicapped relative to a being with eyes much higher up. Two eyes are better than one in order to achieve stereoscopic vision, and give some redundancy protection. Compound eyes work too, as any fly adequately demonstrates, but in order to see the really fine print, compound eyes are lacking. 

You need to get around, so that means some form of locomotion equipment. Fins and flippers are okay if you’re a water creature, but spending your life in water isn’t conducive to developing technology. Scratch fins and flippers. Okay, so I assume you’re land-based, at least some of the time. One locomotion appendage will get you around if you hop, but two, four, six, or eight, etc. work too, and again, provide some redundancy backup. An odd number of limbs isn’t unknown, say a starfish; and some four footed animals can survive even with the loss of a limb. You might think that too many limbs might be selected against since you’d think the extra neuron power need for coordination would reach the point of diminishing returns. However, centipedes/millipedes, etc. put the lie to that.  The number of limbs (tentacles are cool too) aren’t critical; what’s critical, if you’re to develop technology, is that you have to have appendages (even tentacles) that can manipulate the objects in your environment.

Now scallops can move about without having limbs, but it’s hard to visualize a scallop type life form developing technology, primarily because that form of locomotion only tends to be effective in a liquid environment, and a liquid environment isn’t conducive to achieving high technology.   

If you have technology then it’s fairly obvious you have the ability to manipulate objects with some sort of appendage(s). The minimum required is one. Humans who have lost the use of a hand can still function and manipulate objects with the other. A tail might suffice. Then there are tentacles! 

You probably need a central processing unit (CPU) – a brain of some sort – but it wouldn’t of necessity have to be up top.

Then there’s the topic of whether you have internal or external support – some structure to support the innards or insides of a life form. Housing support could come in the form of a simple sack – an external membrane holding in the innards, like a cellular wall. Or, that external wall could be tougher, like an external hard shell, say like a clam, snail or insect tends to have. Or, even though every life form has to have some sort of external ‘skin’, the actual job of keeping the innards, inside could be more the function of an internal skeleton, the kind vertebrates like us have and to which the bits and pieces are housed in and supported by. Remove your bones and you’d be one sloppy mess! 

Admittedly, you need less rigid internal and/or external support if you’re environment is a liquid. An octopus or squid or jellyfish is pretty helpless out of water. A liquid medium also allows you to grow to bigger sizes than would otherwise be the case. Whales do very nicely supported in water, but if beached, find themselves in some quite considerable life-threatening strife.  

Finally, there’s a tradeoff between locomotion and your support structure. You can’t really have an entirely near-rigid support structure since that would tend to hinder locomotion. Trees don’t walk around! Triffids are great sci-fi fare, but it’s hard to see that concept work in the real world. A ‘tree’ might have appendages that could manipulate objects in their environment, but their ‘legs’ would have to be really something else in order to move the ‘tree’ from A to B.    

As to overall size, that in part is going to be a function of the gravity field you’re in. Presumably there’s a minimum size you have to be in order to have enough complexity to come to terms with being an intelligent species. There’s also a maximum size. Life forms are subject to the same sorts of engineering limiting factors as bridges and buildings. If you double your area (say your leg cross section), you triple your volume (your mass), so sooner or later something has to give as more and more mass needs to be supported by relatively less and less area. You can only grow so much in whatever gravity field limits that growth based on the materials you’re composed and constructed out of. Still, that’s going to cover a very wide range of possible sizes. 

Sex: It’s hard to envision any complex life form undergoing asexual reproduction, say via splitting in half – down the middle – like relatively ‘simple’ cells do. There could be self-fertilization, but that limits genetic diversity so needed for relative rapid evolution. One assumes other life forms on other planets have a biological evolutionary process in place given how near essential diversity assists in overall survival.

Other bits and pieces can vary. External coloration is variable; smooth skin, scales, feathers, and fur/hair – no matter. Horns, tails, tusks or other adornments can be as many and varied as you’d like.  

Essentials checklist:

*Eyes topside, minimum two.

*Ears somewhere; topside is better but not of necessity where ours are; two is better for determining direction, but three or more just creates confusion.

*Locomotion appendages, minimum one; more is better.

*Manipulative appendages, minimum one; more is better.

*A CPU brain – somewhere within.

*Size: Not too large; not too small.

*Genders: At least two to achieve genetic diversity, but not too many least things get too complicated.

*Support structure(s): Both internal and external appear to work, so that might be a tossup.

Juggling all those essentials, with open slather on the majority of traits that are of little near mandatory consequence, well just say you could come up with a massive variety of life forms, from humanoid to quite unlike anything humanoid. Alien beings that are alien solely due to having pointed ears, facial dots, or wrinkled noses, while in the realm of plausibility, show a rather lack of imagination on the part of Hollywood bigwig writers, produces and directors.

To be continued...

Exobiology: Life Not As We Know It: Part Two

Exobiology was the original term given to the sciences central to the question of life-in-the-Universe. It’s now been largely replaced by Astrobiology, but I’ll stick with the original. To investigate life-in-the-Universe one needs to look at what the most likely sort of extraterrestrial life will. Terrestrial life, extinct and past; or alive and present is amazingly diverse – in appearance anyway, but also in the environments they inhabit and the abilities they have to survive and thrive. But under the skin, our fundamental biochemistry, be you T-Rex, or be you a maple tree, or be you a bacteria, or be you, you, well you’re all as closely related as makes no odds. Extraterrestrial life will also be amazingly diverse – in appearance. However, the fundamental biochemistry that makes them, them, might be equally diverse relative to what makes you, you.

Life has to have some abilities, and life has to exist within an environment that’s fit for, well, life. Both abilities and environments go way beyond life-as-we-know-it, if by that we restrict life-as-we-know-it to the very everyday familiar life forms that we perceive around us – even then, surprises abound.

Abilities: When it comes to special abilities relative to ourselves, well fish gotta swim (but so do dolphins, a paramecium, squid, penguins, some turtles; even we humans make a rather feeble go at swimming but we’re not in the same league, far less the same ballpark as fish, etc.). And birds gotta fly (but so do bats and many insects; humans are natural flyers too – as long as it’s straight down). Clearly lots of organisms can move faster than we can. Many organisms have had abilities that have enabled them to survive for multi-millions of years; billions if you include microorganisms. We’ve got a long way to go before we start making it in that ‘Guinness Book of Records’. Your dog can hear higher frequencies than you; your cat has a better sense of smell; many birds have sharper vision and many organisms can ‘see’ parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that we can’t.

But, not to worry, at least we tend to come top of the pops in the I.Q. category! Now the natural question is, what sort of evolved abilities or capabilities might intelligent aliens have that haven’t been thought of in anyone’s philosophy, apart from perhaps being mental giants and putting us to shame in that I.Q. category? 

Environment: When we think of the typical environment that life finds itself in, we tend to think of our own traditional environment, one that has a fairly narrow temperature range; predictable alternating daylight and darkness intervals; one relatively free of harmful radiation; a fairly narrow pressure range; also a very narrow range of an environment that’s not too acidic, not to alkaline; a near constant atmospheric composition, etc. We don’t often tend to think that life in general, terrestrial life in particular can survive, even thrive outside what’s comfortable to us. How wrong we are if we think that! Relatively few complex organisms exist in extreme environments, though examples would fill many an essay all by itself. We all know about animals that can live in Earth’s Polar Regions and in her ultra dry and hot deserts. We know that fish survive at the high pressure, eternally dark abyssal depths, and that some fish can bury into mud and cocoon themselves from drought for extended periods. Still, that’s peanuts compared to what some microorganisms can achieve. Without doing an exhaustive survey, you’ll find microbes surviving and thriving: high up in the atmosphere; kilometers beneath the surface of the earth; inside your digestive system; inside rocks; in battery acid equivalent environments; in extremely high saline environments; in extreme alkaline environments; in total darkness; in pressures that would crush you like an eggshell; in boiling water; in the near absence of water; in temperatures way below freezing; in toxic sludge; inside nuclear reactors; in environments totally free of oxygen. Some microbes can survive (but not thrive in) exposure to near absolute zero temperatures and the vacuum of outer space. The upshot is that the range of non-terrestrial planetary environments where we might detect, at least relatively simple life, has expanded to just about anywhere and everywhere. 

Chemistry: Life-Not-As-We-Know-It: Humanoid, or non-humanoid life forms, with biochemistry very different from ours, is a reasonable rarity in science fiction. When such beings are depicted, they tend to be pure energy entities (fairly easily done via special effects), or something resembling terrestrial life forms albeit given an exotic biochemistry. Star Trek’s Horta are a case in point. 

It’s going to be chemistry, not physiology that ultimately dictates life-not-as-we-know-it. Substitute liquid ammonia or ethane for water; silicon for carbon; copper for iron in the blood (Mr. Spock, anyone?), the literature of speculative astrobiology, not to mention the literature of science fiction as well as sci-fi TV series and films are relatively rare of really alien aliens, everything from pure energy beings to solid rock and crystalline life forms, but hardly non-existent. Alas, life-not-as-we-know-it, that is non-CHON (Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen & Nitrogen) life has been at best a ‘what if’ scientific and literary speculation of the purest kind. When subjected by biochemical specialists to critical examination, non-CHON biochemistries were found wanting as likely viable alternatives. For example, replacing carbon with silicon would have oxygen breathing aliens exhale not carbon dioxide but silicon dioxide – sand! Translated, we find the devil’s in the biochemical details as it were. While the possibility for alternative biochemistries can not be totally dismissed, we know CHON life can exist, so taking that certainty, we run with that first and foremost, when, in the first instance, looking for ET.

Really Far Out, Star Scout: Dark Life Composed of Dark Matter and Fueled by Dark Energy: However, while on the subject of life-not-as-we-know-it, you’re in for a bit of a surprise.

You are a minority, and it has nothing to do with your sex, age, blood type, religion, racial or ethnic characteristics, I.Q., or any other similar or related thing.

You are a minority, even a rarity, in that all the stuffs (matter and energy) that make you, you, and make you tick, is in itself a minority or a rarity in the cosmos, and it’s not because most of the cosmos is ‘empty’ space (not that in quantum theory space can ever be 100% empty). All that you experience (see, hear, feel, smell and taste) around you, be it from your immediate surrounds out to the farthest reaches of the cosmos is the result of just 4% (or thereabouts) of the ‘stuff’ we know and love – electrons and positrons, protons (composed in turn of quarks) and antiprotons, neutrons (again in turn composed of quarks) and antineutrons, neutrinos and antineutrinos, photons (electromagnetism), the theoretical to date undetected gravitons (gravity), gluons (the strong nuclear force), etc. And 4% of anything represents a minority, even approaches the definition of rarity.

The other 96% (or thereabouts) of the cosmos is made up apparently of both ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’, which isn’t your run of the mill electrons, protons, neutrons, electromagnetism, gravity (although ‘dark matter’ exhibits a positive gravity akin to normal matter.), etc. yet can and does interact with the cosmos and its contents. It’s sort of like having a room full of 100 people, only 96 of them are ghosts, albeit physical enough to interact with the contents of the room (just like real ghosts allegedly do).

One needs to point out that thus far at least, there’s no actual known connection between ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’ apart from the fact that neither is visible to us in the way that a star or light bulb is visible; thus, the common term ‘dark’. Both ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’ have been detected by more indirect means, primarily their influences on the 4% of stuffs we can see.

The subject of astrobiology (as outlined above) deals mainly with the question of finding extraterrestrial life-as-we-know-it. That is, finding life like us based around traditional forms of matter and energy; life with similar chemistry, energy needs, and environmental requirements. However, astrobiologists do like to speculate and cast their minds far and wide and envision possible forms of life that fall in the category of life-not-as-we-know-it; life that makes use of exotic chemistries, unfamiliar energies, and (to us) extremely hostile environments. 

So, the question proposed is could a form of ‘dark life’ originate and evolve out of some combination of ‘dark matter’ and/or ‘dark energy’? (This would be an ultimate life-not-as-we-know-it prize for astrobiologists.)  Well, since we don’t really know what ‘dark matter’ is – its chemistry and other properties – and since we don’t have a handle on the nature of ‘dark energy’ either, one can’t conclude one way or another at this stage. Let’s just call it a whopping big “maybe”. Perhaps (the late) Sir Fred Hoyle’s Black Cloud concept as expressed in his sci-fi novel of that name, might not have been that far off the mark after all!

The major fly in this ointment is, I suspect, that ‘dark energy’ is a repulsive force, which at first glance, seems incompatible with life of any kind. Thus, for the moment, I’ll include it as a ‘dead end’. However, it’s early speculative days yet and there’s a long way to go before ruling anything either in, or out.

An idle thought however, we wonder what the missing 96% of the Universe is – just calling it ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’ doesn’t tell us what it is. Perhaps a ‘dark energy/matter’ being wonders what the missing 4% of their Universe is composed of!

Exobiology: Interstellar Exploration & Colonization: By ‘Man’ or Machine?

Exobiology was the original term given to the sciences central to the question of life-in-the-Universe. It’s now been largely replaced by Astrobiology, but I’ll stick with the original. To investigate life-in-the-Universe one needs to look at what the most likely distribution of extraterrestrial life will be apart from Little Green Microbes. Assuming one or more extraterrestrial civilizations with advanced, interstellar spaceflight capability exists; will their exploration and colonization of our galaxy be by ‘men’ or their machines?

Way back when human society was mainly a rural one with manual back-breaking existences, not only for man, but animal as well. Then came the industrial revolution and labour got easier and machines took on more and more of the burden. Our mental burdens got easier too. We don’t have to read anymore as we have radio, TV, talking books and DVDs. We don’t have to add and subtract – calculators do it for us. We don’t need to spell as our PCs come equipped with spell checkers. Our technology isn’t just making our muscles less necessary, but our brains as well. And while human muscles and the human brain haven’t increased much in strength or potential intellectual capacity over the past multi-thousands of years, our technological muscles and technological brains have. It’s been pointed out that the average home PC today has vastly more ‘brain power’ than the computers used to guide Apollo to the Moon. And how many of us could beat a computer at chess, or checkers? Silicon chips are becoming ‘intelligent’ at a vastly faster rate than our CHON (Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen & Nitrogen) brain cells are, and the software to utilize them are likewise becoming ever more sophisticated. We’ve all seen a sci-fi robot, android, whatever. The phrase ‘artificial intelligence’ has entered into common usage.  How much longer before sci-fi becomes sci-fact?

The question has been posed whether or not artificial intelligence is the next logical evolutional step. And while humans may remain in control (or maybe not), they will be dependant on that technology, of that you can be assured. So, the question arises, why send CHON flesh-and-blood into space when silicon chips and software will do, and do the job better, faster and cheaper? It’s been argued that artificial intelligence can make the trip to the stars on our behalf. They don’t need life support – food, oxygen, a narrow range of temperatures, sleep, gravity, or as much protection from radiation, etc. They can exist on a minimal energy source, nuclear most likely.

It’s been postulated that artificial intelligent space probes could explore the cosmos, land on suitable abodes and using the local resources found there (minerals/metals, etc.), ‘reproduce’ themselves from internal programming given before the fact, and thus spread throughout the galaxy. Such probes are called von Neumann probes, after the famous mathematician who advanced the idea.  Meantime, while they do all the dangerous dirty work, we humans just continue to inhabit Terra (Planet Earth) and live the good life.

There are two objections to a galaxy filled with space travelling artificial intelligence. Firstly, it’s going to take a lot to extinguish the human (and presumably extraterrestrial) spirit of exploration. We (presumably thy) want to experience the cosmos, and via a surrogate isn’t going to cut the mustard.

Secondly, I find it difficult to visualize a space probe, however intelligent, that can somehow reproduce itself from scratch using the raw resources of another planet. I find that a pretty tall order.  Just visualize the various technological processes that would require. It would have to be able to mine, perform smelting operations, manufacturing, fine detailed precision work, all at various locations etc. I won’t say it can’t happen, but I somehow doubt it will happen.

All up, while silicone and steel might be the pathfinders, CHON, even if it’s alien CHON, will ultimately explore, colonize and rule the galaxy.