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A thread to clear something up.

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posted on Aug, 6 2010 @ 11:33 PM
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I've seen this mentioned in about 832 billion threads over the years on ATS regarding space exploration. That is:

How come scientists only look in the habitable zone? I believe that life could survive outside this zone. Why don't we look there, too? I believe that not all life needs oxygen and water to survive.

The most simple answer is:

There are many planets and moons in JUST our solar system that have the ability to harbor life. It costs hundreds of millions of dollars, and often billions of dollars to send probes out to look for life. We need to use the money to look for life in places where we KNOW it could survive.

THAT, my friends, is why we look for water and habitable temperatures (past and present). We can only go off of what we know. And right now that is that life just about always needs water, etc. The findings of extremeophiles has come a long way, but still... money's money.

[edit on 8/6/2010 by Schmidt1989]



posted on Aug, 7 2010 @ 06:13 AM
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We are carbon life forms... What's to stop something from being a silicon-based life-form, as the silicon molecule has 4 unpaired electrons with a half-filled outer shell...

So it's highly probable that lifeforms exist beyond this so called "habitable zone"

[edit on 8/7/2010 by BigOrange]



posted on Aug, 7 2010 @ 07:42 AM
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I understand that the reason for scientists to focus on the "Goldy lock zone" is because that is the zone we are familiar with, and because we wouldn't recognize life if it would bite us in the ass, when it doesn't look like anything we have ever encountered before.

I do not think that any scientist has ever denied the possibility of life beyond the green zone...



posted on Aug, 7 2010 @ 12:47 PM
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Originally posted by Sinter Klaas
I understand that the reason for scientists to focus on the "Goldy lock zone" is because that is the zone we are familiar with, and because we wouldn't recognize life if it would bite us in the ass, when it doesn't look like anything we have ever encountered before.

I do not think that any scientist has ever denied the possibility of life beyond the green zone...


Exactly.

How would scientists even design a probe to look for life totally unlike us? How would the probe recognize that life if it happened stumble upon such life?

Even a human scientist with a modern laboratory may have a very difficult time confirming that such life is actually life. It took years for certain scientists to prove that some extremophile life is actually life -- and that life is here on Earth, and is DNA-based.

Scientists fully understand that life could exist that is totally unlike our own. However, it is MUCH EASIER to design experiments and probes to look for life that can be easily identified as life.

I do agree a bit with the naysayers that we should not be so fast to claim that an exoplanet may be lifeless because it is too hot, too cold, or too dry. The search for life here in our own solar system is best done looking for life that we can recognize. However, when it comes to exoplanets, we should feel free to let our imaginations go wild. It's not like NASA will be sending a probe to one anytime in the foreseeable future.



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