Star Trek (see C2A p. 80)
Is there life on other planets?
Exotic telescopes around the world are constantly scanning the universe for sun-planet systems – exoplanets – presumed suitable for supporting life, however one defines such. Rockets are launched from earth bearing payloads capable of sensing and probing for signs of life within our solar system. Sci-Fi movies and novels stimulate our imaginations with alien-life possibilities…are we alone and unique in this vast universe, or might there be … ?
As a young man, one of my favorite TV series was Star Trek. I recall one episode where the Star Trek Enterprise, a space ship, was in orbit around some planet in a faraway galaxy. Captain Kirk, and his co-captain Spock had just ‘beamed down’ to the surface of this planet in search of any signs of life. The planet had no atmosphere, no surface water, and a temperature well below freezing. After touring the planet, Captain Kirk determined that it was incapable of supporting life; he declared it to be uninhabited. Spock, however, always the intuitive ‘techy’, checked his trusty monitor to see if any life-forms could be detected in the subsurface. He soon discovered a maze of mysterious subterranean tunnels which led them to a spacious room full of weird-looking, semi-intelligent, hard-headed creatures. Prior to being attacked by these beings, Spock learned (surprising, they could speak perfect English) their main source of food was common rocks; in fact, their bodies were composed of quartz-silica from these rocks. Fortunately, Spock and Kirk could ‘beam back’ to the Enterprise to live again for another adventure.
“Farfetched” you might say? If you’re looking for aliens on Mars, the Moon, or elsewhere in the universe, that is, intelligent beings our equal or greater who have mastered our language and culture … seriously? But, not so fast, if you’re considering a hardy and unique class of Archean bacteria called “extremophiles”. Just look at where these extremophile microbes can live: ‘lithoautotrophs’, akin to the creatures Spock encountered, are organisms that live in and eat rocks; ‘xerophiles’ grow in the driest desert; ‘acidophiles’ thrive in acidic conditions; ‘anaerobes’ live where oxygen is absent; ‘cryophiles’ love temperatures 15 degrees below freezing; ‘thermophiles’ proliferate in boiling volcanic vents in deep ocean waters.
We should expect to find fossil evidence of extremophiles from earth on the surface of Mars and the Moon. Why? Because meteorites have been crashing into earth for billions of years, blasting off large fragments of earth’s crust, distributing microbial-rich dust throughout the solar system. It is highly likely that some extremophiles could survive a space trip to Mars, and even establish a small colony there. After all, we know Mars retains water in its soil, has a little carbon dioxide in its atmosphere, and occasionally warms up to 76 degrees around its equator.
While it’s fun to imagine Star Trek-like intelligent life “out there” somewhere, the bridge between a single-celled extremophile to a fully developed human-like life form is surely a ‘bridge too long’. But that won’t dampen mankind’s resolve to keep searching.
