If you look at it from different angles, you will find that life is just as wonderful as the universe. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

There are still too many questions about miraculous life that our current science and technology cannot solve.

Why are the most basic particles in the universe capable of building all kinds of complex life?

Why can a small seed take root and sprout?

Why can a weak sapling grow into a big tree?

Why do intelligent beings have the ability to think and learn independently?

Why does genetic material perpetuate and give birth to vibrant organisms?

............

In the vast universe, how lucky life on Earth must be.

Although the earth we live on is only one of the thousands of ordinary planets in the universe, it is a cradle that can give birth to precious life.

Because of this, we can see plants growing on the earth we live on, birds flying freely in the sky, and fish roaming in the water.......

It is all these life activities that make the earth's ecological environment so magnificent and vibrant.

Is there extraterrestrial life in the universe, and are we humans alone on Earth?

It's something we've been speculating about and we've been working on.

Scientists have used wide-area infrared space telescopes to observe the universe through the infrared band. Scientists believe that once life in the universe evolves into an advanced civilization, it will develop the stars of its galaxy on a large scale, and eventually occupy all the resources of its own star system.

If it is a higher-level civilization, it has the ability to use the energy of the entire galaxy to explore or colonize the surrounding star system.

All of these behaviors can lead to additional energy spills, which can be manifested in the infrared band.

Unfortunately, scientists have observed more than 100,000 galaxies near the solar system, but none have found a clear energy spillover signal.

From this, scientists deduce that the number of advanced civilizations in the universe may be extremely small.

Of course, this observation does not rule out that other star systems with civilizations of Earth's level or lower can only use the resources around the planets they live on, and cannot use the energy in the star system on a large scale.

However, there are also scientists who hold the opposite view of the fact that the number of advanced civilizations in the universe is extremely small.

Their reasoning is that the living space of the universe is so large that it is difficult for us to see our neighbors who live nearby.

Therefore, even if there are many high-level civilizations in the universe, they will live too far from each other, and eventually it will be difficult for neighbors to see each other today.

There are many bolder ideas in the scientific community, such as the famous scientist Stephen Hawking, who once said that in his view, extraterrestrial life is very likely to exist in the form of microorganisms or primary organisms, but the existence of intelligent organisms that can threaten mankind cannot be ruled out.

Hawking believes that some of these advanced civilizations have exhausted the resources of their planet and may now be living on huge spaceships, becoming nomads in an attempt to conquer and colonize all planets they can reach.

According to Hawking's meaning, there may be a wave of aliens on Earth one day, who will quickly loot the Earth's resources and then leave.

............

The Martian dust storm continues, and scientists at the camp have to continue to carry out some basic research indoors.

Yuan is using analytical instruments to heat several batches of Martian soil samples collected from different regions, and when the Martian soil is heated to 900 degrees Celsius, substances such as water, carbon dioxide and sulfur-containing compounds are sorted out one after another.

"This work, the Curiosity rover launched by NASA in the United States, has already been done decades ago." Hara was recording the data while chatting with Durunik.

"The average moisture content of all samples was about 2.19% by weight, and at this ratio, just 0.03 cubic meters of Martian soil can be heated to obtain 1 liter of water."

"With the equipment we carry now, it's not cost-effective to get drinking water in this way." Durunik replied.

"You're right. However, in the future, once we have established a large-scale Mars base, we can consider using specialized equipment to obtain water resources. ”

Yuan Haochen nodded and said as he continued to record.

"Are you done?" Durunik asked, looking at the soil sample that had been treated by Hara.

"It's all done."

Next, Trunik and Yuan will further analyze these high-temperature treated soils to measure the isotope ratios of hydrogen to carbon for various gases in Martian soil.

"The isotope ratios of heavy hydrogen and carbon in the soil are similar to those measured in the Martian atmosphere." Trunik soon came up with further test results.

"This shows that Martian soil, like breathing organisms, has a very extensive gas exchange with the atmosphere. I wonder if this is bad news for scientists who advocate modifying the Martian atmosphere. Yuan Haochen reasoned.

"I've never been a big fan of the feasibility of planetary environmental modification, how can it be successful without hundreds of thousands of years, it's too costly, or it's more realistic to directly build a large, closed base that can be self-sufficient." Trunik felt that it was pointless to modify the Martian atmosphere.

"Maybe it's a good idea to build a base first, and then slowly transform the environment, and do the two things together."

"Dr. Minchi noticed a large fluctuation in the average amount of methane in the Martian atmosphere yesterday, and he believes that there are relatively fixed objects on Mars that are releasing methane." Hara and Trunik continued to talk about the Martian atmosphere.

"Did that guy who 'fart' on Mars end up getting caught by Dr. Minchi?" Trunik quipped. (The composition of farts is mainly carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen, hydrogen and other gases.) ）

"Don't be funny, I guess that the methane in the Martian atmosphere must be of inorganic origin, and it should be released by geological processes, and it is unlikely that it is released by biological processes."

"I also think it's very unlikely that we will find signs of life on Mars. If you look at the dust storms for more than a month, the natural environment on Mars is really poor, with a severe lack of water and oxygen, and the temperature is low,......" Durunik agreed with Hara's view.

"The environment on Mars is really bad, and the possibility of life is really small. However, we should look at the conditions and possibilities for the existence of life in the universe from a broader perspective. Yuan seems to have more views on the necessary conditions for the existence of life, "Perhaps we should not be too absolute that liquid water and oxygen are the necessary conditions for the existence of life, and this view has always become a shackle in our thinking." ”

In the nearly 100-year search for extraterrestrial civilizations or extraterrestrial life, some scientists believe that we should not harbor the idea of "carbonchauvinism."

We should not stubbornly assume that other life forms in the universe, like us humans, must be made up of biochemical building blocks, subjectively ignoring other possibilities, and use this to make search plans.

"You're a bold idea." Durunik looked at Yuan Haochen in surprise and continued, "Actually, I have also read some related materials. ”

The scientists who wrote those sources speculated about the possibility of a methane-based organism, or "methane microbe." This life form can absorb hydrogen, acetylene and ethane and produce methane instead of carbon dioxide. Based on this assumption, even extremely cold places, such as Titan orbiting Saturn, could become habitable for life. ”

Like Earth, Titan's atmosphere is composed mainly of nitrogen, but with methane mixed in. Titan is also the only place in the solar system other than Earth that has a large amount of liquid – lakes and rivers made of liquid ethane and methane.

Liquids have long been considered by scientists to be necessary for the interaction between molecules of organic life, but the scientific community has always paid great attention to water and ignored other possibilities. In fact, this molecular action is also feasible in liquid ethane and methane.

"A life form that can live normally at minus 100~200 degrees Celsius, and what flows in their bodies and blood vessels (if any) is not water, but liquid ethane or methane!"

Yuan Haochen also felt quite incredible when he thought of this, but he also agreed with the possibility very much.

"Contrary to Titan (Titan), it is entirely possible that there is a living organism in the universe that lives in extremely high temperatures."

Yuan Haochen immediately imagined from another angle.

"That planet has extremely high temperatures, and the organism is probably made of silicon and aluminum. The intelligent life there will be an atmosphere made up of gaseous sulfur (our equivalent of oxygen), their rivers, lakes, oceans with large amounts of molten iron, temperatures in the thousands of degrees or even higher. ”

"You're bolder with this idea!" Durunik couldn't help but sigh.

In fact, silicon-based life may have been the most common form of science fantasy in the past, used to replace the earth's carbon-based biochemistry.

To be precise, the reason why silicon is so popular is that silicon and carbon belong to the same group of elements in the chemical system, have very similar atomic structures, and can form four valence bonds, which has also become an important possible factor for the existence of a complete silicon-based biochemical system.

In addition, silicon is one of the most abundant elements in the earth's crust and even in the universe. For example, the amount of silicon on Earth is second only to oxygen.

(To be continued) (Welcome to join the book friends exchange group: 529839423)