Discovering the universe from our own backyards

After I was a university scholar, I labored on the Charlevoix Astronomical Observatory in Québec.

It was a fairly respectable summer season job, as I acquired to watch celestial bodies till the lifeless of night time, discuss to astronomy buffs about space exploration and watch kids be amazed by Saturn’s rings.

Over the handfuls of astronomy nights I’ve hosted, one query has persistently come up:

“Does life exist anyplace else?”

Answering this basic query, articulated by the primary philosophers, which has transcended time and eras and nonetheless stays on the coronary heart of our rational considering, was an enormous project for me as a CEGEP scholar on the time.

I merely supplied a easy “probably,” earlier than including a shocking “and if that is the case, the reply lies right here, on Earth, in locations known as ‘planetary analogs.'”

Planetary analogs are areas on Earth that replicate a number of extreme conditions discovered on one other celestial physique. For instance, temperature, strain and solar radiation.

Each for technical and monetary causes, finishing up a number of space missions per yr, manned or unmanned, is solely not sensible, particularly as these missions take a number of years to finish.

But the Earth, our magnificent blue planet the place life thrives, has some excessive, harmful and merciless locations. These locations can reproduce sure circumstances discovered within the arid deserts of Mars or the suffocating ambiance of Venus.

What if these locations had been, in reality, habitats the place life has developed?

Lakes beneath ice

For instance, contemplate Europa, one of many moons of Jupiter, which, together with Mars, is without doubt one of the prime contenders in our quest for extraterrestrial life. Its floor is roofed in a dense layer of ice about ten kilometers thick, beneath which lies… an ocean. An ocean of… liquid water!

It seems that in Antarctica, nearly 400 lakes exist in related circumstances, that’s to say that they lie beneath a everlasting ice blanket, shielded from the whole lot that occurs on the floor. These are often known as “subglacial” lakes.

Such is the case of Lake Vostok, the biggest and deepest lake in Antarctica. It was within the Nineteen Sixties that scientists first suspected the presence of a lake beneath a four-kilometer thick layer of ice.

This icy barrier deprives the lake of gaseous exchanges with the ambiance or publicity to solar radiation, making it a completely darkish place that’s poor in vitamins and topic to monumental strain—not very hospitable.

Nevertheless, the water on the floor of the lake is concentrated in oxygen, the important thing chemical factor for dwelling metabolism.

A love for excessive circumstances

In 2008, analyses of the ice covering Lake Vostok revealed the presence of micro-organisms! This primarily signifies that life can certainly adapt to hostile environments that will in any other case be deadly for many organisms. These super-organisms, or “extremophile,” are in a position to tolerate these excessive circumstances.

Consequently, the waters of Lake Vostok, remoted from the Earth’s floor for thousands and thousands of years, may effectively include life too—an excellent planetary analog.

Learning Lake Vostok, and its potential extremophile life types, is nearly like being on Jupiter’s moon Europa. And it is nearly like learning its ocean. Had been Lake Vostok in a position to develop life, why not the ocean on Europa as effectively?

Subglacial lakes equivalent to Vostok are only one instance of the handfuls of planetary analog websites which were recognized. For instance, with a purpose to examine sure Martian craters, the Earth’s deserts are the perfect playgrounds. Scientists are exploring the Mojave (United States), Atacama (Chile) and Namib (Africa) deserts, that are dry and arid. Their soil additionally comprises extremophiles, the examine of which tells us concerning the growth of life in scorching environments the place water is restricted.

Making ready for space missions on Earth

In addition to offering a greater understanding of life and its emergence, investigating planetary analogs has one other benefit: making ready and simulating space missions.

Simply assume—if we’re creating a brand new know-how to pattern a rock on Mars, it might be smart to strive it out first, would not it? And never simply inside NASA studios, the place the parameters are managed. We should step out and go to distant, uncomfortable areas.

That is what the Apollo astronauts of the 50s and 60s did (those that aimed for the moon). They went to meteorite impression craters, volcanoes, deserts, all around the Earth, for months on finish. All so they may apply their strategies with quite a lot of tailored instruments, all slowed down by their space fits.

All of it begins on Earth

Area exploration and the understanding of our solar system start on Earth. At first look, this concept could appear counter-intuitive, but it surely truly makes a number of sense when you think about the distant, nearly inaccessible and excessive environments our planet comprises.

Astrochemistry and astrobiology have emerged on this identical means, as multidisciplinary fields that equip us for our analysis into the evolution of Earth and life.

Now, if I had been requested the query—”Does life exist anyplace else?”—I, nonetheless naive, however beginning my Ph.D. within the chemistry of maximum polar environments, would reply:

“Ask me once more in 5 years!”

Joking apart, analogs have their limitations in that the circumstances can by no means be recreated of their entirety. Consequently, scientists have to be cautious of their method and keep away from leaping to hasty conclusions.

Life in Lake Vostok shouldn’t be synonymous with life on Europa, removed from it. However let’s simply say that it is a wonderful first step that can information us significantly in our future missions.

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