Life on other planets can be more diverse than on Earth.

Will life on other planets differ fromterrestrial? In order to answer this question, we can turn to the diversity of animal life on our planet that has been represented in the entire history of our world. If such a variety of species could appear on Earth, then why not be in other parts of the universe?

Who knows, maybe somewhere in the universe life looks just like that

On which planets is life possible?

For a long time, astronomers believed that ourThe Solar System is one of a kind, since as many as 8 planets revolve around our star! This continued until 1988, when the first extrasolar planet was discovered in the orange giant Gamma Cepheus. Since then, all the planets discovered outside our system have become known as exoplanets.

Orange giant Gamma Cepheus

The discovery of the first exoplanet sped up the search for lifeoutside of our solar system. Huge distances to other worlds mean that they are almost impossible to achieve with the help of modern space probes, so scientists are working with remote sensing instruments such as telescopes. Despite the fact that at present we have only the opportunity to observe these distant worlds, even this may be enough to understand what kind of climatic conditions prevail on different exoplanets. A detailed understanding of such observations requires the development of complex models of the planetary climate and evolution, allowing scientists to determine on which of the exoplanets life can probably exist.

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Dr. Stephanie Olson of the University of Chicagobelieves that some planets in our Galaxy, or even in our neighborhood, may have even better conditions for the prosperity of intelligent life than the Earth itself. According to her, life must be sought on those exoplanets that have a more favorable circulation of the ocean. Such worlds may be better suited to sustain life, which may be even more developed than life on Earth.

Do we have the opportunity to one day encounter such creatures? Well, time will tell

Stephanie Olson's team also believes that lifeon other planets it may well begin to develop according to the earthly scenario. So, the main motive of this idea was the fact that life in the oceans of the earth directly depends on such a phenomenon as upwelling. Upwelling (or upward flow) returns all the necessary nutrients from the bottom of the ocean to the sunlit parts where photosynthetic life lives. For example, algae. The more such a movement is developed in the ocean, the more developed will be the living creatures that live on the surface of the water reservoir.

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What exoplanets can support life?

In order to understand what exoplanetsreally capable of supporting the development of life on their surface, scientists modeled many potential potentially inhabited worlds. So, scientists have found that the most effective upwelling, and therefore the most developed life, can be observed in the oceans on such planets that have slower speeds of rotation around its axis. In addition, inhabited planets must be surrounded by a high-density atmosphere and have continents.

A potentially inhabited Trappist-1 system might look something like this

Another conclusion of the researchers is thatthat, most likely, the Earth is not truly habitable. And, quite possibly, scientists have already found that potentially inhabited world somewhere near the star Trappist-1, life on which is currently difficult to find due to a lack of technical equipment.