What standard will we use to judge whether it is life or not?
Surely we must realize that life on other planets can be so vastly different than life on Earth that applying an Earthly standard to classify alien lifeforms could be foolish.
Surely we must realize that life on other planets can be so vastly different than life on Earth that applying an Earthly standard to classify alien lifeforms could be foolish.
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Sure, you can fantasize about any weird life that can live anywhere that we wouldn't even recognize as life.
BUT, there is one tell-tale sign of discovery of life on an exoplanet, that can be done in a practical sense. If we indeed discover high concentrations of the diatomic form of oxygen gas (that we have in our own atmosphere) in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, then we can very likely conclude that there is life there to make it.
So far, only photosynthesis is known to be able to render elemental oxygen, and photosynthesis isn't known to occur without life. Sure some may be randomly created in the planetary formation process, but it usually ends up all burning with flammable gasses once
BUT, there is one tell-tale sign of discovery of life on an exoplanet, that can be done in a practical sense. If we indeed discover high concentrations of the diatomic form of oxygen gas (that we have in our own atmosphere) in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, then we can very likely conclude that there is life there to make it.
So far, only photosynthesis is known to be able to render elemental oxygen, and photosynthesis isn't known to occur without life. Sure some may be randomly created in the planetary formation process, but it usually ends up all burning with flammable gasses once
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