Searching for Life in Our
Solar System (Chapter 7)
Home
• Life exists and flourishes on Earth, in
part because of its temperature,
atmosphere and the abundance of
water.
• It has not always been that way on Earth.
• When we search for life, we do not necessarily mean
human (i.e., intelligent, or even macroscopic) life, but
more likely simple life.
• Where else then in the Solar System might we look for
life in general?
7.2
Constraints: materials
• Life on Earth uses 25 of the 92 elements of the Periodic
Table.
• H, He made in the Big Bang, the rest in stars.
• H,C,N,O make up 96% of the mass of living organisms.
• Any other “home” should have the principal building
blocks for life.
• Likely not a problem for almost any planet and any form
of life (not just carbon-based).
7.3
Constraints: materials
• Need more than just elements for life.
• Need (certain) molecules (e.g., amino acids).
• While all planets likely get bombarded from space with
rocks carrying some organic molecules, the protection
offered by fluids - especially liquids (water) and
atmospheres – is likely essential for the amino acids to
survive and react chemically and possibly generate life.
7.4
Constraints: energy
• The energy source to allow metabolic functions is often
(but not always) supplied by the Sun (photosynthesis).
• The further from the Sun you go, the fainter it becomes
(inverse square law). Thus life in the further reaches of
the Solar System is handicapped by a lack of solar
energy.
7.5
Constraints: liquids
• On Earth, water is essential for the dissolving and
transport of organic materials, metabolic processes.
• Can other liquids substitute for water?
• Perhaps but the liquid must be abundant and remain
liquid over a reasonable temperature (and pressure)
range. 7.6
• Chemical reactions proceed faster at higher
temperatures, a distinct advantage for the development
and flourishing of life.
• A wider “liquid range” of temperature means a higher
likelihood of remaining liquid through climatic changes. 7.7
Advantages of water
• Water is liquid over a wide range in temperature.
• Water is the most abundant compound in the universe and
is the only compound that occurs naturally in all three
phases – solid, liquid and gas – on Earth.
• Ice is less dense than liquid water (unusual!). It floats and
provides insulation for the liquid (and life) beneath it.
• Formation of H bonds as water freezes is responsible for
ice being less dense than water, allowing ice to float.
7.8
Advantages of water
• Water is a polar molecule which assists in having
materials dissolve within it and in chemical bonding.
• Polarity arises from the uneven charge distribution
within the molecule.
• Cell membranes, essential for the protection of cell
interiors, do not dissolve in water.
7.9
Other important properties of water
• Water has a high heat capacity and surface tension.
Heat Capacity: a measure of how much heat energy a
material can store per kilogram as it changes
temperature. This stabilizes the local environment.
Surface Tension: property a surface has to resist an
external force. This allows chemicals to react more
easily (i.e., on a surface rather than being dissolved).
7.10
In summary
• A working definition of a habitable world: the world in
question must have a liquid medium, probably water,
above or just below the surface.
• The raw materials and a sources of energy will almost
certainly exist on such a world.
• With this definition in mind, let us look at the worlds in
our Solar System.
7.11
The Moon
• The Moon is the only other body in the Solar System to
which humans have travelled.
• The Apollo missions 8, 10 visited but didn’t land, and 11,
12, 14, 15, 16, 17 landed, brought back rock samples,
and also installed seismometers.
• Much of our knowledge about the Moon has come from
human exploration in the 1960s and early 1970s and
from more recent observations by unmanned spacecraft
(including China’s Chang’e 3 lander in 2015).
7.12
Moon basics
• The Moon is about 3,500 km in diameter, considerably
smaller than Earth. With a mass 1/81 that of Earth, it
has a lower average density and a gravity only 1/6 of
Earth’s.
• Its surface
temperatures
range from dark
(-175 C) to light
(+110 C) sides.
7.13
Moon’s Core
• Like Earth, the Moon differentiated during its formation, but
its interior is quite different from Earth’s.
• Its core is solid and only about 200 km in size and is iron rich
instead of mostly iron nickel. This explains the Moon’s weak
magnetic field.
• The mantle of the Moon is probably warm and “plastic”, so it
can move, but not as much as Earth’s, and since it is deep
inside a thick solid layer – the lithosphere - it cannot produce
plate tectonics or volcanoes.
• The lithosphere is the solid
outer part of the moon, and is
probably 800 –1000 km thick.
7.14
Moon’s crust
• The Earth-facing crust of the Moon is also different from
the far-side crust. The crust on the Earth side is about
60 km thick, while the crust on the far side is 150 km.
• The crust has three major
features:
1. Highlands
2. Maria
3. Craters
7.15
Maria (singular: Mare)
• Covering 15-20% of Moon’s surface, they are lower
lying dark areas, 3.9 –3.5 Gyr* old and are made of
basalt.
• The maria have far fewer craters than the other
regions of the moon, so were formed after the worst of
the meteor bombardment in the early SS had ended.
• The maria are also not equally distributed, but are
predominantly on the Earth-facing side.
* Gyr = 109 yr
7.16
Highlands or Terrae
• Covering 80-85% of Moon’s surface, they are the lighter,
higher regions of very old rock, about 4.5 Gyr old, dating
back to the formation of the SS and older than any rock
found on Earth.
• These regions are heavily cratered, often with craters on
top of craters from repeated impacts.
• The presence of craters tells us there has never been
any mechanisms to remove them (e.g., weathering).
7.17
Craters
• Cratering on any planetary or
moon surface can be an
important indicator of the age
of the surface; the higher the
crater density, the older the
surface.
• The large number of craters
tells us that the Moon has
probably never had any kind
of atmosphere or water to
erode the craters because its
gravity is so weak and can
not retain an atmosphere.
7.18
Lunar Water
• The Moon likely never has had
liquid water on its surface, but
recent probes (e.g., Chandrayaan-1
and LCROSS) suggest that there
may be ice in areas near the poles
that never receive sunlight.
• This ice becomes crucial for future
colonization: we would not need to
take water to the moon. Water is
not only vital for life, but it can also
be split into H and O which can be
used as rocket fuel - or O can be
used for astronauts to breathe.
7.19
Bottom line for the Moon
• From the perspective of life and our working definition of
a habitable world, no liquid water exists on the Moon’s
surface nor beneath it. The harsh radiation environment
(no atmosphere nor magnetosphere) argues against any
type of life; past or present.
7.20
Mercury
• Closest planet to the Sun means a very high surface
temperature by day and with virtually no atmosphere,
very cold temperatures at night. Range: 425 to -150 C.
• Perhaps some frozen water in craters in the polar region
but no liquid water anywhere.
• Again, based on our definition, not habitable.
7.21
Venus: Sister Planet to Earth?
• Not really. 475 C surface
temperature (runaway
Greenhouse effect) and 90
times Earth’s atmospheric
pressure! (95% CO2) Clouds
of sulfuric acid as well! No
plate tectonics today.
• In the distant past, maybe life
could have existed. If so, the
only possible place where it
could be today is among high
clouds
7.22
Mars (briefly for now)
• Cold and dry today, Mars exhibits ample evidence of
past liquid water on its surface.
• Most water is likely underground and in the polar caps.
• Today, too little atmosphere to allow liquid on the surface
and harsh radiation bathes the surface.
• Mars is a prime candidate for past habitability.
7.23
The Four Jovian worlds
• Vastly different from the Terrestrial worlds: gas giants.
• Decreased intensity of sunlight as a result of increasing
distance from the Sun.
• Worlds whose atmospheres are predominantly H and He
with a mix of other hydrocarbons (molecules involving
only H and C).
• Interior structures vastly different from Earth’s.
7.24
A comparison of basic properties
• Jupiter is the largest of the Jovian worlds which all have
low densities.
7.25
A comparison of internal structures
• The solid cores buried deep within the planets contain
about 10 times the mass of Earth. You would be
crushed long before you reach these cores, however.
7.26
Alien worlds
• Cloud top temperatures are very cold.
• Despite the obvious differences the Jovian worlds possess
compared to terrestrial worlds, could life perhaps exist?
• The Jovian worlds grow hotter with depth and thus at
certain depths in their atmospheres, liquid water can exist.
If chemical energy (e.g., lightning and aurorae have been
detected) is available as a source of energy, can life exist?
7.27
Jupiter and Saturn: a closer look
• The main issue in the
atmospheres of these 2 planets
is the significant vertical wind
structures that would carry the
chemical building blocks (e.g.,
amino acids) from very cold to
very hot in a short period of
time.
• No obvious way for the
elements of life to remain at the
right altitude to enable life to
develop. Thus not habitable
worlds. 7.28
Uranus and Neptune
• Their greater distances from the Sun suggests that if
atmospheric life was to exist, the distance below the
cloud top surface would be much larger than for the
cases of Jupiter and Saturn. Higher pressures and
vertical winds would likely still be unfavourable to life.
• The liquid interiors near the core may offer some
possibility for life, though highly unlikely.
7.29
Large moons as habitable worlds?
• Some satellites orbiting the Jovian worlds are comparable
in size to the planet Mercury.
• More importantly, they formed in an environment much
richer in volatiles (water, ices, etc..) than the terrestrial
worlds.
• Thus they may possess “ice geology” being driven by
deeper levels of internal heat.
7.30
Medium and
Large Moons
• Enough self-gravity to be
spherical
• Have substantial amounts of
ice
• Formed in orbit around
Jovian planets
7.31
Large moons as habitable worlds?
• Tidal heating (gravitational force acting on an object) can
significantly impact the geology and internal dynamics of
these satellites.
• We will discuss tidal heating and these worlds in greater
detail later, particularly the Jovian satellites Io and
Europa as well as Saturn’s satellite, Titan.
7.32
Small objects (debris)
• While the Solar System contains hundreds of thousands
of small objects, none is sufficiently large to have any
significant amount of internal heat. None has an
atmosphere. Thus it would seem highly unlikely that
they ever possessed the environments (e.g., liquid
water) to allow life to develop. Thus not habitable
worlds.
7.33
In summary
• Mercury, our Moon, the Jovian worlds and the minor
planets in our Solar System cannot be considered
habitable worlds (at this time) and thus locations to
search for life.
• The clouds of Venus, some of the large satellites of the
Jovian worlds and Mars represent our best chances to
find life in our Solar System.
7.34
Exploration of the Solar System
• Telescopic observation of objects
within the Solar System has proceeded
with varying degrees of detail for
centuries, since the development of
telescopes in 1610.
• Journeys to the Moon during the Apollo
era in the late 1960s - early 1970s
resulted in about 400 kg of Moon rocks
being returned to Earth for analysis.
7.35
Modern Space Telescopes
The Hubble Space Telescope (left) and its successor,
the James Webb Space Telescope (right) have/will
contribute greatly to our understanding of other worlds.
7.36
Collecting information on objects
within the Solar System
• More recently robotic spacecraft have fanned out across
the Solar System, visiting all 8 planets and many smaller
objects. Several remain in orbit gathering data on a daily
basis.
• The analysis of meteorites gives us additional
information on both differing regions in our solar System
as well as differing eras.
7.37
Types of spacecraft
• Flyby mission: normally one pass to obtain data
• Orbiter mission: long term surveillance of a planetary
environment
• Lander or entry probe: designed for in situ
measurements of an object.
• Sample return: to enable a “piece of the object” to be
examined in greater detail on Earth.
7.38
Flyby missions
• Normally relatively inexpensive.
• Carry a variety of instruments for the “snap shot” of the
target.
• Can use “gravity assists” to change a spacecraft
trajectory and perhaps retarget the spacecraft for
multiple destinations (very cost effective).
• Best example: Voyager 1 or 2 (operating for nearly 40
years and counting!)
7.39
Voyager 2
7.40
Orbiters
• Generally more expensive to mount as they carry more
fuel, increasing launch costs.
• A variety of instruments for long-term
study of an object. Often includes
radar to “see” through the clouds to
the surface.
• Can use the atmosphere of a planet
to help shape/modify an orbit by
“bleeding off” energy via atmospheric
friction.
7.41
Landers and atmospheric probes
• Arguably the best type of mission as “up close and
personal” information can result from a probe’s presence
on a Solar System object (planet, Moon, asteroid, etc.).
• Long term climatic and geologic monitoring possible along
with isotopic analysis. Most importantly, a
chemical/biological search for life can be conducted.
7.42
Sample return missions
• These missions allow Earth’s laboratories to analyze
samples. One cannot always “guess” what to look for when
designing a mission. It is difficult to “expect the unexpected”
and have instruments suitably available on a lander-probe.
• Samples returned from the Moon, asteroid Hayabusa, the
Solar Wind and Comet Wild 2 from the Stardust craft.
7.43
