NASASpaceFlight.com Forum
General Discussion => Q&A Section => Topic started by: soultraveler on 04/17/2015 03:11 pm
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Hey guys, i'm new here! I've had this on my mind for a few years now and just want some clarity and more information and ideas to support this.
What if, millions of years ago (or more), the planets in our solar system once habited or carried some form of life? The universe is never ending and continues to expand every second, so in all of those years do you guys believe that maybe Venus or even Mars once had life forms maybe not similar to ours but well alike? Maybe some type of explosion happened and wiped out their entire trace of existance leading us to believe that we are the "only ones" here? I know our species wouldn't be able to live on other planets, that's why we are here on Earth. But who's to say that they were able to stand and live through those type of conditions that we cannot? Just because we cannot live on Mercury or Jupitor because it is too hot or cold and doesn't have the oxygen and water we need to survive, doesn't mean that another type of life form couldn't either. Maybe their type of breed didn't need those like we do and had other forms of living. What if there was life on every single planet in our solar system billions of years ago and they were wiped out before our existance to fully grasp that concept? I just find it very hard to believe that of all the planets in our solar system, we are the only onces currently living in it. Also, what if the other planets once had water as well? Everyone agrees that in another thousand to million years, our planet will suffer a fate that will most likely wipe out our entire civilization and one day Earth will look just like the others, no water, no oxygen, nothing. Instead of the little blue planet we've been habiting for so long will be a wasteland of nothingness. I hope you guys understand what i'm trying to explain, I'm very sorry my grammar is off but this is the best way i can transfer what's going on in my head onto this post.
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Hi soultraveler, welcome to the forum!
Anything is possible, and prior to the start of the space age it was commonly believed that the other planets in our solar system all had life on them, but so far none of the evidence we have collected supports the theory.
Consider, for example Percival Lowell theories of Giovanni Schiaparelli's Mars Canal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_canal) - that a mighty civilization once thrived on Mars and now struggled to keep their drying planet irrigated.
Prior to the Venera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera) probes it was generally assumed that the surface of Venus could harbor life beneath its thick clouds.
Even the Moon was assumed to be inhabited and the far side was shrouded in mystery.
Spaceflight is, historically, the wet blanket when it comes to theories of a living solar system. Everywhere we send our probes we find a complete absence of evidence. That certainly doesn't mean finding life in our solar system - or evidence of past life - is hopeless, but it certainly does mean that we can conclude life was never as widespread and successful on any planet but our own.
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Nitpick: Mariner 2 provided evidence that the surface of Venus was very hot, several years before the Venera probes.