The best possible news that humankind could receive is the existence of life on other planets. Now it may seem terrifying that aliens exist but we are yet to understand the negative and positive factors of such an event. However good or bad, the fact that a planet has the ability to support life is extraordinary and provides hope for an extension of earth. Given the fact that this amazing planet of our is being ravaged for its resources, scientists in the near distant future will definitely need to look to other worlds for the survival of the human race.
In the latest cosmic discovery, new data acquired by scientists has hinted at the possibility of alien life on Pluto. It also revealed how life may have already existed on Pluto the farthest planet in our solar system.
According to planetary scientists Michael Summers, “The connection with astrobiology is immediate – it’s right there in front of your face. You see organic materials, water, and energy. These are the things you need for life: organics, raw material, and energy.”
The data has revealed the possible existence and production of complex molecules such as hydrocarbons and nitriles on Pluto. This could also be a part of an interesting pre chemistry process for life taking place on the planet required for life on the planet. The presence of such factors could lead to building complex prebiotic molecules as stated by summers. Now the big question which most reading will be wondering, where is all this coming from?
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Although NASA has downloaded a massive amount of data from the phenomenal New Horizons flyby in October last year that may again reveal something fantastic, it was earlier scientific studies that found several positive hints about alien life on Pluto due to the complex chemistry present on the planet that may support the early stages of life. One of the biggest examples found was hydrogen cyanide which is an integral molecule required for prebiotic chemistry. Such factors prove that there is some form of pre biological process taking place below Pluto’s surface.
The findings on Pluto are all factors required for life such as Organic and raw material as well as energy. It wasn’t very long ago before NASA scientists downgraded Pluto to a dwarf status that the planet was regarded as strangely resembling earth. Astronomers have also revealed that Pluto also had a blue sky which was also revealed by the New Horizons spacecraft as it flew past Pluto. Images collected by the space craft shows that Pluto has uncanny earth like features making it appear very much like earth.
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The New Horizons projected surprised NASA with the massive amount of data and summers ahs also confessed that he never even expected to regard the possibility of life on Pluto even as he had studied the planet his entire life. Summers is also the co author of the research paper “The Photochemistry of Pluto’s Atmosphere as Illuminated by New Horizons,” published in the journal Icarus in September. A second paper was also published in the same journal titled “Constraints on the Microphysics of Pluto’s Photochemical Haze from New Horizons Observations”.
Experts also have reason to believe that there is a vast ocean existing inside Pluto that could match the volume of the oceans on Earth. The areas also had great potential for supporting life. However, whether the ocean on Pluto can or cannot sustain life is a subject of further investigation and study. The fact that even cold, distant Pluto could have a subsurface ocean means that there are potential habitats even in apparently unpromising locations,” said Francis Nimmo, a New Horizons scientist based at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The amazing fact that alien life on Pluto could exist is definitely good news for mankind.
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