Life+on+Other+Planets+-+MR

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Rubric: [[file:Space Exploration Adventure Rubric.doc]], [[file:Space Exploration Adventure Rubric.pdf]]

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Exobiology or astrobiology is the search for extraterrestrial life within the solar system and throughout the universe. There are six basic parameters that dertermine whether an environment is suitable for life: temperature, pressure, salinity, acidity, water availability, and oxygen content. Advanced life is restricted to a narrow range of these parameters, but primitive microorganisms exist over a much wider range. There may be as many as 50,000 planets that have living conditions that are suitable for life. Scientists have discovered that Mars is the most similar planet to Earth. Since Mars has similar resources to Earth then Mars is a very good place to look for living things. Evidence of organic material and possibly fossils of microscopic bacteria have been found in certain meteorites that scientists have collected from a meteor that fell is France in 1864. Also another meteorite which fell in Australia in 1969 and another meteorite that was found in Antarctica in 1984, but most of the scientist believe that such organic trace that were gathered from the meteorites was all misinterpreted information. Some of the scientists believe that the moon, Mars, and Venus have already been inhabited by microorganisms that were carried on space probes. Some meteors that have hit Earth over millions of years ago have been recovered and analyved for signs of life. After years of study scientists agreed that the meteorites failed to show evidence of life. Scientists took a closer look at the meteorited and noticed that there had been fossilized evidence of extraterrestrial microbes in meteorite fragments. Expert scientists have identified more thab 1,200 planets in orbit around distant stars, 54 of then are similar to Earths size. Researchers have found several recent discoveries whick point to the possibility of life on other planets. Last year NASA scientists claimed that they had found clues which have indicated that aliens could be living on Titan, one of Saturn's biggest moons. Experts think that life form may be breathing in the planets atmosphere and also feeding on the on the planets surface. Scientists think that there is most likely life on other planets similar to life on Earth.

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 * [[image:http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01725/ufo_1725769c.jpg width="460" height="288" caption="Numerous scientists and politicians have stated their belief in the existence of aliens and UFOs"]] ||  ||   ||

**Works Cited** **Sources** : Include the source information for all of the magazine articles, reference sources (encyclopedias) and web site pages that were used to complete your project. The source information for encyclopedias may be found at the end or beginning of each entry in iCONN. When using periodicals, the publication information will be at the beginning or end of the article. This needs to be formatted for MLA standards. If it is not labeled 'Source Citation' it can be formatted appropriately by using EasyBib.com. You should use EasyBib for the web sites. The final Works Cited should be listed in alphabetical order by the first word of the source citation. "Milky Way." //Kids InfoBits Presents: Astronomy//. Gale, 2008. Reproduced in Kids InfoBits. Detroit: Gale, 2012. "The Milky Way." //WMAP's Universe//. NASA, 28 June 2010. Web. 06 Mar. 2012. . Vergano, Dan. "Galaxy Bracketed by Big Bubbles." //USA Today// 10 Nov. 2010: 05A. Web. 6 Mar. 2012.
 * Sample:**

"Exobiology." //The Columbia Encyclopedia//, 6th ed. Columbia University Press, 2000. Reproduced in Kids InfoBits. Detroit: Gale, 2012. [] [] [|http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov] []
 * Your Source List:**

**Topic: Research Focus**
 * What is your topic?**
 * State the focus of your research: Life on Other Planets**

**Notes** ==== Include notes, statistics and facts that you will use to write your final paper. You may want to label sections of your notes to help you be more organized as you write. As you take notes from a source, you should list the source citation in the Works Cited section above. ====

Exobiology or astrobiology,search for extraterrestrial life within the solar system and throughout the universe. Philosophical speculation that there might be other worlds similar to ours dates back to the ancient Chinese and Greeks. However, the achievements of space exploration and molecular biology have turned speculation into experimentation.

Parameters of a Suitable Environment for Life
There are six basic parameters that determine whether an environment is suitable for life as we know it: temperature, pressure, salinity, acidity, water availability, and oxygen content. Advanced life is restricted to a narrow range of these parameters, but primitive microorganisms exist over a much wider range. Data already collected by space probes essentially rule out advanced life on other planets of our solar system; however, given the potential number of planetary systems in the galaxy, there may be as many as 50,000 planets that have earthlike conditions, a fraction of which could have cultures as technologically advanced as our own. Three decades of passive listening with radio telescopes have produced no signals comparable to those radiating from earth, but we do not know if another civilization would produce electromagnetic radiation in detectable amounts.

The Search for Primitive Life
A continuing effort is being made to detect primitive life within our solar system. According to the Russian biologist A. I. Oparin, life can appear as the result of progressive development of organic matter from nonorganic. The principal constituents of organic matter--hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen--are among the most abundant atomic elements in the universe. Oparin assumed that on earth these elements combined to form simple hydrocarbons and that the hydrocarbons combined to form the precursors of life, such as amino and nucleic acids. Once these precursor molecules existed in the earth's primitive seas, they spontaneously interacted to form increasingly complex structures, until self-replicating molecules like deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) were created, leading the way to protein synthesis. American chemists Stanley L. Miller and Harold C. Urey provided experimental support for Oparin's theory, by discovering that when a mixture of methane, ammonia, water, and hydrogen is exposed to an electric discharge, amino acids are formed. The composition of this gas mixture is similar to the atmosphere of Jupiter. The same result has been obtained by exposing the gas mixture to ultraviolet radiation, which exists in outer space. Further support for Oparin's theory came with the discovery of organic molecules like ammonia and formaldehyde in the interstellar medium. A labeled-release experiment contained on the Viking landers which analyzed the surface of Mars in 1976 detected what could be organic activity. Evidence of organic material and, possibly, fossils of microscopic bacteria have been found in certain carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, most notably the Orgeuil meteorite, which fell in France in 1864, the Murchison meteorite, which fell in Australia in 1969, and the Allan Hills martian meteorite, found in Antarctica in 1984, but most scientists believe either that such organic traces result from terrestrial contamination or that the data have been misinterpreted. Some scientists believe that the moon, Mars, and Venus have already been contaminated by microorganisms carried on space probes. Conversely, fears that returning Apollo astronauts could introduce destructive alien organisms into earth's biosphere led NASA to quarantine them for as long as two weeks, and lunar rock samples were kept carefully isolated.