Other Planets

When considering how the evolution of life could have come about, the seeding of terrestrial life by extraterrestrial bacterial spores traveling through space (panspermia) deserves mention. Much is said about the possibility of some form of life on other planets, including Mars or more distant celestial bodies. Is it possible for some remnants of bacterial life, enclosed in a protective coat of rock dust, to have traveled enormous distances, staying dormant at the extremely low temperature of space and even surviving deadly radiation The spore may be neither alive nor completely dead, and even after billions of years it could have an infinitesimal chance to reach a planet where liquid water could restart its life. Is this science fiction or a real possibility We don t know. Around the turn of the twentieth century Svante Arrhenius (Nobel Prize in chemistry 1903) developed this theory in more detail. There was much recent excitement about claimed fossil bacterial remains in a Martian meteorite recovered from Antarctica (not since... 

According to one theory earth and the other planets were formed almost 5 billion years ago from the gas (the solar nebula) that trailed behind the sun as It rotated Being remote from the sun s core the matter in the nebula was cooler than that in the in tenor and therefore it contracted accumulating heavier elements and becoming the series of planets that now circle the sun... 

The emphasis of the present work is science and technology in the laboratory. The natural shock-compression laboratory of meteoritic impact should not be overlooked. In these environments unique solid state materials have been synthesized for the first time. Perhaps the most common features of our Earth, Moon, and other planets and moons are the craters produced by such high velocity impacts [67C01, 87A03]. 

As space exploration begins, we can look forward to a vast multiplication of our present knowledge of the planets. Conceivably we shall be analyzing samples of the moon within this decade. The distances to the other planets are such that voyages of the order of a few months suffice to reach them. Again information will accumulate rapidly. 

Recent space-probe and earth-based spectroscopic studies of the planet Venus suggest how much remains to be learned about the other planets. Earlier estimates of the surface temperature of Venus placed it near 60°C. The more detailed studies show, however, that two characteristic temperatures can be identified, —40°C and 430°C. The lower temperature is attributed to light emitted front high altitude cloud tops. The higher temperature is likely to be the average surface temperature. 

Plastics will continue to be required in space applications from rockets to vehicles for landing on other planets. The space structures, reentry vehicles, and equipment such as antennas, sensors, and an astronaut s personal communication equipment that must operate outside the confines of a spaceship will encounter bizarre environments. Temperature extremes, thermal stresses, micrometeorites, and solar radiation are sample conditions that are being encountered successfully that include the use of plastics. 

Because the scent of a flower may be due to hundreds of different compounds, it is difficult for perfume manufacturers to duplicate floral scents. Establishing the identities and relative amounts of the components of a fragrance was actually impossible until the development of chromatography. Related techniques are used in forensic laboratories to match samples of fluids, by food manufacturers to test product quality, and to search for evidence of life on other planets. All these techniques depend on subtle differences in intermolecular forces to separate compounds. 

In order to understand the Earth s character as a planet, it also is helpful to have an understanding of how the elements in our solar system were formed. Chapter 2 starts with the Big Bang theory and continues with how very small grains eventually came together and accreted to form the beginnings of what would eventually become the Earth and other planets, about 4.5 X 10 years ago (4.5 Gyr). The initial processes of the Earth s evolution involved heat... 

Overall, the Earth is unique compared to any other planet we know of in its remarkable perfection in supporting life. The integrated systems that allow this to happen started with events occurring billions of years ago. Keeping this historical perspective in mind while studying present-day Earth systems will help complete the picture of the planet. 

Chemistiy and Life Is There Life on Other Planets ... 

Speculation about life on other planets probably began when humans discovered that the Earth Is not unique. We know that several other planets of the solar system bear at least some resemblance to our own. Why, then, should there not be life on Mars, or Venus, or perhaps on undiscovered Earthlike planets orbiting some other star ... 

The second important source for the hydrosphere and the oceans are asteroids and comets. Estimating the amount of water which was brought to Earth from outer space is not easy. Until 20 years ago, it was believed that the only source of water for the hydrosphere was gas emission from volcanoes. The amount of water involved was, however, unknown (Rubey, 1964). First estimates of the enormous magnitude of the bombardment to which the Earth and the other planets were subjected caused researchers to look more closely at the comets and asteroids. New hypotheses on the possible sources of water in the hydrosphere now exist the astronomer A. H. Delsemme from the University of Toledo, Ohio, considers it likely that the primeval Earth was formed from material in a dust cloud containing anhydrous silicate. If this is correct, all the water in today s oceans must be of exogenic origin (Delsemme, 1992). 

Thus, there is a great deal of information on the reaction potential of HCN and products derived from it. Gaps in our knowledge may perhaps be closed in the next few years by research results on the chemistry occurring on other planets or in interstellar matter. As early as 1984, Jim Ferris published a review article HCN and... 

As far as life on other planets is concerned, Mars occupies a special place ... 

Now, apart from the planets, many meteorites were formed, moving in quite different orbits and of quite different chemical composition. In particular, the so-called C-l meteorites composed of carbonaceous chondrites have a composition of elements much closer to that of the Sun. It is proposed (see for example Harder and also Robert in Further Reading) that many of these meteorites collided with very early Earth and became incorporated in it, so that eventually some 15% of Earth came from this material (see Section 1.11). Other planets such as Mars and the Moon could have had similar histories, but the remote planets and Venus are very different. 

The Earth and other planets form a plane around the Sun called the ecliptic and the motion of all of the planets, including the Sun and the Moon, appears on this... 

Biogenic fossils Can some of the structures seen in meteorites, especially ALH84001, be attributed to astrobiology on other planets and what is the size of a cell ... 

Using the numbers quoted above and the derived mass of the Earth gives pc = 5.52 gem-3, which, by comparison with the density of other materials measured in the laboratory, means that the Earth must be made of rock, and heavy rock at that. The mass of the other planets can be determined from their orbital periods and their radii can be measured, for example, from rates of transit in front of the Sun, and so the density of the other planets within the solar system can then be determined (Table 7.1). 

The calculated surface temperature of the Earth can be compared with a mean surface temperature of 288 K. The difference in these temperatures is attributed to global warming mechanisms in the atmosphere. Similar calculations can be performed for any object at any distance from a star of known temperature. The calculations for the other objects in the solar system are presented for the other planets in Table 7.2. 

Jakosky B. 1998. The Search for Life on Other Planets. Cambridge University Press Cambridge. 

Since ATP is present in ah organisms with a fairly constant intercellular concentration, the ATP concentration is a useful index of total biomass and has been applied as such to monitor bacteria in food, biomass in wastewater, and sewage sludge [160], The high sensitivity of this assay allows the use of the firefly assay as a tool for detection of life on other planets. Table 2 shows some applications of the analysis of ATP. 

Except for the moon and the planet Mars, no extraterrestrial body has had pieces of its mass directly examined by scientists in an earthly laboratory. This means that there has been no laboratory sample preparation scheme performed on samples of solid matter from any of the other planets, their moons, comets, or asteroids. And yet we read repeatedly about how scientists have been able to surmise the... 

Then Mars summoned his horsemen, and bade them enclose Mercury in prison under the ward of Vulcan, until he should be liberated by one of the female sex. When this became known, the other Planets assembled and held a deliberation on the question, what would be the best and wisest course to adopt. When they were met together, Saturn first came forward, and delivered himself as follows ... 

Do you think any other planets are in dynamic equilibrium Do nutrient cycles occur on other planets Explain your hypotheses. Then research the answers to these questions. 

Mass spectrometry is an indispensable analytical tool in chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacy, and medicine. No student, researcher or practitioner in these disciplines can really get along without a substantial knowledge of mass spectrometry. Mass spectrometry is employed to analyze combinatorial libraries [1,2] sequence biomolecules, [3] and help explore single cells [4,5] or other planets. [6] Structure elucidation of unknowns, environmental and forensic analytics, quality control of drugs, flavors and polymers they all rely to a great extent on mass spectrometry. [7-11]... 

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