A Warm Greeting to Those Outside the Goldilocks Zone

At the end of this year, we can confidently state that we have not found any extraterrestrial form of life. A disappointment for space enthusiasts, but there is no need to despair. Research continues, and we learn something new every day, so even if there is no information about little green men, it does not mean that the findings are not interesting.

This year, the most attention has been drawn to the exploration of Mars, a planet that in the 20th century awakened the most hope among Earthlings that extraterrestrials exist. After 45 missions to this planet, some of which were unsuccessful, the Curiosity rover arrived there in early August, having traveled through the vastness of space for eight months. The goal is to send information to NASA about already discovered minerals that scientists believe can only form where there is water, using 17 cameras and a small laboratory during a two-year study. As the Americans claimed, Curiosity’s analyses could help conclude that Mars had better conditions for the development of at least primitive life forms like microorganisms over a billion years ago.

Although the public was excited about the announced press conference where sensational news from Mars was supposed to be revealed just a few days later, it turned out that the mountains trembled, and a mouse was born. Namely, there was speculation that organic compounds had been found that would confirm that life is possible or once existed. However, the conference was disappointing as it was stated that ‘only’ certain carbon and chlorine compounds had been found, taking into account that Curiosity itself had ‘contaminated’ the Martian surface with these elements. Another possibility, and a realistic one, is that this complex compound did not originate on Mars but arrived there due to a meteor or asteroid impact.
Curiosity continues to search, and for now, there is no significant information for the general public, but it should be noted that it is the best machine (weighing 900 kilograms) that humanity has sent into space, and its results are expected to be clearer in two to three years.

Mars has actually lost the title of ‘our greatest hope’ in the 21st century, which has been taken over by Jupiter’s moon Europa. This icy celestial body could indeed be a hotbed of extraterrestrial life because, as NASA data shows, there is almost certainly water beneath its icy surface. Moreover, at a depth of 10 to 30 kilometers, there is a vast ocean that is up to 160 kilometers deep in certain areas. That’s not all, as the deeper the ocean, the warmer the water is, according to American scientists, which leads even laypeople to conclude that at least some form of life could develop there. In fact, from our earthly perspective, it is impossible that there is no life on Europa, although caution is warranted as it is a completely different natural body than Earth. We will express our opinion on the possibility of life on Europa and other celestial bodies at the end of this story, and for now, we can only conclude that Europa has the best earthly conditions for life in the Solar System.

In February of this year, the so-called New Earth was discovered, a planet that scientists say is excellent for human colonization in the future. It is located in the habitable, so-called Goldilocks zone of its star, in a relatively narrow band with temperatures that allow water to remain in a liquid state on the planet’s surface. It is estimated that the planet, which is located in the constellation Scorpius and is ‘only’ 22 light-years away from Earth, is at least 4.5 times more massive than Earth, making it a so-called super-Earth. It orbits its star in 28 days, and who knows, maybe someone from that planet has discovered that there is a planet in the Goldilocks zone 22 light-years away from it.

Until recently, Mercury, the first planet from the Sun, was viewed with skepticism as a place where life could exist. However, on the last day of November, ice was found on that scorching planet! Admittedly, Mercury is always exposed to the Sun on one side, so temperatures can reach as high as 426 degrees Celsius, but on its dark side, the extreme temperature drops to as low as -187 degrees. It is precisely there, NASA scientists claim, that ice has been found, and they say it exists both on the surface and beneath the surface layers. Does this mean that there is water floating beneath the thick layer of ice on the dark side of Mercury, and that various beings are swimming there? For now, it can only be speculated, but there is no doubt that this important discovery this year deserves mention.

Let us leave the search for life on other planets and mention some other research that has brought fascinating results this year. In October, American and French astronomers confirmed the discovery of a planet that is one-third diamond. Its surface is covered with graphite and diamonds, located in the constellation Cancer, 40 million light-years away from Earth. Fortunately, Earthlings at this stage of development are unable to reach there, as greed would undoubtedly trigger a diamond rush, just like in America during the second half of the 19th century when there was a gold rush. And whoever would conquer that planet would be very rich because it is twice the size of Earth and eight times more massive – the only question is who would go mining there since the temperature is 1648 degrees Celsius. Researchers from Yale say that such planets have been discovered before, but this is currently the only known one that orbits a star similar to the Sun.

Stars similar to the Sun have been studied by scientists at Ohio State University, who published their results two weeks ago. They found that any of their planets could be significantly warmer and much more dynamic than Earth. They hypothesize that the interiors of these planets are 25 percent hotter than Earth’s, making them geologically more active and having enough water for life to develop. On these stars, which are similar in size, age, and overall composition to the Sun, they measured radioactive elements such as thorium and uranium. These are essential for the tectonics of Earth’s plates, which heat its interior and, along with other factors, retain water on the planet’s surface. Of the eight stars, seven were found to have higher amounts of thorium than the Sun, which means that their planets likely have hotter interiors than Earth’s.

Tectonics leads us to consider a much broader spectrum of research than just the position of a planet relative to its star. The mentioned great possibility of a living form on Europa shows us that humanity must broaden its horizons, while on the other hand, the new research model suggests that there are significantly more planets that support life than might be imagined. Namely, until now, we have often been limited, so to speak, by prejudices because we believed that life on other planets is only possible if they have a position similar to Earth’s. In science, this is called the Goldilocks zone, where the position of the planet is such that it is neither too far nor too close to the star, meaning it is neither too hot nor too cold for water to remain in a liquid state. However, researchers have concluded that this theory is overly simplistic, as indicated by the latest discoveries on Mercury and the well-known discoveries on Europa over the past few years.

Scientists from Aberdeen University, presenting this model, have taken into account that any planet is heated from two sources: solar energy and internal heat. The first has already been considered, as history shows, but the second source has only been seriously considered in the last 20 years, opening up the possibility to imagine what is on planets that are not in the Goldilocks zone. Scientists say that the further a planet is from the heat source, the lower its temperature is, and liquids freeze, which is logical, but they complement this with the hypothesis that if a planet is large enough and produces enough internal heat, it could have reservoirs of liquid water deep beneath its surface, regardless of how far the planet is from its star.

Although laypeople, let us also engage a little. In one of God’s books, it is written that God’s signs are everywhere on Earth. We can observe this in our search for extraterrestrial life. Various forms of life successfully coexist alongside humans on Earth. This is confirmed by dogs and cats, which are different from us yet inhabit the Earth. Humans, dogs, and cats breathe oxygen, but they could not do so underwater as there are no conditions below. However, there are living forms that sovereignly swim underwater and would die if they came to land. A person would die of thirst if they stayed longer in the Sahara, but a cactus survives normally. After all, it is known that there are large amounts of water beneath the Sahara. Therefore, the signs on Earth clearly indicate that some organism could adapt to life even on the aforementioned Diamond Planet, while it would die on Earth. Thus, there is life in the universe, and sooner or later, we will encounter these beings.