Planetary 'autopsies' indicate worlds like Earth common in the cosmos

Re:Planetary 'autopsies' indicate worlds like Earth common i... by vanderZwan on Monday October 21, 2019 @04:18AM (#21310212)

I suspect it's the other way around, really: it might be really hard to develop out of the early stages without hitting a reset button. Yes, we're destroying the planet at the moment and it remains to be seen if we learn quickly enough. However, the first cyanobacteria repeatedly caused global mass extinction events by poisoning the atmosphere with oxygen for over 800 million years until something evolved that could breathe that poisonous molecule[0]. That is almost one fifth of the entire age of Earth.

What if the odds that most planets are trapped in early development of life for the entire time that it can support life are just really really big?

[0] https://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2009/02/bands-...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Planetary 'autopsies' indicate worlds like Earth common i... by vfc1 on Monday October 21, 2019 @04:54AM (#21310366)

I think this is also a likely cause, the odds that life even develops beyond the microscopic level, plus the fact that civilizations probably don't last that long combined with the scale of the cosmos and the light speed limitation means that it's unlikely that two civilizations even become aware of each other.

Still, I think it's a bit surprising that no signs of former life have been found so far in both Mars and Venus especially, and even elsewhere in our solar system like on certain moons.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Planetary 'autopsies' indicate worlds like Earth common i... by atupis on Monday October 21, 2019 @05:27AM (#21310504)

There are definitely lots of hints that there is live in Mars, but not a smoking gun yet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars#Possible_biosigna...

[ Parent | on HN ]