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How Might Alien Life Evolve on Other Planets?
The chances that we might discover analogs to Homo Sapiens are small, but it may be likely that we find recognizable interstellar cousins…
As of August 2019, roughly 4043 exoplanets have been detected by various research organizations on Earth. Of those, just under 50 are currently considered potentially habitable — meaning life could possibly evolve, or has already evolved, there. These are faraway worlds that orbit with the “Goldilocks” zone, just the right distance from their host star that allows for the existence of liquid water and temperatures moderate enough to avoid feeling like a planet-wide oven or deep freezer.
We have been studying life closely on Earth for thousands of years, and over the past century or so have used all the tools in the sciences of chemistry and physics to gain even deeper understanding of terrestrial biology. We now know that life can thrive on Earth in some of the harshest conditions imaginable.
If something can live on methane (anaerobic methanotrophs) or in an environment so acidic it would melt human flesh (Ferroplasma acidiphilum), here — on Earth — then it stands to reason that life might be able to exist anywhere.