An artist’s rendition of a potentially habitable exoplanet orbiting a sun-like star. But we might not have to find another Earth-like world to find life; our own solar system may have all the ingredients we need. Image credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech.

Eight other worlds in our solar system might have life beyond Earth

Before we go venturing off to another star to look for life, why not look here?

“If I had to describe myself to an alien I’d say I was bigger than the average human, enjoy a drink or two with a good meal and have a bigger head than most. I’d also say I’m really handsome — especially if they were a female alien.” -Dwayne Johnson

In all the known Universe, to the best that we’ve examined it, only our home planet, Earth, contains confirmed signs of life. But the raw ingredients required for life appear everywhere, from the interiors of asteroids to interstellar gas clouds to protoplanetary nebulae to the exploded remnants of supernovae. The chemical combinations associated with the building blocks of life, and even complex, organic molecules are found literally everywhere we look in space. But we might not have to venture so far to actually encounter life at all, as eight worlds beyond Earth all offer unique possibilities for the presence of organic, biological activity.

Signatures of organic, life-giving molecules are found all over the cosmos, including in the largest, nearby star-forming region: the Orion Nebula. Image credit: ESA, HEXOS and the HIFI consortium; E. Bergin.

It’s true that here’s a big gulf between “organic molecules” and what we consider today to be…