Life on other planets
2,632 views · Published 16 February 2011 · 1:19:48 · Indexed 3 October 2026
Channel: Oregon State University · 2011 · Education
Speakers: Martin Fisk and Rick Colwell, OSU College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences A mere 20 light-years from Earth — just down the block by galactic standards — a planet orbits a red dwarf star in what one scientist has called a "mini-version of our own solar system." The star is known as Gliese 581, and this planet, one of six in orbit, appears to be the right size and distance from its sun to be hospitable for life. Many s...cientists believe that life elsewhere in the Milky Way Galaxy is a certainty, but we don't need to leave the Earth to find organisms that could survive on other worlds. Microbes and microbial fossils found in deeply buried volcanic rocks and in extreme environments on our own planet indicate that life could survive on Mars, on our solar system's outer moons and around distant stars. At the February 14 Corvallis Science Pub, Oregon State University professors Martin Fisk and Rick Colwell will take us on a trail from extreme life in the deep Earth, to evidence for life on Mars, to the potential for communicating with intelligent life in our galaxy. Microscopic view from a thin slice of the Martian meteor Nakhla. (Photo courtesy of Martin Fisk) A marine geologist, Fisk reported in 2006 that tunnels in a Martian meteorite were consistent with structures created in rocks on Earth by bacteria. However, Fisk and his colleagues were unable to recover any DNA from the meteorite as they can do with similar rocks on Earth. It's possible, he said, that the tunnels were created by a non-biological process or that the DNA had decomposed. Colwell is a geomicrobiologist who specializes in the study of microbial diversity and processes in a range of subsurface environments including ocean sediments, subpermafrost and continental flood basalts. He analyzes microbial communities to understand what constrains their survival, how they function, and how they influence the Earth's carbon cycle and groundwater cleanup.
