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Chapter 28: Problem 4

Mercury, Venus, and the Moon are all considered unlikely places to find life. Suggest why this should be.

Short Answer

Expert verified
Mercury, Venus, and the Moon are considered unlikely places for life because they have harsh environmental conditions. Mercury has extreme temperatures and lacks an atmosphere. Venus has a dense and hot atmosphere with extreme pressure and temperature. The Moon lacks both atmosphere and water and is subjected to extreme temperature variations.

Step by step solution

01

Analyzing Conditions on Mercury

Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun and, as a result, it experiences extreme temperatures. One side of Mercury is extremely hot due to continuous sunlight, while the other half is extremely cold because it is in permanent shadow. These extreme temperatures are not conducive to life as we know it. Moreover, Mercury doesn't have sufficient atmosphere and so is exposed to solar radiation, which can be harmful.
02

Analyzing Conditions on Venus

Venus has a very dense and hot atmosphere mainly composed of carbon dioxide, with clouds that contain sulphuric acid. The surface and air pressure of Venus is much greater than Earth's and the temperature is extremely high (about 470 degrees Celsius), which makes the conditions severe for life to survive.
03

Analyzing Conditions on the Moon

The Moon is Earth's satellite and does not have an atmosphere or a magnetic field to protect it from solar radiation. Moreover, it lacks water which is considered essential for the existence of life. The temperature varies greatly between day and night, which leads to extreme conditions that are adverse for life.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Use the Starry Night Enthusiast \({ }^{\text {TM }}\) program to view the Earth as it might be seen by a visiting spacecraft. First, select Viewing Location ... in the Options menu and set the viewing location to your city or town from the list of cities provided or click on the Map tab in the Viewing Location pane and use the mouse to click on your approximate position on the world map. Then click the Set Location button. Set the local time to 12:00:00 P.M. (noon). To see the Earth from space, use the up and down elevation buttons on the toolbar to raise yourself above the surface until you can see the entire Earth. You can use the scrollbars (select View > Show Scrollbars) on the right side and bottom of the window to center the Earth in your view. The Earth can be rotated to allow you to see different locations by clicking and moving the mouse while its icon, a fourway arrow, is over the Earth's image. (a) Describe any features you see that suggest life could exist on Earth. Explain your reasoning. (b) Using the controls at the right-hand end of the toolbar, zoom in to show more detail around your city or town. The amount of detail is comparable to the view from a spacecraft a few million kilometers away. Can you see any evidence that life does exist on Earth? (c) From a distance of a few million kilometers, are there any measurements that a spacecraft could carry out to prove that life exists on Earth? Explain your reasoning.

Search the World Wide Web for information about the Mars Express orbiter and the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. What discoveries have these missions made about water on Mars? Have they found any evidence that liquid water has existed on Mars in the recent past? Describe the evidence, if any.

Suppose someone told you that the Viking Landers failed to detect life on Mars simply because the tests were designed to detect terrestrial life-forms, not Martian life-forms. How would you respond?

Why are most searches for extraterrestrial intelligence made using radio telescopes? Why are most of these carried out at frequencies between \(10^{3} \mathrm{MHz}\) and \(10^{4} \mathrm{MHz}\) ?

The Drake Equation. Access the Active Integrated Media Module "The Drake Equation" in Chapter 28 of the Universe Web site or eBook. (a) For each of the terms in the Drake equation, choose a value that seems reasonable to you. How did you choose these values? Using the module, what do you find for the number of civilizations in our Galaxy? From your calculation, are civilizations common or uncommon in our Galaxy? (b) Using the module, choose a set of values that give \(N=10^{6}\) (a million civilizations). What values did you use? Which of these seem reasonable to you, and why?
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