Life in Universe
The Search
The search starts with the question: is anyone there? It has started long back, even before Newton. But they had no means to find out. The physical search started practically with Galilee's telescope. In the beginning it was limited to our planetary system only. Before that it was all imaginations. We had many interesting stories of aliens coming from Moon, Mars and Venus. Many people had seen UFO’s and stories were told of very different kind.
There was a Mars War Alert in UK and Europe due to a Drama broadcasting on Radio. But these all are basically fictitious story.
We first had only optical Telescopes to observe the Universe. But during our century the science progressed very fast – particularly in last 150 years. We had stronger and stronger Telescopes. We had Radio Telescopes and X-Ray Telescopes and now space Telescopes are helping us. To find out if Life exists anywhere else in the Universe. The search is still on. It has not been successful so far. The end is not even seen on the horizon.
It can not be. Let us try first to understand the magnitude of the search. As we know that the light rays take 8 min to reach us. But it takes nearly 2.5 hrs to reach the last planet – Pluto! If a yan is sent to Pluto from earth at the speed of 50000 km/hr, it will take more than 25 years for it to reach there. Nearest star to us is 4.5 light years from us and this yan will take more than 100000 years to reach there!
So it is practically impossible to contact any civilization if at all existing somewhere. Let us see if we can communicate with them. In fact we are sending radio signals in all directions indicating we are here.
If someone catches them and ties to talk to us –
"Hi – who is there ?"
"Yah I am here taking to you from earth …. How are you ….
Where are you"
This simple dialogue will take minimum of 12 years and may be even 12000 years depending on who has replied and from where!
Year 1992 was a fifth centenary of discovery of America by Columbus. On this occasion SETI of NASA have started a project of Listening to the Universe if some one is talking. They have set up 100 radio Telescopes for the purpose of listening. They are directed in all directions and are listening to all frequencies. The data is constantly fed to the programmed computers, which will alert scientists if they hear anything useful or abnormal. They are working 24 hrs and 365 days for past seven years. We are eagerly waiting the positive outcome from this project
Travel of Life in Universe
Scientists have studied about travelling of Life in Universe. It means can life survive in the space? This question was surprisingly answered in ‘Yes’. This is a big yes for us. We have known for long various live substances behaving like inactive chemicals! Various types of viruses, germs, fungus and bacteria are covered under this category. They are seen to be just chemical substances and whenever they come across suitable environment they start behaving like a live organism!
This gives a chance for life to survive in vacuumed space. At very low temperatures and pressure such organisms if thrown around in space will travel in space as just matter. A chemical substance. They will travel for millions of years without any change in their structure. They may come across planet like earth and land there. They may just stay there as simple matter, chemical organisms! If they get enough warmth, food and oxygen they just stir up! They will start moving here and there, eat what they get, grow and start multiplying!!
If unfortunately they don’t get living conditioned planet but a dead one. They will simply stay and wait. Wait for hundred or thousand years for environment to improve and then start their activity.
Once this activity starts the nature plays very important role. The process of evolution starts. Slowly but steadily the life will evolve. Maybe after 2 billion years dinosaurs may be running on that planet! And may be after 3 b. years a scientist is gazing to the sky through a telescope wondering if there is life elsewhere in the universe!
At this juncture we should know the ways and means nature adopts to make life survive. There are umpteen numbers of same. A big book can be written for the same. But we shall look at them – very important ones and very shortly.
First we shall take example of Frogs. We don’t see them during winter or summer. But at the fall of first few rains they crop out suddenly and strangely. We keep hearing their croaking whole of monsoon. But when winter starts, the lakes and lanes dry up what happens to them. Where do they go. Well, we all know what happens to them and where they go. That is nature. The great mother nature.
This happens to may similar creatures. We have also heard about many breeds of butterfly and birds, which are born in one part of the world and die in the other! Many fish and flies (insects) leave their eggs in care of nature. Either they go away to the other regions for survival or they are just dead. When the eggs hatch the baby creatures ‘know’ exactly what they are supposed to do – to survive. We know it by their instinct. Who gives it to them?
Recently a body of man was recovered almost intact from the deep layer of ice. On examination it was found to be 2000 years old! The body cells were just ‘preserved’ by the sheer cold. If life by any chance goes out into space – just like that – without any protection. What will happen? It is not sheer cold there – It is deadly cold there. 3.5 OK. Just think for yourself.
One last instance a theoretical one. But concerning straight to our discussion here. We have recently seen the movie "Jurassic Park". How the dinosaurs were born? In the laboratory? From the blood recovered from the stomach of the mosquito, which had frozen, in ice just after stinging a dinosaur? And that too after 65 million years of stinging and getting frizzed?
Well I think this is enough to know about the survival instinct of life. And the role played by nature in it. After knowing all these I want to ask you one question. If one thousand steel containers – air tight sealed after filling of 100 lemon seeds in each – are thrown into space, and if any one of them fall on planet like earth after few hundred million years – is there a possibility of few lemon trees growing there?
Well now you may ask me one question. Is it not a very slow process of travel of life from one life bearing planet to another life bearing planet? Involving always a few hundred million years and having chance of one in few hundred million instances?
Yes, if we think it in pure terms. But Mother Nature has thought about it from the beginning! Few billion years ago! To tell you the fact the process is not at all slow. The great Mother Nature has evolved a beautiful process to make it fast, very fast in fact. Yes we shall now discuss now the life travels from one planet to other in a very quick mode of transport. This we shall do in our next chapter.
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