Extraterrestrial Life

The properties of life on earth consist of six key factors, and all are very important to the makeup of this planet. These properties can apply to any type of living organisms. The six properties are order, reproduction, growth and development, energy utilization, response to the environment and evolutionary adaptation. Order is the process of living organism that has molecules arranged in orderly patterns that form cell structures. Reproduction shows that the living organisms are capable of reproducing, meaning they can create new life. Growth and development shows the development of living organisms in patterns. Energy utilization is the area that living organisms use to fuel their many activities. Response to the environment is the area that requires living organisms to adapt to the changing of their surrounds. Evolutionary adaptation is life that evolves through natural selection, as these organisms pass on traits that make them better adapted to survival in their local environments. (Bennett, 2008)

Extraterrestrial Life in Our Solar System?

Research has shown that there are three basic requirements for life: a source of nutrients (elements in molecules from which to build living cells); energy to fuel the activities of life, whether from sunlight, chemical reactions or from the heat of earth itself; and liquid water. These three basic requirements shape scientists’ hypotheses on where life may exist elsewhere in our solar system. However, because nutrients exist on most planets and moons in the solar system and liquid water is significantly less common, scientists focus predominantly on the liquid water requirement in their search for extraterrestrial life. The two major possibilities for extraterrestrial life upon which scientists have focused are Mars and a few of the large moons orbiting Jovian planets (giant gaseous planets similar in overall composition to Jupiter).

Scientists believe that there is a significant possibility that liquid water...