New theories about extraterrestrial organisms

Transparent like glass, tiny like bacteria are hypotheses about the shape of an extraterrestrial creature that the scientific community offers.

Every time I think of a creature outside the globe, the imagination of humans will be soaring.Photo: maths.org.

The topic of alien creatures has attracted the attention of the scientific community for many years. On January 25 and 26, scientists from all over the world attended an international conference on the ability to detect civilizations outside the globe at the invitation of the Royal Society. The theme of the seminar was "Discovering the civilization of the universe and its consequences for society and science".

Each face the question of 'How is an extraterrestrial creature?' We will let the imagination work at full capacity. People say they are tentacle monsters like octopus, who say they look like humans but possess blue-gray skin. Because scientists have not discovered any clues about the anatomical structure of alien creatures, no one knows what will happen if we face them.

According to New Scientist, although no convincing evidence has been found, many astronomers and biologists have made assumptions about the viability of extraterrestrial organisms. Some scientists even predict their shape, personality and civilization level.

The scientific world offers two possibilities in an effort to find extraterrestrial civilization. First, humans should explore all the planets and satellites near the globe that our spacecraft can reach. Second, we can signal to distant planets in the hope that a civilization will catch and answer.

If a civilization exists right in the solar system, we will have a bit of information about their habitat. Many places in the solar system can nourish living organisms through the presence of carbon and water compounds. For example, deep layers of Mars may be warm enough to nourish microbial-like microbes on Earth. It is also possible that large creatures are swimming in water-filled oceans of some satellites in the solar system - like Jupiter's moon Europa. Recently scientists have found evidence of the presence of an underground ocean containing water beneath the ice surface of the satellite Europa. Beneath this underground ocean is the rock core of Europa - where the craters erupt in hot and nutrient-rich streams.

Astronomer biologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch of the University of Washington said the energy from craters could feed trillions of microorganisms. Microbial populations are the food of larger predators. Like that they will form a food chain. According to Schulze-Makuch, Europa's biggest predator in underground ocean could be an ugly creature weighing about 1 g.

'Shrimp-sized predators can exist on Europa. They can't get bigger because they don't have enough bait , 'commented Schulze-Makuch.

Of course, saying that Europa-based organisms are about the size of a shrimp doesn't mean they're shaped like shrimp. 'We can't say anything about their shape , ' admitted Schulze-Makuch. Even many animals on earth make people surprised by their bizarre shapes.

'I guess they look like worms, because worms are an extremely successful creature on earth,' said Schulze-Makuch.

A part of astronomical circles think of the existence of living creatures without water. Most solar bodies in the solar system are too hot or too cold for water to exist in liquid form. However, water is not the only liquid containing chemicals. Many other types of liquids also contain these. That's the statement of Steven Benner, a scientist from the Applied Molecular Evolution Research Foundation in Gainesville, Florida, USA.

Venus's clouds - the second planet from the sun - contain sulfuric acid droplets. So it is possible that acid lakes existed on the surface of Venus a few billion years ago. Although acid is a destructive medium, it can still nourish living organisms if containing suitable chemicals. Living organisms that are acidic must be made of antacids.

'Multicellular organisms on Venus can possess blood vessels made up of glass so they can live in acid,' says Benner.

It's also possible that the creatures on Venus have a glass-like body and move on rocks, not swimming in acid. In addition glass is not the only material resistant to acid. Many other compounds also have similar properties - like Teflon, polyethylene and silicone.

Somewhere in the solar system, lakes and oceans on celestial surfaces still exist today, although they do not contain water. On Saturn's Titan satellite, lakes are formed by a mixture of ethane and methane in liquid form. Schulze-Makuch thinks that some types of organisms can live in such environments.

'Water has a large surface tension, but the greater the surface tension, the smaller the cell size. That explains why the bacteria on Earth are so tiny. In contrast, the surface tension of the methane-ethanic mixture is much weaker, so the cells in that environment may be extremely large , 'explains Schulze-Makuch.

In the human view, the creatures on Titan satellites evolved relatively slowly. The sea on Titan was cold, so the chemical reactions in it would take place very slowly.

'It is possible that the creature on Titan moves slowly and also grows slowly. Their lifecycle can be up to 10,000 or even millions of years , 'said Schulze-Makuch.