Is it safe to assume that Earth-like planets are the best

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The discussion centers on the viability of Earth-like planets as the best candidates for supporting life. Currently, Earth is the only known planet with flourishing life, while Mars, Venus, and Mercury show less potential due to harsh conditions. Gas giants are considered unlikely to support life as we know it, although moons like Europa and Titan may offer possibilities. There is speculation about introducing extremophiles to gas giants to explore life potential in extreme environments. The rarity of single stars with planetary systems is acknowledged, but the vastness of the universe suggests that Earth-like planets could still be common.
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When it comes to producing life (as we know it), I know that currently we are the only planet that we know that has produced life and life flourished. But compared to Mars which they say had oxygen but lost it too quick, or Venus which is most likely dead, or Mercury which is burnt to a crisp. The gas giants is most likely life-as-we-know-it-less. Maybe Europa or Titan will someday match Earth? (but they're not planets :smile:)
 
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Gold Barz said:
When it comes to producing life (as we know it), I know that currently we are the only planet that we know that has produced life and life flourished. But compared to Mars which they say had oxygen but lost it too quick, or Venus which is most likely dead, or Mercury which is burnt to a crisp. The gas giants is most likely life-as-we-know-it-less. Maybe Europa or Titan will someday match Earth? (but they're not planets :smile:)

When the sun is a red giant, the moons you mentioned will probably have conditions of modern earth, although they are still quite far away for guarantee.

The best bet is on Mars (again red giant) but you have to realize the sun will KEEP getting hotter (i.e. bad for us) so again, jupiters moons look the best for us.
 
I was thinking recently about the possibillitys of "inseminating" gas planets. I was reading about colonies of bacterias living in the abyssal plains and feeding on hydrogen and methane. What if we where to dump a bunch of those bacterias on say Neptune ? They would have food for ... hmm ever ?! and they are used to extreme pressures and temperature. Wouldn't that be interesting to try ?
As for Europa, Titan and other moons, similar experience would be interesting. We should just really make sure their is no litle bugs there already.
 
I don't think it's safe to assume that earth-like planets are the best place for life, but it's probably a good first guess.
 
Would you guys agree that Earth-like planets may be common in the universe?
 
Gold Barz said:
Would you guys agree that Earth-like planets may be common in the universe?

It could happen, although singular stars with a planetary system is quite rare, as most starts tend to be born binary.

But then again, we ARE talking about the universe here, where we are talking millions of stars. So, personally, i would say it is quite possible.
 
Bladibla said:
It could happen, although singular stars with a planetary system is quite rare, as most starts tend to be born binary.

I never knew that

Anyways I would guess that there would be 10 billion Earth-like planets at anyone time

I thought that ours star (the sun) wasnt rare at all and nothing in our solar system makes it rare?...I'm confused
 
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I think it is safe to assume that Earth-like order of magnitude temperatures (adjusted for pressure variations) would be best for life. But, I think that you could find them in a variety of other contexts. For example, at some depth of a gas giant, in a clouds of Jupiter context, in subsurface microenvironments on Mars, in short, in lots of places.
 
Bladibla said:
It could happen, although singular stars with a planetary system is quite rare, as most starts tend to be born binary.

We still aren't sure about the planetary system part, but single stars aren't that rare. They make up roughly half of all stellar systems (that is, one or more stars bound to one another).
 
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"single stars aren't that rare. They make up roughly half of all stellar systems"

Yeah, that's why I was surprised by that statement
 
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