(June 7, 2014 at 4:53 am)Welsh cake Wrote: We know our planet has a global 'ocean' of magma and strong magnetic core. Volcanoes though destructive, are essential for plant life upon which animal life and food chains are ultimately dependent, regenerating the planet's surface and spewing out much-needed minerals.
Considering our world is in the Goldilocks zone, the habitable region from the parent star.
It seems the criteria for life, is getting more and more and more strict and unrelenting, the more we learn about our hostile cosmos.
Maybe it depends on what kind of life you're looking for - Biological Communities In Hydrothermal Vents
Quote:Although life is very sparse at these depths, black smokers are the centers of entire ecosystems. Sunlight is nonexistent, so many organisms – such as archaea and extremophiles – convert the heat, methane, and sulfur compounds provided by black smokers into energy through a process called chemosynthesis. More complex life forms, such as clams and tubeworms, feed on these organisms. The organisms at the base of the food chain also deposit minerals into the base of the black smoker, therefore completing the life cycle.
A species of phototrophic bacterium has been found living near a black smoker off the coast of Mexico at a depth of 2,500 m (8,200 ft). No sunlight penetrates that far into the waters. Instead, the bacteria, part of the Chlorobiaceae family, use the faint glow from the black smoker for photosynthesis. This is the first organism discovered in nature to exclusively use a light other than sunlight for photosynthesis.[14]
This opens up the possibilities for life outside the Goldilocks zone - Europa - Potential For Extraterrestial Life
Quote:Europa has emerged as one of the top locations in the Solar System in terms of potential habitability and the possibility of hosting extraterrestrial life.[106] Life could exist in its under-ice ocean, perhaps subsisting in an environment similar to Earth's deep-ocean hydrothermal vents. Life in such an ocean could possibly be similar to microbial life on Earth in the deep ocean.[78][107] So far, there is no evidence that life exists on Europa, but the likely presence of liquid water has spurred calls to send a probe there.[108]
Even if it turns out that there isn't life on Europa it could still be elsewhere in the universe in regions outside the Goldilocks zone.
Where are the snake and mushroom smilies?