Alien Lifeforms | Teen Ink

Alien Lifeforms

February 16, 2015
By mtj20 BRONZE, Hartland, WI, Wisconsin
mtj20 BRONZE, Hartland, WI, Wisconsin
2 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Aliens are real because we have found many planets thought to able to sustain life. From Earth like planets and extreme survivors there is a good chance for life on other planets.


Just because scientists have never found evidence of life doesn’t mean life does not exist. There are many candidates here on Earth that could be suitable for living on other planets. The first and one of the most impressive is the Tardigrade. The tardigrade (also known as the water bear) has been known to live in the harshest conditions. These amazing micro animals have been found living in fire, solid blocks of ice and even in outer space! Temperatures of 360 to -380 don’t harm the tardigrades.       Since these tough animals live happily in these conditions, there is no reason why animals like them could not be found living on other planets.
There is a second lifeform able to survive without one of the most important blocks of life. “Unfortunately for most of us, the ‘aliens’ are not little green aliens that have mistakenly arrived from a distant planet but a bacteria.” Says writer Meera Dolasia. Meet GFAJ-1 apart of the halomonadaceae bacteria family. This bacteria was found recently at the bottom of California’s Mono Lake. Scientists report that instead of living with phosphorus, the GFAJ-1 are able to substitute the necessity with something else. Phosphorus is an essential building block for all ‘normal’ types of life. Phosphorus is an element found in every cell in the human body. Every living thing was thought to need this to live. Until now. Instead of living off of phosphorus, this bacteria can thrive off a chemical element named arsenic. The element Arsenic is poisonous to all ‘normal’ types of life. Since this microscopic bacteria can live without one of the most essential necessities it should make for suitable life on other planets.


There are many planets within the universe that should be ideal living spaces for lifeforms. One of these however, is a moon in our solar system. This moon is named Europa. Europa is one of Jupiters moons with a supposedly thick layer of ice. This moon is thought to have liquid salt water under its icy surface. Though oxygen levels might be too high to sustain complex life, it is very possible that simple single celled organisms are able to survive. But if oxygen levels are too high right at the beginning of an organisms life, the life form might die. Though the organisms might die do to too much oxygen there could have not been as much oxygen at the beginning of the creation of Europa. It is thought that when life first appeared on Earth, the oxygen levels weren’t as high today. Earth life was thought to have low oxygen levels at one time and that might be why the single celled animals were able to branch off into lots of different complex life forms. That’s also why the dinosaurs were thought to grow to huge sizes because oxygen wasn’t high and there were large amounts of Co2 in the air. Europa may have been through the same process. 


There are other places in the universe, even in our galaxy that might be able to harbor life. Some of these planets are Kepler 69c, 186f, 62e, 62f, 22b and lots of others are some top candidates. The big thing about Kepler 62f and 62e is that they are thought to be water worlds similar to the inner core of Europa. That means that the planets are completely covered in water. “There may be life there, but could it be technology based like ours? Life wouldn’t have easy access to metals, electricity or fire for metallurgy.” says lead author Lisa Kaltenegger of the Max Planck institute of Astronomy. That’s only if there is human like-life able to use tools. Astronomers think there is complex water life very different from life on Earth do to the planet being supposedly engulfed in water.  Someone might say that “The planets stars are small and dimmer to that of our sun.” That may be true but, the two planets are still at the edge of the habitable zone. Even though the stars are smaller that means the the planets orbits are closer to their star than Earth which makes water more likely than most planets.  Some are even in the middle of the habitable zone The habitable zone is the space in which a planet is within the radius of being able to contain liquid water. If this is true, life should be able to thrive. Kepler 186f is relatively the same size as Earth and same distance away from it’s star. Kepler 186f’s star is also about the same as our sun. Since the star is about the same size as ours the planet should have the right temperature to contain liquid water.


Alien life forms do exist on other planets. Based on our research scientists have found evidence of liquid water on other planets in the ideal place for life expectation. With animals able to live in the most extreme conditions, there is no reason for why there isn’t life on other planets.


The author's comments:

I am very interested in the topic and as well as other science topics. I was greatly inspired by Uncle Haney.


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This article has 1 comment.


333Sohan said...
on Sep. 13 2021 at 12:53 pm
333Sohan, Chandler, Arizona
0 articles 0 photos 3 comments
I also think that aliens exist because of the bacteria and in the other planets, tardigrade is living in those really harsh conditions. The Kepler 62f and 62e are covered in water so there could be sea creatures and maybe aliens are sea creatures. After reading this I learnt a lot more about alien lifeforms and aliens.