10 Places To Search For Life Beyond Earth Seti Institute

10 Places
to Search for Life

Beyond Earth
Simon Steel
Senior Director of Education
and STEM Programs
SETI Institute
Ly Ly
Design/Layout
01
MARS
THE RUSTY DESERT
Life on Mars has been part of the human imagination for cen-
turies, but the planet’s bone-dry surface and ghostly thin atmo-
sphere means that it’s a hostile and dangerous world. On the
other hand, evidence from many orbiters and landers gives strong
evidence that ancient Mars was covered in water and blanketed
in a thick protective atmosphere. Could an early Mars have been
the cradle of life just like young Earth, and does fossilized evi-
dence still exist on, or beneath, the surface awaiting discovery?
Could something still survive?
Acidalia Planitia Mars
A location on Mars associated with the best-selling
novel and Hollywood movie, “The Martian” This area
is in the Acidalia Planitia region and in the novel and
the movie, it is the landing site of a crewed mis-
sion named Ares 3.
Credit: REUTERS/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of
Arizona
02
ENCELADUS
THE ARCTIC TIGER
This diminutive moon of Saturn is also its most pristine – it is a

gleaming white ice-covered world whose lack of craters suggests
a newly minted crust. Close passes by the Cassini spacecraft dis-
covered plumes of water shooting out from “tiger stripe” cracks
in the icy surface. These cryovolcanos indicate a liquid ocean
below the ice, and chemical analysis suggests that organic mole-
cules in this subsurface sea have all the raw materials and condi-
tions for life in the cold, outer realms of our solar system.
This illustration shows NASA’s Cassini
spacecraft diving through the plume of
Saturn’s moon Enceladus, in 2015.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
03
TITAN
PRIMODIAL EARTH
This is the second-largest moon in the Solar System and is big-

ger than the planet Mercury. It is the only world other than Earth
known to have stable liquids on its surface. But with an average
surface temperature -180ºC, these are lakes of liquid methane,
not water. So this cold, distant satellite, choked with organic
smog and pelted with ethane rainstorms, may not seem like an
environment conducive to life. Yet a lot of the organic ingredients
are there in abundance, and lakes and pools allow those mole-
cules to meet and mix. Titan is a perfect kitchen pantry that may
be cooking up something exciting!
Radar images from NASA’s
Cassini spacecraft reveal
many lakes on Titan’s
surface, some filled with
liquid, and some appearing
as empty depressions.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/
ASI/USGS
04
EUROPA
OCEAN MOON
The smallest of the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter, Europa,

is by far the most interesting (if not as pretty as Io!). The gravi-
tational tidal forces that stretch and squeeze this icy world have
created a liquid ocean below the frozen surface, and the heat that
has melted the interior may also provide the warmth and energy
needed by native Europan life forms. We will get a closer look in
the late 2020s when NASA’s Europa Clipper mission arrives in the
Jovian system.
This image of an area called Chaos Transition
shows blocks that have moved and ridges
possibly related to how the crust fractures
from the force of Jupiter’s gravity.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

05
PROXIMA CENTAURI b
THE EXOPLANET NEXT DOOR
The triple star system Alpha and Proxima Centauri has at least
one planet (a second, larger one is still tentative), but it isn’t orbit-
ing one of the two sun-like stars. Instead, it is tucked close to the
tiny cool, red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. An Earth-sized world,
buffeted by fierce winds from its stellar host, orbits every 11 days,
and endures conditions that would be harsh for any nascent life
trying to take hold. But its closeness to us, at around four light
years, means that it is possible in the coming century or two, for a
visit by robotic explorers from Earth, thereby beginning humani-
ty’s interstellar age.
This artist’s impression shows the
planet Proxima b orbiting the red
dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the
closest star to the Solar System.
Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

06
TRAPPIST 1e
GOLDILOCKS WORLD (DISCOVERED 2017)
Our solar system has two Earth-size planets - the Trappist 1

system greedily has seven, three of which fall within the habit-
able zone of their small, red dwarf star. Being in the habitable
zone means that the conditions are right for surface liquid water,
should there be water, to exist and act as a fertile soup for the
organic building blocks of life. Trappist 1e is the Goldilocks world
of the seven, similar in mass, radius, density, surface gravity and
temperature to Earth. It is one of the most potentially habitable
exoplanets discovered so far.
Some 40 light-years from Earth, a planet
called TRAPPIST-1e offers a heart-stop-
ping view: brilliant objects in a red sky,
looming like larger and smaller versions of
our own moon. But these are no moons.
They are other Earth-sized planets in a
spectacular planetary system outside
our own.
Credit: NASA-JPL/Caltech
07
BOYAJIAN’S STAR
ALIEN MEGASTRUCTURE (DISCOVERED 2015)
Slightly hotter than our Sun, the star studied by astronomer Tabe-
tha Boyajian had wild and unpredictable variations in brightness.
These variations triggered speculation of an extraordinary cause:
alien megastructures bigger than planets and constructed to
harness the energy output of the star were intermittently blocking
the light from reaching our telescopes. Such structures, postulat-
ed by physicist Freeman Dyson, fell from favor as an explanation
for the star’s brightness variations when dust rings fitted the ob-
servations more accurately. Still, the idea of observing megastruc-
tures is now a mainstream way of searching for intelligent alien
life, and Boyajian’s Star paved the way.
This illustration depicts a
hypothetical uneven ring of
dust orbiting KIC 8462852,
also known as Boyajian’s Star or
Tabby’s Star.
Credit: NASA-JPL/Caltech
08
VENUS
EARTH’S TWIN
The nearest of the planets is sometimes called Earth’s twin. But

even with a similar mass, surface gravity, composition, and an
orbit only slightly closer to the Sun than ours, Venus has an at-
mosphere of almost pure carbon dioxide, a surface temperature
that would melt lead and pressure that would crush you, and your
spacecraft, to pulp. Now rise to the top layers of the Venusian
atmosphere, around 50 km above the stark surface, where tem-
peratures and pressures are bearable and sulfuric acid clouds drift
along, and you enter an environment that could provide a habitat
for floating and very alien life. Maybe we don’t have to look very
far away after all.
Magellan radar image of Wheatley crater
on Venus.
This 72 km diameter crater shows a radar

bright ejecta pattern and a generally flat
floor with some rough raised areas
and faulting.
Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS
09
KEPLER-452b
EARTH 2.0 (DISCOVERED 2015)
Over 1,400 light years away is a Sun-like star, Kepler-452. Obser-

vations have sensed (but not proven) the existence of an earth-
sized planet orbiting at a very similar distance from its star as ours
is from the Sun. Estimates put its mass at five times that of the
Earth, so it has twice the surface gravity of our world. Its star, Ke-
pler-452, would look almost like our Sun in its sky, but Kepler-452
is over a billion years older than our Sun. If intelligent life has
emerged there, it could be much more advanced and developed,
or it could already have blossomed and died. Exoplanets can
provide us with insights into Earth’s past, or sometimes a glimpse
into our distant future.
Scientists do not know if Kepler-452b can
support life or not. What is known about
the planet is that it is about 60 percent
larger than Earth, placing it in a class of
planets dubbed “super-Earths.”
Credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

10
GLIESE 1214b
WATERWORLD (DISCOVERED 2009)
Almost hugging its diminutive red dwarf star, a year on Gliese

1214b lasts barely 36 hours. Although it is much larger than Earth
- probably more like Neptune - its low density means that a large
part of its volume is made up of water rather than rock. As close
as the planet is to its star, a much of this water will turn to steam.
While such temperatures are not conducive to the usual forms
of life, discoveries of terrestrial extremophiles in water above
100 ºC means that where there’s water on Earth, there’s life.
Perhaps we shouldn’t rush to discount the superheated oceans
of Gliese 1214b.
The planet, GJ1214b, has a mass
about six times that of Earth and
its interior is likely mostly made
of water ice. It appears to be
rather hot and surrounded by a
thick atmosphere, which makes it
inhospitable for life as we know
it on Earth.
Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

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10 Places

to Search for Life

This diminutive moon of Saturn is also its most pristine – it is a

This is the second-largest moon in the Solar System and is big-

The smallest of the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter, Europa,

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Our solar system has two Earth-size planets - the Trappist 1

The nearest of the planets is sometimes called Earth’s twin. But

This 72 km diameter crater shows a radar

Over 1,400 light years away is a Sun-like star, Kepler-452. Obser-

Credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

Almost hugging its diminutive red dwarf star, a year on Gliese

Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

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