Why do scientists all believe that if they found water on another planet, it would prove life?
438713
your right. i also believe that life on another planet dosent need to have water present to sustain life.\n\nits just that they are trying to find life on other planets and if they find water there is a chance that there was or is life on other planets.
143137
I think so!\nIf life exists on the top of the large mountain where there is only snow and no oxygen in the air, then life should exist on other planets!\n\nDo you know that, life exists in deep sea where there is no sunlight! If life sunlight to live, how do you explain?\n\nLife also exist in caves very down in earth where no light is present. They are bacteria! They absorbe heat from boiling water, thats how they obtain their energy!\n\nThat may be quite enough to explain how life may exist in extreme conditions and thus beyond planet earth
671308
Of course I think life exists!  Infact, I beleive there is life in the solar system.  How do we know if there isnt life floating in the clouds of a gas giant, or icy crystal like things on pluito?  We havent searched hard enough for these yet!  Duh!\n\nLife outside of the solar system might be a little hard, considering that there are only "hold jupiturs," and "frozen earths."  Both are to hot or cold to support life, and they are massive and have insane gravity.  However certain single celled organisms, say bacteria or such, might reside on the planet.  I always thought that might be.\n\nIn addition, Europa, a moon of Jupitur, has ice flows on it that scientists think liquid water might reside under!  It might be interesting to see what could live there.  From the means of life there, I came up with a skating green creature who could move around on the ice, absorb the moisutre of the water, and undergo photosynthesis to obtain energy.  \n\nEnjoy!\n\nNote: I do beleive in aliens, but dont beleive in UFOs.  Considering how many hot jupiturs there are, I dont think we will even see any life as smart as we were as cavemen until alot later in time...
228758
Possible. By saying Life, I mean possibility of bacteria, microorganisms and other extremophiles. If we consider the extremophiles on earth, these bacteria are known to survive extreme habitats (thus the name). Extremophiles are found even in volcano springs and hot geiser. Scientists found extremophiles living and thriving in hot geisers in Yellowstone National Park and similar places. Usually we would think that such high temperatures would vapourize bacteria but NO...not all of them are same. There are certain microorganisms that live in extreme situations. \nThe water, ice sheets and geisers that scientists think are present in Enceladus, no matter how extreme, always has a possibility of life...atleast in Micro level. \nYour questions is well written with a tag question that explains what really you meant. Good you did that because when scientists talk about life elsewhere, people misinterpret it and think that scientists are talking about this green man with tentacles sticking out of his head. Thats not what scientists are talking about. Discovering even unicellular organisms or life of any sort in the universe other than earth is a big leap for human beings. That will give us a better picture of what we are and what our place in our solar system.
922649
There is no evidence right now of life on other planets therefore the answer is no.
1164724
Well... There is some interesting surface facts than can be proof of water under the ice. \n\nAnd chemo-Genesis (the "evolution" of life from it's raw chemicals) and chemo-synthesis (life based on chemical energy) are know proven facts. So....\n\nIf there is water on Europa, we know the planet is geological active, so if there are "black smokers" and fissures of that sort on the ocean floor, and if they produced enough energy for the raw chemicals of life to form amino acids, then yes there is life on Europa. \n\nDepending on how long ago this happened would determine
381971
I doubt that Earth is the only planet in the whole Universe that can sustain life.  There will probably be some other planets out there somewhere with some sort of life on it.  Whether it's intelligent life or not is another question!\n\nThere may very well have been life on Mars, or on other planets in our solar system at one point,  but we have yet to find it, or any evidence.
227240
With billions of planets out there it would be naive to think we were the only life,, as for abductions although possible I seriously doubt it..
547669
The mere thought that life ONLY exists on Earth and nowhere is ridiculous!!!! For every star you can see in the night sky, there is a distinct possibility for planets and intelligent life.....why else would they be there?
719596
Well Scientists have long speculated about the possibility of life on Mars due to that planet's proximity and similarity to Earth. It remains an open question whether life exists on Mars now, or existed there in the past.\nIt has long been speculated that there may be life on Mars, due to the many similarities the planet has with Earth. Mars' polar ice-caps were observed as early as the mid-17th century, and they were first proven to grow and shrink alternately, in the summer and winter of each hemisphere, by William Herschel in the latter part of the 18th century. By the mid-19th century, astronomers knew that Mars had certain other similarities to Earth, for example that the length of a day on Mars was almost the same as a day on Earth. They also knew that its axial tilt was similar to Earth's, which meant it experienced seasons just as Earth does - but of nearly double the length owing to its much longer year. These observations led to the increase in speculation that the darker albedo features were water, and brighter ones were land. It was therefore natural to suppose that Mars may be inhabited by some form of life.\n\nSpeculation about life on Mars exploded in the late 19th century, following telescopic observation of apparent canals — which were later found to be optical illusions. In 1854 William Whewell, a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who popularized the word scientist, theorized that Mars had seas, land and possibly life forms. In 1895, American astronomer Percival Lowell published his book Mars, followed by Mars and its Canals in 1906, proposing that the canals were the work of a long-gone civilization. This idea led British writer H. G. Wells to write The War of the Worlds in 1897, telling of an invasion by aliens from Mars who were fleeing the planet’s desiccation.\n\nBetter telescope imagery, and especially the photos taken by the Mariner 4 probe in 1965 showed an arid Mars without rivers, oceans or any signs of life. Intense UV radiation made the planet extremely hostile to life as we know it. Officially the Viking lander's tests for microbes in 1976 were inconclusive, but most scientists hold that their findings can be explained on the basis of chemical reactions alone. Observations made in the late 1990's by the Mars Global Surveyor confirmed the suspicion that Mars, unlike Earth, no longer possessed a substantial global magnetic field, thus allowing potentially life-threatening cosmic radiation to reach the planet's surface. Scientists also speculate that the lack of shielding due to Mars' diminished global magnetic field helped the solar wind blow away much of Mars' atmosphere over the course of several billion years.\n\n\n\n \nThe electron microscope revealed bacteria-like structures in meteorite fragment ALH84001 \nA series of artist's conceptions of hypothetical past water coverage on Mars.In recent years speculation has grown again, however – prodded by a study of the ALH84001 meteorite which concluded that it contained fossilized microbes. Other scientists have subsequently sought to explain these findings on the basis of chemical processes. Both remain highly controversial within the scientific community.\n\nAnother glimmer of hope for past and present life on Mars has been revealed with the ongoing research into extremophiles on Earth which survive under the harshest conditions. Some scientists have proposed a biological origin for the annual appearance and disappearance of dark dune spots near the polar regions of Mars.\n\n\n\nNo Mars probe since Viking has tested the Martian soil directly for signs of life. NASA's recent missions have focused on another question: whether Mars held lakes or oceans of liquid water on its surface in the ancient past. Many scientists have long held this to be almost self-evident based on various geological landforms on the planet, but others have proposed different explanations - wind erosion, carbon dioxide oceans,
76325
Life has to be on other planets throughout the Universe - it's statiscally impossible that Earth was the only planet where life evolved - unless of course you are a staunch Christian and don't believe in the evidence or statistics!
360560
Good thought. But dear i want to tell you the secrete of this process, the water is found by combining One Atom of Oxygen with two atoms of Hydrogen at a critical heat of formation that existed only at the formation of Earth and it is not possible to create the same Heat of formation to form Water at the Normal working conditions.
978136
in a sense. all other scientists in a field act as a check on anyone making discoveries or statements. if something can be proven by multiple people doing independent research than it will become widely accepted as scientific fact. \nwith technology changing and advancing all the time, some stuff is still proven wrong after years believing it was true. there is nothing we can do about that because sometimes new technologies help us to see things we never saw before. we don't necessarily prove the first thing wrong (although that happens too) mostly we prove something to be true and then later prove that some other aspect is more true. \nit's complicated, but then again, it's science.
195483
I definitely dislike panspermia.  It is just not very likely.  It just seems simpler to assume that life arose on this planet independantly.  After all, the simplest explaination is usually true.  Unless evidence is ever found to support panspermia, i.e. if life that uses the exact same chemical reactions that we do is ever found on another planet in our solar system, I will accept that life developed in isolation on Earth.
586467
No I believe there is other life out there somewhere. The universe is huge so how could we be the only planet to have life?
1041987
Yes!  I think it could most definitely happen to us.  One would have to be very naive and simple-minded to think it could not happen.  Many people don't let current FACTS actually sink into their brain.  There are so many conditions on other planets that are habitable for small organisms.  Certain bacteria(extremophiles) thrive on extreme living conditions.  That is how life started on our planet, and if nothing else there are definitely other forms of life elsewhere.  But still, someone would have to be so self involved to think that there couldn't possibly be a other life form of superior intelligence.
841093
Nobody can prove it. And nobody can disprove it.\n\nAnybody who says there definitely is life in space is a fool. So is anybody who says there is definitely NOT life in space. \n\nWe just do not know.