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Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:03,520 --> 00:00:07,420 Earth... A planet defined by life. 2 00:00:07,420 --> 00:00:10,130 The amazing thing about life here on Earth 3 00:00:10,130 --> 00:00:13,600 is no matter where you look, you'll find it. 4 00:00:13,600 --> 00:00:15,460 But is Earth unique? 5 00:00:15,470 --> 00:00:17,300 The big question of our day is, 6 00:00:17,300 --> 00:00:20,600 does life exist somewhere else beside the Earth? 7 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:24,070 Are we that special, or is life everywhere? 8 00:00:24,070 --> 00:00:25,910 The ingredients for life 9 00:00:25,910 --> 00:00:27,780 are spread throughout the universe. 10 00:00:27,780 --> 00:00:29,910 But then we started looking into space and saying, 11 00:00:29,910 --> 00:00:33,050 "wait a second. That chemistry is everywhere." 12 00:00:35,190 --> 00:00:37,920 Is life inevitable? 13 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:40,720 I think that there have to be planets out there 14 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:44,260 that are capable of hosting life. 15 00:00:44,260 --> 00:00:47,860 What does life need to get started, 16 00:00:47,860 --> 00:00:51,930 and once started, can life spread? 17 00:00:51,940 --> 00:00:55,870 It's possible that life started on mars 18 00:00:55,870 --> 00:01:00,440 and was transferred to Earth inside of a meteorite. 19 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:02,540 Life has conquered our planet, 20 00:01:02,550 --> 00:01:06,150 but can life conquer the universe? 21 00:01:13,890 --> 00:01:16,890 captions by vitac... www.Vitac.Com 22 00:01:16,890 --> 00:01:19,890 captions paid for by discovery communications 23 00:01:22,570 --> 00:01:26,530 The universe is a very big place. 24 00:01:26,540 --> 00:01:29,870 There are trillions of galaxies, 25 00:01:29,870 --> 00:01:33,780 each one home to millions of stars 26 00:01:33,780 --> 00:01:37,850 and an unimaginable number of planets. 27 00:01:37,850 --> 00:01:40,080 So where is everybody? 28 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:43,180 One of the most basic philosophical questions is, 29 00:01:43,190 --> 00:01:44,720 are we alone? 30 00:01:44,720 --> 00:01:47,320 Are we the only ones looking out and thinking, 31 00:01:47,320 --> 00:01:48,990 "what is all this?" 32 00:01:48,990 --> 00:01:54,100 is it all just for us, or do we get to share it with anyone? 33 00:01:54,100 --> 00:01:56,400 I mean, that's about as fundamental a question 34 00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:58,970 as you get. 35 00:01:58,970 --> 00:02:02,370 What are the odds of life existing somewhere else? 36 00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:07,080 We just don't have a good insight 37 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:11,510 to how probable life is anywhere in the universe. 38 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:13,680 Life could possibly be forming everywhere. 39 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:15,250 We don't quite know. 40 00:02:15,250 --> 00:02:19,950 There's a lot about life that we don't understand. 41 00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:24,530 All we know is that it happened at least once. 42 00:02:24,530 --> 00:02:26,760 But beyond this one little planet, 43 00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:29,500 we don't know whether or not it happened anywhere else. 44 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:36,440 The universe is an unfriendly place. 45 00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:44,850 Planets with lava oceans circle too close to their stars. 46 00:02:44,850 --> 00:02:50,450 Pulsars blaze with deadly gamma rays and x-rays. 47 00:02:50,450 --> 00:02:54,120 Black holes consume everything in their path. 48 00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:57,890 Temperatures plummet close to absolute zero. 49 00:03:02,430 --> 00:03:04,400 It may seem impossible for life 50 00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:08,340 to survive in such hostile environments, 51 00:03:08,340 --> 00:03:11,710 but here on Earth, life exists against the odds 52 00:03:11,710 --> 00:03:15,580 in some very strange places. 53 00:03:15,580 --> 00:03:18,380 Life has actually permeated every part of our planet. 54 00:03:18,380 --> 00:03:19,410 There are places where you're like, 55 00:03:19,420 --> 00:03:21,150 "how did you even get there?" 56 00:03:24,150 --> 00:03:26,490 At first glance, a beautiful lake 57 00:03:26,490 --> 00:03:29,220 might seem like a good place for life, 58 00:03:29,230 --> 00:03:34,130 but California�s Salton sea is no paradise. 59 00:03:34,130 --> 00:03:37,270 The toxic salt waters are killer... 60 00:03:40,440 --> 00:03:44,540 Surrounded by scorched desert 61 00:03:44,540 --> 00:03:49,110 and volcanic geothermal fields. 62 00:03:49,110 --> 00:03:50,880 It's a deadly environment. 63 00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:56,880 One of the last places on Earth you'd expect to find life 64 00:03:56,890 --> 00:03:59,650 would be in boiling mud vents. 65 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:05,390 You can start to hear these vents because there's gas, 66 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:09,560 and there's water and mud slurry that's coming out, right here. 67 00:04:09,570 --> 00:04:13,270 So these are active mud volcanoes. 68 00:04:13,270 --> 00:04:14,600 It's really hot. 69 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:19,740 It's, like... 164 degrees Fahrenheit. 70 00:04:19,740 --> 00:04:23,440 But life is resilient, finding a home even here, 71 00:04:23,450 --> 00:04:27,280 inside volcanic vents in the California desert. 72 00:04:27,280 --> 00:04:29,320 We're in the middle of a really hot desert, 73 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:31,720 and as the mud comes up, it's coming up hot, 74 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:33,490 and it's kind of acid, 75 00:04:33,490 --> 00:04:36,190 and yet there can be microbes in environments like this, 76 00:04:36,190 --> 00:04:38,560 happily thriving away. 77 00:04:38,560 --> 00:04:41,560 This is an environment that is actually conducive to life, 78 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:44,630 even though we think it might not be. 79 00:04:44,630 --> 00:04:46,900 Almost every inch of the Earth's surface 80 00:04:46,900 --> 00:04:51,340 is teeming with microscopic life-forms. 81 00:04:51,340 --> 00:04:52,970 The thing about life on Earth 82 00:04:52,980 --> 00:04:57,210 is that it exists in so many different environments 83 00:04:57,210 --> 00:04:59,810 under such harsh, extreme conditions. 84 00:04:59,820 --> 00:05:02,780 It's like it hangs on, no matter what you throw at it. 85 00:05:02,790 --> 00:05:06,150 Very dry, high pressure, very hot, 86 00:05:06,160 --> 00:05:08,620 even in high radiation environments, 87 00:05:08,630 --> 00:05:10,990 which would kill a human within seconds. 88 00:05:14,030 --> 00:05:15,930 Life even survives 89 00:05:15,930 --> 00:05:19,000 being bombed with asteroids and meteorites. 90 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:22,840 We have a wonderful indirect example 91 00:05:22,840 --> 00:05:25,570 of just how tenacious life is, and that's the fact 92 00:05:25,580 --> 00:05:28,140 that it survived the late heavy bombardment. 93 00:05:30,080 --> 00:05:31,580 The late heavy bombardment 94 00:05:31,580 --> 00:05:34,220 was a violent assault on young Earth, 95 00:05:34,220 --> 00:05:38,190 where life had just gotten a foothold. 96 00:05:38,190 --> 00:05:41,460 Experts think around 4 billion years ago, 97 00:05:41,460 --> 00:05:43,730 asteroids comets and space debris 98 00:05:43,730 --> 00:05:46,930 rained down on the inner solar system. 99 00:05:46,930 --> 00:05:49,200 This rocky barrage would've melted parts 100 00:05:49,200 --> 00:05:52,830 of the Earth's crust and boiled away oceans. 101 00:05:52,840 --> 00:05:58,240 It was a violent time called the Hadean period. 102 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:01,040 The Hadean named, after Hades, named after the underworld, 103 00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:02,480 after hell. 104 00:06:02,480 --> 00:06:06,550 It was a brutally unpleasant place to be. 105 00:06:06,550 --> 00:06:09,120 It was spewing its own innards out into the surface 106 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:12,590 in this intense cycle of hot volcanism. 107 00:06:15,990 --> 00:06:17,360 If life on Earth 108 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:19,260 overcame these hellish conditions, 109 00:06:19,260 --> 00:06:24,400 then perhaps life can survive anywhere. 110 00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:25,870 I think if it can happen on Earth, 111 00:06:25,870 --> 00:06:28,100 I think it can happen on other planets. 112 00:06:28,100 --> 00:06:29,940 I think life finds a way, 113 00:06:29,940 --> 00:06:32,640 and I think we need to go looking for it. 114 00:06:34,740 --> 00:06:38,080 The question is, what exactly are we looking for? 115 00:06:39,950 --> 00:06:41,380 What is life? 116 00:06:41,380 --> 00:06:42,950 You know, that seems like a simple question, 117 00:06:42,950 --> 00:06:45,350 but it's not that easy to answer. 118 00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:47,360 Life is incredibly hard to define, right? 119 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:49,020 It's sort of like, you know it when you see it, 120 00:06:49,030 --> 00:06:51,760 but how do you write down the rules? 121 00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:53,560 Every time we think we have a grasp, 122 00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:55,700 there's this new form that comes about 123 00:06:55,700 --> 00:06:59,600 and completely questions that entire definition. 124 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:01,940 There's a joke in astrobiology that if you ask 125 00:07:01,940 --> 00:07:04,310 200 scientists for a definition of life, 126 00:07:04,310 --> 00:07:07,440 you'll get 200 different answers. 127 00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:10,710 Life can be as intricate as us humans 128 00:07:10,710 --> 00:07:15,320 or as simple as single-celled organisms, like bacteria, 129 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:20,220 but there are some things all life-forms do. 130 00:07:20,220 --> 00:07:22,460 In broad terms, life consumes things. 131 00:07:22,460 --> 00:07:25,290 It breathes. It eats. It excretes. 132 00:07:25,300 --> 00:07:28,630 It grows. It reproduces. It's complex. 133 00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:36,900 Life has transformed the Earth in all sorts of ways, 134 00:07:36,910 --> 00:07:39,710 but life is still just an accident. 135 00:07:42,650 --> 00:07:45,910 Life, as I see it, is just a chemical reaction, 136 00:07:45,920 --> 00:07:49,580 but it's the most important and special chemical reaction 137 00:07:49,590 --> 00:07:52,190 in the universe. 138 00:07:52,190 --> 00:07:55,290 If life is just a product of chemistry, 139 00:07:55,290 --> 00:07:56,460 then what are the odds of it 140 00:07:56,460 --> 00:08:00,130 starting anywhere in the universe? 141 00:08:00,130 --> 00:08:02,000 One thing we know about chemistry 142 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:04,500 is that given the right conditions, 143 00:08:04,500 --> 00:08:09,640 the same chemical reaction will reliably occur. 144 00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:11,370 It's like a game of chance. 145 00:08:11,370 --> 00:08:15,140 For life to win, the conditions need to be just right, 146 00:08:15,140 --> 00:08:18,480 but to figure out the odds, we need to understand 147 00:08:18,480 --> 00:08:22,220 what those conditions are and how common they are. 148 00:08:22,220 --> 00:08:24,820 So it comes down to a numbers game. 149 00:08:24,820 --> 00:08:28,560 It's about statistics and probabilities and likelihoods. 150 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:31,060 It's like having to roll a 6 151 00:08:31,060 --> 00:08:34,330 for each condition for life. 152 00:08:34,330 --> 00:08:37,000 But how many 6s would you need? 153 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:41,970 How many precise conditions does life require to get going? 154 00:08:41,970 --> 00:08:46,140 You might have 100 dice, roll them all, get all 6s. 155 00:08:46,140 --> 00:08:48,410 Only then do you get life. 156 00:08:48,410 --> 00:08:49,980 You could need hundreds 157 00:08:49,980 --> 00:08:52,610 or hundreds of thousands of dice. 158 00:08:52,620 --> 00:08:54,420 We just don't know. 159 00:08:54,420 --> 00:08:57,650 We honestly have no clue 160 00:08:57,650 --> 00:09:01,290 how common or rare life is in the universe. 161 00:09:01,290 --> 00:09:03,190 We don't know how life originated here on Earth, 162 00:09:03,190 --> 00:09:05,790 where we kind of understand the conditions. 163 00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:08,800 There are a lot of different ways life could've started. 164 00:09:10,900 --> 00:09:14,400 Is life rare? Is life common? We don't where it lands. 165 00:09:15,540 --> 00:09:18,070 Putting odds on life existing 166 00:09:18,070 --> 00:09:23,010 is a waste of time until we understand it better, 167 00:09:23,010 --> 00:09:27,110 and maybe our answers don't lie here on Earth. 168 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:29,250 One way to crack this problem 169 00:09:29,250 --> 00:09:31,620 is to go looking for life elsewhere. 170 00:09:31,620 --> 00:09:33,920 If we can find other examples of life, 171 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:37,530 we can immediately begin to put a quantitative answer 172 00:09:37,530 --> 00:09:42,160 to how probable it is for life to happen anywhere. 173 00:09:42,170 --> 00:09:44,330 And the best place to look for life 174 00:09:44,330 --> 00:09:47,900 might be in our own backyard... 175 00:09:49,410 --> 00:09:52,510 Mars. 176 00:09:52,510 --> 00:09:54,310 If life can start here, 177 00:09:54,310 --> 00:09:57,880 then maybe life could conquer the universe. 178 00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:15,300 For life to conquer the universe, 179 00:10:15,300 --> 00:10:19,130 first, it has to get going. 180 00:10:19,140 --> 00:10:20,600 When we look at life on Earth, 181 00:10:20,600 --> 00:10:23,370 it's possible that it all has a common ancestor. 182 00:10:23,370 --> 00:10:26,440 Life started at one spot, branched out, and became 183 00:10:26,440 --> 00:10:30,410 all the different kinds of life that we see. 184 00:10:30,410 --> 00:10:32,780 But how did it start? 185 00:10:32,780 --> 00:10:37,520 The first question to answer is, what is life made of? 186 00:10:37,520 --> 00:10:40,450 Top of the list are the most basic building blocks... 187 00:10:40,460 --> 00:10:43,720 Chemical elements. 188 00:10:43,730 --> 00:10:45,630 Here's what I know about the universe... 189 00:10:45,630 --> 00:10:49,760 The laws of physics appear to be same everywhere. 190 00:10:49,770 --> 00:10:50,970 The chemical composition, 191 00:10:50,970 --> 00:10:55,340 the elements are the same everywhere. 192 00:10:55,340 --> 00:10:57,340 And the cosmos creates these elements, 193 00:10:57,340 --> 00:11:01,180 not from the big bang but from stars. 194 00:11:01,180 --> 00:11:03,440 Over the course of a star's life, 195 00:11:03,450 --> 00:11:05,380 it creates elements. 196 00:11:05,380 --> 00:11:07,050 And when a star dies, 197 00:11:07,050 --> 00:11:11,820 these elements are blasted out into space in a supernova, 198 00:11:11,820 --> 00:11:16,760 spreading the ingredients for life out into the cosmos. 199 00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:19,860 We, the Earth, our solar system, 200 00:11:19,860 --> 00:11:21,760 all the ingredients that make us, 201 00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:26,300 us were forged in nuclear fires. 202 00:11:26,300 --> 00:11:30,970 So the death of stars leads to the birth of life. 203 00:11:33,710 --> 00:11:36,210 Those key ingredients include oxygen, 204 00:11:36,210 --> 00:11:39,350 nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus, 205 00:11:39,350 --> 00:11:44,220 but the element most central to life as we know it is carbon. 206 00:11:45,760 --> 00:11:49,860 All life as we know it on Earth is based on carbon. 207 00:11:49,860 --> 00:11:52,390 Carbon forms the structure, 208 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:55,760 the architecture of our living molecules. 209 00:11:58,100 --> 00:12:00,840 Carbon is an incredibly versatile 210 00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:03,870 building material. 211 00:12:03,870 --> 00:12:07,840 It can bond with other elements to form long-chain molecules, 212 00:12:07,840 --> 00:12:11,280 each with different properties. 213 00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:14,850 As an element, it seems to be capable of producing 214 00:12:14,850 --> 00:12:19,350 a vast and complex chemistry, 215 00:12:19,360 --> 00:12:24,960 and that complex chemistry is what we find in life. 216 00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:27,660 We call this organic chemistry. 217 00:12:31,130 --> 00:12:33,930 But getting from basic organic molecules 218 00:12:33,940 --> 00:12:37,040 to complex life-forms is a big leap. 219 00:12:37,040 --> 00:12:40,810 We don't really have the slightest idea, 220 00:12:40,810 --> 00:12:45,610 to be honest, about how life on Earth got started. 221 00:12:45,620 --> 00:12:49,320 A really big question is, how do you go from a mix 222 00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:54,890 of relatively simple organic molecules to a living system? 223 00:12:54,890 --> 00:12:57,760 We know it all starts with basic elements created 224 00:12:57,760 --> 00:12:59,390 in massive quantities... 225 00:13:00,800 --> 00:13:03,530 By the death of stars. 226 00:13:03,530 --> 00:13:07,030 But how do you start connecting those Lego bricks together 227 00:13:07,040 --> 00:13:09,000 to build that first cell? 228 00:13:09,010 --> 00:13:12,570 The short answer is, "we don't know," 229 00:13:12,580 --> 00:13:16,640 but we have some ideas of potential steps. 230 00:13:16,650 --> 00:13:19,010 Chains of organic molecules 231 00:13:19,020 --> 00:13:20,750 become more and more complex. 232 00:13:20,750 --> 00:13:23,480 Amino acids form proteins. 233 00:13:23,490 --> 00:13:29,220 Fatty acids form phospholipids, which makes cell membranes. 234 00:13:29,230 --> 00:13:31,890 Nucleic acids form DNA, 235 00:13:31,890 --> 00:13:35,100 the molecule that stores genetic information. 236 00:13:35,100 --> 00:13:39,700 Eventually, a simple cell emerges. 237 00:13:39,700 --> 00:13:42,370 So all of the bits you need to plug together 238 00:13:42,370 --> 00:13:44,510 to build a cell from scratch 239 00:13:44,510 --> 00:13:48,440 seems to exist in outer space. 240 00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:50,880 We found organic compounds everywhere. 241 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:53,050 They're all over the place... 242 00:13:53,050 --> 00:13:56,950 Planets, comets, gas clouds. 243 00:13:58,520 --> 00:14:01,420 The very basic ingredients of life 244 00:14:01,420 --> 00:14:05,430 available elsewhere in our solar system, 245 00:14:05,430 --> 00:14:08,100 so there could be life everywhere. 246 00:14:11,300 --> 00:14:12,970 In 2018, 247 00:14:12,970 --> 00:14:16,640 NASA announces it's found organic molecules 248 00:14:16,640 --> 00:14:18,740 on another planet, 249 00:14:18,740 --> 00:14:23,980 a planet we've always suspected of harboring alien life... 250 00:14:23,980 --> 00:14:26,380 Mars. 251 00:14:26,380 --> 00:14:28,750 So whenever NASA has a press conference, and they say, 252 00:14:28,750 --> 00:14:31,720 "hey, I have some results to report on about mars," 253 00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:33,420 everyone goes nuts. 254 00:14:33,420 --> 00:14:36,060 The internet goes mad. 255 00:14:36,060 --> 00:14:38,590 Maybe we've got photograph evidence of the green men 256 00:14:38,590 --> 00:14:40,730 in a UFO. 257 00:14:40,730 --> 00:14:42,330 This time, it's the martians. 258 00:14:42,330 --> 00:14:45,400 They're going to tell us they found a martian. 259 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:47,570 The world listens 'cause everyone wants to know. 260 00:14:47,570 --> 00:14:49,270 Everyone asks the question, 261 00:14:49,270 --> 00:14:51,010 "have we found evidence of life?" 262 00:14:53,310 --> 00:14:54,740 For 6 years, 263 00:14:54,740 --> 00:14:57,580 the mars curiosity rover has been exploring 264 00:14:57,580 --> 00:14:59,680 a region called gale crater, 265 00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:02,580 hunting for signs of ancient life. 266 00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:08,260 A bit like fossil-hunting on Earth. 267 00:15:08,260 --> 00:15:10,560 Gale crater is not unlike places on Earth 268 00:15:10,560 --> 00:15:13,430 that can preserve fossils, so a really good example of this 269 00:15:13,430 --> 00:15:17,230 would be the petrified forest in Arizona. 270 00:15:17,230 --> 00:15:21,670 This looks like a piece of wood, but in fact, it is stone. 271 00:15:21,670 --> 00:15:24,970 It is all stone, but it used to be a tree. 272 00:15:24,970 --> 00:15:29,480 This fossil lived 200 million years ago. 273 00:15:29,480 --> 00:15:31,350 This patch of desert in Arizona 274 00:15:31,350 --> 00:15:33,210 once looked completely different. 275 00:15:35,380 --> 00:15:37,720 This landscape looks very dry right now, 276 00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:39,090 but 200 million years ago, 277 00:15:39,090 --> 00:15:44,020 it was wet swampland with trees and flowing water. 278 00:15:45,630 --> 00:15:47,230 Like the petrified forest, 279 00:15:47,230 --> 00:15:51,100 mars has also changed over time. 280 00:15:51,100 --> 00:15:55,870 Gale crater was once a lake bed filled with fresh water. 281 00:15:55,870 --> 00:15:59,640 And it was just so exciting because we knew then 282 00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:03,210 that we had landed right on top of an environment 283 00:16:03,210 --> 00:16:05,510 that once had tons of flowing water 284 00:16:05,510 --> 00:16:08,250 and could very well have preserved organic materials, 285 00:16:08,250 --> 00:16:11,250 even though it looks very barren and desolate to our eyes. 286 00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:15,220 In 2018, 287 00:16:15,220 --> 00:16:18,430 curiosity drills into this ancient martian lake 288 00:16:18,430 --> 00:16:21,260 and discovers organic molecules. 289 00:16:24,500 --> 00:16:27,670 Finding organics on mars is so exciting 290 00:16:27,670 --> 00:16:29,470 just because, I mean, wow. 291 00:16:29,470 --> 00:16:31,640 That is... those are the building blocks of life, 292 00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:34,040 not just the elements, but actual molecules. 293 00:16:34,040 --> 00:16:36,680 There was a wave of excitement 294 00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:38,850 after the announcement of organics 295 00:16:38,850 --> 00:16:41,350 found on mars and complex organics. 296 00:16:41,350 --> 00:16:43,980 It's not totally indicative that life is there, 297 00:16:43,990 --> 00:16:46,520 but it's a really good telltale sign 298 00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:51,560 that there may be possibly life-forms on mars. 299 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:54,630 The results aren't proof of martians, 300 00:16:54,630 --> 00:16:58,830 but the ancient lake bed is evidence that the red planet 301 00:16:58,830 --> 00:17:02,870 once had something else crucial for life... 302 00:17:02,870 --> 00:17:04,200 Liquid water. 303 00:17:07,580 --> 00:17:09,640 It's one thing if you have all these ingredients 304 00:17:09,650 --> 00:17:11,110 lying around for life. 305 00:17:11,110 --> 00:17:12,710 You could have, you know, carbon over here and hydrogen 306 00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:15,050 over here, maybe methane or whatever. 307 00:17:15,050 --> 00:17:16,550 You have to mix them together, 308 00:17:16,550 --> 00:17:21,160 so you need something for them to be in, a medium of some sort. 309 00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:22,890 Life needs a liquid 310 00:17:22,890 --> 00:17:26,860 to mix essential chemicals together. 311 00:17:26,860 --> 00:17:28,230 We're used to thinking of Earth 312 00:17:28,230 --> 00:17:33,230 as the only water world in our solar system, 313 00:17:33,240 --> 00:17:35,940 but new evidence says otherwise... 314 00:17:38,640 --> 00:17:42,140 As extraterrestrial visitors 315 00:17:42,140 --> 00:17:46,550 carrying liquid water from outer space reveal. 316 00:18:00,700 --> 00:18:02,500 It's no coincidence 317 00:18:02,500 --> 00:18:05,430 our blue planet is a water world. 318 00:18:05,430 --> 00:18:09,600 There are more than 366 million trillion gallons 319 00:18:09,610 --> 00:18:12,610 of water on Earth. 320 00:18:12,610 --> 00:18:16,410 It even makes up 60% of our bodies. 321 00:18:16,410 --> 00:18:18,610 I think life on Earth could be easily described 322 00:18:18,610 --> 00:18:20,910 as water chemistry. 323 00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:24,590 That is the essential feature of life on Earth. 324 00:18:24,590 --> 00:18:27,050 Some is locked up in ice caps 325 00:18:27,060 --> 00:18:30,020 or as vapor in the air, 326 00:18:30,030 --> 00:18:35,000 but 96% of liquid water is in our oceans. 327 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:37,260 Well, Earth is really special. 328 00:18:37,270 --> 00:18:39,970 There's no other place like it that we've found. 329 00:18:39,970 --> 00:18:43,670 It's a pretty substantial planet with liquid water 330 00:18:43,670 --> 00:18:45,770 covering 70% of the surface. 331 00:18:45,770 --> 00:18:48,440 All life on the Earth requires bodies of water 332 00:18:48,440 --> 00:18:49,680 in order to survive. 333 00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:51,310 No water, no life. 334 00:18:52,780 --> 00:18:56,850 Water is what chemists call a solvent, 335 00:18:56,850 --> 00:19:00,520 and it's the best solvent we know of. 336 00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:04,120 It can dissolve more substances than any other liquid, 337 00:19:04,130 --> 00:19:07,660 allowing molecules to mix and interact. 338 00:19:07,660 --> 00:19:10,960 Wherever water goes, it transports 339 00:19:10,970 --> 00:19:15,070 valuable chemicals, minerals, and nutrients. 340 00:19:15,070 --> 00:19:16,540 If there was no liquid, 341 00:19:16,540 --> 00:19:18,510 things would just sit around separately. 342 00:19:18,510 --> 00:19:20,840 You need this constant interaction, 343 00:19:20,840 --> 00:19:23,310 and you need a different chemical mix, 344 00:19:23,310 --> 00:19:25,550 and water does all of that. 345 00:19:27,550 --> 00:19:31,220 And so a lot of our searches for lifelike planets, 346 00:19:31,220 --> 00:19:34,620 or earthlike planets, outside our solar system 347 00:19:34,620 --> 00:19:38,130 are based on this sort of primary assumption 348 00:19:38,130 --> 00:19:40,030 that we need liquid water. 349 00:19:42,260 --> 00:19:44,870 We've long thought Earth has liquid water 350 00:19:44,870 --> 00:19:49,640 because of its unique position in the solar system. 351 00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:53,010 It's right in this zone that we call the habitable zone 352 00:19:53,010 --> 00:19:56,580 where the sunlight can support liquid water 353 00:19:56,580 --> 00:19:58,280 on the surface of the planet. 354 00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:04,120 But we have now discovered that liquid water 355 00:20:04,120 --> 00:20:07,450 might exist in places we never expected. 356 00:20:10,060 --> 00:20:14,800 In 1998, a meteorite crash-lands in Texas. 357 00:20:19,370 --> 00:20:22,300 Today, scientists at Arizona state university 358 00:20:22,300 --> 00:20:26,040 are still studying its secrets. 359 00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:27,810 We had no idea that it would contain 360 00:20:27,810 --> 00:20:31,110 this really, really spectacular finding. 361 00:20:31,110 --> 00:20:35,080 It contains a mysterious purple mineral. 362 00:20:35,080 --> 00:20:39,120 The exotic color comes from exposure to cosmic radiation, 363 00:20:39,120 --> 00:20:42,890 but the compound itself is very ordinary. 364 00:20:42,890 --> 00:20:44,860 It's actually sodium chloride, 365 00:20:44,860 --> 00:20:48,330 which is essentially the same mineral as table salt, 366 00:20:48,330 --> 00:20:51,370 but what's really cool is that it actually contains 367 00:20:51,370 --> 00:20:54,130 little globules of liquid water, 368 00:20:54,140 --> 00:20:57,600 and that liquid water was trapped in these crystals 369 00:20:57,610 --> 00:21:01,010 4 1/2 billion years ago. 370 00:21:01,010 --> 00:21:04,110 In 2018, scientists reexamined the crystals 371 00:21:04,110 --> 00:21:08,380 and discovered the liquid water wasn't traveling alone. 372 00:21:08,380 --> 00:21:11,820 We've now actually found organic compounds in association 373 00:21:11,820 --> 00:21:15,390 with this liquid water in these salt crystals, 374 00:21:15,390 --> 00:21:17,860 and that's something that's really new 375 00:21:17,860 --> 00:21:20,090 and really spectacular. 376 00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:24,360 We actually found amino acids, 377 00:21:24,370 --> 00:21:27,770 the building blocks of all of our proteins, even our DNA, 378 00:21:27,770 --> 00:21:29,400 and we found liquid water, 379 00:21:29,410 --> 00:21:32,540 the very building blocks of life, inside a meteorite. 380 00:21:34,780 --> 00:21:36,880 So could life exist 381 00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:38,980 somewhere else in our solar system? 382 00:21:42,790 --> 00:21:47,090 A NASA mission to Saturn turned up some shocking results. 383 00:21:47,090 --> 00:21:52,190 The Cassini space probe flew beneath Saturn�s moon Enceladus. 384 00:21:52,190 --> 00:21:54,800 Enceladus, no one cared about. 385 00:21:54,800 --> 00:22:01,200 It was a tiny, little snowball of a world. 386 00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:04,240 But Enceladus surprised everyone. 387 00:22:06,810 --> 00:22:11,040 Geysers of liquid water, dozens of them, 388 00:22:11,050 --> 00:22:14,180 blast out of trenches along the moon's surface, 389 00:22:14,180 --> 00:22:17,550 coming from a vast subsurface ocean. 390 00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:24,520 Oceans on Earth are full of life. 391 00:22:27,760 --> 00:22:30,800 Could the same be true of Enceladus? 392 00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:33,300 I'm a big fan of Enceladus. 393 00:22:33,300 --> 00:22:37,070 I think it's by far and away the best place to go 394 00:22:37,070 --> 00:22:39,210 to search for evidence of life. 395 00:22:39,210 --> 00:22:40,670 In 2018, 396 00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:43,710 researchers analyzing the Cassini data 397 00:22:43,710 --> 00:22:46,350 discovered that the plumes of Enceladus 398 00:22:46,350 --> 00:22:49,380 contain complex organic molecules. 399 00:22:49,390 --> 00:22:52,920 Just simple molecules, we find those, like methane, 400 00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:55,320 but the Cassini results are showing that there are 401 00:22:55,320 --> 00:22:59,960 these more complex, larger organic molecules as well. 402 00:22:59,960 --> 00:23:03,030 This is the first ever detection of complex organics 403 00:23:03,030 --> 00:23:05,970 on an extraterrestrial water world. 404 00:23:05,970 --> 00:23:09,500 All of a sudden, here's water jetting out, 405 00:23:09,510 --> 00:23:13,740 carrying organic material, all the ingredients needed for life. 406 00:23:13,740 --> 00:23:17,740 It was, like, too good to be true. 407 00:23:17,750 --> 00:23:20,180 But Enceladus isn't the only small world 408 00:23:20,180 --> 00:23:22,150 with a subsurface ocean. 409 00:23:22,150 --> 00:23:26,820 Other moons and dwarf planets have liquid water, too. 410 00:23:26,820 --> 00:23:29,120 We think the most important thing for life to form 411 00:23:29,120 --> 00:23:30,720 is the presence of liquid water, 412 00:23:30,730 --> 00:23:33,190 and our solar system seems to be full of it. 413 00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:38,330 The discovery of liquid water 414 00:23:38,330 --> 00:23:40,070 in the outer solar system 415 00:23:40,070 --> 00:23:46,640 changes the rules of how life might originate in the universe. 416 00:23:50,250 --> 00:23:51,750 Across the universe, 417 00:23:51,750 --> 00:23:56,580 alien life could be hiding underneath the surface. 418 00:23:56,590 --> 00:24:00,290 Internal water oceans are far more common 419 00:24:00,290 --> 00:24:03,620 than surface water oceans, 420 00:24:03,630 --> 00:24:07,130 so if there is a lot of life out there in the universe, 421 00:24:07,130 --> 00:24:11,400 chances are it's in an internal ocean under miles of ice. 422 00:24:13,500 --> 00:24:15,200 Who knows what might be lurking 423 00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:18,470 inside icy exoworlds? 424 00:24:18,470 --> 00:24:22,080 There may be jellyfish and octopuses all over the place 425 00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:25,280 in exomoons and exoplanets under ice 426 00:24:25,280 --> 00:24:28,920 that have civilizations that we just don't know about. 427 00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:31,020 Finding liquid water oceans 428 00:24:31,020 --> 00:24:33,720 could open up a world of possibilities. 429 00:24:35,960 --> 00:24:37,790 If you're not excited about 430 00:24:37,790 --> 00:24:41,030 intelligent extraterrestrial octopus civilians, 431 00:24:41,030 --> 00:24:42,760 I don't know what to say. 432 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:47,870 The chances of finding life in our solar system 433 00:24:47,870 --> 00:24:49,940 just got a heck of a lot better. 434 00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:57,340 Building blocks and liquid water are common, 435 00:24:57,350 --> 00:25:00,180 but you need more than just these two conditions 436 00:25:00,180 --> 00:25:02,120 for life to take hold. 437 00:25:02,120 --> 00:25:04,780 Life needs a spark. 438 00:25:04,790 --> 00:25:06,820 Life appears to need some form of energy 439 00:25:06,820 --> 00:25:08,890 to actually get the molecules interacting. 440 00:25:08,890 --> 00:25:10,990 One thing that may have helped kick-start life on Earth 441 00:25:10,990 --> 00:25:13,560 is ultraviolet radiation from the sun. 442 00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:17,100 Ultraviolet light is emitted by all stars. 443 00:25:17,100 --> 00:25:21,400 There are billions of stars in our galaxy. 444 00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:24,940 Can life get started around any star, 445 00:25:24,940 --> 00:25:29,140 or is our sun unique? 446 00:25:39,890 --> 00:25:43,620 Earth is a solar-powered planet. 447 00:25:43,630 --> 00:25:47,390 At the bottom of the food chain, plants use photosynthesis 448 00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:50,900 to convert sunlight into chemical energy... 449 00:25:50,900 --> 00:25:53,100 Food for the rest of us. 450 00:25:53,100 --> 00:25:56,770 I like eating both grass, essentially wheat, 451 00:25:56,770 --> 00:25:59,410 and I also fancy the odd hamburger from a cow 452 00:25:59,410 --> 00:26:00,740 that has eaten that grass. 453 00:26:00,740 --> 00:26:05,950 This whole ecosystem is powered by sunshine. 454 00:26:05,950 --> 00:26:08,620 But recent studies have shed new light 455 00:26:08,620 --> 00:26:12,290 on how life developed under our sun, 456 00:26:12,290 --> 00:26:16,460 specifically the role of ultraviolet light. 457 00:26:16,460 --> 00:26:20,790 U.V.A. Radiation is useful for breaking molecules up 458 00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:22,530 and triggering reactions. 459 00:26:22,530 --> 00:26:24,970 Maybe that played a role in the origin of life. 460 00:26:24,970 --> 00:26:27,870 It breaks down simple organic molecules, 461 00:26:27,870 --> 00:26:29,370 and then they can rebuild themselves 462 00:26:29,370 --> 00:26:31,240 into things that are more complex. 463 00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:32,840 You do that over and over again, eventually, 464 00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:34,610 you somehow get life. 465 00:26:37,980 --> 00:26:39,650 Scientists think life on Earth 466 00:26:39,650 --> 00:26:42,880 started around 4 billion years ago... 467 00:26:46,660 --> 00:26:48,820 A time when Earth's atmosphere 468 00:26:48,820 --> 00:26:50,290 gave little protection. 469 00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:56,930 U.V. Radiation levels were 100 times higher. 470 00:26:59,230 --> 00:27:00,930 Was u.V. Essential 471 00:27:00,940 --> 00:27:05,810 for the development of life's code, DNA? 472 00:27:05,810 --> 00:27:10,180 We know that life on Earth stores information in DNA 473 00:27:10,180 --> 00:27:13,980 and then uses that information to build proteins, 474 00:27:13,980 --> 00:27:16,650 so you have the blueprints and the bricks. 475 00:27:16,650 --> 00:27:21,190 The blueprints are the DNA, and the bricks are the protein. 476 00:27:21,190 --> 00:27:24,120 But we think that the first life on Earth, 477 00:27:24,130 --> 00:27:29,200 we used a chemical which is much simpler. 478 00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:32,770 This simpler chemical was RNA, 479 00:27:32,770 --> 00:27:37,200 DNA�s single-stranded forefather. 480 00:27:37,210 --> 00:27:40,770 RNA is almost like a two-for-one offer. 481 00:27:40,780 --> 00:27:43,410 It does both of the fundamental things 482 00:27:43,410 --> 00:27:48,210 you need for a cell in the same compound. 483 00:27:48,220 --> 00:27:53,320 So it was simultaneously the bricks and the blueprint. 484 00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:56,560 Unlike other molecules, RNA is more resistant 485 00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:59,930 to the high u.V. Environment of early Earth, 486 00:27:59,930 --> 00:28:03,760 allowing it to flourish. 487 00:28:03,770 --> 00:28:07,800 RNA eventually evolved into DNA, 488 00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:09,740 and life started. 489 00:28:09,740 --> 00:28:11,440 To have life on the planet, 490 00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:12,770 one important consideration 491 00:28:12,770 --> 00:28:15,040 is a certain amount of light that's going to be needed 492 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:17,280 and a certain type of light that's going to be needed. 493 00:28:22,050 --> 00:28:25,520 So if all stars emit some u.V. Radiation, 494 00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:28,990 can life start around any star? 495 00:28:28,990 --> 00:28:30,420 When we think about looking for places 496 00:28:30,430 --> 00:28:32,230 that are conducive for life, 497 00:28:32,230 --> 00:28:33,630 we want to find a planet 498 00:28:33,630 --> 00:28:35,900 that might have enough u.V. Radiation, 499 00:28:35,900 --> 00:28:39,500 so the star is, you know, bright enough or close enough 500 00:28:39,500 --> 00:28:42,170 that's providing enough energy to the surface for life, 501 00:28:42,170 --> 00:28:47,070 but we also don't want to have too much u.V. Radiation. 502 00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:50,610 It seems you need just the right amount of u.V. 503 00:28:56,150 --> 00:28:59,790 The most common stars in the galaxy are red dwarf stars. 504 00:29:02,620 --> 00:29:06,590 If red dwarf stars can harbor life on planets around them, 505 00:29:06,600 --> 00:29:09,930 there's an awful lot of real estate like that 506 00:29:09,930 --> 00:29:13,000 in our galaxy. 507 00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:15,970 Red dwarf stars could be good for life's chance 508 00:29:15,970 --> 00:29:20,010 of conquering the universe in a number of ways. 509 00:29:20,010 --> 00:29:22,080 One, they represent over three-quarters 510 00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:24,140 of all stars in the universe. 511 00:29:24,150 --> 00:29:26,810 Two, they live for over a thousand times longer 512 00:29:26,820 --> 00:29:28,280 than sunlike stars, 513 00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:31,020 and, three, they seem to have rocky planets around them 514 00:29:31,020 --> 00:29:34,150 much more often than sunlike stars do. 515 00:29:34,160 --> 00:29:36,160 Those are the pros, 516 00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:39,560 but red dwarf stars also have cons. 517 00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:44,630 For instance, they might not be bright enough for life to begin. 518 00:29:44,630 --> 00:29:47,470 Some of the red dwarf stars that we know emit 519 00:29:47,470 --> 00:29:49,940 less ultraviolet light than the sun. 520 00:29:49,940 --> 00:29:51,870 They don't give off much u.V. Light at all. 521 00:29:51,870 --> 00:29:53,310 Maybe on a planet around them, 522 00:29:53,310 --> 00:29:56,540 there isn't enough energy to get life started. 523 00:29:56,550 --> 00:30:00,350 Red dwarf stars are also much more temperamental. 524 00:30:00,350 --> 00:30:03,020 They can go from being gentle and quiet 525 00:30:03,020 --> 00:30:05,190 to having violent outbursts... 526 00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:10,020 Stellar flares. 527 00:30:10,030 --> 00:30:13,330 These types of stars have incredibly strong flares. 528 00:30:13,330 --> 00:30:15,030 That means they're shooting off 529 00:30:15,030 --> 00:30:18,100 a bunch of energetic particles and radiation 530 00:30:18,100 --> 00:30:22,870 and light that's baking the surface of those planets. 531 00:30:22,870 --> 00:30:24,170 If the star is just 532 00:30:24,170 --> 00:30:25,670 bombarding the surface with u.V., 533 00:30:25,670 --> 00:30:29,340 then it will destroy all of those things necessary for life. 534 00:30:29,340 --> 00:30:32,510 It will actually destroy the life itself. 535 00:30:37,590 --> 00:30:39,120 These stellar flares 536 00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:41,020 could strip away a planet's atmosphere, 537 00:30:41,020 --> 00:30:42,920 sterilizing the surface. 538 00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:49,460 More research is needed, but for now, 539 00:30:49,460 --> 00:30:54,130 the odds of life thriving around dwarf stars are a toss-up. 540 00:30:58,570 --> 00:31:00,410 So far, the only thing we know 541 00:31:00,410 --> 00:31:02,440 is that there is one kind of star 542 00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:05,810 that's definitely right for life... 543 00:31:05,810 --> 00:31:07,410 Our sun. 544 00:31:07,420 --> 00:31:10,520 We know of life in one place in the universe, and that's here. 545 00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:12,890 That's Earth. 546 00:31:12,890 --> 00:31:18,520 Only 4% of stars in the universe are like our sun. 547 00:31:18,530 --> 00:31:22,230 So if life can only get started around these rare, 548 00:31:22,230 --> 00:31:24,060 medium-sized stars, 549 00:31:24,070 --> 00:31:26,330 the chances are not looking good. 550 00:31:31,470 --> 00:31:34,740 But life may have an ace up its sleeve. 551 00:31:34,740 --> 00:31:40,110 What if life can start on just one planet and then spread? 552 00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:43,320 What if life travels across the cosmos 553 00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:47,320 looking for planets to conquer? 554 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:03,100 Earth is our only example of life 555 00:32:03,100 --> 00:32:06,440 emerging anywhere in the universe. 556 00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:11,340 But what if life on Earth didn't start on Earth at all? 557 00:32:11,350 --> 00:32:12,880 There's one idea that life on Earth 558 00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:16,120 actually didn't get going here but was delivered from space. 559 00:32:16,120 --> 00:32:19,120 Scientists call this theory panspermia. 560 00:32:21,320 --> 00:32:23,560 The idea of panspermia essentially talks 561 00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:28,490 about the transferral of life throughout the cosmos. 562 00:32:28,500 --> 00:32:31,500 We know asteroids and comets 563 00:32:31,500 --> 00:32:33,600 carry organic molecules. 564 00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:36,340 But could they carry life itself? 565 00:32:36,340 --> 00:32:38,470 What if life starts on one planet? 566 00:32:38,470 --> 00:32:43,010 Can it actually get itself to a nearby planet? 567 00:32:43,010 --> 00:32:44,410 Is it possible that meteorites 568 00:32:44,410 --> 00:32:48,480 could actually transport living beings? 569 00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:51,850 For life to travel around the cosmos, 570 00:32:51,850 --> 00:32:55,190 first, it needs to take flight. 571 00:32:55,190 --> 00:33:00,090 An asteroids is on a collision course with an inhabited planet. 572 00:33:00,100 --> 00:33:02,800 So what happens if there's a huge cataclysmic 573 00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:04,100 collision on a planet? 574 00:33:04,100 --> 00:33:06,730 Material is blasted off into space. 575 00:33:10,810 --> 00:33:12,740 The impact might kill life 576 00:33:12,740 --> 00:33:14,270 on the surface of that planet, 577 00:33:14,280 --> 00:33:19,310 but it's possible some bacteria might escape, 578 00:33:19,310 --> 00:33:24,250 hitching a ride on chunks of the planet's surface. 579 00:33:24,250 --> 00:33:26,450 A meteorite being ejected from a planet 580 00:33:26,450 --> 00:33:27,890 after an asteroids impact... 581 00:33:27,890 --> 00:33:29,820 I mean, that's not going to be an easy ride. 582 00:33:29,820 --> 00:33:32,760 But it turns out it's not as bad as you think. 583 00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:35,700 Some bacteria are very, very hard to kill. 584 00:33:35,700 --> 00:33:37,860 Some we don't even know how to kill. 585 00:33:37,870 --> 00:33:41,100 Even the impact that actually threw that rock into space... 586 00:33:41,100 --> 00:33:42,900 The bacteria, no problem. 587 00:33:42,900 --> 00:33:46,870 If those chunks of rock expelled during asteroids collisions 588 00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:50,380 could actually hold onto viable organisms, 589 00:33:50,380 --> 00:33:52,510 then it really could change the way 590 00:33:52,510 --> 00:33:58,250 in which we think about life spreading in the universe. 591 00:33:58,250 --> 00:34:01,090 If the microbes can survive takeoff, 592 00:34:01,090 --> 00:34:03,860 then they can start their journey to a new home. 593 00:34:03,860 --> 00:34:06,690 The odds of life conquering the universe 594 00:34:06,690 --> 00:34:08,160 seem to be getting better. 595 00:34:08,160 --> 00:34:11,500 The important question now is, how long could that life, 596 00:34:11,500 --> 00:34:13,370 those bacteria, those microorganisms 597 00:34:13,370 --> 00:34:16,700 inside that rock, survive the space environment? 598 00:34:18,340 --> 00:34:21,310 Exposure to u.V. Radiation could be fatal, 599 00:34:21,310 --> 00:34:25,110 killing any life on the surface of an asteroid. 600 00:34:25,110 --> 00:34:27,850 But experts think that microbial passengers 601 00:34:27,850 --> 00:34:32,190 could still survive by hiding underground. 602 00:34:32,190 --> 00:34:36,390 It doesn't take much to shield a microorganism from u.V. 603 00:34:36,390 --> 00:34:39,590 Just a little bit of rock, and you have enough protection 604 00:34:39,590 --> 00:34:43,400 to just hold on throughout a journey to the next body, 605 00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:45,870 to your next home. 606 00:34:45,870 --> 00:34:49,640 Eventually, they could arrive at an uninhabited world 607 00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:52,170 that's ready and waiting for life, 608 00:34:52,170 --> 00:34:54,670 but they're in for a bumpy landing. 609 00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:58,610 Would the rock burn up coming through a planet's atmosphere? 610 00:34:58,610 --> 00:35:02,120 It's in for a hot ride but only for a few seconds, 611 00:35:02,120 --> 00:35:05,350 and only the outer layers of that rock will blow off, 612 00:35:05,350 --> 00:35:08,150 and then it just falls and hits the ground not that fast, 613 00:35:08,160 --> 00:35:11,190 a couple hundred miles an hour. 614 00:35:11,190 --> 00:35:13,090 If a human were in there, that would be bad. 615 00:35:13,090 --> 00:35:15,900 But for bacteria, no big deal. 616 00:35:15,900 --> 00:35:18,560 The panspermia theory says 617 00:35:18,570 --> 00:35:21,170 life could start on just one planet, 618 00:35:21,170 --> 00:35:26,110 then spread to another planet, and possibly another. 619 00:35:26,110 --> 00:35:30,580 If we found alien life-forms, would they look familiar? 620 00:35:30,580 --> 00:35:32,810 One of the biggest questions about finding other life 621 00:35:32,810 --> 00:35:36,950 in the solar system is, how similar will it be to us? 622 00:35:36,950 --> 00:35:39,850 If it's just like us, it begs the question, 623 00:35:39,850 --> 00:35:41,790 did we have a common genesis? 624 00:35:41,790 --> 00:35:45,690 Did we originally come from another planet? 625 00:35:45,690 --> 00:35:48,290 One radical idea 626 00:35:48,300 --> 00:35:52,170 is that life on Earth came from mars. 627 00:35:52,170 --> 00:35:55,700 Imagine mars 3 1/4, 4 billion years ago. 628 00:35:55,700 --> 00:35:58,970 It was more earthlike then than Earth was at that point. 629 00:35:58,970 --> 00:36:00,810 The Earth was still quite warm. 630 00:36:00,810 --> 00:36:02,840 Mars actually had cooled off faster, 631 00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:04,580 had a thick atmosphere, water. 632 00:36:04,580 --> 00:36:07,010 Life could've arisen there. 633 00:36:07,020 --> 00:36:10,880 Mars has been hit repeatedly by meteors, 634 00:36:10,890 --> 00:36:15,050 sending chunks of the planet flying off into space, 635 00:36:15,060 --> 00:36:19,890 and some of those chunks have landed here, on Earth. 636 00:36:19,890 --> 00:36:23,260 So this is a really unusual meteorite. 637 00:36:23,260 --> 00:36:26,730 It was found near the city of Los Angeles, 638 00:36:26,730 --> 00:36:29,270 and we actually know 639 00:36:29,270 --> 00:36:32,410 that it actually came from the planet mars, 640 00:36:32,410 --> 00:36:35,440 and we know that because it has gases trapped inside it 641 00:36:35,440 --> 00:36:38,040 that have the exact same composition 642 00:36:38,050 --> 00:36:39,410 as the martian atmosphere. 643 00:36:39,410 --> 00:36:40,780 There's been a lot of transit 644 00:36:40,780 --> 00:36:43,480 between meteor strikes hitting mars and then Earth. 645 00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:45,050 There's a little bit of mars on Earth. 646 00:36:45,050 --> 00:36:47,390 There's a little bit of Earth on mars. 647 00:36:47,390 --> 00:36:51,320 It's possible that life started on mars 648 00:36:51,330 --> 00:36:56,930 and was transferred to Earth inside of a meteorite. 649 00:36:56,930 --> 00:36:59,770 When you think about it, maybe we're the immigrants. 650 00:36:59,770 --> 00:37:01,300 We are the martians. 651 00:37:01,300 --> 00:37:05,440 Life on Earth started on mars and got transferred here. 652 00:37:09,380 --> 00:37:11,480 Panspermia could allow life 653 00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:13,480 to spread from planet to planet, 654 00:37:13,480 --> 00:37:15,550 conquering our solar system, 655 00:37:15,550 --> 00:37:19,890 but what about even greater distances? 656 00:37:19,890 --> 00:37:24,290 In 2017, the cigar-shaped space rock 'Oumuamua 657 00:37:24,290 --> 00:37:26,260 appeared in our solar system. 658 00:37:26,260 --> 00:37:28,490 It came from interstellar space, 659 00:37:28,500 --> 00:37:32,570 and experts think it could be carrying organic matter. 660 00:37:32,570 --> 00:37:34,670 One of the fascinating things about 'Oumuamua 661 00:37:34,670 --> 00:37:36,870 is it has sort of a reddened surface. 662 00:37:36,870 --> 00:37:38,140 Now that could actually partially be 663 00:37:38,140 --> 00:37:40,470 from the presence of organic molecules. 664 00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:42,640 Could life survive 665 00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:45,980 interstellar or even intergalactic travel? 666 00:37:45,980 --> 00:37:49,780 Whether or not this is an easy way to transfer life around 667 00:37:49,780 --> 00:37:52,650 in the universe, it's still an open question. 668 00:37:52,650 --> 00:37:55,420 The possibility of transferring life from star system 669 00:37:55,420 --> 00:37:59,030 to star system seems a little bit remote. 670 00:37:59,030 --> 00:38:00,690 The immense distances 671 00:38:00,700 --> 00:38:02,500 and dangers of interstellar travel 672 00:38:02,500 --> 00:38:04,460 would be hard to survive. 673 00:38:04,470 --> 00:38:08,270 Some experts think there is one way for life 674 00:38:08,270 --> 00:38:11,840 to conquer the universe, 675 00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:15,010 but it won't be life as we know it. 676 00:38:26,890 --> 00:38:31,060 The universe is unimaginably large. 677 00:38:31,060 --> 00:38:35,130 Many experts believe there is life out there. 678 00:38:35,130 --> 00:38:37,360 We just have to go find it. 679 00:38:37,370 --> 00:38:40,630 One of the things I love about being a human 680 00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:44,640 is the fact that I'm born with this curiosity. 681 00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:46,510 This curiosity drives us to explore... explore Earth, 682 00:38:46,510 --> 00:38:50,080 explore our solar system and beyond into the galaxy, 683 00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:52,910 look for other life-forms. 684 00:38:52,910 --> 00:38:55,110 But with current technology, 685 00:38:55,120 --> 00:38:59,390 it would take thousands of years just to reach the nearest star. 686 00:38:59,390 --> 00:39:03,120 It's unlikely humans will ever leave our galaxy. 687 00:39:05,660 --> 00:39:10,130 If life one day does spread from Earth into the cosmos, 688 00:39:10,130 --> 00:39:12,570 it's probably not just going to be a bunch of meat bags, 689 00:39:12,570 --> 00:39:16,970 like us, but other forms of life that are more suited 690 00:39:16,970 --> 00:39:21,210 for interstellar and intergalactic travel. 691 00:39:21,210 --> 00:39:24,040 Our fragile bodies are not suited to the distances 692 00:39:24,050 --> 00:39:28,580 and dangers of interstellar travel. 693 00:39:28,580 --> 00:39:33,190 Machine life may be more robust for traveling between planets 694 00:39:33,190 --> 00:39:36,420 and between stars than biological life. 695 00:39:38,690 --> 00:39:40,260 There are a lot of scientists that think 696 00:39:40,260 --> 00:39:43,630 when we encounter aliens, we won't be encountering them. 697 00:39:43,630 --> 00:39:45,230 We'll be encountering their machines 698 00:39:45,230 --> 00:39:48,170 because we can build machines that can last a million years, 699 00:39:48,170 --> 00:39:49,600 go from one star to the next. 700 00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:51,570 It's much easier than transporting us, 701 00:39:51,570 --> 00:39:55,410 fragile gloppy bags of meat. And so if we go out into space, 702 00:39:55,410 --> 00:40:00,910 we're more likely to find robots than we are biological life. 703 00:40:00,920 --> 00:40:03,780 For humanity to discover alien life, 704 00:40:03,790 --> 00:40:08,250 humanity itself may have to evolve 705 00:40:08,260 --> 00:40:13,530 from biological life to artificial life. 706 00:40:13,530 --> 00:40:16,030 What's really ironic here is that 707 00:40:16,030 --> 00:40:19,970 while we're figuring out the origin of life on Earth, 708 00:40:19,970 --> 00:40:23,600 we humans could be inventing a form of life on our own, 709 00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:27,110 and that is what we call artificial intelligence. 710 00:40:27,110 --> 00:40:31,680 The development of A.I., self-replicating machines even, 711 00:40:31,680 --> 00:40:34,650 may very well be just the next key transition 712 00:40:34,650 --> 00:40:37,050 in our evolutionary history. 713 00:40:39,890 --> 00:40:43,560 Could a superintelligent self-replicating machine 714 00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:46,960 conquer the universe? 715 00:40:46,960 --> 00:40:51,830 Maybe this A.I. can fashion its own machines, 716 00:40:51,830 --> 00:40:55,300 create factories to create resources to replicate itself, 717 00:40:55,300 --> 00:40:58,740 create ships that will allow it travel 718 00:40:58,740 --> 00:41:01,040 from one place in the universe to another. 719 00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:07,810 But would A.I. Represent a new form of life? 720 00:41:07,820 --> 00:41:09,150 I think the answer is yes. 721 00:41:09,150 --> 00:41:11,080 I think it actually goes on from there. 722 00:41:11,090 --> 00:41:12,990 I think artificial intelligence might be 723 00:41:12,990 --> 00:41:15,690 the next necessary stage in evolution. 724 00:41:15,690 --> 00:41:19,230 We made the computers. They are our children. 725 00:41:19,230 --> 00:41:24,400 I think of life as a process that can retain its complexity 726 00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:29,370 and reproduce, so bacteria are life. 727 00:41:29,370 --> 00:41:33,370 Humans are life, and some future creation 728 00:41:33,370 --> 00:41:34,940 of advanced artificial intelligence 729 00:41:34,940 --> 00:41:38,680 that can do those things should also count as life. 730 00:41:41,620 --> 00:41:44,280 Life could take many forms, 731 00:41:44,290 --> 00:41:47,620 and in such a vast universe, 732 00:41:47,620 --> 00:41:52,630 it could be that life is inevitable. 733 00:41:52,630 --> 00:41:55,060 With all those stars and all those planets, 734 00:41:55,060 --> 00:41:58,160 I think, without a doubt, there is a good chance 735 00:41:58,170 --> 00:42:02,300 that life has developed elsewhere in our universe. 736 00:42:02,300 --> 00:42:05,440 Must life happen in our universe? 737 00:42:05,440 --> 00:42:10,680 Is it an inevitable consequence of processes in operation? 738 00:42:10,680 --> 00:42:13,310 Maybe, maybe not. 739 00:42:16,680 --> 00:42:21,550 Until we find it, we won't know for sure 740 00:42:21,560 --> 00:42:25,420 whether life can conquer the universe. 741 00:42:25,470 --> 00:42:30,020 Repair and Synchronization by Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0 59145

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