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| What would alien life be like? | |
| Probably nothing like ET, Alien, or anything in Doctor Who. If life is ever discovered, it’s far more likely to consist of tiny microbial blobs – if we’re lucky! Or it might be like nothing we could ever possibly imagine… | |
| In other parts of the Universe, life might have evolved in ways which don’t require the essentials we need here on Earth. For example, it’s possible that chemicals other than water – ammonia, for example – could be the solvent for living molecules. Other forms of electromagnetic radiation could provide an energy source, rather than the heat and light from the Sun that we depend on. | |
| Even life on Earth is more unusual than we originally supposed. It was once thought that the smallest life forms are microbes, but now we know that even smaller nanobes exist. These life forms are able to survive in some pretty harsh environments – near to so-called ‘smokers’ at the bottom of ocean floors, where the water temperature can be as high as 200°C. | |
