Documentarty: Search Of Life Outside Earth
Duration: 50 min
To the average layman, Mars is often thought the best place in the solar system to potentially support life besides Earth. A scientist could answer with certain moons of the outer gas planets, Saturn’s Titan perhaps or Jupiter’s Europa.
Life Beyond The Earth expands this search to the two planets closest to the sun, Mercury and Venus. The former is a lifeless, crater-blasted ball of rock, one half sun-scorched and the other freezing, the latter is a hellscape of fire, sulphur and poisonous gases. How could either support life?
David Grinspoon believes the ancient history of the planets may reveal there is more to the story. Away from the surface, Venus’ atmosphere has temperatures and pressures similar to Earth. Scientists found life on our own planet that is capable of withstanding very extreme conditions. So is it possible?
This documentary takes this outlandish idea and casts a scientific eye on it, asking physicists, astronomers, biologists and geologists not if life does exist there but if it is possible.
965
