Moons and Life

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

In Stephen Webb's "Where Is Everybody?: Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life" the author examines many of the issues surrounding the likelihood of life on other worlds. In essence he examines many of the factors in the Drake Equation.

One of the things which has profoundly influenced life on Earth is the presence of the Moon (which is large in comparison to Mars's moons or the size relationship of the Jovian moons to their primary). Webb argues that it's conceivable that life would not have formed, and probably would not have evolved without the Moon. Personally I'm not convinced by his arguments (though his concerns must be addressed by any theory involving the origins of life).

None the less, I'm also beginning to think that the issue might be moot. Webb's implication is that the moon is rare, but I think this can be called into question. The implication from the following article is that large moons are not necessarily uncommon in KBO's (Kuiper belt objects). Perhaps the Moon is not such an oddity for habitable zone planets either.

Here's what got me wondering: SpaceFlightNow.com

Here are some other related links:

• Another Drake equation article   (It's a bit dreamy IMO, but interesting)
  
• Stephen Webb's "Where Is Everybody?" on Amazon
  
• Review of "Where is Everybody"