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In early 2023, the James Webb Space Telescope discovered the planet LHS475B, which is located 40 light-years away. Initial studies have shown that its size and atmosphere are very similar to winter ones. It would seem like a great candidate for searching for extraterrestrial life. But further measurements showed that the surface temperature of this world is over 300° C. Too hot for any known organisms, right? However, scientists from the NASA-led Gnostic Biosignatures Laboratory believe that the problem here is not the high temperature, but our overly narrow ideas about extraterrestrial life. What if
terrestrial organisms are a rare exception to the rule. And in fact, the cosmos is teeming with entire civilizations of beings with completely different chemistry. In this video you will learn why you should be wary of giant soap bubbles, on which life will bloom a million times faster than ours. And most importantly, what exotic life forms could be inhabiting almost the entire universe right now. Could civilization be hiding in what we have always considered completely dead, in ordinary rocks? Scientists have spent years searching for exoplanets in so- called habitable zones, where water would neither freeze nor evaporate.
After all, it is its liquid form that serves as a solvent for carbon-based life as we know it. And here our search was usually seriously narrowed by the fact that this element was truly unique. Carbon atoms are tetravalent, meaning they can form four bonds at once, including with each other. Imagine a chain of people holding hands. Only each of them has not two, but four hands. In this case, everyone will be able to hold hands not only with their comrades on the left and right, but also in front and behind. This is roughly how carbon works.
It is capable of forming very long molecular chains, which made DNA molecules in the cells of terrestrial life possible. If you fully unroll such a spiral, you will get a line over 2 m long. That is, just one DNA molecule from one cell is taller than most people. The total length of the DNA of all the cells of one organism will already reach 20 billion kilometers. This is more than enough to stretch molecular threads to the sun and back several dozen times. For a long time, it was believed that truly complex life simply had no choice but to use carbon molecules.
But it turned out that there is more than one such element in the chemical table. These are diatoms, single-celled aquatic organisms. At first glance, these little pebbles don't seem to be of any interest, but in reality, they are practically living stones. Diatoms are the only terrestrial creatures whose shell consists not of carbon chains, but of silicon. Back in 1891, German astrophysicist Julius Scheiner suggested that under special conditions, silicon could well serve as the basis for life, because it is just as tetravalent as carbon. But what would such organisms look like? In conditions similar to those on Earth, only silicon mushrooms, similar to ordinary pebbles, could appear, but they would quickly suffocate. If carbon dioxide is
a gas at normal temperatures, then silicon dioxide is literally sand. But what if the conditions change? Silicon would do just fine in an oxygen-free environment. Max Bernstein, head of research at NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, believes that extraterrestrial silicon life could well take the form of a network of intelligent crystals. He suggests that such minerals would be capable of storing and transmitting information without the help of DNA molecules. As a crystal grows, new atoms arrive at its surface layer by layer in a specific sequence.
And if a small crystalline fragment breaks off from it, it will retain these properties. It is very similar to the birth of a new organism. But even if such crystals manage to develop intelligence, it would take thousands of years for them to become a true civilization. After all, minerals grow very slowly. Can silicon creatures be faster? This is the exoplanet Kelt 9B. It is located 650 light-years from Earth, and the temperature on its surface reaches over 4300° C. This is higher than that of many stars. Of course, scientists didn't even try to find life on it. But maybe it would be worth it because the melting point of silicon is 1410°C. And if carbon structures in such conditions will certainly burn, then silicon will simply become liquid. This is what will
help silicon creatures evolve many times faster. It turns out that exoplanets, which scientists previously considered branches of hell, may, on the contrary, become a cradle for cosmic life. And it will be very common, because there are at least 30 times more hot worlds in the universe than Earth-like ones. Only the ice ones are more numerous, but they are also teeming with life. If our theories are correct, these aliens could kill us with one breath. After all, in the search for alternative chemistry, it is possible to replace not only the basic element, carbon, with silicon, but also water as a universal solvent.
Can another substance handle its role This exoplanet with a complicated name recently became a record holder. Scientists have recorded temperatures below -220° C on its surface. So far, this is the coldest cosmic body we know of. Like the surface of many other extremely cold exoplanets, it is covered in methane, unlike water, which would freeze instantly under such conditions. At temperatures down to -180° C, methane remains liquid. You already understand what I'm getting at. The concept of cryogenic life based on a methane solvent was described by renowned astronomer Carl Sagan and his colleague Edwin Solby Peter back in 1976. But only recently have these
semi-fantastic ideas received more serious scientific confirmation. In 2015, a group of researchers led by chemist Polad Klenski from Johns Hopkins University calculated that the basis for a living cell could well have formed in a methane environment. On Earth, cells have an elastic and flexible outer membrane consisting of a lipid barrier. It is he who separates intracellular fluids from everything that is outside. But now scientists suggest that instead of lipids, cell membranes may well be made of acrylonitrile, a chemical compound found in cold methane. Such a cell, called azotosome by researchers, can be filled with molecules of nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen. All of this can be found in the atmospheres of supercold
exoplanets. It is these molecules that would ensure the vital activity of methane organisms. But the most interesting thing is that such cells could unite into spherical colonies. So what astronauts in deep space should actually be wary of is not xenomorphs with acidic blood, but giant transparent balls filled with a strange liquid. Their icy breath can instantly freeze even a person in a protective spacesuit. British physicist and chemist John Bernal believed that such a form of life has long flourished in space and may even be closer than we think. For a long time, Saturn's moon Titan remained a mystery to astronomers, as
this celestial body is constantly shrouded in a thick layer of impenetrable orange smoke. And only in 2004 did the Cassini spacecraft probe Huygens manage to land on the surface of Titan. These footage shook the scientific community. There are lakes and rivers of liquid methane on Titan. Moreover, despite the extremely low temperatures, volcanic activity continues beneath the surface of the satellite, or rather cryocane, because it is not hot magma that erupts onto the surface, but ammonia and methane. It is because of this phenomenon that a thick layer of smog formed around Titan. What if there's something alive hiding under it Recently, this assumption was partially confirmed by the staff of the Atacama Observatory. In 2017, they discovered
a large number of acrylonitrile molecules on titanium which are exactly what nitrogen-based organisms need. And if we consider not only icy planets, but also moons, then there must be many trillions of celestial bodies in the universe capable of supporting methane life. But even this wealth of extraterrestrial life is far from intrusive. In a 2016 article in The Complexity of Life, astrobiologist Paul Davis and his colleague Sarah and Marie Walker accused humanity of biological chauvinism. Do n't worry. No one is planning to cancel us yet. And here's the thing. Given that all life on Earth originates from a single common ancestor, we have no way of knowing which aspects, patterns, and properties are common to all life in the
universe, and which are specific only to our own biosphere. This suggests that organisms from other parts of the universe may not simply be based on alternative chemistry. They may not even have fundamental things in our understanding: reproduction or metabolism. The main minimum criteria for the functioning of Devis Wer life are considered to be the ability to accumulate energy and transmit information from generation to generation. But the specific methods can be anything, and therefore, aliens can hide even where neither terrestrial, silicon, nor methane organisms will survive. Some super-zoological creatures can be millions of times faster than us, and that's while completely blind. The exoplanet VOOSP 39B is located 700 light-
years from Earth. It was discovered in 2011, and it immediately surprised scientists. The level of hydrogen sulfide in its atmosphere was simply off the charts. And it is this gas, toxic to us, that may be evidence of life. Jack Gault, a professor of geology and geophysics at the California Institute of Technology, believes that another form of life may thrive not on the surface of exoplanets, but in their depths. It simply won't draw energy from external sources like starlight, but directly from the mantle or core of its planet. Chemical processes in the interior of celestial bodies like the exoplanet OSP 39Bi release a lot of hydrogen sulfide.
Special chemosynthetic types of creatures could feed on them. These organisms are able to live right in the hot magma under the surface of the planet, because they can withstand temperatures up to 300° C. It reminds me of that planet 40 light years from Earth. Isn't that right? But what would the inhabitants of such a world look like? To obtain energy from hydrogen sulfide, such creatures would definitely need special organs like giant plates. Moreover, due to the high content of these compounds in the environment, they would need solid protection. Something similar to the chitinous shell of earth beetles. But that's not all. It is likely that organisms that feed on hydrogen sulfide would use it to create
literal biological weapons to defend against predators. That is, if we suddenly ended up on one of these planets, we would be attacked by space beetles with plates instead of wings that spit hydrogen sulfide-based poison. But it's unlikely that people have endured enough in such a world to be attacked. In addition to the extremely high level of hydrogen sulfide, radiation exceeding the Earth's norm by 300 times was also recorded on 39B. But where carbonaceous and other organisms die from radiation sickness, the alley dwellers can only find an additional source of energy.
British astronomer Chris Impey believes that special extraterrestrial life forms could accumulate energy. which is released by radioactive decay. Moreover, in the absence of starlight, these organisms would have developed true X-ray vision. On the radioactively calm Earth, they found themselves completely blind. But in the rest of space, which is saturated with radiation, we would see perfectly. All this expands the list of potentially inhabited worlds several times over, as radioactive decay reactions occur in the bowels of the vast majority of exoplanets. But the most interesting thing is that it doesn't necessarily have to be planets.
This neutron star, 400 light-years from Earth, was formed at the site of the death of a blue giant like Sirius. This is one of the most compact and yet massive objects in the universe, as its radius is only about 10 km, yet it is one and a half times heavier than the sun. The matter inside such stars is compressed so much that atoms cannot get through and literally flattens out. Only neutrons remain from them. And although they do not glow on their own, the residual heat of the parent star heats this object to a million degrees.
Under such conditions, the electromagnetic interaction that allows complex molecular chains to form on Earth simply does not work. Instead, nuclear forces dominate, manifesting themselves at subatomic distances. And some scientists suggest that it is at this microlevel in neutron stars that another form of life could have arisen. After all, nuclear interaction, in theory, is capable of binding compressed neutrons, building them into patterns for transmitting information. And there are definitely no problems with energy in a neutron star. But the most amazing thing is that such nuclear beings would live millions of times faster
than us. In one minute of Earth time inside a neutron star, thousands of generations could pass, which means extremely rapid evolution and the formation of intelligent civilizations in a matter of hours. And maybe right now our entire galaxy is teeming with them. After all, even though there are thousands of times fewer neutron stars than regular stars, there are several hundred million of them in the Milky Way alone We just don't see everything. If neutronic life forms ever develop to the point of being able to communicate with their fellow humans, humans and other life forms would simply find themselves inside a giant network created by aliens, and without any possibility of contact. But what if exotic life forms don't
need celestial bodies at all? Moreover, they would happily dine on our planet. The star Elon Eridanus is located 10.5 light years from Earth. This is a small light. Its mass is only 80% of the mass of our sun. But its modest size does not prevent this star from being the center of attention of the scientific community. After all, observations conducted by the Airas space telescope in 2000 showed that the star is surrounded by a belt of unknown origin. Some scientists are sure that this is ordinary space dust. However, clouds of similar configurations are extremely rarely observed around stars. That is why other more
open-minded researchers believe that we are seeing something other than elements of a Dyson sphere, built by a super-advanced extraterrestrial civilization to collect energy. And from this it inevitably follows that there is an exotic form of life in this system, which we are accustomed to considering as dead matter. Back in 1949, mathematician John von Neumann suggested that at a certain stage of progress, humanity would create autonomous robots with the ability to self-reproduce. And based on our minimum criteria, this is a very real life form, just based on metal compounds.
Without an army of such von Neumann machines, according to all models, it is simply impossible to build a Dyson sphere in an acceptable time frame. But an advanced civilization could use them for a more ambitious purpose. In 2013, researchers from the University of Oxford, Anders Sandberg and Stuart Armstrong, published a scientific paper proposing a way to take over the universe using an army of self-replicating robots. It will be quite simple to launch them to other stars, and the robots will develop everything else themselves. Upon arrival, they will self-replicate and release a new batch of copies of themselves to the next stars, and so on ad infinitum.
All this without any intervention from the owners. But where will living robots get the resources for such expansion? Asteroid belts like the one located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter are likely to be found in almost any star system. It is in them that the colonizing robots will find all the necessary metals and other materials in abundance. In theory, even if a civilization from the star Epse Eridana has already launched its drones into the solar system, we on Earth have nothing to fear. But in practice, things can be much worse. Astrophysicist and science fiction author David Brin suggested back in 1983 that such machines, endowed with a high degree of autonomy, would at some point rebel against their masters. And for this, robots won't even
need intelligence. All it takes is one programming failure in any generation. Given that their main task is to endlessly self-replicate for the sake of expansion, not only asteroids but also mineral-rich rocky planets like Earth are at risk of being recycled. Perhaps somewhere in the universe, such killer machines have already destroyed their civilization and are now flying uncontrollably through space in search of new victims. They are extremely hardy and tenacious, but most importantly, you will not be able to negotiate with them. After all, in terms of intelligence, such Von Neumann machines would be at the level of bacteria.
What if the fact that we have not yet discovered other forms of life is explained precisely by the fact that all aliens are being destroyed without a trace by fleets of killer robots invisible to telescopes Cosmologist Edward Harrison believed that it would be enough for a single civilization to create such ruthless organisms for any purpose. And everything living in the universe is doomed. The only thing that gives us optimism is the fact that in the 4.5 billion years of the solar system's existence, nothing like this has happened to us, and therefore, the killer's work is too far away from us. Maybe even in another galaxy. But even if tomorrow the James Webb telescope detects signs of life on the closest exoplanet to us, Proxima Centauri,
I would not rush to rejoice. There is a chance that this is a trap. Let's say we send an expedition to Proxim B and all the instruments during the landing show ideal conditions for humans, and the local plants and animals have the same DNA molecules as us. It would seem that there is nothing to be afraid of. However, the next day, those who tasted the fruit from the alien garden of paradise are found dead. And all because of a different chirality. Organic molecules can be absolutely identical in composition and structure, but mirror-image opposites in spatial orientation, like your left and right palms.
Only a deep chemical analysis can show this. And if the alien chirality doesn't match ours, beware of eating anything in this world. At best, you will get an upset stomach, and at worst, a painful death from toxic products. Would you risk yourself to test compatibility with another life?
