Can Life in Other Worlds Exist Without Water?

Scientists always believe that in order for life to exist, water is probably the most important ingredient needed.

 

We know that in order for us, animals, plants, and microorganisms to survive and flourish on this planet water is the key ingredient for life and for them to first evolve from the primordial oceans.

 

Astronomers and astrobiologists have been searching for life in our galaxy for evidence of life on other planets. They have been looking for water first, and other life-giving chemicals such as carbon and amino-acids among the planets as prerequisites for life to be possible in their space probes. But are these the chemical criteria for life to be possible or rather for physical forms of life to be possible?

 

According to Dr Anne Jungblut, a specialist in life living in extreme conditions, and Dr Paul Kenrick, a specialist on the early evolution of life, explain what they were looking for.

 

According to them as well as to all scientists, the processes to make life possible, there must be life-giving chemicals and water for chemical reactions to take place in a living body, and for water to break down those substances so these reactions can move and interact freely.

 

Liquid water is probably the only essential requirement for life on Earth because it functions as a solvent. It is efficient in dissolving substances to enable these biochemical reactions to take place in animals, plants and in the microbial cells.

 

The chemical and physical properties of water is to allow it to dissolve more substances than other liquids, as water is a universal solvent for most chemicals.  Other physical characteristics of water essential for life are its heat conducting ability, high boiling and melting points, and its capability to allow life-giving light to penetrate.

 

According to another scientist, he says 'As water plays such an essential role in life on Earth, the presence of water has been vital in the search of other habitable planets and moons'.

 

Many thousands of biomolecules are involved in the reactions with water for complex life to be made possible. Carbon-based life is only possible in the presence of water for the synthesis of proteins, carbohydrates and fats that make up life. Hence, we conclude that physical life as we know it here on Earth is only possible in the presence of water.

 

The molecular structure of carbon allows its atoms to form long chains, with each other with two potential free bonds to join up with other atoms especially with oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen to make life organic compounds very complex.

 

Many of these free bonds in carbon can even join up with other carbon atoms to form complex rings and 3D molecular structures. These carbon bonds are strong and stable for building life-giving structures since carbon along with water are the most abundant substance on Earth on which all life is made possible. Hence, we assume that this hypothesis holds true for the entire Universe where life exists, or does it?

 

Although carbon is possibly the main component of organic compounds on which all life is based, other elements such as nitrogen on which complex proteins are based are also required for smaller units called amino acids. The synthesis of DNA and RNA, the carriers of the genetic code for life on Earth also requires nitrogen, not just water or carbon.

 

Microorganisms like bacteria convert nitrogen from the atmosphere into nitrogen compounds such as nitrates that is also essential for plants as nitrates are needed for their protein synthesis

 

Besides water and nitrogen, phosphorus is also essential for life as the element is needed for the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the compound that drives the biochemical power and machinery of life.

Energy-rich phosphate bond in ATP is converted into ADP (adenosine diphosphate) in anaerobic respiration to yield energy to be converted back into ATP in the presence of oxygen.

ATP is a nucleoside triphosphate, containing a nitrogenous base (adenine), a ribose sugar, and three serially bonded phosphate groups. ATP is often referred to as an "energy currency" of the cell that provides readily releasable energy in the bond between the second and third phosphate groups.

 

In addition to its source of cellular energy, the breakdown of ATP through hydrolysis provides a broad spectrum of cellular functions such as in cellular signalling and in DNA/RNA synthesis. ATP synthesis utilizes energy from multiple catabolic mechanisms, including cellular respiration, beta-oxidation, and ketosis.

 

This may be true in cellular chemistry where water is needed to drive the chemical reactions, but water is not needed in the life forces themselves existing in a living body that drive these biochemical reactions. In short, it is the life forces that are the master command to these chemistries of life, and life itself. 

Phosphorus is also another vibrant element in cell membranes that regulates the flow of substances in and out of cells besides being part of the DNA and RNA.

 

Besides water, carbon, nitrogen, sulphur that makes up the enzyme, hormones and vitamins is also essential for life. However, in the absence of oxygen and light, it is also possible to use sulphur as an energy source. Some bacteria called extremophiles can live without light and oxygen under severe environmental conditions such as in hydrothermal vents on ocean floors, frozen lakes, areas with high salinity and even in areas with high radio activities.

 

The question we need to ask is, if some of these life forms found here on Earth living under extreme conditions, would it be possible for other physical life forms found living under extreme conditions in other planets and other extra-terrestrial worlds?

  

Life on Earth took at least 4 billion years to evolve from single-celled organisms to complex life as we now know them. The age of the universe is 13.8 billion years, and the age of Earth is 4.543 billion years. The accretion of Earth took place 4,500 to 4,400 million years ago, after the atmosphere and oceans were formed 4,200 million years ago. It was only when the oceans where there was water, life became possible in the form of the first prebiotic chemistry.  That was 4,000 million years ago. Life was not possible in its earliest stages of Earth’s formation as it was too hot then.

 

The entire scenario of from the creation of the Universe till the early agriculture 12,000 years ago till the use of iron tools by humans is given here:

 

Creation of Heavens and the Universe:

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=age+of+universe

 

It is possible that life exists on other planets but such life would have a lot of evolutionary process to catch up. It took complex life so long to form due to its complex genetic and biochemical systems.  Microorganisms with simple cells have to evolve first. According to one scientist, he says:

 

'To make tissues and organs, cells need to multiply, specialise in function, and co-operate. The evolution of these basic building blocks and their integration took time. Larger organisms require even more specialised and integrated cellular systems. The fossil record tells us that this took billions of years.' 

 

Having explained all that, especially the presence of water as the first requirement, scientists always assume that life elsewhere in the Universe is also the same as we know them here on Earth. So, they came up with the hypothesis that life in other worlds is only possible within the Goldilocks Zone, meaning a planet has to be like Earth to be just right from its Sun or their star from a distance that is not too hot, or not too cold for liquid water to exist on its surface?

 

Astronomers have been searching for planets within this hypothesis in the Goldilocks’s Zone for ages without success for the existence of (physical) life there. Not just light at the right distance, but also light and radiation of certain wavelengths that does not damage the DNA of life there. Here on Earth damaging ultraviolet light for instance from the Sun is screened off by the ozone. So, astronomers need to look for those other life-damaging conditions too, not just water, light and the right temperature.

 

Now the question that is troubling me as a scientist myself who is trained and familiar in astronomy, astrobiology, evolution of life on Earth, biology and zoology, medicine and other fields of life sciences, I have always asked myself, is it necessary that life has to be in the physical form to meet all these criteria for its existence throughout the Universe or at least in other nearby worlds that other scientists have been vainly trying in their Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) with their radio telescopes.

 

Frank Drake and his colleagues in 1961 even came out with unreliable guesses to look for life in other worlds using his equation that looks like this:

 

• R_∗ = 1 yr⁻¹ (1 star formed per year, on the average over the life of the galaxy; this was regarded as conservative)
• f_p = 0.2 to 0.5 (one fifth to one half of all stars formed will have planets)
• n_e = 1 to 5 (stars with planets will have between 1 and 5 planets capable of developing life)
• f_l = 1 (100% of these planets will develop life)
• f_i = 1 (100% of which will develop intelligent life)
• f_c = 0.1 to 0.2 (10–20% of which will be able to communicate)
• L = 1000 to 100,000,000 communicative civilizations (which will last somewhere between 1000 and 100,000,000 years)

Inserting the above minimum numbers into the equation gives a minimum N of 20 Inserting the maximum numbers gives a maximum of 50,000,000. Drake states that given the uncertainties, the original meeting concluded that N ≈ L, and there were probably between 1000 and 100,000,000 planets with civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy.

 

They assume all life elsewhere must satisfy all the same criteria for life as we know them here in this physical world, or is it?

 

The question that troubles me for a long time is, what about life that has no physical body but just pure life such as spiritual life existing and residing inside a physical body that does not require water such as a soul that leaves the physical body on death? If they exist, I don’t think such pure life tagged or trapped inside a physical body requires any water to exist. But that’s life to me, not a physical living body

 

See my arguments among others on this here:  

 

Read also the “The Mystery of Life”:

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=mystery+of+life

 

The Spark of Life:

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=spark+of+life

 

Jesus First Miracle:

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=jesus+first+miracle

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=does+soul+exist

 

We often read accounts of UFOs, presuming beings from other worlds visiting Earth. If they exist with strong possibilities they do from numerous reports of their sightings all over the world seen by people with different belief systems, religion, cultures, ethnicities, ages and genders. How did these “living beings” from other worlds travel vast chasms of interstellar spaces, distances of tens, hundreds or thousands of light years between stars to undertake those horrendously long journeys without food and water as we know them to arrive here on Earth? What about them?

 

If they are living creatures from other worlds, don’t they also require food and water during their unspeakably long journey between the stars? Yet they managed to arrive here without water or food in deep interstellar space. Give this a thought as I do.   

 

Furthermore, when all life on Earth is destroyed and a new heaven and a new Earth is created with non-physical life existing there. It says there is “no more sea”, meaning there is no more water needed for spiritual life there as in Revelation 21:1?

 

But our life and all life on Earth is physical that requires water as already explained above. Give this also another thought. It troubles me greatly unlike other scientists and the common man-in-the-street who only believes what scientists tell them. 

In summary, I don't think it is safe to assume that everything that happens or exists we know here in this world, applies to other worlds too, even in the nearest ones in the Milky Way Galaxy, let alone in the entire Universe spanning 93 billion light years across. 

For instance, we can easily calculate and measure the amount of energy output of the Sun, measure the distances to the stars using various methods such as measuring its parallax, using Cepheids variables, by observing the length  of their period and intrinsic luminosity, and use simple physics to calculate their distances. 

Astronomers can even tell the evolution and ages of the main sequence stars by looking at their luminosity in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram.  As they grow older, their luminosity increases, and by knowing their mass, and their increase in luminosity we can tell  the ages of younger and older stars. 

We can tell a lot about the Universe, their origin and ultimate fate, how they work, their age, size, numbers of galaxies, make estimates of the number of stars in each galaxy...a 1000 and one thing we know, but we have not a clue if life even in their simplest form exist elsewhere other than our own. 

We don't even have an acceptable definition for life despite over 100 definations being offered, let alone measure it. If we are so blind in knowing exactly what makes some organic molecules almost suddenly come alive, or tell ourselves exactly how life originated, how they were created, designed, or spontaneously elvolved, then how are we going to know if other life elsewhere requires water in such horrendously vast cosmic oceans containing an estimated 10 trillion, trillion (1 followed by 25 zeros)? 

We can only give ourselves a very deep thought on the mysteries of life!

jb lim