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? [music] ?

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KIDS: Our World!

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EVAN: Hey Globey, do you ever
wonder if life exists on other
planets?

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I mean, after all, your surface
is covered with life...

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from people to animals to
plants to bacteria that are

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so small we can’t even see
them.

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But what about other worlds
like Mars? Does life exist
there...

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or did it exist in the past?

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Today we are going to explore
the possibility that life

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exists on other worlds, but not
in the form of the little

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green men we call aliens that
you often see in movies.

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Have you heard of the term
Extraterrestrial?

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That term just means coming
from some place other than
Earth.

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So when we talk about
extraterrestrial life, we’re

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talking about the potential
life on other worlds.

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But what would those life forms
look like? Would they look like
us?

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Or would they look different?

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And where would we look to find
life outside our world?

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Water is an essential
ingredient for life as we know
it.

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Without water, there can be no
life. Let’s talk about Mars for
a minute.

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Two Mars orbiting space craft,
Mars Global Surveyor

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and Mars Oddyssey provided the
first evidence that large

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standing bodies of water once
existing on Mars.

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This made scientist believe in
the presence of water on Mars

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- not liquid water flowing
across the surface of Mars,

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but large subsurface deposits
of water ice on the red planet.

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These observations were then
backed up when two Mars
exploration Rovers,

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Spirit and Opportunity ,
provided the first concrete

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proof that large standing
bodies of water once existed on
Mars.

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The Rover looked at the Rocks
that were formed as the ancient
seas dried up.

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In 2007, NASA sent the Phoenix
Lander to Mars to look for
water.

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The Phoenix Lander is a special
craft that landed on the
surface of Mars.

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It has a robotic arm that could
dig in the soil.

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And it has a camera that can
beam back photos of the surface
of Mars.

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The robotic arm dug just below
the surface of Mars,

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and do you know what it found?
Water!

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Frozen water in the form of ice
found in the polar region of
Mars.

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It was the first time ever that
a spacecraft actually touched
water on Mars!

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This was an incredible
discovery!

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CARLA BITTER: If we got there
and there was no evidence of

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liquid water in the past, of
frozen water ice currently;

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that would have dropped the
odds that there was a habitable
zone.

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Liquid water is the key to life
as we know it on Earth.

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We wouldn’t have the various
life forms whether mammals,

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or fish, or microbes.

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Pretty much all of our species
require some form of liquid
water to survive.

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EVAN: So when the Phoenix
Lander discovered there was no
liquid water on Mars,

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did that automatically mean
there was no life on Mars?

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Not exactly. Let me explain.

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You may have learned about a
really cool discovery on Our

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World that could teach us about
life on other planets.

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Did you know that NASA
scientists found microscopic

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bacteria buried in the ice in
Alaska?

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Do you know what the term
microscopic means?

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It means the object is so small
you can’t see it with the naked
eye.

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You need a microscope to see
it.

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The official name for the exact
kind of bacteria the

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scientists found in the ice
is...

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well, I’m not even going to try
to pronounce it.

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But it means “ancient red
bacterium in ice.”

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You can see its name right
there...

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This tiny bacterium had been
buried in the ice for over
32,000 years.

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And when the scientists melted
the ice, the bacterium

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started swimming in the liquid
water!  Something that

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had been frozen for thousands
and thousands of years was
still alive!

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Even though the bacteria seemed
to prefer temperatures

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that were near
room-temperature, they were
able

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to adapt to the extreme cold
and stay alive until the ice
melted.

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Scientists refer to these tough
bacteria as

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Extremeophiles, which means the
bacteria can exist in

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extremely harsh conditions, or
at least conditions that are
harsh to humans.

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Such as the ice found at the
North Pole...

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Or the super heated waters of
underwater volcanic vents and
hot springs...

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Or maybe even a place with no
air like our Moon.

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CARLA: An Extremeophile is
something that lives in the
extremes,

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maybe a critter that inhabits a
super hot thermal vent at

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the bottom of the ocean under
incredible pressure and heat.

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That would be a thermophile. Or
a Halophile. Halo is salt.

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Something that can live in
extremely desiccated dried

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out, salty, absent of water
environment.

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EVAN: So when the Phoenix
Lander found ice just below

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the surface of Mars, did that
also mean they found these
incredible Extremeophiles? ?

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CARLA: Phoenix found out that
currently, no. There is not

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currently any life form that we
can detect on Mars based on our
landing site.

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But the potential for something
in the past if we

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go to another region of the
planet, if we take different

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instruments, has just gone up.
Because we found the

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secret ingredient, we found the
evidence of possible past

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liquid water and currently
frozen water ice.

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It would be very exciting to
find some microbial form of

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life out there in the solar
system. And I have no doubt
that,

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it’s out there in the solar
system. What it would mean for
us,

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would mean that we’re just not
so special. That we are

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part of a much much larger,
much more diverse community

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within our solar system, within
our galaxy,

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within our universe than most
people are willing to sit and
imagine.

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So I think that it’s very
exiting and very probable

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that those are going to be
discoveries that are going to
be coming soon.

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EVAN: So Globey, how exiting
would that be if we found

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life on another world. What do
you think?

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Is it only a matter of time
before scientists discover

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extraterrestrial life?

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Will another NASA mission like
the Phoenix Lander

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discover the signs that life
once lived on Mars?

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It’s impossible to know for
sure.

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But it certainly is exciting to
think about.

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And who knows? Maybe all of
these questions will be
answered in your lifetime.

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? [music] ?

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KIDS: Our World!