This summer, Rice University Earth, Environmental and Planetary Science professor and geodynamicist on the project, Adrian Lenardic, spoke to the Texas Standard’s radio show about the research that CLEVER Planets is exploring regarding the origins of “extraterrestrial life”.
When asked about the necessities to support life in space, Lenardic said, “We know that life requires energy, and for a long time we’ve thought that energy from the star is critical, but there’s also energy from the interior of the planet,” such that volcanoes and mountains, for example, that are similar but not necessarily geologically identical to Earth, may contribute to the habitability of a planetary body. Therefore, looking down at our own host planet can assist in understanding the potential for exoplanets to contain life. “As we look deeper into the rock record to say something about what our planet was like over time, we’ve realized that conditions on the Earth, say a billion years ago, may have looked like an alien planet, for all intents and purposes,” he noted in the interview.
Determining all the planetary ingredients, like energy source, that are needed for life will be the focus of the CLEVER Planets project in coming years.
Read the Texas Standard’s article, “A NASA-led Resesarch Group is Advancing the Search for Extraterrestrial Life,” here.
Or listen to the full 5-minute radio recording here or below.