00:00¡Suscríbete al canal!
00:30But what if that's the wrong approach entirely?
00:33The universe is vast, beyond our wildest comprehension.
00:37It's filled with billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars.
00:42The laws of physics as we understand them, allow for possibilities far stranger than we can imagine.
00:48Life might not be limited to the familiar carbon-based chemistry that forms the basis of every living thing on our planet.
01:00First, let's talk about the building blocks.
01:05Here on Earth, all life is carbon-based.
01:09Carbon is an amazing element.
01:11It can form strong, stable bonds with up to four other atoms.
01:16Creating the complex molecules necessary for life, like DNA and proteins, it's versatile and abundant.
01:22But is it the only option?
01:23What about silicon?
01:25Silicon sits just below carbon on the periodic table, and it shares that same ability to form four bonds.
01:33It's also incredibly common throughout the universe.
01:36So, could there be silicon-based life out there?
01:39It's a fascinating thought.
01:41Silicon lifeforms wouldn't be like us.
01:44Their biochemistry would be entirely different.
01:46Instead of breathing oxygen, they might thrive in an atmosphere of methane or ammonia.
01:52Their blood could be liquid methane or ethane, which only exist at incredibly cold temperatures.
01:59Imagine a world where it's minus 180 degrees Celsius, a frozen wasteland to us.
02:04But a perfect paradise for a silicon-based creature.
02:08These beings might live on a moon like Titan, Saturn's largest moon, which has lakes and rivers of liquid methane.
02:14To them, water would be like molten rock, and our planet would be a scorching inferno.
02:20A silicon-based lifeform might look more like a walking crystal or a geological formation than anything we de-recognize as an animal.
02:28Their movements would be slow, their metabolism incredibly sluggish, playing out on a timescale far longer than our own.
02:36A single thought for them might take hours.
02:38Consider the giant gas planets in our own solar system, like Jupiter and Saturn.
02:48Could life exist there?
02:50The famous scientist Carl Sagan once imagined this very scenario.
02:54He proposed the idea of floaters' massive, balloon-like beings, kilometers across, that drift through Jupiter's dense atmosphere.
03:03They might look like living zeppelins, feeding on organic molecules in the clouds.
03:08And where there are grazers, there are often predators.
03:12Sagan imagined hunters, swift, agile creatures that prey on the gentle floaters.
03:18These lifeforms wouldn't have bones or shells.
03:21Their bodies would be made of lightweight organic materials, perfectly adapted to a life suspended in the endless sky of a gas giant.
03:29They would be beings of the air, never touching solid ground.
03:33And what about the energy source?
03:36We'd get our energy from the sun, through photosynthesis or by eating things that do.
03:42But the sun isn't the only game in town.
03:44Deep on the ocean floors of Earth, far from any sunlight, we've discovered entire ecosystems thriving around hydrothermal vents.
03:53These are cracks in the seabed that spew out superheated, mineral-rich water.
03:57The life here is based on chiosynthesis, not photosynthesis.
04:02Bacteria use chemical reactions like oxidizing hydrogen sulfide to create energy.
04:08This supports a whole food web of giant tube worms, blind crabs and strange fish.
04:13Imagine a rogue planet, one that was ejected from its solar system, and now wanders alone in the cold, dark emptiness of interstellar space.
04:26With no star to warm it, its surface would be frozen solid.
04:29In this perpetual darkness, life could arise around hydrothermal vents, just like on Earth's ocean floors.
04:43These alien ecosystems would be entirely self-sufficient, existing for billions of years without ever seeing the light of a star.
04:50The creatures there would be utterly alien, perhaps bioluminescent, creating their own light in the eternal night of their subglacial ocean home.
04:59The possibilities become even more exotic.
05:02Could life be based on pure energy?
05:05What about plasma-based life forms, existing within the fiery hearts of stars?
05:10In 2007, a team of physicists proposed that lifelike structures could form and replicate within clouds of interstellar dust, held together by electromagnetic forces.
05:21These beings would be a form of plasma-based life, existing at temperatures of thousands of degrees.
05:27They wouldn't have DNA, but patterns of electric charge could carry information, allowing them to evolve.
05:34It sounds like science fiction, but the physics is plausible.
05:37We're talking about sentient nebulae, conscious stars, life on a scale, and in a form that completely shatters our biological preconceptions.
05:46So why haven't we found any of these strange life forms yet?
05:50Maybe it's because our methods are tailored to find life that's like us.
05:55The search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, primarily listens for radio signals.
06:00We assume that an advanced civilization would use radio waves to communicate, just like we do.
06:05But what if a silicon-based life form on a frozen world communicates using modulated heat signals?
06:12What if a plasma being in a star communicates with magnetic pulses?
06:16We would be completely deaf to their conversations.
06:19We were listening for a specific tune in a cosmic symphony that might be playing in a thousand different keys.
06:35When we picture an alien, we often default to a humanoid shape, two arms, two legs, a head.
06:44But that's just a reflection of our own evolutionary path.
06:47Life on another world would be shaped by its own unique environmental pressures.
06:52It might have six limbs or none at all.
06:54It might not even have a distinct body but exist as a collective consciousness like a slime mold or a forest of interconnected trees.
07:03The truth is, the universe doesn't care about our expectations.
07:07It is what it is in all its strange and wonderful glory.
07:11The first real alien life we encounter might not be a little green man.
07:14It might be a crystalline entity from a methane sea, a vast atmospheric floater from a gas giant, or a glowing cloud of intelligent plasma.
07:44It might be a little green man.
07:45It might be a little green man.
07:46It might be a little green man.
07:47It might be a little green man.
07:48It might be a little green man.
07:49It might be a little green man.
07:50It might be a little green man.
07:51It might be a little green man.
07:52It might be a little green man.
07:53It might be a little green man.
07:54It might be a little green man.
07:55It might be a little green man.
07:56It might be a little green man.
07:57It might be a little green man.
07:58It might be a little green man.
07:59It might be a little green man.
08:00It might be a little green man.
08:01It might be a little green man.
08:02It might be a little green man.
08:03It might be a little green man.
08:04It might be a little green man.
08:05It might be a little green man.
08:07Gracias.
08:37Gracias.
Comentarios