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Planetary habitability in the Solar System is the study that searches the possible existence of past or present extraterrestrial life in those celestial bodies. As exoplanets are too far away and can only be studied by indirect means, the celestial bodies in the Solar System allow for a much more detailed study: direct telescope observation, space probes, rovers and even human spaceflight.
Planetary surfaces and surface life are of particular interest to humans as it is the primary habitat of the species, which has evolved to move over land and breathe air. Human space exploration and space colonization therefore focuses heavily on them. Humans have only directly explored the surface of Earth and the Moon.
In addition, humans would not require pressurized suits when outside, merely air to breathe, protection from the acidic rain and on some occasions low level protection against heat. Alternatively, two-part domes could contain a lifting gas like hydrogen or helium (extractable from the atmosphere) to allow a higher mass density. [15]
An artist's conception shows a terraformed Mars in four stages of development.. Terraforming or terraformation ("Earth-shaping") is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology of a planet, moon, or other body to be similar to the environment of Earth to make it habitable for humans to live on.
Mars, by contrast, is nearly (or perhaps totally) geologically dead and has lost much of its atmosphere. [51] Thus it would be fair to infer that the lower mass limit for habitability lies somewhere between that of Mars and that of Earth or Venus: 0.3 Earth masses has been offered as a rough dividing line for habitable planets. [52]
Humans that leave the familiarity of Earth could morph into a separate species. "These people will become an offshoot of the human tree," Impey said in the interview. "They will probably evolve ...
This week, explore the technology that could allow humans to live on Mars, uncover the truth of a Neanderthal flower burial, see a leggy birdlike dinosaur, and more.
At least two-thirds of Mars' surface is more than 3.5 billion years old, and it could have been habitable 4.48 billion years ago, 500 million years before the earliest known Earth lifeforms; [4] Mars may thus hold the best record of the prebiotic conditions leading to life, even if life does not or has never existed there. [5] [6]