ASTR 123 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

ASTR 123 - Assignment Example This theory however, fails to account for the possibility of the huge unconceivable numbers of comets that could have collided or passed near earth for this to have happened. It is believed that during the formation of the earth e.g. the big bang process and later developments, the materials that formed it contained large amounts of water that condensed and later collected, resulting in its large surface water volumes. Though this could be a possibility, the earth’s surface was less massive during the development stages leading to its gravity being too weak to hold the waters from escaping its surface at that stage. This fails to explain the almost immediate existence of water after the earth’s formation. The Snowball earth theory explains that at least once, massive glaciations occurred on earth that left almost the whole of it--if not its entire surface -- completely frozen. The theory has convincingly tried to explain the existence of similar sedimentary deposits found especially at the tropical paleolatitudes. Despite the many suppositions of the theory, it however, cannot feasibly be dependent on as it contradict known facts and theories such as the origin of glacial models and the slushball earth hypothesis. The surface of Europa is believed to be covered in thick ice crust, which prompts scientists to conclude that there is a possibility of a large salty water body rich in chemicals beneath the ice. These combined, form basic necessities required by extreme microbial life forms to thrive. Heat from tidal flexing regulates the energy changes and provides the necessary energy for microbe survival. Sulphur and sulphuric acid deposits in Europa has little resemblance with some extreme conditions on earth where microbes like pioneering bacteria evolved and mastered basic survival skills without directly getting their energy from the