It’s Ladakh’s Turn To Uncover The Mystery Related To Life Beyond Earth

Tag : Ladakh

Yes, this is actually happening. In the quest to know more about ‘Life beyond Earth’, the scientists from all over the world have now turned to Ladakh for answers and are participating in India's first planetary science field astrobiology expedition.

So Why Ladakh? It is because of several astrobio/geologically interesting features and low human habitation. The team comprising of 15 Indian Scientists from different institutions and 16 from abroad, has been withstanding extreme weather conditions. The project has been supported by the Mars Society of Australia and the Lucknow-based Birbal Sahni Institute.

The team has been collecting samples from hot springs and other spots in order to find out whether or not we are alone in the universe. "Ladakh has extreme climatic conditions which are similar to that in other parts of the solar system. This will give us some indication about whether there could be life elsewhere too," said Sanjay Limaye, a scientist at the Space Science and Engineering Centre of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Samples are collected from eight places before the mission concluded on August 19. Siddhartha Pandey, the team coordinator is doing his PhD on the joint Europe-Russia mission to Mars — ExoMars2020 — at the University of New South Wales in Australia. He said the final report of the Ladakh mission will be ready in a few months.

Parag A Vaishampayan, a scientist at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been involved in many missions. He also said that samples were collected from the Nubra Valley hot springs and would be analysed at the JPL. Both Limaye and Vaishampayan explained that though the weather conditions of Ladakh are identical to that of Mars, the mission was not entirely focussed on Mars. They further explained that contrary to popular belief, there is every chance of life existing beyond Mars.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes

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