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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Life in hostile environments
« on: 23/10/2010 12:07:36 »
This post is more an offshoot of the liquid methane post but I thought it would merit its own since some of the points raised were interesting enough to discuss in a different thread.
Firstly what conditions do you think would suite life in our solar system and the local galaxy (obviously ruling out earth). Also what environments would for definite rule out life?
Most of the places I have heard about that have remote possibilities are cold places such as Europa and titan. Even although Europa is a huge ball of ice, its believed that the top layer of the ice sits on tens of kilometres of ocean due to gravitational strains on the planet keeping the ocean liquid. If thermal vents are present near the crust then it may be possible for certain simple life forms to exist/evolve.
Titan on the other hand would require a totally different type of life known from earth as the temperatures are so low that water is frozen solid like steel although methane can flow and rain down on the surface offering a medium for potential life forms.... but wouldn't the lifeforms need energy and isn't energy generally the thermal kind in that it would need to be warm?
Also does a planet HAVE to be in proximity to a star in order to harbour life? Is there another energy source that could offer similar benefits?
p.s I do appreciate this is an astro-biology type post although I would like the focus to be more on the astro part if possible.
Adam
Firstly what conditions do you think would suite life in our solar system and the local galaxy (obviously ruling out earth). Also what environments would for definite rule out life?
Most of the places I have heard about that have remote possibilities are cold places such as Europa and titan. Even although Europa is a huge ball of ice, its believed that the top layer of the ice sits on tens of kilometres of ocean due to gravitational strains on the planet keeping the ocean liquid. If thermal vents are present near the crust then it may be possible for certain simple life forms to exist/evolve.
Titan on the other hand would require a totally different type of life known from earth as the temperatures are so low that water is frozen solid like steel although methane can flow and rain down on the surface offering a medium for potential life forms.... but wouldn't the lifeforms need energy and isn't energy generally the thermal kind in that it would need to be warm?
Also does a planet HAVE to be in proximity to a star in order to harbour life? Is there another energy source that could offer similar benefits?
p.s I do appreciate this is an astro-biology type post although I would like the focus to be more on the astro part if possible.
Adam