5 ms·

I don't understand why everyone immediately dismisses the possibility of "life" on planets like Jupiter, Venus, and even the Sun. We have an extremely limited

I don't understand why everyone immediately dismisses the possibility of "life" on planets like Jupiter, Venus, and even the Sun. We have an extremely limited understanding of these places. We barely have an inkling of how elements and compounds behave in such temperatures/pressures/environments, particularly with respect to each other. Even on Earth, places we consider to be "harsh" environments are often found to be thriving with life.

sktrdie 13y ago
What kind of "life" would be possible on the Sun? I don't think basic life form - even the rawest form you can think of - can survive at those temperatures. It's hostile even to complex chemistry. "harsh" environments on Earth, such as the depths of the oceans, are still quite life-friendly compared to places like the Sun, Venus or Jupiter. Nobody is dismissing the possibility of life on the Sun, Venus or Jupiter... it's just very unlikely. I would personally rate more life-friendly places such as Europa or Titan. The oceans of Europa could be thriving with sea-life and it's so exciting to have that possibility right in our own solar system.
- phaemon 13y ago
  > What kind of "life" would be possible on the Sun? Life is a kind of pattern that can replicate itself in a certain environment. We usually consider it as chemical reproduction but why should it be. There's more energy in stars and complex magnetic structures. Who's to say that over billions of years some of them couldn't become replicating?
  - fragsworth 13y ago
    Right, the problem is people give life the arbitrary prerequisite of being "in a solid/liquid state". All you need is an energy source and a structure that can absorb the energy and contain enough information to reproduce. It can be made of anything and on any time scale.
coldtea 13y ago
>I don't understand why everyone immediately dismisses the possibility of "life" on planets like Jupiter, Venus, and even the Sun. Indeed, why would anyone immediately dismiss life on the Sun! Dr. Peter Venkman: Ray, pretend for a moment that I don't know anything about metallurgy, engineering, or physics, and just tell me what the hell is going on. Dr Ray Stantz: You never studied.
civilian 13y ago
Jupiter and Venus are much more plausible than the sun. There are just simply no available building blocks in the sun. The sun's gravity is so strong that it sorts out it's elements by atomic weight almost perfectly. Hydrogen, Helium, and then some heavier ones. At that point... we're just out of building blocks. What would we build the life with? Swirls of Hydrogen? Hydrogen can only bind to itself, one at a time. There's no way to make any structures. As someone with a biochem degree (which is admittedly biased towards earthling life): my understanding of life is that it's fundamentally about selectively letting certains molecules in to create energy and chemical gradients. It's about separating one's inside from the surrounding, so the inside can be manipulated. The insides of cells are a very different solution than outside--- and along similar lines of homeostatis, the blood of dolphins is very different from sea water. I just have a ton of difficulty seeing how a uniform pool of plasma could hold life.

sktrdie 13y ago

What kind of "life" would be possible on the Sun? I don't think basic life form - even the rawest form you can think of - can survive at those temperatures. It's hostile even to complex chemistry. "harsh" environments on Earth, such as the depths of the oceans, are still quite life-friendly compared to places like the Sun, Venus or Jupiter. Nobody is dismissing the possibility of life on the Sun, Venus or Jupiter... it's just very unlikely. I would personally rate more life-friendly places such as Europa or Titan. The oceans of Europa could be thriving with sea-life and it's so exciting to have that possibility right in our own solar system.

phaemon 13y ago
> What kind of "life" would be possible on the Sun? Life is a kind of pattern that can replicate itself in a certain environment. We usually consider it as chemical reproduction but why should it be. There's more energy in stars and complex magnetic structures. Who's to say that over billions of years some of them couldn't become replicating?
- fragsworth 13y ago
  Right, the problem is people give life the arbitrary prerequisite of being "in a solid/liquid state". All you need is an energy source and a structure that can absorb the energy and contain enough information to reproduce. It can be made of anything and on any time scale.

coldtea 13y ago

>I don't understand why everyone immediately dismisses the possibility of "life" on planets like Jupiter, Venus, and even the Sun. Indeed, why would anyone immediately dismiss life on the Sun! Dr. Peter Venkman: Ray, pretend for a moment that I don't know anything about metallurgy, engineering, or physics, and just tell me what the hell is going on. Dr Ray Stantz: You never studied.

civilian 13y ago

Jupiter and Venus are much more plausible than the sun. There are just simply no available building blocks in the sun. The sun's gravity is so strong that it sorts out it's elements by atomic weight almost perfectly. Hydrogen, Helium, and then some heavier ones. At that point... we're just out of building blocks. What would we build the life with? Swirls of Hydrogen? Hydrogen can only bind to itself, one at a time. There's no way to make any structures. As someone with a biochem degree (which is admittedly biased towards earthling life): my understanding of life is that it's fundamentally about selectively letting certains molecules in to create energy and chemical gradients. It's about separating one's inside from the surrounding, so the inside can be manipulated. The insides of cells are a very different solution than outside--- and along similar lines of homeostatis, the blood of dolphins is very different from sea water. I just have a ton of difficulty seeing how a uniform pool of plasma could hold life.