Author
|
Topic: Rookie questions (Read 17583 times)
|
Death 999
Global Moderator
Enlightened
 Offline
Gender: 
Posts: 3876
We did. You did. Yes we can. No.
|
Obviously, they are not water-based life -- perhaps ammonia or some colder-freezing solvent?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PRH
*Many bubbles*
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 209
|
I doubt we can survive conditions much harsher than what you Norwegians can. 
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Profound_Darkness
Zebranky food
Offline
Posts: 48
Current Mood: RL-Buisy...
|
I would say that the creators took the thought path that life wants to exist in the universe at large, with that said green orbit worlds will generaly foster life that we would recognize and likely in abundance. Planets in grey (but not blue) could also harber life (in theory). Planets in the red zone aren't likely to have much life and planets in the blue zone are the same though life generaly has a better chance on the blue zones than red zones (to be abundant let alone there).
There is even a going theory (read modern/current theory) that there is life at Europa given it's primary element of water and it's nearness to jupiter.
Most life and life giving materials would be boiled off of mercury but there are other energy sources besides the sun for life to flourish...
lastly our theories involving life pretty much require liquid water somewhere for life to have a chance, stretch that theory a bunch and life could exist with liquid anything... (actualy somone mentioned amonia, also silicon can mimic many of the carbon based functions).
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
VOiD
*Smell* controller
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 316
Resident pseudointellectual
|
I doubt we can survive conditions much harsher than what you Norwegians can.
Hey, come on. The coldest temperature measured in Norway is something like -52 degrees Celsius, while the russian record is close to -80.
I've personally experienced temperatures of below -40C, and it was... pretty damn cold. A friend of mine was doing military service while a cold wave swept the northern part of Norway, and temperature dropped to -50. One interesting thing about that kind of cold weather, and I have this from first-hand sources (it was even on the news), is you can actually go out on the porch with a fresh, boiling hot cup of coffee, throw the contents up into the air, and it will instantly freeze and fall like snow. Now THAT'S cold.
A bit on the side of the thread, I guess, but it's an anecdote well worth sharing.
EDIT:
Sander Scamper: what book would that be?
Profound_Darkness: The possibility for life-harbouring environments on Europa is, IMO, one of the most interesting questions that the world's space programmes are dealing with at the moment. They're currently designing probes that will melt their way through the ice caps, into what will hopefully be an ocean below, perhaps teeming with aquatic life. Am I the only one who's excited like a little kid about this?
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: September 23, 2004, 11:38:00 pm by VOiD »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Megagun
Enlightened
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 580
Moo
|
I think the russian record was more like -60 C...
I saw it on Dangerman, a series on Discovery Channel not so long ago, and he showed us that you CAN do that boiling cup-trick..
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tiberian
*Smell* controller
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 335
|
I read from Guinnes World Records that the coldest temperature ever measured on Earth was -89C in Siberia.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
VOiD
*Smell* controller
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 316
Resident pseudointellectual
|
Hmmm, I stand corrected too, it seems. Not until now did I notice that the temperatures listed in the link I provided above, were given in Fahrenheit, not Celsius... 
I read from Guinnes World Records that the coldest temperature ever measured on Earth was -89C in Siberia.
I just checked the Guinness World Records website, and strangely, I couldn't find any info on the coldest place on earth. This was the closest entry:
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=53932
I was, however, able to find data from a source I think is pretty reliable:
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/YongLiLiang.shtml
According to all this, the coldest place on earth is actually Vostok Station, a russian research station in Antarctica.
I guess by now I'm pretty much the only one interested in this subject, so I'll leave it at rest now. Sorry, but I AM a bit of a nitpicker. 
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Profound_Darkness
Zebranky food
Offline
Posts: 48
Current Mood: RL-Buisy...
|
[quote author=VOiD
Profound_Darkness: The possibility for life-harbouring environments on Europa is, IMO, one of the most interesting questions that the world's space programmes are dealing with at the moment. They're currently designing probes that will melt their way through the ice caps, into what will hopefully be an ocean below, perhaps teeming with aquatic life. Am I the only one who's excited like a little kid about this?[/quote]
A few sad things on this direction.
1> there is a place on earth that was picked to test this spacecraft. In the antarctic there is the posibility of a frozen over lake from around the time of the dinosaurs that may have geothermal energy. It was decided not to send the probe there since there is too much of a chance of the probe bringing life from the surface down with it inside the ice that it must melt (as in bacteria cling to the spacecraft and then hang out in the melted water that the spacecraft must decend through). Another thought for deployment was drill based but sterilizing the oil that is used to drill with is nigh imposible.
2> as of yet they haven't thought of a cheap + light + effective method of steralizing the outside and internals of a spacecraft so that we don't bring life from earth to europa. There are bacteria that can remain dormant even in vacume and are shielded from other solar/cosmic radiations by the ships own shielding enough to possibly survive to Europa.
Between those it is likely to be a while (last I heard) before we send a spacecraft off, and then the orbits have to be right...
On the subject of sterilization, thanks to the life tests that were done on a martian spacecraft a while back (don't ask me which one, it's been a while) it was found that not only wasn't there life present but the martian soil has anti-life properties (read hydrogen peroxide).
on yet another aside, the amount of money dedicated to space exploration is a pretty sad thing... on the plus side the x-prise should be won shortly (if not already). There is a private spacecraft which has all but succeeded at getting the x-prise. (last tidbit I heard was on a discovery HD mini-segment a couple of months agoe).
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
VOiD
*Smell* controller
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 316
Resident pseudointellectual
|
A few sad things on this direction.
(...)
Well, yeah. Ever since we ventured off into space there have been problems. The issues of sterility is hard to resolve, especially since any object travelling through space is bombarded with particles all the time. If one was, for instance, to build such a lander/driller/watercraft in perfectly sterile conditions in a facility in space (to avoid bringing bacteria from Earth along), it would only be sterile until it was sent off.
But then, this is the sort of things the space program has to face all the time. I'm certain that the issue will be resolved in one way or another, perhaps not next year, but some time in the decades to come. I'm certainly not in a hurry. I'd rather they took their time than see the worst case scenario (craft lands, finds life, bacteria from earth kills off said life).
on yet another aside, the amount of money dedicated to space exploration is a pretty sad thing... on the plus side the x-prise should be won shortly (if not already). There is a private spacecraft which has all but succeeded at getting the x-prise. (last tidbit I heard was on a discovery HD mini-segment a couple of months agoe).
True. Now, not being an American, I confess I haven't really followed NASA spending very closely, but I suspect I am right in saying that they don't have the kind of means they had back in the mid-60s.
Already, other countries are looking to space. The ESA and the Russian space administration has been cooperating with NASA for years, but I'm looking forward to see what China can do, with their economic boom of late. With over a billion inhabitants, the work force is certainly in place, and they seem to have the vision necessary to make the plunge into space.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
