Thread

1. veexx103 · 1790479756 · focus · HN ↗

   If life really exists there, it implies that life is everywhere in the universe.

   That was absolutely terrifying.

   1. adrian_b · 1790495059 · focus · HN ↗

      It is likely that conditions for the appearance of life exist in many places in the universe, though probably not in every stellar system.

      However, it is also likely that the places where living beings can evolve into something more complex than bacteria are only a very small fraction of those where life exists.

      There are chances that life might exist on one or more of the satellites of Jupiter or Saturn, but it is pretty certain that it cannot be more complex than bacteria or at most protozoa, because on Earth the evolution of big multicellular living beings was conditioned by the development of the ability to extract energy from solar light.

      Without solar light, the maximum rate of energy production is from methanogenesis, which would not sustain any big living being.

      Solar light is too weak at that distance anyway, and life, if it exists, is burrowed at depths where the temperature is high enough, where any light is likely to be completely attenuated.

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