Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexN
Dave, another problem is that most of the time when they look at other planets, and their atmospheric make up, they deem a planet to be uninhabitable due to either its temperature, proximity to the star (radiation problems etc) and the composition of the atmosphere.. As I mentioned before, There is nothing ruling out aliens that live in 180°c temperatures and breathe sulphur dioxide... Absolutely no reason they can't handle constant exposure to massive amounts of UV or even gamma radiation... There is no rule saying they have to be human, or even human like... So whilst any given planet orbiting another star may be utterly uninhabitable for us, does not mean that life is not there.. it just wont be life as we know it.
|
An excellent point... we humans really should shed ourselves of our anthropocentric view of the universe. There is a great article in the latest Australian Sky & Telescope about life in what we perceive to be "extreme" conditions - excellent reading.