Re: Atmospheres
I guess I can inject some life into this discussion:
Aliens could be C based like us, or possibly Si, S, P&N, maybe Cl. Si is like C, but more reactive (especially with water!) and so is S, so not so great. P&N might work if there was enough of it at one spot and maybe Cl too. Anything other than C based, would probably be small or unicellular.
Aliens would need to utilize some sort of solvent like H20, NH3, H2S, maybe CH4. I would tend to think more polar ones like H20 and NH3 would work best. NH3 could work with P&N atmosphere in the same way H20 works with CO2 and O2 to make sugars and stuff, but way less energetic! You might be able to have a NO2 replacing CO2 in a cycle sort of like our planet, but that is also energy defecient.
I would think our setup would be most likely, than probably CO2 in some sort of photosynthetic process, and then...who knows! Some of these organisms are already on earth, it's just not energetic enough for complex organisms like us.
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