[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Hunpecked, you are right about the fact that most planets cannot support human life..... but who says that all life has to be carbon-based and has to exist in an Earth-like environment to survive? I believe that silicon-based life - even intelligent life - will not be very rare, since silicon is IIRC relatively abundant. Also, if these (possibly crystalline) life forms exist, it will be likely that because of their tough physique, they will be able to survive in climates instantly lethal to a human being. For all we know, crystalline life forms exist on Venus. Why shouldn't it exist? What proof is there that silicon-based or crystalline life is impossible on our sister planet? For all we know, we might be in a Galaxy, even a SYSTEM, abundant with life of innumerable sorts! Give me proof that it is impossible for life forms to exist on Jupiter? Gaseous masses perhaps, or even solid life forms in the methane oceans? And to those who say that the pressure there would be too high and the radiation lethal, I say: look at the animals who live at the bottom of oceanic trenches. They survive at extreme pressures, if you take them to the surface they will actually explode. Also, there are microbes known to be able to resist radiation lethal to a human. So IMO there is no good reason why it would be impossible for life to exist even in this very system. It would be life of a kind as of yet unknown to us, but it WOULD be life.