Atmospheres

[Captain Kwok]

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.

[Fyron]

Some of these organisms are already on earth, it's just not energetic enough for complex organisms like us.

That was part of my point.

[Wardad]

Did you hear about the researcher that claimed to create a living cell from an inorgnanic soup?





No one could duplicate the experiment. He finally admitted to faking an organism.

[Suicide Junkie]

Doesn't the P&N atmosphere require large amounts of alcohol and parrots to be present?

[solops]

Originally posted by minipol:

quote:

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Originally posted by solops:
How about an atmosphere that catastrophically ignites if certain types of weapons are used in it?

Wouldn't that open the way for cheap anti planet weapons? load a cheap gun on a ship, send it to the planet, fire once and boom, planet gone.
just a thought

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Yes, my point, if you want to capture the planet. The thought here was to have different classes of weapons for troops. Some could be used in some atmospheres but not in others (without Bad Things happening). Also, you might have certain weapons available for each race, according to the atmosphere they breath, that were more effective in that atmosphere than in others. So a CO2 race attacking an Oxy race on an oxy planet is going to be at a disadvantage (If the oxies has researched and deployed the weapons group that gives them an advantage). Lots of permutations from there...

[Phoenix-D]

"No complex (macroscopic) organisms (that I have ever heard of) can survive without oxygen."

Probably because said organisms tend to die in the presance of oxygen. Given that the earth's atmosphere is now something like 25% O2, that's a bit of a problem for them.

Phoenix-D

[capnq]

You are not going to go to another galaxy and find that suddenly the laws of physics stop applying or get changed

There are a number of science fiction stories where this assumption turns out to be false.