Timeline for Life in the core of a rocky planet
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
22 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 9 at 5:27 | comment | added | Fallenspacerock | @Neil Iyer There are no materials that are not squished by the pressure down there. The core is solid despite it's temperature because of exactly that. Any cells no matter what materials will the squished as well especially It's soft interior which is necessary to send proteins back and forth. Also i am pretty sure that germanium is unsuitable for life because it doesn't combine as well as carbon at least to my knowledge. | |
| Apr 9 at 3:47 | comment | added | Neil Iyer | @Fallenspacerock I don't understand why you say that. In a place with such high amounts of pressure, naturally, lots of pressure-resistant materials will be present. In addition, germanium based life is not thought as possible simply because it combines poorly with other elements without carbon but the high temperature will remove any soluability issues with other elements. | |
| Apr 8 at 6:14 | comment | added | Fallenspacerock | @Neil Iyer if you really want this to work you need to step away from science as with it your creatures can't possibly survive. I would suggest some kind of pressure resistant material for the cell membrane. Additionally Germanium life is already seen as impossible anyway. Though you could still take the scientific route if you are ok with moving your creatures closer to the surface | |
| Apr 8 at 6:09 | comment | added | Fallenspacerock | @Neil Iyer well then your creatures have no chance at the earths core. They can't really move through the materials down there. Though even if the pressure would kill them still. | |
| Apr 8 at 1:53 | comment | added | Neil Iyer | Yes, but sadly my planet isn't old enough for that nor do I want it to be (that has implications for life at the surface). | |
| Apr 7 at 9:39 | comment | added | Fallenspacerock | @Neil Iyer It can every core will eventually cool out. | |
| Apr 7 at 0:28 | comment | added | Neil Iyer | I doubt that a core can be that cool, so that isn’t possible sadly. | |
| Apr 6 at 6:50 | comment | added | Fallenspacerock | So really the only way they could work is in volcanic environments near the surface. Or with core that is cool enough allow caves or something to form though i don't know if that is even possible. So yes you need a nigh indestructible material to make your life work in the way you proposed. | |
| Apr 6 at 6:46 | comment | added | Fallenspacerock | @Neil Iyer Cells have to be squishy in the inside so proteins can go around and do work. This structure would be crushed by the cores pressure and there are no materials strong enough to withstand this pressure. I mean the earth core make diamond out of carbon and rock out of sand things that require so much weight that even we can't do it. | |
| Apr 6 at 5:02 | answer | added | L.Dutch♦ | timeline score: 1 | |
| Apr 5 at 23:41 | comment | added | Neil Iyer | Pressure tends to make stuff solids, think of the inner core for example, but I agree that they might not retain a cohesive structure, though maybe they would evolve to have specific mechanisms to correct this or simply not need one? | |
| Apr 5 at 23:31 | comment | added | Fallenspacerock | Also @Neil Iyer germaniums melting point is about 938.2 °C which is below that of silicon with 1,414 °C the stuff most rock is made out of. Also 4,400 °C for the earth core means your creatures would be liquid which is horrible for live. And pressure really doesn't help as your creatures could probably not retain a cohesive structure. | |
| Apr 5 at 23:24 | comment | added | Fallenspacerock | @Neil Iyer sounds interesting though i am unsure how they would move through molten rock because this stuff is still pretty hard. Also the pressure would be a major issue. So for this reason they would probably not survive at core of a molten planet. Probably they would hypothetically be able to live in the upper part of crust. | |
| Apr 5 at 22:38 | history | edited | Neil Iyer |
Change tag per comments
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| Apr 5 at 22:38 | comment | added | Neil Iyer | Ok I will change that. Thanks for letting me know. | |
| Apr 5 at 22:36 | comment | added | Escaped dental patient. | Then the internal-consistency tag should be used instead of the science-based one. | |
| Apr 5 at 22:33 | comment | added | Neil Iyer | Maybe “is this idea plausible enough to be sort-of realistic?”, but I don’t know if that is focused enough, | |
| Apr 5 at 22:31 | comment | added | Escaped dental patient. | There's also the difficulty of - there isn't a question here, rather a what do you think of my idea. We work best with a (single focused) problem to solve. Could you state one. | |
| Apr 5 at 22:31 | comment | added | Neil Iyer | I’m not really an expert, but I don’t think everything is really equally hot. There probably would be some temperature fluctuations/variations, but the question is if they are significant enough to be used as an energy source. | |
| Apr 5 at 22:29 | history | edited | Neil Iyer | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
More stuff
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| Apr 5 at 22:29 | comment | added | Escaped dental patient. | "use the heat of the core to produce energy possibly by turning heat into electrical signals using metals that conduct electricity" Hmm. The trouble with energy extraction is you need a couple of volumes each with different energy levels, then to extract energy from the flow of energy between them. That doesn't seem to be available in the core as everywhere is equally hot. | |
| Apr 5 at 22:23 | history | asked | Neil Iyer | CC BY-SA 4.0 |