Timeline for An ammonia - not water - based alien race that breaths hydrogen. Is it believable/possible?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
14 events
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| Nov 10, 2015 at 23:56 | comment | added | Jason Patterson | @Night_Fox Yes, that would work as well. If the aliens excreted a solution of ammonia and water (just like we do, with urea and water) then there's no reason why liquid water excretion couldn't occur, even at very low temperatures or at high pressures. | |
| Nov 10, 2015 at 23:37 | comment | added | Night_Fox | As fun as pooping ice cubes sounds... would it make more sense to have them sort of "sweat" the water out? This has been my first question on this forum. I didn't expect to have so much interest. This is fun! I also like the idea of high pressure. It fit's well with some of the dynamics in the story I'm writing. | |
| Nov 10, 2015 at 23:19 | comment | added | Jason Patterson | It would also be entirely possible for the water to be a relatively harmless byproduct, as @Jim2B stated already. Just making it clear that I'm not disagreeing with him at all. I like the idea of pooping ice cubes... | |
| Nov 10, 2015 at 23:16 | comment | added | Jason Patterson | @Night_Fox The Sabatier reaction actually releases energy at any sort of normal biological temperatures. The only reason it requires a hot catalyst is that it has a very activation energy. Basically, it's extremely difficult to get started, but does result in a net release of energy. The products would be water and methane; I figured that the methane could then be used for biological purposes, as a basic building block for organic molecules. The water would likely be waste, toxic or not. There are reactions that can occur in liquid ammonia that would be ruined by water (water = poison.) | |
| Nov 10, 2015 at 17:55 | comment | added | Jim2B | Water would be a waste product and not necessarily a toxin (although it might be a toxin). Sort of like how $CO_2$ is for humans. If this was a low temperature environment, the critters would excrete solid water though - imagine pooping ice cubes! I was also thinking that it might make more sense for the critters to breath methane than hydrogen. | |
| Nov 10, 2015 at 11:42 | vote | accept | Night_Fox | ||
| Nov 10, 2015 at 11:15 | vote | accept | Night_Fox | ||
| Nov 10, 2015 at 11:23 | |||||
| Nov 10, 2015 at 5:28 | comment | added | BartekChom | Instead of low temperature, you may use high pressure. Data give boiling point 98.3°C at 45600 mmHg (60 atm). | |
| Nov 10, 2015 at 5:04 | comment | added | Night_Fox | @WhatRoughBeast - Good point. I supposed that would suggest they would have to occupy high altitude habitats which would also be colder. Perhaps there could be some type of flora that would process methane back into carbon plus something and hydrogen? Just shooting in the dark, I'm sure you can see I'm not a chemist. | |
| Nov 10, 2015 at 4:40 | comment | added | Night_Fox | Also I suppose they would "exhale" methane. | |
| Nov 10, 2015 at 4:39 | comment | added | Night_Fox | Sorry about the typo's. I meant to say "activity" not "activated | |
| Nov 10, 2015 at 4:32 | comment | added | Night_Fox | So in reading a short article on the Sabatier process, my understanding is that the "waste" products would be methane and water. Would that make water a toxin? Also I suppose VERY low metabolism. I guess I could have them sort of hibernate an store up energy for bursts of activated with some imagined altered version of ATP. | |
| Nov 10, 2015 at 4:17 | comment | added | WhatRoughBeast | Note, though, that in order to have a useable hydrogen atmosphere it's necessary that there be no other gases, such as nitrogen. If this happens, the hydrogen will gravitationally separate, and the lower reaches of the atmosphere will be made of anything but hydrogen. | |
| Nov 10, 2015 at 3:37 | history | answered | Jason Patterson | CC BY-SA 3.0 |