10
$\begingroup$

There is a alien species known as the Titanians.

The Titanians are organic biologically, but of a alien biochemistry much more cryophilic and oily. They drink ethane, breathe oxygen (you can have oxygen in a environment like Titan- Oxygen doesn't condense too much at those temperatures) and eat other Titanian fauna. The Titanians bleed a reddish, oily substance, as they drink hydrocarbons and I figure the reddishness may come from tholins.

The Titanians generally enjoy a temperature of around 90-140 Kelvin.

Chemically they're made from Nitrogen, Carbon, Ethane, Sulfur, Hydrogen, Acetylene and have plastic bones. Much like with us they have bones that are harder to break than the 'meat'. Overall their biochemistry is very oily.

One of them is to exposed to the sun of a Cuban beach without protection.

This Titanian has no unique properties, it's human sized and has no special resistances. It's an average Titanian.

What happen to this poor Titanian if it was:

  1. Splashed with water
  2. Exposed to the heat
  3. Touched by a human or stabbed by one (in the latter case- do they bleed or does their blood boil away?)

As a bonus question, would there be a difference if the Titanian was radiation resistant or would the results be the same?

I ask since I am not really certain how to predict any of this.

$\endgroup$
4
  • $\begingroup$ Science based answer isn't possible without knowing temperatures your species like, and chemical substances it's made of. $\endgroup$
    – Mołot
    Sep 27, 2016 at 4:39
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ It won't be fair if yours are the Titanian version of our water bear... you need to be more specific! $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Sep 27, 2016 at 5:52
  • $\begingroup$ Addressed. Nothing unique like that, it's the size of a human but otherwise is pretty much "average" for a Titanian. $\endgroup$
    – Zoppadoppa
    Sep 27, 2016 at 13:42
  • $\begingroup$ It doesn't die--because it couldn't have lived in the first place. Breathe oxygen on Titan? A world with hydrocarbon seas? When Huygens blazed in with a shockwave of 1000 suns the planet went up in an inferno that either cooked or suffocated all oxygen-breathing life there. $\endgroup$ Nov 6, 2016 at 21:10

2 Answers 2

19
$\begingroup$

Sadly, the answer is horribly. Assuming the Cuban beach is warm and not too hot, say, 30 degrees Celsius (C). The temperature difference is 209 C, between Earth and Titan. Titan has a temperature of minus 179 C. A splash of water will burn. If water is rock hard on Titan, liquid water may be more like a splash of lava.

The Titanian will collapse under Earth's gravity as it is roughly 5.4 times stronger than on Titan.

The Titanian will be suffering from decompression. The atmosphere of Titan is 1.6 bar (where Earth's atmosphere has a pressure of 1 bar at sea level). This isn't serious decompression, but it won't do your average Titanian any good.

Contact or being touched by human will burn. Stab wounds will be effectively like being stabbed with a red hot blade.

Will their blood boil? Quite likely due to a combination of high temperature and low pressure (in Titanian terms). Unpleasantly if Titanian blood is rich in hydrocarbons it might burn too.

Radiant sunlight would be a searing blast of energy. Titanian flesh would rapidly heat and undergo breakdown.

Considering Titanian visitors to Earth will be wearing environment suits and mechanized support structures to facilitate mobility, exposing one to the conditions of a Cuban beach would have to be a deliberate act.

Titanians be warned. The planet Earth is a Hell planet of high temperature, high gravity, low pressure, burning with high levels of deadly solar radiation, a surface too hot to stand upon without serious injury, and with oceans of molten lava. Its beaches are portals to sudden agonizing death and a quick trip to the afterlife.

$\endgroup$
3
  • $\begingroup$ How long a survival time do you estimate? $\endgroup$
    – Zoppadoppa
    Sep 27, 2016 at 5:13
  • $\begingroup$ Assuming a Titanian is approximately similar in mass and size to a human being, then not long. This is the equivalent of immersion in a very large hot oven. Heat stoke will be quick. I didn't consider if Earth's oxygen was toxic, because I didn't how much oxygen the Titanians breathe. The amount of injury would be fatal within minutes, Say, one or two minutes. Prior to that, severe injury will result. It's very similar to fire injuries and deaths. $\endgroup$
    – a4android
    Sep 27, 2016 at 5:54
  • $\begingroup$ I'm pretty sure you meant without serious injury in your last paragraph, so I edited. Feel free to roll back if I was mistaken. $\endgroup$
    – user
    Sep 27, 2016 at 14:19
1
$\begingroup$

They are much like living (alt least for a few seconds) bio-fuels (probably bio-diesel) from outer space...

They can easly catch fire because of volatile flammable organic compounds.

$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .