Alien life in extreme temperatures?

I live in San Diego, California. USa. In the summer where I live, it can get up to 120 degrees fahrenheit. I grew up in Chicago, Illinois. USA, where it can get with a wind chill factor of -60 below 0 degrees fahrenheit. That works out to a 180 degree fahrenheit difference in temperature.

I am 36 years old. At no time in my life have I felt like I was going to die because of extreme temperature changes or have I ever felt at risk.

Why do some people assume that the temperature differences are just far to extreme for life to exist elsewhere other than earth?

reply to post by gauncents


I think they just don't want to "believe" , there are life forms living in oxygen depleted thermal vents on the ocean floor, and yet life on other planets still is not believable to some people. With all the untold billions of stars and planets there is no way whatsoever that we are the only ones. Hell there are anaerobic bacteria that thrive in hydrogen sulfide rich environments deviod of any oxygen> For life to be viable in any circumstance it has to be able to adapt to the environment in which it resides, and all things can adapt that is why there are penquins that live in the arctic and others that live along the coasts of africa, talk about extreme diffs in temp.

[edit on 03/21/08 by Stumpy1]

Yep I've lived in both Texas and Canada so I've been in two different extremes and my body adjusted accordingly to where the point in which I am cold and hot changed.

I fully believe life can develop anywhere and its ignorant to assume that life can only be carbon-based and is only possible on a world like our own.

Does it get to -450 degrees in a typical texas winter like it does on say Titan? Hmm I think not. Life needs energy..at those low temps there is scant energy to power life.

Originally posted by atsguy_106
Does it get to -450 degrees in a typical texas winter like it does on say Titan? Hmm I think not. Life needs energy..at those low temps there is scant energy to power life.

Now here's and educated answer!

Thanks for ;your input.

As absolute zero is -273C or 0 Kelvin you can't get colder than that. At these temperatures things barely move at even sub atomic levels - there could be life but it would probably not register as life to us as it would move so slowly as to appear stationary like a rock.

I'm not sure about max temps but 'life' could exist potentially as pure energy or in a gaseous form i guess.

Originally posted by atsguy_106
Does it get to -450 degrees in a typical texas winter like it does on say Titan? Hmm I think not. Life needs energy..at those low temps there is scant energy to power life.

That's just one example of an extreme environment. There could be some types of life in the universe that live in a 150F environment. Sure, they wouldn't have the same type of skin we have, but rather something much more resistant to the higher temperature. You could still have liquid water on such a planet too.

Originally posted by atsguy_106
Does it get to -450 degrees in a typical texas winter like it does on say Titan? Hmm I think not. Life needs energy..at those low temps there is scant energy to power life.

LMAO, so that makes the universe and our solor system devoid of life huh? Man I'm glad you cleared that up, all this mental energy might have gone to waste other wise!

Come on, pluto- the one of the coldest 'dwarf' planets out there they think has a liquid water mantal, with a molten core. Sounds alot like the thermal vents on our ocean floor.

Eueropa- they are almost positive has liquid oceans and underwater volcanic activity from tidal stresses caused by Jupiter's emense gravity feilds.

Mars- Has liquid water spill onto the surface every so often, and I've seen pics of fossils there, the very first place opprtunity drilled.

Crinoid_cover-up

Our moon has water ice, along with a strange bio-goo in it, shown on spectra graphs.

Its seems more silly to me to think that life doesn't spring up anywhere it possibly can, its seeds float everywhere on ateriods!

Nice post G!

They've found life on Earth in just about every type of condition imaginable - be it the bottom of the sea under extreme pressures that are devoid of sunlight, at the poles, deep within caves, volcanic vents etc. The list just goes on and on and those temps are far more extreme than the ones you mentioned.

However, it is important to point out that you have had the comforts of insulation (buildings & clothes), heating, aircon and running water. If a naked human had to spend a long amount of time in the extremes of the 180f temp range you mentioned, they would soon die of exposure sadly lol!

But yeah, I think life finds a way wherever possible!

Edit for stooopid typos ... oops, I did it again!

[edit on 26/3/08 by InfaRedMan]

Originally posted by InfaRedMan
Nice post G!

But yeah, I think life finds a way wherever possible!

Thank you. Yes, life finds away. The following is from New Scientest magazine.

Life finds a way in the driest desert on Earth
08 July 2006
David L. Chandler
Magazine issue

THE arid heart of the Atacama desert in Chile is the only completely lifeless place on Earth - at least it was until the discovery of a new form of microbe living there. It survives in a unique way, using moisture sucked from the air by salty rocks.

All other desert life we know of requires at least occasional rain or fog to supply water, but this region of the Atacama has neither. It is the driest part of the driest desert on Earth, and its almost total lack of water seemed to be an insuperable barrier to life.

However, Jacek Wierzchos of Lleida University in Spain has found a form of cyanobacteria living inside halite rock samples that he picked up in the Atacama last year (Astrobiology, vol 6, p 415). They belong to the genus Chroococcidiopsis, and may include more than one new species.

THis is an old article from 2005 from msnbc.com. Read it if you want. It talks about salt discovered on mars.

If it happens here, can't it happen there?

www.msnbc.msn.com...