Re: Latest Nations/States/Organizations document

On Wed, 22 Apr 1998 16:24:44 -0600, "Mark A. Siefert."
<cthulhu@csd.uwm.edu>
wrote:

>Give the sun a couple of billion of years.  As the sun goes to red
>giant phase, the life-zone should move outward.  If things work out
>well, Jupiter's moons could be capable of sustaining life for a couple
>of hundred million years if not longer.  More than enough time for life
>to start, evolve to sapience and move out amongst the stars when things
>get too hot (or too cold when the sun starts to contract).

The only problem with this theory is that there is a window of
opportunity for
life to appear. The conditions on the planetary body have to be just
right for
the complex molecules to develop into amino acids. Life on Earth was a
function of the early Earth environment. Heat and elements from the
inner
Earth allowed molecules to develop into amino acids. The Earth was
incredibly
inhospitable when life first formed, but the planet itself was
(relatively)
new and incredibly active. The amino acids developed into life at about
the
same time that the planet developed its atmosphere, thus the two
coincidental
occurrances happened at once: development of life and development of a
protective and nurturing environment.

The problem with the life zone moving outwards is that most of the
bodies in
the solar system developed at about the same time. As such, most of the
hard
planets and planetoids have cooled. The conditions for forming amino
acids and
a dense atmosphere are no longer present. It's possible that if there's
some
sort of life on Io or Europa the expansion of the sun will maintain it.
It
might also just raise the temperature enough to kill it off. If there's
no
life there right now, it's unlikely that any will develop. 

I also don't think the time limit is enough, either. Earth apparently
took
about 3 billion years to develop life (the best estimates I've seen are
that
the Earth is 4 billion years old and that life first began about 1
billion
years in). If this is the case, the expansion of the sun will warm the
outer
planets for about an order of magnitude less than is necessary to
develop
life.

On the other hand, if life is seeded in those places, it's entirely
possible
for life to thrive. And there's always the possibility for displaced
humans to
thrive in that area of the solar system, assuming we don't bugger up our
current environment to the point of extinction...

Allan Goodall	     agoodall@sympatico.ca

"Once again, the half time score, 
 Alien Overlords: 142,000. Scotland: zip."
  - This Hour Has 22 Minutes