Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun (0.387 AU) in quite an eccentric orbit (e=0.206)
Attendees for the Interplanetary Conference:
Mercury World - group 12
Mercury
is the closest planet to the Sun (0.387 AU) in quite an eccentric orbit
(e=0.206)
A day is 58 Earth days - it is locked in a resonance with the Sun (not quite tidally locked)
Therefore it gets very hot on the Day side and very cold on the night side -there is no atmosphere to keep heat in.
The only place on Mercury where water could exist may be in deep craters at the poles
In these deep craters life may be able exist in the dark but with liquid
water under the surface
Europa World - group 5
see class notes -maybe hydrothermal vents in deep ICE covered ocean
link
here for more info about life on Europa
Callisto World with a hot inner
core - group 11
pockets of liquid water around vents at the Silicate (rock) Ice boundary
Pluto world at the temp of liquid
Methane - group 7
Here Pluto is "warm" enough (-180 C) to have liquid Methane left over from
cometary impacts
To have life that is stable in a non-polar solvent like the symmetric Methane (CH4) molecule will require non-polar biological polymers. So Cell membranes and DNA molecules must be polar to avoid dissolving in the non-polar solvent.
Life on Pluto would have very little power from the Sun. Reactions like
those used by Methanogenic Bacteria could be the norm on Pluto world
Titan world - group 9
see class notes - CH4 based life?
Jupiter with a solid surface World
at 300K temp - group 10
maybe life was brought by panspermia and then evolved off the hostile surface
to take to the air -a "balloon-like" species living off the rich organic
chemistry produced by the lightning in the atmosphere
Water world with no land masses
on surface - group 6
Life could do well here but it would be always underwater....
Pulsar world with active volcanos
-group 1
Here is world that may have been habitable on the surface at one time and
then underwent a horrible explosion when it's primary star went supernova.
The blast would have destroyed all surface life, atmosphere. However, this planet may have had some life below the surface that could have survived the supernova.
This underground life could survive off subsurface liquid water.
Overtime the outgassing from the volcanoes could rebuild an atmosphere.
But the loss of light from the star (since it is now just a neutron star
(or black hole)) means that the surface will soon be too cold to be habitable
again.
Early Venus world - group 14
Initially early Venus would have been similar to early Earth and likely
quite hospitable, liquid water on the surface etc.
Then (see class notes) there was a run away greenhouse making life on the
surface very difficult...
Early Mars World - group 3
Again there is good evidence that early on Mars had liquid water on (or
near) the surface.
However, life would have to adjust to subsurface locations to enjoy liquid
water today (see class notes)
Early Moon World with a hot core
- group 4
Life could have been seeded on the early Moon by panspermia from early
life on Earth.
Early on when the moon had a hot core life could have survived by subsurface melt water from the ice deposited by comets
The moon is not big enough to support a dense atmosphere
There is even today evidence that there surface water ice in the
deep craters in the southern pole of the Moon
Io World - group 2
Io is very hot due to massive tidal heating. (see class notes)
Life on Io would be tough however.
Sulfate based bacteria could use H2SO4 + 4H2 ----> H2S + 4H2O to survive. this would also produce H20.
Frozen Ice world with hot core. - group 8
This would be a lot like Callisto but could be anywhere in its solar system
Ammonia Ocean world - group 13
Here we are "warm" enough (-40 C) to have a liquid Ammonia Ocean
To have life that is stable in a non-polar solvent like the symmetric Ammonia (NH3) molecule will require non-polar biological polymers. So Cell membranes and DNA molecules must be polar to avoid dissolving in the non-polar solvent.
Although the chemistry of life would be very different life could develop using liquid ammonia as a solvent
Perhaps having electric dipoles for all the molecules would allow a sort
of electrical based life form....