Could Saturn's icy moon Enceladus host life? Researchers found phosphorus in icy geyser eruptions. And that means there is a change. That there are lifeforms in the oceans of that icy moon.
The conditions on that icy moon are different from Earth. Temperature is lower, but water is liquid. And that means the living organisms can look similar to Earth. But they are far away. From the organisms that we see on our home planet. One of the reasons why we might not see other lifeforms is that their metabolism is so slow, that we cannot see those products.
The major mistake in discussions about things like hypothetical silicon-based lifeforms is that people always say that lifeform is "made" of pure silicon. Even humans are not "made" pure carbon. All known lifeforms forming of complicated chemical compounds. So there are also many other elements than just carbon in our body. And that means the oversimplified model of life is this: Life requires only liquid water, ammonia, and some other chemical compounds.
In some hypothetical evolutionary environmental models, ammonia can act in a similar role to water in the chemical processes of life. Ammonia is liquid on a lower temperature scale. And that means there is the possibility that some primitive, but why not advanced aliens could base that thing on. Could aliens with ammonia-based metabolism turn intelligent?
That's a good question. Intelligence is not the same thing as culture and technically advanced civilization. The main problem with aliens that metabolism base is in ammonia is that the temperature on those planets must be far lower than on Earth. So that causes problems to make fire. And also ammonia-based aliens are far more vulnerable to changes in temperature than organisms that metabolism base is in water.
Things like hypothetical silicon-based aliens might look like sand bites controlled by DNA or RNA. But the problem to model those extremely rare or extraordinary lifeforms is that we always make one mistake. We think that those organisms are "made" of pure silicon. We should think that those lifeforms are formed of chemical compounds that involve more than one element.
Even if those silicone-based aliens can move, they might also be far slower than carbon-based aliens. Otherwise, we might not always remember that even humans are not "made" of pure carbon. The silicon-based chemical compounds like silicone used in building sites are soft, and that means they could be fast. But otherwise, things like trees are not moving at all.
So those lifeforms can be in static positions. And they might exhange genetic material by growing fibers. The hypothetical silicone-based lifeforms are different from what we are. So even if evolution chooses the "carbon road" on Earth. There is the possibility that in some other place, evolution chooses another track.
https://scitechdaily.com/saturns-icy-moon-enceladus-study-proves-existence-of-key-element-for-life-in-the-outer-solar-system/?expand_article=1
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