Asimov's "Extraterrestrial Civilizations" - brilliant exploration of the
possibilities of life on other worlds.
He postulated huge convections currents on the gas giants: fluid sinking
towards the center were it would be heated then rise to where it would cool
and so forth. Such currents may be wider than Earth on Jupiter and there
could be lots of room for stable(ish) epicenters where life could form.
Energy is relatively abundant. Jupiter emits quite a bit more heat that it
receives from the sun and there could easily be some type of "reverse
greenhouse" effect making lower regions much warmer.
All the gas giants have huge amounts of volatiles (much more than Earth).
Basically all the ingredients for life as we known it are there in
abundance.
Of course if such did exist it would be deep in the atmosphere and under
great pressure - in short really damn hard to visit. ;^)
Jim Davis
_____
From: Larry C. Lyons [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, June 04, 2004 5:48 PM
To: CF-Community
Subject: Re: Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn!
Scientific American.
Arthur C. Clark gave some great takes on the possibilities of life on
Jupiter and Saturn. It would be great if his animated and living gas
dirigibles turned out to be real. It would really make him a real
prognosticator.
larry
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