Why do you think laythe has no life?

[KerikBalm]

There's little reason not to suspect the presence of photosynthesizing microbial life.

Aside from its distance from the Sun. Solar panels don't exactly work well there, and neither would photosynthesis. Its hard to say at what point the light intensity is too low for it be worth it for life to try and extractenergy from it.

Just like Europa is warmed mostly by tidal heating and not the sun, I would suspect there is more geothermal energy on Laythe.

So... there is a reason to doubt it... but O2 strongly suggests it too.

Given the temperature and pressure, that's most likely not water. Even liquid water saturaded with salt doesn't fit. Given the temperature range and the fact it has polar caps, ammonia seems to have the right properties to be the culprit.

Yea... the ice caps don't make sense to me, because that would seem to imply that the temperature being on on side or the other of the solid-liquid transition is determined by solar irradiance.... which should be quite weak there.

What do EVA reports say from the oceans on laythe?

[Murph]

For this to be necessarily true, that "long enough" period has to be infinite. Jus sayin'. =)

Sure, but equally it could happen in the next 1000 flips. ;-) Infinite isn't too much of a problem, when we're talking about evolution of the Universe.

[Joonatan1998]

Given the temperature and pressure, that's most likely not water. Even liquid water saturaded with salt doesn't fit. Given the temperature range and the fact it has polar caps, ammonia seems to have the right properties to be the culprit.

Ammonia oceans with oxygen atmosphere seems... unstable?

Edited May 21, 2015 by Joonatan1998

[little square dot]

Sure, but equally it could happen in the next 1000 flips. ;-) Infinite isn't too much of a problem, when we're talking about evolution of the Universe.

I don't disagree on point A, but I'm not so sure about B. The universe is finite, which is infinitely more restrictive than infinite.

*edit: and don't you dare take this down the multiverse path.

Edited May 21, 2015 by little square dot

[Murph]

I don't disagree on point A, but I'm not so sure about B. The universe is finite, which is infinitely more restrictive than infinite.

It's a matter of debate for finite vs. infinite Universe.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Is_the_Universe_finite_or_infinite_An_interview_with_Joseph_Silk

(Savilian Professor of Astronomy, University of Oxford.)

We do not know whether the Universe is finite or not.

Size * time is into the realms of "as n tends to infinity". Chance of life on another planet seems to me to be a function of size * time (for the subset of planets suitable for sustaining life as we know it).