L. Marcus Posted August 24, 2008 Report Share Posted August 24, 2008 I was flipping around in Wikipedia and found this article on the carbon equivalent of terrestrial planets. I like the part about the metabolism of the native life -- eating oxygen, breathing carbon. I wondered if anyone had done anything with planets like these . . . ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted August 24, 2008 Report Share Posted August 24, 2008 Re: Carbon Planets This is the first I've heard of it, although it does sound pretty interesting... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted August 24, 2008 Report Share Posted August 24, 2008 Re: Carbon Planets Hey, the homeworld of the Horta. A "kilometers-thick layer of diamond" sounds like it would attract exploitive mining by offworlders, probably leading to conflict with any natives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clonus Posted August 24, 2008 Report Share Posted August 24, 2008 Re: Carbon Planets Of course the layer of diamond would be hundreds of miles down but geological movement would carry some of it to the surface. However, I don't really see how eating oxygen from the ground would work. The oxygen would already be bound in compound so no energy could be gained from recombining it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted August 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2008 Re: Carbon Planets It's just a matter of turning it into a compound with a lower net-energy. It happens all the time in our metabolism. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted August 25, 2008 Report Share Posted August 25, 2008 Re: Carbon Planets I was flipping around in Wikipedia and found this article on the carbon equivalent of terrestrial planets. I like the part about the metabolism of the native life -- eating oxygen' date=' breathing carbon. I wondered if anyone had done anything with planets like these . . . ?[/quote'] I'm pretty sure it is mentioned in World Building by Stephen L. Gillett, Ben Bova (ISBN-13: 9781582971346) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted August 25, 2008 Report Share Posted August 25, 2008 Re: Carbon Planets Any life (that in any way resembles ours) would still need a liquid for nutrient/waste transport through the cell boundary, and the carbon-rich candidate liquids are the hydrocarbons. At the low-temperature end, this would be methane and ethane ... which seem to be the liquids on the surface of Titan. At higher temperatures it'd be the more complex molecules. I'd have to compile a list of their melting/boiling points to say more ... I have very little chemistry background. Still, I note that benzene is liquid at a subset of the liquid-water range (5 to 80 C). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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