which planet in our SS aside from Mars and Earth has the best ability to support carbon life?

Question

hypothetically speaking which other planet would be the least non hospitable in your views

well the idea of the question was to give me the least dangerous planet,

i know about the moons, :)

okay then, which planet then has the least different air composition to earth

Answer 1

Dan- please limit your tangent commentary dissertations to the parameters of the question. If you would do more learning before you try to teach you would know that Saturn's moon Enceladus is a stronger candidate for life than Jupiter's moon Europa.

Eric is incorrect about the rotational period of Mercury. It is not 1:1 as was perceived long ago but is a 3:2 ratio. The same side does not always face the Sun like the Moon does with Earth. Update your files.

One would begin by eliminating the gas planets Jupiter and Saturn because of their hot liquid surfaces, strong winds, and atmospheric content of mostly hydrogen and helium which are not conducive to life. Jupiter's atmosphere does contain chemical compounds that could form organic compounds but the atmosphere has a strong vertical circulation which carries the compounds towards the lower regions where high temperatures break down the compounds hindering the formation of life. The gas planets Uranus and Neptune produce less internal heat and are cold planets but still have a liquid hydrogen surface. Neptune lacks Oxygen in it's atmosphere and like the other gas planets contains hydrogen, helium, and methane in it's atmosphere.

Of the terrestrial planets, Mercury has very little atmosphere to protect against harmful radiation. It rotates 1 1/2 times during it's 88 day orbit producing extreme temperatures of 800 degrees F on the side facing the Sun to -280 degrees F when facing away from the Sun. Development of life is unlikely.

This would leave Venus. During the early stages of our solar system 4 billion years ago, the Sun was 40% cooler than today. While Earth and Mars were still frozen, Venus may have had liquid oceans and a mild climate. Earth-like conditions would have lasted for 2 billion years. Plenty of time for life to emerge. Today, following Venus' runaway greenhouse effect, surface temperatures are 800 degrees F and pressure is 92 times that of Earth. The atmosphere contains carbon monoxide, chlorine, and sulfuric acid. The surface of Venus has volcanic activity. This combines to produce a nutrient-rich atmosphere creating the potential for chemical and biochemical processes. Although the planetary surface is hot, at 50 km the temperature is 70 degrees C. Data from the Russian Venera missions and US Pioneer Venus and Magellan probes indicate the presence of carbonyl sulfide. Usually considered an indicator of biological activity. On Earth, this chemical is produced by microbes. Hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide were found in the same areas which is unusual and would indicate that something is producing them.

The answer to your question would be in the atmosphere of Venus. Much in the same way that bacteria live and reproduce in Earth's clouds.

Answer 2

I've read that if the right location was chosen a base could be established on the dark side of the planet Mercury. Like the Moon, Mercury spins on it's axis only once during it's orbit around the Sun and so shows only one face to the Sun. Just as the Moon shows one face to Earth. One side is hot beyond belief while the other is very cold. A spot on the edge of these two extremes could theoretically be a likely spot from a research base for human habitation but surely only on a limited bases and not for actual human habitation

Earth appears to be the only place in our solar system where humans can live unaided. Mars is very cold (-25 degrees below zero is a warm day) and there is no oxygen to breath.
We may have to resign ourselves that the Earth will be the only place in our solar system where humans can easily live
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..

Answer 3

None, however Europa; the moon of Jupiter has a frozen surface and it could have an ocean underneath. Its rotation around Jupiter insures that the core will still be hot so the chances of it having a liquid center are very good.

This seems to be the best chance to find live in the Solar System. On Mars we are down to looking for microbes or fossils of them. Water is the key and until we find water we are not going to find life as we know it. I am sure it exists in some form on other planets around other suns, but here in our solar system we may be the only planet with life on it.

I have high hopes for NASA and Europa. A mission could be sent there to drill into the surface a few kilometers and explore the underwater sea. On earth, if given half a chance life seems to develop, even in caves with atmospheres of acid, around hot sulpherous steam vents at the bottom of the ocean floor, even in the ice crust of Antarctica. It is absurd to assume that life is only on Earth and no where else. Some of the latest experiments on cometary material has shown that comets might have seeded the Earth with life. They have primitive compounds and when subjected to the extreme heat of a collision with the earth these compounds not only survive, some unite to form even more complex materials.

Jupiter is a great gravity vacuum cleaner that sucks asteroids and comets in. The chances of a comet hitting Europa should be 100%. If those compounds got into water then they could have been enough to start life.

NASA is pretty hot on this idea and are already testing a robotic sub design that could be used on Europa (Popular Sciene), so I am looking forward to a possible mission in 10 years or more.

Titan could support some sort of life, but it seems to be too cold and for life as we know it you need liquid water. That is pretty rare out on Saturn. Methane could be used to replace carbon in the possible creatures life system, but methane based life wouldn’t be as efficient as carbon based life and it may not have gotten a chance to get anywhere. Still there is always hope.

The least dangerous planet is probably Pluto, it is still a planet only a dwarf planet. Uranus, Jupiter, and Saturn are gas giants with a deep rocky core. Landing on those planets would crush us, and flying through the clouds would be a problem. Especially, with the energetic weather on Uranus. Venus is washed in a high pressure sulfuric acid atmosphere so it can’t be safely visited and the Russian probes that have landed on it have survived for only a few minutes.

Mercury could be okay, if it we got off the planet before its rotation brought us out onto the sun lite side. If that happens then the crew would roast. Getting that close to the sun safely would be very dangerous; a solar flare could knock out the ship without any warning. This is why NASA has been concentration on Mars.

Pluto could be a good place to study, but an asteroid would be more scientifically interesting. Just walking on the surface of Pluto could be hard, the chances of liquid helium existing there is great and that could form a near perfect superconductor and it is very slippery (read the book “The Forever War” by Joe Halderman for a better description). I still think that Mars is the safest planet to explore.

So except for Mars Pluto and Mercury are the only ones we can land on and not get crushed to death. That means Pluto is the safest. The chances of a solar flare knocking out a spacecraft are just too risky to approach Mercury with a manned mission.

Answer 4

Not planet, moons. The moons of Jupiter.

Additional: That's very sweet of you, pbmnmark.


Additional2: No other planet in our solar system comes remotely close to viability for supporting carbon life. All are completely inhospitable, so it can be said they are all equally non hospitable in their own way, except perhaps for the gas giants, which are more inhospitable than the others.

Since some of the moons of Jupiter do become colonized and the other planets are passed by, then I feel more than safe in saying this.

Answer 5

Actually one of the most hospitable places in our solar system is not a planet, but a moon. Saturn's moon Titan has all the elements necessary to form life, and if humans constructed a base there we'd have ample materials with which to sustain ourselves. Generating heat in such a cold environment is not so difficult a prospect, when you consider that liquid methane literally rains from the sky. :)

Answer 6

Mars would be the best, then you have Venus, but it has a run away green house there and the tempter would kill life, in not the tempter then is sulfuric acid in the gases around the planet would kill life.
So this only leaves Mars, but it is really cold there, one thing about Mars, you can put on enough clothing to stay warm, but you can not breath the CO2 for long.
So Mars is the only planet in our solar system.

Answer 7

that's unlikely there is one in our image voltaic device besides earth. yet there are,little doubt, tens of millions or billions of planets by using out the universe that could desire to help sensible ours. Any alien existence could be in accordance with some sort of DNA which might make it the likely candidate for carbon based existence.

Answer 8

Well with a bit of terra-forming, or "evil twin", Venus, may be able to but it would require a lot of work to do so. You'd need to introduce bacteria from sulphur springs of from deepsea "black smokers" to work on the sulpher dioxide in the atmosphere before introducing other primitive life to start building an atmosphere.

Answer 9

The article cited below provides the evidence for carbon life on a Jovian moon, notably Europa.

Answer 10

no planets but there are theories that a few moons could hold life but even then they may not be carbon based. They could be based on silicon according to some speculists.