dailygalaxy.com — Super-Earths would be more geologically active than our planet, experiencing more vigorous plate tectonics due to thinner plates under more stress. Earth itself was found to be a borderline case, not surprisingly since the slightly smaller planet Venus is tectonically inactive.
Feb 2, 2012 View in Crawl 4
specimen7Feb 3, 2012
You better have a chat with gravity before calling a super earth "life bearing" The gravity of a super earth would crush any mammal on earth It would be strong enough to fuse soft tissue into bones.
lurchermanFeb 3, 2012
You have a point there, perhaps if life on super-Earths were pyramid shaped it might work.
specimen7Feb 3, 2012
That would be awesome. Pyramid shaped cats! Arch shaped trees ect...
keloydFeb 3, 2012
Consider that the atmosphere / water is also compressed, AND there is no known upper limit for pressure for life on earth. You may be falling through something like pudding.
We know earth life's limits for temperature, acidity, etc., but some spores don't seem bothered by the vacuum of space, and some microbes several km underground are happy as a pig in sh*t.
Flight may be more or less of a challenge, just as flight *through air* is less common and graceful than flight *through water* here on earth.
Closed AccountFeb 3, 2012
yup. even when the navy took TRIESTE down to the bottom of the marianas tranch the cameras outside recorded life. even at 16,155 psi. or 1099 times what it is here at sea level.
keloydFeb 3, 2012
IIRC, we thought nerves wouldn't work below a certain depth because pressurized water is less polar, electrical impulses travel less well, etc., so higher animals would not be down there.
Turns out, Pseudoliparis amblystomopsis, 'snailfish' did not get the memo. These cheeky devils spoiled our thorougly researched conclusions by means that we still do not understand.
If the Earth gets snailfish, I'm pretty certain life on a super-earth can manage 3x Earth's gravity
jacleseauFeb 4, 2012
This was a surprising thing I learned while I was researching for a presentation on astrobiology for kids at our local library. Volcanoes make certain key nutrients available to life forms in more usable forms.
novenatorFeb 3, 2012Submitter
Off Topic, but this is my 1000th story to hit the front page of digg. 4 years of my life...gone! Damn you Digg addiction!
lurchermanFeb 4, 2012
Only four years, it felt like much longer than that.
stevanoskiFeb 4, 2012
The Left is sooo obsessed with numbers. I remember when it drove them mad that I got to 1000th reply or something. It particularly drove them insane when I had no idea what they were talking about! lol
lurchermanFeb 4, 2012
You get them rattled a lot, just keep up the good work.