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NASA's Voyager Found a 30k-50k Kelvin "Wall" at the Edge of Solar System

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246 points world2vec | 2 comments | 23 Jun 25 16:24 UTC | HN request time: 0.436s | source
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LeratoAustini ◴[23 Jun 25 17:51 UTC] No.44358284[source]▶
I often think about how cold our lifeforms on earth are, relative to temperatures of things in the universe. 0 Kelvin is theoretical lowest possible temp, quasars are apparently > 10 trillion Kelvin (10,000,000,000,000K), yet all life we know of is between what, 250K and 400K?
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1. tpurves ◴[23 Jun 25 20:26 UTC] No.44359724[source]▶
Well, lifeforms on earth are all pretty dependent on being water based, and water in the liquid state specifically. Maybe there is a possibility of exotic life based on some other types of chemistry and/or phases of matter. But the fact that earth happened to form in this particular goldilocks zone for water-based life is probably why that's the only life we can see for now.
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2. onestay42 ◴[23 Jun 25 21:37 UTC] No.44360413[source]▶
I have to mention Robert L. Forward’s Dragon Egg—it explores life on a white dwarf with nuclear reactions instead of chemical ones. Not the best book, IMHO, but a fun thought to entertain.