Possibility of a civilization on (or around) Planet Nine
Could there be life on or around Planet Nine (a real-world planet in our Solar System, which has recently been discovered through indirect methods)? Of course, it probably receives nearly no solar energy, but there are other energy sources. For example, Jupiter's moon Europa may get energy from tidal and volcanic sources that may support life.
How plausible is it that there is:
- life
- intelligence
- civilization
- society similar to our own
on Planet Nine or one of its moons (or otherwise around it)?
Note: I was thinking along the lines of them having originated there, not having migrated there.
Note: I would like answers to be at least somewhat scientifically sound (I was debating whether or not to tag this hard-science.)
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/34009. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
The major problem here is that, while we don't know for sure what this planet is like - after all, the paper (Batygin & Brown (2015)) was based on simulations of the movements of Kuiper Belt Objects that matched observations - Batygin and Brown have implied that it may be the core of a 5th gas giant. I wrote an answer on Astronomy detailing the basic mechanics of the planet, but that's mainly irrelevant.
So if we allow for the first possibility, we have a core of about 10 Earth masses floating along at a couple hundred AU from the Sun on an orbit with relatively high eccentricity (it's believed that e~0.6). This is, quite frankly, a terrible situation for life, for a few reasons:
- The core is most likely not composed or compounds making it suitable for life.
- There is most likely not geothermal activity.
- The Sun is extremely faint, so photosynthesis isn't easy.
What if the planet retained some of its gaseous envelope, as Brown has suggested? As a side note, this also arises from those theories that this planet is actually a rogue planet, although I'm not sure which one is more prevailing at the moment (I would think it's the former). We now have a mini-Neptune. This would mean that we have an envelope of hydrogen, helium, and water, ammonia, and other compounds in lower concentrations.
The possibility of life here is low - certainly not life as we know it. The best chance may be for life on a moon of the planet, which could squeeze out - pun intended - some energy from tidal heating, thanks to its parent planet.
But the odds of this are low - not zero, but low.
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