Alien life could thrive without a home planet, study suggests

[UM-Bot]

We tend to assume that an alien civilization would have its own home world - but what if they didn't actually need one ?

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/382076/alien-life-could-thrive-without-a-home-planet-study-suggests

[Ell]

Already advocated in many science fiction stories. E.g. the civilization of the (Asteroid) Belt in the books by Larry Niven. And in the generation starships.

 

The biggest problem in my opinion is entropy: can a space habitat be maintained indefinitely despite its inevitable decay?

 

I know that the alien spacehabitats near Earth have endured for several millennia, though. 

[bmk1245]

23 minutes ago, Ell said:

[...]

The biggest problem in my opinion is entropy: can a space habitat be maintained indefinitely despite its inevitable decay?

[...]

Before space decay, you still have plenty live to live.

[Ell]

12 minutes ago, bmk1245 said:

Before space decay, you still have plenty live to live.

Homeostasis is required for life to continue and to procreate.

No homeostasis results in death and the end of the species.

[Trelane]

That photo reminds me of old Omni magazine covers.

[Djehuty]

I believe this photo represents the idea of an O'Neil cylinder. It refers to a space colony in which two cylinders rotate in opposite directions to balance the gyroscopic effects, making it easier to align with a star.

[iAlrakis]

If you have that level of technology it makes sense.

It's the most independent you can get.

[Abramelin]

16 hours ago, Ell said:

I know that the alien spacehabitats near Earth have endured for several millennia, though. 

Heh, you still believe that?

 

[Portre]

Sorry to rain on everyone's parade, but there is a large step, evolutionarily and technologically, between single cell organisms and a space faring civilization. Single cell organisms, even colonies of single cell organisms, in non-terrestrial environments are conceivable but a technological alien civilization requires a home world. An advanced civilization may colonize an asteroid belt, for example, or they may be travelling in generational ships, but that colony and those ships had a home world, or the ships used to colonize and build bigger ships had a home world. What would be the environmental forces in space driving this alien evolution to become an advanced civilization? Where are the resources to begin the process of creating civilization? How and where would this emerging civilization expand food supply, mine raw materials, refine the material and manufacture anything if not on a planet?

[Djehuty]

50 minutes ago, Portre said:

How and where would this emerging civilization expand food supply, mine raw materials, refine the material and manufacture anything if not on a planet?

An extraterrestrial civilization definitely needs a home world as a starting point. These life forms must have evolved somewhere. Perhaps they had to leave their planet due to catastrophic events. In a space colony, they could harvest food. If they can generate gravity, which would be a must for the whole project. They could also harvest the resources they require from planets, moons, and asteroids in their solar system. It all depends on how advanced such a civilization would be.

 

[Hazzard]

8 minutes ago, Djehuty said:

An extraterrestrial civilization definitely needs a home world as a starting point. These life forms must have evolved somewhere. Perhaps they had to leave their planet due to catastrophic events. In a space colony, they could harvest food. If they can generate gravity, which would be a must for the whole project. They could also harvest the resources they require from planets, moons, and asteroids in their solar system. It all depends on how advanced such a civilization would be.

 

Everything above a Type One Civilization would be able to do that.

https://kardashev.fandom.com/wiki/Type_I

[Ell]

On 10/31/2024 at 6:15 PM, Djehuty said:

If they can generate gravity

That is limited to centrifugal force as a simulated form of gravity.

Or continuous acceleration - which is a dead end.

[BadChadB33]

The Borg do a pretty good job at living without a planet.