Thorium could help alien life emerge

[Craig]

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2013/jan/02/thorium-could-help-alien-life-emerge

 

Rocky exoplanets orbiting some Sun-like stars in the Milky Way galaxy could be hotter and more geologically active than Earth and its solar-system companions, according to researchers in the US. The team looked at the abundance of radioactive elements such as thorium, which heat the interior of planets as they decay and thereby play an important role in how planets evolve. The team concluded that planets that are richer in thorium than Earth could be good candidates for the development of life – making them targets for study by astrobiologists and exoplanet hunters.

 

[Guest Steve]

I reckon at best you'd get green slime.

Anything that could evolve would be more susceptible to radiation so would either hyper-evolve - go from slime to Simon Cowell in a few generations - or go extinct, like his acts.

More likely that the simplest and most radiation-resistant life is all that could be hoped for....

[catman161]

Ha ha ha! That made me chuckle I agree with your serious points about the types of organisms capable if survival though.

[Sheila]

 i think the resulting life would not notice the radiation, as we do not, as it would be in the core of the planet as ours is. The radioactive decay

produces heat in the core and gives rise to the type of plate tectonics we have on Earth.  It is theorised that without the plate tectonics

we have life would not have evolved here.  I assume they are working on this theory to find where life might have evolved on a planet

after the crust has cooled and solidified into plates.  The planet would have background radiation as we have on our planet and the volcanism

that we have.

 

unless of course i have misunderstood the science, which is not difficult for me  

 

Sheila