"Life Finds a Way"

[Kethriss]

On my way back to the Bubble from Sagittarius A*, I pinged a system with my D-Scanner and decided to check the System Map as I periodically do. To my surprise I found 2 previously undiscovered life-sustaining Water Worlds orbiting one another and decided to get a detailed scan of them both. Imagine my delight when the scans for both came back as "candidates for terraforming". As I was coming back around one of the planets to prepare to make my exit, I came across this view and immediately dropped out of Supercruise to take a picture of the closest planet and it's sister in the distance. Even out here in the deep core, under the brutal radiation of millions of densely-packed stars, life still finds a way.

 

[CMDR Argent Steel]

Maybe life there has even evolved to thrive on that radiation. Wouldn't that be cool?

 

[Kethriss]

More than likely the planets have strong magnetic fields that protect against the bulk of it. Although it would be neat to imagine a type of algae or bacterium that thrives near the surface and uses Radiosynthesis in the same way that plants on Earth use Photosynthesis.

That's something I think would be cool to add in when we can make landfall on all types of terrestrial worlds: the ability to scan the environment to gain an idea of the type of life that inhabits the world.

 

[CMDR Argent Steel]

I think a bioscanner would be a good future module for when we are able to land on those planets. It would make exploration more like a scientific field trip to include life sciences as well as astronomy the way it does now. Maybe we can earn money for being the first to discover a new sentient species out there.

 

[Sapyx]

According to the in-game descriptions, life on gas giants is built upon a microbiosystem based on "radioplankton", lifeforms that exist on the radiation emanated outwards from the cores of gas giants. So it would not surprise me to find Water Worlds where the life not only survives but thrives in increased stellar radiation.

More than likely the planets have strong magnetic fields that protect against the bulk of it...

Magnetic fields protect a planet from electromagnetically charged particles: specifically, alpha and beta radiation. Gamma radiation goes straight through a magnetic field. And the more stars there are around, the more "weird stars" (pulsars, black holes, etc) there are to spit out gamma rays.

Check out the gamma ray map of the sky and you'll see that the galactic disc, particularly towards the Core, is the brightest part of the map. It's generally believed that most forms of Earth life would have a very hard time surviving if you were to try to plant it directly on a "water world" close to the Core.

The only thing that stops gamma rays is mass. The more atoms you can stick between you and the gamma rays, the better protected you are. Earth's atmosphere is thick enough to stop most of them way out here where Sol is, but you'd need a much thicker atmosphere to do the same job nearer the Core. Though I suppose a star system embedded inside a nice thick nebula might see the same shielding effect.

 

[Fosdyke]

More than likely the planets have strong magnetic fields that protect against the bulk of it. Although it would be neat to imagine a type of algae or bacterium that thrives near the surface and uses Radiosynthesis in the same way that plants on Earth use Photosynthesis.

That's something I think would be cool to add in when we can make landfall on all types of terrestrial worlds: the ability to scan the environment to gain an idea of the type of life that inhabits the world.

It will be definitely a step forward in the right direction