On Sat, 20 Jun 1998 Michelle Jones <spike66@ibm.net> Wrote:
>perhaps we live in an unfortunate place within the best of all
>possible universes.
I think the idea that we live in the best of all possible worlds is a
profoundly depressing thought, I'd hate to think it's true.
>what if we lived in a globular cluster, so that the nearest stars
>were only a few light days away,
The heavier elements are made in supernova explosions but globular clusters
are made up of population one stars that are very old and created out of the
original stuff from the Big Bang, so most metals vital for a technological
civilization like iron, copper, tin and uranium would be virtually nonexistent
in them. Even carbon would be rare making life in globular clusters doubtful.
Another problem is that we would be ignorant of the larger universe,
everything would be so crowded together we'd only be able to see things a
few hundred light years away and we'd think that was the entire universe.
>and the home planet had a low gravity field?
A planet much smaller than the Earth couldn't hold on to a substantial
atmospheric. A planet much larger than the Earth would be able to retain so
much of the primordial hydrogen that was common during its formation that
free oxygen would be impossible.
John K Clark johnkc@well.com
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