this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
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[–] Thorry84@feddit.nl 2 points 5 months ago

The article you post specifically states the observed lifeforms to be limited to 130 degrees C (and even then they don't live long) with a theoretical max of 150 degrees C. Life as we know it (in all its wonderous forms) cannot exist above that temperature. The processes needed simply can't work and the structures can't exist. Maybe there's some lifeform that uses a neat trick to remain alive trough a short stint of say 200 degrees, but that's a far cry from living at 400+ all the time. Extremophiles usually can't live at boiling temperatures for long, they can only tolerate it for short durations, living most of their lives in less than 100 degrees. Which is still really cool, since most lifeforms die at half that temperature.

Now there could be some form of exotic stuff that may be called life, but that's well into speculation and science fiction.

Personally I'm not convinced by extremophiles, yes they can exist in very harsh environments, but they are always specialized forms of life that evolved in simpler conditions. It's not clear whether life can make the jump from mild to extreme or even start out in an extreme environment. My bet is that's not possible. So that could mean stuff on Mars, since we know it was probably very mild in the past and extremophiles may have persisted that can live in the current environment since that time (unlikely, but possible). But probably not on places like Venus where as far as we know it's been super hot for ages now, too long for anything to survive if it was even habitable to start with.