alt Hacker News> The gas detected in the atmosphere is helium, which would not be able to support life
Nonsense. You mean not able to support terrestrial life.
Replies
jojogeo • today at 3:11 PM
Would be briefly hilarious though as the squeaky response made it back through to mission control.
hliyan • today at 3:26 PM
Helium is a noble gas. It forms no bonds and is unable to produce even a simple molecule, let along the complex ones needed for life.
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petilon • today at 5:56 PM
They didn't say oxygen is not present. 78% of earth's atmosphere is nitrogen and we are doing fine.
I was skeptical about that as well so I googled it and:
>Helium cannot support life because it is a chemically inert noble gas. It does not form the complex, stable molecular structures (like carbon chains) required for biology. Unlike oxygen, it cannot be used by living organisms for cellular respiration to generate energy, making it an asphyxiant.
However, maybe we are projecting our current understanding of biology and shouldn't rule it out. I'm not a scientist so I have no idea.