'life' at lower temperatures.

[*Jess♥]

I was just thinking about how our idea for life generally includes a certain range of temperatures. then I thought about what if it is easily possible for a kind of life to flourish at much lower temperatures to what we could withstand. and if that life came to our temperature, it would be incinerated.

I thought that there are compounds that form a liquid at much lower temperatures than us and so would be able to be as naturally fluid at very low temperature. such a creature living on a planet very far from their sun, like a moon round jupiter, would be just fine, very comfortable there. the water in our bodies would freeze solid, but they would be happy as anything. for them, coming into our environment would be like us walking around on mercury.

I thought about the arrangement of elements on the periodic table and i looked for elements with a similar relationship to hydrogen and oxygen. I then looked for compounds of those elements that have similar properties to water except at lower temperatures. sulfur hexaflouride is a gas in our natural environment but it is a liquid in a much lower temperature.

how does this sound to you?

obviously it wouldn't react with carbon and nitrogen the same, I haven't thought that far, but given the different placement in the periodic table, it could use different elements to form similar relationships.

[Salkafar]

The problem is that only carbon and silicon form the long-chain molecules needed for complex life.

[*Jess♥]

looking at silicon and it's placement in the periodic table, it seems to be in a similar location in relation to sulfur and flourine?

[Salkafar]

Yes, and? They don't form long-chain molecules.

[*Jess♥]

neither does hydrogen and oxygen. I don't see what you're saying. you said carbon and silicon form long chain molecules.

in this model I'm positing, sulfur hexaflouride takes the place of water and silicon takes the place of carbon.