Life on Neptune: Could Its Ocean Support Complex Life?

[sjp9220]

O.K. we all think of Neptune as a "Gas Giant" but I have recently learned that it's more correctly referred to as an "Ice giant" If it truly has a liquid methane and Hydrogen ocean, is it possible that it may contain some form of life? And considering the size of Neptune, that life could be very very large. If we consider the idea that Saturn's moon Titan has Methane lakes/small seas of liquid methane that could support life, why then can't Neptune have a similar Hydro-carbon ocean with possibly more complex life?
Has anyone here ever considered that? Thank you.

 

[mathman]

I don't think anyone has (other than sci-fi) considered life outside of a liquid water environment.

 

[newjerseyrunner]

There's a number of reasons. For one, Neptune isn't exactly a gentle sea, it's got winds roaring around it at thousands of miles an hour. This is not really the type of environment where biological processes can take place. Physics also works against you. Organic molecules are heavier than the methane they'd have to be dissolved in, and Neptune has a lot of gravity. I'd expect any organic molecules to be pulled into the core fairly quickly.

 

[trurle]

There's a number of reasons. For one, Neptune isn't exactly a gentle sea, it's got winds roaring around it at thousands of miles an hour. This is not really the type of environment where biological processes can take place. Physics also works against you. Organic molecules are heavier than the methane they'd have to be dissolved in, and Neptune has a lot of gravity. I'd expect any organic molecules to be pulled into the core fairly quickly.

Arguments above are self-contradictory.
Neptune do have in fact strong convection winds, driven by internal heat. That convection speed is variable with depth, with denser layers moving very slowly, while faster outer layers do entrain small liquid droplets, not even molecules - Neptune have much more clouds, and clouds cumulus structure is much more pronounced compared to Uranus.

Regarding life on Neptune, it may be considered to appear either on cloud layer (where some energy will be available in form of energy-rich gases created by Sun`s radiation), or deep in the liquid hydrogen envelope where free energy is supplied by convection bringing unstable molecules from rocky core.

In both cases, perspectives for native life emergence are rather bleak - energy densities are low, and molecular separation processes are ineffective without a lot of solid surfaces.
Some Earth-borne extremophile bacteria may survive in Neptune`s atmosphere, therefore life is not excluded, especially if you consider pansmeria hypothesis. Ecosystems would tend to simple and low-density on Neptune, due lack of free energy though.

 

[Mau Pham]

I don't think anyone has (other than sci-fi) considered life outside of a liquid water environment.

Mathman : Even in Neptune , life can exist in a liquid water environment ! A living creature only needs an outer bag of an insulating skin and an energy source (food ?) to keep the inside of that skin bag at a temperature high enough for water to exist in the liquid state ! It helps if the size of that outer bag is large !

 

[mathman]

Mathman : Even in Neptune , life can exist in a liquid water environment ! A living creature only needs an outer bag of an insulating skin and an energy source (food ?) to keep the inside of that skin bag at a temperature high enough for water to exist in the liquid state ! It helps if the size of that outer bag is large !

How does life begin?