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neutron star, life on
An imaginative and tongue-in-cheek suggestion by the radio astronomer Frank Drake,1 later developed and elaborated into two science fiction novels, Dragon's Egg and Starquake by Robert Forward. In order to convey the idea that a neutron star was more like a planet than a normal star, Drake speculated that life might exist on its solid surface. The creatures he imagined were submicroscopic and made of tightly packed nuclei, rather than ordinary atoms, bound together as "nuclear molecules". Whether such bizarre molecules could exist and combine in ways complex enough to give rise to life is not known. However, if neutron star creatures did exist they would live very rapidly. Nuclear reactions happen much faster than the chemical variety, so that any life-forms on a neutron star would evolve and live their lives a million times more quickly than human beings.
References
- Drake, F. D. "Life on a Neutron Star," Astronomy, p. 5, December 1973.
Related entries
• gravitational life
• plasma-based life
Related categories
• ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF LIFE
• ASTROBIOLOGY
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