I'm curious about your creations

[Baleia espacial]

Share some exotic life forms that you have created! (exotic life form= non water solvant/ non carbon based etc)

[Drashner1]

Share some exotic life forms that you have created! (exotic life form= non water solvant/ non carbon based etc)

Well, let's see here...

Hildemar's Knots - Based on subatomic particle filaments within the interior of a neutron star.

The Magvivisystem Hyperpolity - a magmatter based ecosystem and sophont species created on a magmatter-based megastructure.

The Muuh - Possibly a borderline example - To quote from the EG: Their biochemistry is based on liquid hydrocarbons, in a methane-nitrogen atmosphere; it is one of the best known examples of methane-ethane based life.

Related - Here's a page on different xeno-biochemistries in the setting.

The Samaelians - Seem to have a rather exotic biochemistry.

The Menexenes - Live in the metallic hydrogen core of a gas giant.

Jade Chime Singers - May or may not employ carbon but definitely not water. Live in chlorine rich environments.

Angel Hair - Lifeform from a gas giant. May or may not use carbon.

Rheolithoids - A silicon based lifeform.

Conchsquid - Possibly a borderline case since it's not clear what liquids it uses. But feeds off magnetic fields.

Ndiangu Mme Anwu System - A rather extreme use of carbon, but not water.

There may be others I'm not remembering right now - but this should give you a good start.

Todd

[iancampbell]

How exotic do you want? As an example, life with opposite chirality to Earthly life would usually be considered exotic. Likewise, to some extent, life that uses DNA just like us but using different bases or with a different genetic code. There are dozens of purine and pyrimidine compounds like our bases, after all, and the genetic code is (as far as can be seen) completely arbitrary.

[stevebowers]

I expect that every world that has an independently evolved biota will have a different set of codons. Assuming they use DNA, of course. But it is probably not completely arbitrary. Even if only one in a million genetic codes are viable, that still leaves untold billions of viable genetic codes. (A vast understatement).

[iancampbell]

I expect that every world that has an independently evolved biota will have a different set of codons. Assuming they use DNA, of course. But it is probably not completely arbitrary. Even if only one in a million genetic codes are viable, that still leaves untold billions of viable genetic codes. (A vast understatement).

Indeed. As an aside here, there are at least three possible homes for life other than Earth in the Sol system. (Mars probably underground, Europa, Enceladus.)

If we find life on one of them, what does it mean for prospects of life in the wider Galaxy? I submit that it depends on the details of its biochemistry.

If such life is just like Earthly life in all respects (chirality, genetic code, bases used) then it tells us nothing because it is possible for meteors to carry life-forms from one place to another within the Sol system. There are, after all, several meteorites on Earth known to be from Mars.

However, if such life is different from Earth's then the probability (as perceived by us) of life in other solar systems goes up. A lot.