Stargate Universe/WMG: Difference between revisions

Spectrographic analysis indicated Nitrogen, Oxygen, liquid water, and only trace amounts of Carbon Dioxide. Not only does that last one indicate a lack of plant life, as mentioned, it also indicates a lack of animal life necessary to produce CO2CO₂. The fact that there's still oxygen in the atmosphere indicates that whatever caused the plant life to die off happened fairly recently, as oxygen tends to oxidize out of an atmosphere without plants to produce it (it's hypothesized that's what happened on Mars, producing the iron oxide which gives it its distinct red color.) It's probably a good thing they didn't end up settling there.

*** Doesn't really fly; as said above, you just can't keep free oxygen in an atmosphere; you need some process that releases the oxygen from the oxides it inevitably forms. That means life. On the other hand, you could presumably have a soil rich in carbon compounds that provided a plant with everything it needed (aside from light) for photosynthesis; said plant could also sequester excess carbon dioxide produced during respiration to keep the CO2CO₂ available for photosynthesis.