# 'Anything on Earth that can't be found in the rest o' the solar system? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 9, 2003, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545 "2003-06-09T00:09:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![netscape\_6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8c91f0/32.png) [@netscape\_6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netscape_6)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/41 "2003-06-10T03:33:15Z")
wood wooden furniture would be quite the novelity to someone who has never seen it. ---
**Author:** ![jonpluc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/fbc32d/32.png) [@jonpluc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonpluc)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/42 "2003-06-10T04:00:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by netscape 6 \* > \*\*wood > > wooden furniture would be quite the novelity to someone who has never seen it. \*\* That would assume that thier bodies had any use whatsoever for the shape we use for furniture. ---
**Author:** ![Ficer67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Ficer67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ficer67)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/43 "2003-06-10T04:11:19Z")
All of you are on to something. Whoever said, “Slave Labor,” probably has the most right idea. But, people on our planet pay alot of money for entertainment. And, what could be more entertaining than to see a bunch of off-worlders do wierd things that only off-worlders do. So whoever mentioned themes along the lines of “Cultural Diversity,” probably has a good thing going. All of the popular movie themes to-date are viariants of these two ideas. There are no naturally occurring materials on Earth that cannot be found easier elsewhere in space, but the labor required to process these commodities can only be found on life-supporting planets like the Earth. Then the entertainment value of watching Earthlings suffer, triumph, and manipulate each other for power wealth and glory, (especially glory) would amuse other races just like it amuses us. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/44 "2003-06-10T04:11:32Z")
As far as I know, Earth is the only place in the solar system which contains cellular phones that can send text messages and movie clips. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/45 "2003-06-10T04:14:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jonpluc \* > \*\*That would assume that thier bodies had any use whatsoever for the shape we use for furniture. \*\* Even if they are aquatic beings with no use for furniture as we make it whatsoever, wood is still an interesting material to a species from a planet with no trees. After all, it’s rigid without needing a calcium or silicon matrix (as in coral or rocks). ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/46 "2003-06-10T04:26:12Z")
[ul]😃 [sup] **The Hula Hoop** [/sup][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/47 "2003-06-10T06:02:38Z")
I’m sorry, but I don’t get the slavery thing… assuming that the aliens have automatic control systems on their ship, they would almost certainly have the ability to produce robotic mining equipment - for mining asteroids, robots would be far superior to humans if the aliens wanted to mine the Earth for these concentrated igneous minerals, they would be better off using their own robots than humans- who get tired, eat and drink and excrete, and are really only useful as control systems for big dumb machines anyway. I am assuming that the aliens use artificial intelligence, which is very likely to be developed in the same timescale as interstellar travel. Some species of aliens would never develop electronic intelligence, perhaps- these species would probably use biological intelligence to control and monitor their systems. - if this biological intelligence has been modified to control complicated systems, perhaps by genetic engineering, it will be intrinsically better at performing the tasks that humans might be enslaved to do- say mining gold , uranium or molybdenum using heavy machinery. You see, I think it is absurd that the Daleks, or the Cardassians, or the Thrints would come to this planet to make the population work in mines with pick-axes; if they have got this far, hey probably don’t need manual labour. Now enslaving the Earth’s population to produce cultural artifacts, that I can imagine… we might be required to produce scrimshaw, hand made wooden furniture, hula hoops, soap operas, anime, Michael Jackson CD’s, Harry Potter DVD’s… * * * SF worldbuilding at [http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html](http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html) ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/48 "2003-06-10T06:05:24Z")
…or split-crotch panties? ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/49 "2003-06-10T06:14:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by eburacum45 \* > **I’m sorry, but I don’t get the slavery thing… > assuming that the aliens have automatic control systems on their ship, they would almost certainly have the ability to produce robotic mining equipment** But we humans already have non-robotic mining equipment as well as workers trained to operate those equipment. It might be easier and more efficient to say “bring us 100 tons of uranium or we blow up New York” than to deploy their own mining robots. ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/50 "2003-06-10T06:59:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lemur866 \* > \*\* Of course, orbiting Sirius A is Jinx, which is a rocky body 2.5 times as massive as earth. If the aliens were smart they’d go there instead. > > \*\* Yeh, but then they would have to deal with the bandersnatchi. ---
**Author:** ![CelraySoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@CelraySoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelraySoda)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/51 "2003-06-10T07:28:04Z")
How about totally blasting Earth away with Vogon constructor fleets just to make way for the new Hyperspatial Express Route? No fighting, complaing or anything like that…just for the space Earth takes up? -M (I hope some of you out there get this…) ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/52 "2003-06-10T07:34:08Z")
Well now, if you’d said “Hyperspace Bypass” instead of “Hyperspatial Express Route”, I might have understood. As it is, it just goes straight over my head. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CelraySoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@CelraySoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelraySoda)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/53 "2003-06-10T07:42:30Z")
Then how about towels? I’m sure the Macy’s new line soft terri-cloth spring colors would be a great asset to any alien race. -M ---
**Author:** ![Yossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/9de0a6/32.png) [@Yossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yossarian)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/54 "2003-06-10T13:15:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by eburacum45 \* > And don’t the asteroids contain most minerals and elements in a less concentrated but more accessisble state- i.e. not trapped on a 1-gee planet? Actually, it’s the opposite. Both the Earth and the Asteroids have the same bulk composition–essentially that of Carbonaceous Chondrites. The major difference is that the Earth is FAR more “differentiated”, which is evidenced by the fact that on the Earth there is an incredible variety of different rock types (some of which include extremely high concentrations of rarer elements) whereas Asteroids and other inner planets are basically iron-nickel (core) + basalt/metabasalt (crust) +/- anorthosite (moon) +/- basaltic andesite (Mars). It’s the extreme ends of differentiation processes operating only on Earth that are responsible for concentrating these elements into economic orebodies. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/55 "2003-06-10T13:34:02Z")
And Io? ---
**Author:** ![Yossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/9de0a6/32.png) [@Yossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yossarian)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/56 "2003-06-10T13:41:02Z")
Io is certainly more differentiated than most other planets ([http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/Projects/BrowseTheGeologicSolarSystem/IoBack.html](http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/Projects/BrowseTheGeologicSolarSystem/IoBack.html)), but probably still not as much as Earth. OTOH, we don’t really know yet! ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/57 "2003-06-10T15:35:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Pantellerite \* > A dangerous question to ask an Igneous Petrologist/Trace-Element Geochemist, **Podkayne**! I’ll try not to put you to sleep. Don’t worry. I’m a planetary astronomer. This means that even though I wouldn’t know olvine if it walked up and bit me on the ass, but I can identify it from its near infrared spectrum. I can also bear moderate amounts of chemistry before eventually nodding off. 🙂 > [@](#): > > The primary geochemical mechanisms for concentrating various elements in magmatic systems are _fractional crystallization_ and _liquid immiscibility_. Plate Tectonic processes have a lot to do with magma generation in the first place, and the effects of Plate Tectonics (e.g., over-thickened crust) have a lot to do with how differentation processes proceed, but Plate Tectonics itself has little to do with how trace-elements concentrate in natural systems. But, fractional crystallization and fluid immiscibility must happen everywhere there’s magma, no? What would make Earth (and if my reasoning is correct, every differentiated planet) unique is the particular profile of temperature and pressure conditions present in the interior, right? How does Earth differ from Venus, then, which has a similar size and composition (but, obviously, radically different geological processes)? **eburacu45** , I’d expect Io to have a whole different suite of minerals at its surface because, while it is differentiated like Earth, its composition is quite different because it formed farther from the Sun where there were a lot more solid volatiles like water ice and sulfur compounds. Also, its heating history is very different (its heat comes primarily from tidal flexing due to Jupiter, while Earth’s comes mostly from the heat of accretion and the decay of radioactive isotopes) and Io is much smaller than Earth, so interior pressures would be lower. (Maybe I’m overestimating the importance of pressure differences, though.) ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/58 "2003-06-10T15:58:59Z")
Volatiles are separated by heat = distance from the Sun, that is well known, but- Do you suppose that the entire solar system might have worked as a diferentiation machine? Mercury is extraordinarily dense, for it’s size- do you think there could be more heavy elements in the innermost planets, which could mean that each world really has something different to offer to the alien or indeed the human prospector? * * * SF worldbuilding at [http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html](http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html) ---
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/59 "2003-06-10T16:10:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by eburacum45 \* > \*\*You see, I think it is absurd that the Daleks, or the Cardassians, or the Thrints would come to this planet to make the population work in mines with pick-axes; > if they have got this far, hey probably don’t need manual labour. > \*\* Well, I can’t comment on Daleks or Cardassians, but the reason the Thrints did it was because it was basically their only talent. If any sci-fi race epitomizes the concept of “one-trick pony,” I’m not aware of it. They weren’t even all that bright. Without the tnuctipun(sp?), they’d have been in serious trouble. ---
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545/60 "2003-06-10T16:20:24Z")
Er, that should read “… **better** eptiomizes …” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-on-earth-that-cant-be-found-in-the-rest-o-the-solar-system/180545.md?page=4)