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To: AndrewC
True enough, but for electrolysis you'd need some sort of battery or dynamo. I guess it's *possible* to have a very large dynamo reacting with the water and splitting it, but nothing like this has ever been observed; the only known example is the rotatiing liquid metal in the earth's core (or simliar things in the gas giants). Also, I'm not a chemist, but it seems unlikely that the hydrogen that's released wouldn't recombine; an atmosphere with 20% O2 and 40% H2 doesn't seem realistic to me somehow.

The point being, if a planet is observed with an atmosphere that's way out of chemical equilibrium, there has to be a source of energy and a mechanism to keep it from reaching equilibrium. In the absence of other exotic processes, like intense magnetic fields or radiation, life is the most likely explanation.

568 posted on 02/23/2002 1:00:18 PM PST by Virginia-American
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To: Virginia-American
True enough, but for electrolysis you'd need some sort of battery or dynamo.

Would lightning fill the bill?

575 posted on 02/23/2002 2:23:18 PM PST by AndrewC
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