Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by TeMPOraL 1002 days ago
The first one. It can be produced through non-biological processes and is fairly stable, but is also necessary for "life as we know it".

Gaseous oxygen would be 2 - it's highly reactive, so if you detect it in an atmosphere, it means there must be some kind of activity going on that replenishes it. On Earth, it's what life does.