Life on Titan?

[Lincsbodger]

Two papers have suggested there's life on Saturns moon Titan.

The first paper, in the journal Icarus, shows that hydrogen gas flowing down through Titan's atmosphere disappears at the surface, suggesting it could be being breathed by alien bugs.

The second paper, in the Journal of Geophysical Research, suggests sunlight interacting with chemicals in the atmosphere ought to produce acetylene, but none has been detected, the logical assumption being something is consuming it.

Therefore I predict theres at least ONE dodgy back street garage on Titan that does welding and bodywork for MOT's.

 

[Space cat]

Life can be difficult to find, especially if you don't know what it looks like. If you doubt this, take a look around Longbenton metro after the last train has gone.

The presence of free oxygen on Titan would be first rate evidence for life as we know it - but I suppose the welders took that as well.

 

[HOGGY952]

These guys and girls spend fortunes on research such as this when the depths of our oceans lie unexplored. I assume they do so to try and ascertain if life is sustainable on these unreachable planets (unreachable-impracticable for mankind to be moved there should 2012 go pear shaped). The answers to mans dilemmas have always been found on our planet and maybe the oceans still hold a wealth of ,as yet unknown,answers to our present problems.

 

[ColJack]

you're basing that on carbon life though, who's to say that it's not based on another element on an alien planet..

 

[Lincsbodger]

you're basing that on carbon life though, who's to say that it's not based on another element on an alien planet..

Do they still have MOT's on planets with silicon life forms ?

 

[Space cat]

These guys and girls spend fortunes on research such as this when the depths of our oceans lie unexplored.

How true. I've often heard it said that we know more about the surface of the moon than the ocean floor. And what about the depths below that? Surely the most efficient way of harvesting our vast store of geothermal power is to plant heat exchangers directly into the molten core.

you're basing that on carbon life though, who's to say that it's not based on another element on an alien planet..

Fair point. I'm sure I said something about this in a much older thread. Life as we know it has evolved to suit the conditions that exist on our planet, not least of which is an abundance of that remarkable stuff, liquid H2O.

There are two conditions required for life to exist: it must be possible to build large, complex molecules (to carry genetic information) and, less obviously, it must be easy to break them up again. Here on Earth, silicates pass the first test but fail the second. On a massive planet with a hot, dense atmosphere and an ocean full of fluorides, any life would have to be very different.

Do they still have MOT's on planets with silicon life forms ?

Sadly, I fear that the answer would be yes - along with taxes, safety elfs, phone scams, money grubbers, party poopers, evangelists, insurance salemen ---

 

[ColJack]

space is easy.. there's nothing up there and the visibility goes on for light years..
on the other hand, water is difficult.. you have to build something which won't get crushed, and with no light down that deep, and the murkyness of the water itself, you're virtually blind, can't see the claw on the end of the arm sometimes..

 

[Lincsbodger]

space is easy.. there's nothing up there and the visibility goes on for light years..
on the other hand, water is difficult.. you have to build something which won't get crushed, and with no light down that deep, and the murkyness of the water itself, you're virtually blind, can't see the claw on the end of the arm sometimes..

As Douglas Adams so succinctly put it in The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy:

Space is big. Really big. You might think its a long way down the road to the Chemist, but that's nothing compared to space.

 

[Deluks]

Therefore I predict theres at least ONE dodgy back street garage on Titan that does welding and bodywork for MOT's.

To be honest, I wouldn't wanna put that many miles on the clock just to save a few hundred on getting her through the MOT.

 

[ladylola]

Wheather life is based on carbon , silicon or pink iceing cup cakes is only part of the problem as is wheather there is life on Titan or Europa http://io9.com/5407716/scientists-say-jupiters-moon-europa-might-be-teeming-with-fish or even Mars for that matter.
I can foresee there being endless "ethical" debates if or when life is discovered. Does man have the right or indeed what would give man the right to in effect "invade" another planet and in all probability wipe out indiginious lifeforms even if that lifeform is nothing more than pond slime?
I don't really see that there's much option given that our sun will eventually die and if we are to survive as a species we have to move outwards but I think there will be a faction that opposes any colinzation of planets with life on .

 

[joinerjohn]

If they do find life on other planets,,, How long before some bright spark comes up with an Alien Lifeform Rights Act, somewhere along the lines of the Human Rights Act??

 

[Lincsbodger]

Wheather life is based on carbon , silicon or pink iceing cup cakes is only part of the problem as is wheather there is life on Titan or Europa http://io9.com/5407716/scientists-say-jupiters-moon-europa-might-be-teeming-with-fish or even Mars for that matter.
I can foresee there being endless "ethical" debates if or when life is discovered. Does man have the right or indeed what would give man the right to in effect "invade" another planet and in all probability wipe out indiginious lifeforms even if that lifeform is nothing more than pond slime?
I don't really see that there's much option given that our sun will eventually die and if we are to survive as a species we have to move outwards but I think there will be a faction that opposes any colinzation of planets with life on .

Oh no, i agree. All this crap about saving resources and the environment is very short sighted. Our best bet of survival as a species is to spread out across the galaxy. It'll take us 100 million years to use up the resources of the galaxy, but only 1 million years until theres a Starbucks on Omicron Perseid IV.

 

[imamartian]

it frustrates me when it's said that we're lucky to survive becasue if the Earth was a few thousand mile nearer the Sun etc.... we don't exist in defiance of the conditions... we exist because of the condidtions....

So, life elsewhere?... the pre-requisites of life are.... reproduction, movement... and some others(?)...
surely it could be based on any chemical element? given the right conditions? the point is... if we find silicon based bacteria... it's gonna be millions of years before there's life we can eat or talk to?

 

[Lincsbodger]

it frustrates me when it's said that we're lucky to survive becasue if the Earth was a few thousand mile nearer the Sun etc.... we don't exist in defiance of the conditions... we exist because of the condidtions....

So, life elsewhere?... the pre-requisites of life are.... reproduction, movement... and some others(?)...
surely it could be based on any chemical element? given the right conditions? the point is... if we find silicon based bacteria... it's gonna be millions of years before there's life we can eat or talk to?

Round each star there is whats called the Goldilocks Zone, the points where water exists as a liquid. Liquid water is pretty much essential for life as we know it. We are just on the inner edge of the Goldilocks zone round our sun, and Mars is just on the outer edge.

However, if theres other forms of life that can exist in liquid hydrocarbons, then the Goldilocks zone of the sun extends right out to Neptune.

 

[Space cat]

If they do find life on other planets,,, How long before some bright spark comes up with an Alien Lifeform Rights Act

It's been done already. It's called the Prime Directive.

However, if theres other forms of life that can exist in liquid hydrocarbons, then the Goldilocks zone of the sun extends right out to Neptune.

And don't forget that water remains liquid at hundreds of degrees if the pressure is high enough. That's why I postulated a massive planet with a hot, dense atmosphere. I know we don't have one but there's more than one star in our galaxy.

Edit:

I've just remembered something. Due to the difficulty of finding planets around other stars, those found so far have been both big and close to the star. This prompted one exobiologist to complain, "How do you expect us to find life if you keep presenting us with red hot Jupiters?" May I suggest, madam, that there may be life out there but not as we know it.