PASADENA, Calif. – Two new papers based on data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft scrutinize the complex chemical activity on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan. While non-biological chemistry offers one possible explanation, some scientists believe these chemical signatures bolster the argument for a primitive, exotic form of life or precursor to life on Titan’s surface. According to one theory put forth by astrobiologists, the signatures fulfill two important conditions necessary for a hypothesized “methane-based life.”
One key finding comes from a paper online now in the journal Icarus that shows hydrogen molecules flowing down through Titan’s atmosphere and disappearing at the surface. Another paper online now in the Journal of Geophysical Research maps hydrocarbons on the Titan surface and finds a lack of acetylene.This lack of acetylene is important because that chemical would likely be the best energy source for a methane-based life on Titan, said Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., who proposed a set of conditions necessary for this kind of methane-based life on Titan in 2005. One interpretation of the acetylene data is that the hydrocarbon is being consumed as food. But McKay said the flow of hydrogen is even more critical because all of their proposed mechanisms involved the consumption of hydrogen.
#19 Ackackack ack ack ack ackackack. (Is it laughter or Morse code?)
I hope there’s no life on Titan, because when when BP goes looking for oil on that moon ( LOTS of complex hydrocarbons, there’s likely some sort of petroleum there.) any native life is going to be collateral damage.
I’ve been saying that if they want to colonize Mars, they need to stop worrying about water and look for oil. Soon as they find oil, Captain Dick Derrick of the Space Petrol will be on the job. You betcha.
No mention of Kurt Vonnegut? I’m disappointed.
@ MS
re: Supercold
Look at the types of molecules that are liquid or gas at those temperatures. They are simple and light Bohr gases with limited interaction with other molecules (which is why they are liquid at that temperature).
Any kind of life is going to need things like cell membranes or walls or a DNA type of equivalent or enzymes.
Even if such can productively be produced and methane act as a solvent the way water or ammonia could (highly doubtful), the chemical reaction rate due to the lack of energy is going to atrociously slow.
And the thick Titan atmosphere is going to block ultraviolet and other ionizing radiation that works as a randomizing factor.
Even if something resembling life or life precursors could exist at that temperature (doubtful), the reaction rate would be so slow due to the chemical reaction rate as to require more than the life of a star to get anything productive done.
re: Extremophiles … yeah we find them in the cold .. with a microscope. There is a reason for that. They exist in low quantities and are barely detectable. Especially the freezing cold weather extremophiles.
#24 – HMeyers,
Life found with a microscope is exactly what we’re looking for on Titan. Why would finding such life, if we find any, not be extremely exciting? This would be the first off-planet life ever found. It would be a truly thrilling discovery to find life of any kind using whatever chemical processes are available. It would be a second sample of life. It would open the possibilities of what other life might be like to the realm of science rather than science fiction.
you should all build model airplanes. and if you think you know how politics plays into life on mars… you really need a hobby. Whats all that crap about the oil spill? Bunch of losers, get a real life.