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Acetylene Based Life on Titan?

Posted by Zonk on from the no-hugging dept.

mindpixel writes "Astrobiology Magazine's Leslie Mullen has a fascinating interview with funky science dude David Grinspoon about the possibility that there may exist a whole new biology on Titan where the extreme cold slows normally explosive reactions to a biologically useful pace." From the article: "What's really new in our paper is that we go into the question of energy sources. If there's life there, what's it going to eat? What kind of food is there? And it turns out there's abundant food because of all this photochemistry in the upper atmosphere, where methane is being turned into other organic molecules. Some of those organic molecules are very energy-rich, and one that we consider in the paper is acetylene. We know it's being made in the atmosphere, we know it's raining down on the surface, and it's been detected at the surface with the Huygens probe. We calculated that, if acetylene is reacting with the hydrogen gas to turn it back into methane, quite a bit of energy is being released. So that's our basis for saying there is something to eat on Titan. We don't know if there are any customers, but there's something on the menu."

6 of 272 comments (clear)

  1. Farts for dinner? by jkc120 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Any intelligent life form that eats farts should be feared. That is all.

    --
    "I drank what?" -Socrates
    1. Re:Farts for dinner? by Froggy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Any intelligent life form that eats farts should be feared. That is all.

      Any Slashdot poster that farts acetylene is to be feared. From as far away as possible.

      --
      It is a woman's prerogative to change other people's minds.
    2. Re:Farts for dinner? by TelJanin · · Score: 4, Funny

      I thought honey was bee barf (not in here mister, this is a Mercedes).

  2. Life of Titan by Tesral · · Score: 5, Funny
    Well, it is possible. Life Jim, but not as we know it. What it does bring up is the star system with nothing but giant planets might have moons with life. Hey, it could happen.

    Now if we could only be successful in finding intelligent life in Washington DC

    --
    Garry AKA -Phoenix- Rising Above the Flames
    Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes
  3. life on titan by foobari · · Score: 5, Funny

    Excited missionaries are pulling out their cold weather gear.

    1. Re:life on titan by TheGavster · · Score: 4, Funny

      Missionaries on Titan can only end in tears:

      "On the first day, God created the Earth ..."

      "I live on Titan, how does this apply to me?"
      or:
      "In Soviet Titan, Earth creates God!"

      --
      "Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".