Could There Be Life On Titan?

Adam Korbitz writes "Astrobiology Magazine reports on new research indicating extremophile microbes may be able to live on Titan, the sixth and largest moon of Saturn — in spite of the fact that the moon is largely ice and covered with lakes of liquid methane. Titan joins Mars, Venus, Europa and Enceladus as a potential home to extremophile life in our solar system."

Comments

Book or Movie?

[localroger]

In the original 2001 book they went to Saturn, where Titan and Enceladus are. It would have been a long walk to get to Europa. In the movie and sequels they go to Jupiter, where Europa is. It would be a long walk from there to Titan.

Re:Book or Movie?

[FooAtWFU]

More specifically, in the 2010 book, they send people back to the vicinity of Jupiter, only they're racing the Chinese, who overcome the American head start and get their first by blasting through all their fuel: they land on Europa to get more, find some sort of life, and perish... then the monoliths turn Jupiter into a small star (presumably in order to foster said life) and send out a message about how "all these worlds are yours - except Europa: attempt no landings there".

Re:Joins?

[MightyMartian]

I don't think anyone is arguing that Titan doesn't have the building blocks (by all accounts its atmosphere is probably pretty damned similar to the reducing atmosphere that the early Earth had). The problem is energy. Titan only receives a fraction of the energy that Earth does, and that's why it's in a deep freeze. It's hard to imagine at any point in the evolution of the solar system when Titan would have had, for any substantial amount of time, that much energy from either the sun or Saturn.

The fact that some highly specialized terrestial organisms might be able to make a go of it doesn't, in my mind, suggest that similar organisms could have ever evolved on Titan. These organisms have had nearly four billion years to slowly march into extreme environments. I simply don't think Titan would have ever have been in a similar situation.

I think our best bets for the moment are still Mars and Europa. Mars, because it does lie close enough to the sun and there is evidence that liquid water was once common. Europa because, while it's significantly farther from the sun, is in a rather special situation where Jovian tidal forces are quite likely keep the interior very warm, meaning liquid oceans, and possibly an active core.