Hints of Life Found On Saturn's Moon Titan

Calopteryx writes "New Scientist reports that in 2005, researchers predicted two potential signatures of life on Titan. Now, thanks to research done with the help of the Cassini spacecraft, both have been seen, although non-biological chemical reactions could also be behind the observations. NASA's writeup has further details: 'One key finding comes from a paper online now in the journal Icarus [abstract] 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.'"

Comments

Re:I smell a movie...

[bunratty]

Methane itself is odorless. I suppose you could be referring to the aromatic compounds that methane-based life might excrete. You're probably just going for the cheap methane is farts joke. Yeah, imagine a Beowulf cluster of those!

Re:So, to sum up: Life possibly on Titan

[ElectricTurtle]

I'm sorry if real science just isn't all that exciting.

Re:I wonder if Huygens contaminated things.

[IndustrialComplex]

I must be misinterpreting your comment. Can you explain how crashing a probe into a celestial body has LESS contamination risk than just letting it drift off into the void?

Generally, they crash it into a celestial body that has no capability to support life and, such as the case of Jupiter, is hostile to the biological processes of what could possibly contaminate it.

No life from Earth will survive in Jupiter's atmosphere. The pressure is... extreme beyond that of the extreme on Earth.

The pressure there would be 10,000 times greater than the pressure at the deepest point in Earth's ocean. 10,000,000 Earth Atmospheres compared to 1,000 in the Marianas Trench.

Then you have the temperature. The hottest spot on Earth (the core) is about 7300K. On the liquid 'surface' of Jupiter, it is 10,000k. The most extreme of the thermophiles on Earth live in an area less than 400k. The core of Jupiter is hotter than the surface of the Sun.

If you find me something that can survive 10,000k temperatures and 10 million atmospheres I'd bow down to my new overlord.