The stunning pictures of the lakes on Titan?
The age old discussion of ‘does life exist on other planets’ has been raging for years. There are those among us that believe that we are alone and no other forms of life could possibly exist. Well, those clever NASA boffins have made some very interesting discoveries on Saturn’s moon Titan. Life, as we perceive it, is what we know by our own discoveries on earth – water based meat eaters or plant eaters but surely this is a little blinkered?
NASA’s Cassini probe has analysed the chemistry on the surface of Titan which is apparently the only moon around the planet to have a dense atmosphere. The ‘Holy Cow’ discovery is that they have discovered life forms that have been breathing in the planet’s complex atmosphere and also feeding on its ‘surface fuel’.
2 separate studies have made various discoveries. The first is detailed in the Journal Icarus which highlights the hydrogen gas flowing around the planet’s atmosphere actually dissipates toward the planet’s surface suggesting this would be more than adequate to support life.
The second of these studies, to be found in the Journal of Geophysical Research, clearly stated there was a lack of the
Look familiar?
chemical on the surface. Earlier beliefs were that sunlight was interacting with chemicals in the atmosphere to produce acetylene gas – the Cassini probe detected none of this gas.
“…We suggested hydrogen consumption because it’s the obvious gas for life to consume on Titan, similar to the way we consume oxygen on Earth. If these signs do turn out to be a sign of life, it would be doubly exciting because it would represent a second form of life independent from water-based life on Earth…” a statement from Chris McKay an astrobiologist from NASA Ames Research Centre, at Moffett Field, California.
“…We believe the chemistry is there for life to form. It just needs heat and warmth to kick-start the process. In four billion years’ time, when the Sun swells into a red giant, it could be paradise on Titan…” John Zarnecki of the Open University.
Well something to look forward to then…
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Wow, you should write for the Daily Mail with all these unfounded assumptions you’re making. NASA NEVER said it had discovered life, just what they predicted would be the by-product of life had it evolved on the moon……….they also state that it could easily be the by-product of non living processes. Nice try.
Hi John, thanks for reading. As per the title i actually include the word maybe and also at the end of the article claim that this would be ’something to look forward to’ but if you do know of a job at the Daily Mail please send me the contact details