> complex organic molecules
Isn't that, you know, life?
Cool discovery either way.
Life is something that can reproduce by its own means.
They don't seem to specify what they actually mean by organic water in the article
Carbon chains I imagine. Don't know what else could possibly qualify for that, and the original article is on New Scientist which is pretty reputable.
Is a virus alive?
No since it does not reproduce by its own means, it needs something else as a host
These organic compounds could have come from the core of the planet or perhaps by meteorites, but the sheer fact that they are being generated also increases the chances of life developing there. The more we look at Enceladus, the more its looking like there is life there. It has plenty of liquid water and organic compounds, with thermal energy coming from the core as an energy source.
I would actually find it surprising if there wasn't life on Enceladus at this point.
No, it just means large molecules made of carbon, which can absolutely be made from sources other than living organisms.
No, they are not. They also need cells, living things, to reproduce. If there are viruses, then there are cells nearby.
Not technically, though viruses do share a lot of qualties with living organisms. Viruses are really just balls of DNA(or RNA) that insert themselves into a host cell and force the host cell to create more of those balls of DNA (or RNA).
Ah, looks like I'm confusing my two organics.
https://i.imgur.com/dyFFRSV.png
You may already know this, and since the only article that doesn't have a paywall is Huffington Post, I'd take it with a grain of salt in what they report as groundbreaking. However, in the context of chemistry, organic refers to any molecule containing carbon. While carbon isn't necessarily rare in the universe, it is certainly rare to have anything of meaningful complexity form from it. They don't specify what types of molecules are being emitted, but for instance, Mars has significant quantities of CO2, which is organic but a simple and generally uninteresting compound. Usually you need a life form, or a lot of energy, time, and the right conditions (whatever those may be) to form anything interesting like amino acids and the like, as suggested by the abiogenesis hypothesis.
Nature article here, can be accessed here (link via The Independent, not sure if it works for all).
Paywalled
The Independent article has a link to the paper that should provide access.
Yeah I tried both - they lead to the same page with the paywall unfortunately
Weird, try the link from The Independent? It's the line that says "The findings were published in the journal Nature."
Can't wait until we can finally get down and get some solid ideas of what's going on with these icy moons under the surface. Just wish we didn't have to wait 4 years just for the JUICE mission to launch even
I actually didn't know, thanks. I definitely feel they're being vague to try to appear groundbreaking. You both get a coin
Remember MRSNERG:
Movement
Reproduction
Sensitivity
Nutrition
Excretion
Respiration
Growth
That's pretty neat, if it's organic molecule rich enough couldn't something like this give insight to how life started on our own planet? Even if there's no life on the moon itself, aren't these fairly similar conditions to the ones we believe life might arise in?
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