• Life may exist on Saturn's moon
    82 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;36334928]I could have sworn we found fossilized bacteria on Mars.[/QUOTE] No. That would be a ground breaking discovery. We found what may have been former water trails, and a rock that looks like a face from a certain angle, but definitely no life. Life on another planet would mean NASA could get a blank check for space exploration (Wishful thinking)
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;36334928]I could have sworn we found fossilized bacteria on Mars.[/QUOTE] No definitive fossilized bacteria, they think it [I]could[/I] be fossilized bacteria
[QUOTE=ManningQB18;36335066]No. That would be a ground breaking discovery. We found what may have been former water trails, and a rock that looks like a face from a certain angle, but definitely no life. Life on another planet would mean NASA could get a blank check for space exploration (Wishful thinking)[/QUOTE] After a bit of googling, I think I was remembering this thing [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALH84001#Possible_biogenic_features[/url] It's just [i]might[/I] be fossilized bacteria, not proven.
Recent discoveries of bacteria on Earth prove that bacteria can exist in incredibly extreme situations. I'm fairly certain we found bacteria that had been existing for millions of years underground, without light, and with a incredibly small amount of oxygen.
[thumb]http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/artwork/images/IMG003159.jpg[/thumb]
Today is a good day for space. First Voyager, and now this. Hopefully NASA can get some funds for this.
[QUOTE=Lord_Ragnarok;36334785][img]http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/002/cache/angler-fish_222_600x450.jpg[/img] "Ha! This fool thinks that I need sunlight!"[/QUOTE] [img]http://i.imgur.com/vpixE.jpg[/img] [i]"What's this... "light"?"[/i]
[QUOTE=cardfan212;36335233]Today is a good day for space. First Voyager, and now this. Hopefully NASA can get some funds for this.[/QUOTE] [url=http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1190726&highlight=]Don't forget about NASA's black-hole-hunting NuSTAR telescope has launched![/url]
[img]http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/8/86/GruntMajorCutout.png[/img] *if you read the books
Why are scientists exclusively looking for carbon-based life forms? Regardless, this is awesome.
Too many people think that all life needs to be exactly like us and need water or whatever to survive. That is true for our planet, but not necessarily other worlds. Perhaps there is a planet somewhere with humanoid animals that survive on nitrogen or maybe they need to breathe methane to live.
[QUOTE=Mr. Smartass;36335817]Why are scientists exclusively looking for carbon-based life forms? Regardless, this is awesome.[/QUOTE] Because Carbon based life forms are what we see on Earth, a planet that supports life, and is the best bet for finding life. There could be other types of life forms, but the conditions would have to be at extremes for them to be plausible.
[QUOTE=kenshin6;36335903]Too many people think that all life needs to be exactly like us and need water or whatever to survive. That is true for our planet, but not necessarily other worlds. Perhaps there is a planet somewhere with humanoid animals that survive on nitrogen or maybe they need to breathe methane to live.[/QUOTE] Mainly depends on chemical processes to pass energy though systems. They look for carbon based life because we know that life can work that way. As for other systems we have no clue, so we do not really know what composition to look for or in what ratios. It is also dependent on available energy (light and heat) and gravity (yes also energy) for what reactions can and will take place. At the point we are sort of in the black due to not having a gravity manipulation device to fuck around with chemistry. But no you could be right.
[QUOTE=kenshin6;36335903]Too many people think that all life needs to be exactly like us and need water or whatever to survive. That is true for our planet, but not necessarily other worlds. Perhaps there is a planet somewhere with humanoid animals that survive on nitrogen or maybe they need to breathe methane to live.[/QUOTE] Well technically living organisms rely on nitrogen to exist. We also need oxygen and phosphorus and a lot of other things. We could call ourselves nitrogen best life, or oxygen based life, but carbon is kind of special. Carbon forms some pretty stable bonds and has some well suited properties for creating life. Creating a nitrogen chain is very unstable, where as a carbon chain is pretty stable. There are many factors that go into it and we could debate this all day and night. Basically we know what we call "carbon life" exists. We understand why oxygen comes in and carbon dioxide comes out. We know why it is important to form and break carbon bonds. We know that these are all essential for most of the living things on the Earth. Also, if you look at the most common elements in the universe we have something like, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon in the top 10... It would be kind of ridiculous to look for Uranium based life when Uranium just isn't as common. Man, another side note... If an animal to need methane to live, that would still be considered carbon based life as well. I can't see methane being used for respiration, just do to some of its properties, but yeah its CH4. And if we found nitrogen, it is likely that carbon would be bound to that nitrogen like it is in our life. [editline]15th June 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Chevron;36336342]Mainly depends on chemical processes to pass energy though systems. They look for carbon based life because we know that life can work that way. As for other systems we have no clue, so we do not really know what composition to look for or in what ratios. It is also dependent on available energy (light and heat) and gravity (yes also energy) for what reactions can and will take place. At the point we are sort of in the black due to not having a gravity manipulation device to fuck around with chemistry. But no you could be right.[/QUOTE] The whole gravity thing isn't quite such a problem in chemistry. These things have a mass and that means gravity has some force on molecules and atoms, but the forces between these atoms is much greater towards each other. I have never done chemistry in zero gravity so I can't say this with absoluteness, but my hunch would be that it wouldn't have as great of an affect as you would think just do to other forces that come into play such as electrostatic forces.
Wouldn't it be interesting if humans came there and left behind artifacts like equipment and vehicles and other technology, then it survived for millions and millions of years all the way until a sentient species developed and found it long after we all die out. Then they endeavor to find what we were and where we came from and realize that humans were just a few planets nearby. They journey to the whatever remains of Earth in the far future and find what we left behind. It makes them happier knowing that there is life elsewhere in the universe and that they could advance to the level that their distant relatives did.
[QUOTE=kaine123;36336443]Wouldn't it be interesting if humans came there and left behind artifacts like equipment and vehicles and other technology, then it survived for millions and millions of years all the way until a sentient species developed and found it long after we all die out. Then they endeavor to find what we were and where we came from and realize that humans were just a few planets nearby. They journey to the whatever remains of Earth in the far future and find what we left behind. It makes them happier knowing that there is life elsewhere in the universe and that they could advance to the level that their distant relatives did.[/QUOTE] We'd be dinosaurs to them.
imagine finding life on titan and bringing it back, breeding them to eventually become a pet sensation due to the nature of its existence. people would be buying methane tanks, gas masks, and gloves leading to the creation of a whole new market. we can save the economy if we could simply bring reproducible extra terrestrial life to earth.
[video=youtube;5r_TlPwZOvU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r_TlPwZOvU[/video]
it's only just occured to me that whatever life we may find - assuming it's more than a bit of bacteria on a beach somewhere - would likely be very scary to look at. I'm betting full-on spaghetti monster here
I can't imagine the smell on that place. The atmosphere is made of methane, the water is made of methane. The entire planet smells like the foulest shit ever taken
[QUOTE=Squad;36336268]Because Carbon based life forms are what we see on Earth, a planet that supports life, and is the best bet for finding life. There could be other types of life forms, but the conditions would have to be at extremes for them to be plausible.[/QUOTE] Didn't we find some arsenic based lifeforms in a cave
Better get our asses over there and subjugate them all before they rise up against us.
The planet is covered in Methane? I guess you can say... It's a shitty planet.
[QUOTE=MendozaMan;36337266]I can't imagine the smell on that place.[/QUOTE] well that's good, because you'll die if you're ever in a position to smell it
My wild imagination is picturing blind and pale creatures swimming and crawling in the methane swamp, ridden with motion sensors and teeth and limbs and tentacles. ..but it's more likely boring bacteria unicellular buisness.
[I]all these worlds...[/I]
Its the spacenazis!
[QUOTE=Jarate Lover;36337544]The planet is covered in Methane? I guess you can say... It's a shitty planet.[/QUOTE] It's a moon.
[QUOTE=Gmod4ever;36335032]Correct me if I am wrong, since this was a long time ago, but... I remember hearing that Titan is actually incredibly volcanic, but the volcanoes are "ice volcanoes," and the material they erupt is nothing but frozen methane and such. No idea on the legitimacy of that, since it's been years since I remember hearing this, but as far as I know, this is the case.[/QUOTE] Most researchers have come to the conclusion that titan is actually not very active geologically, but it is still shaped by its winds and atmosphere
[QUOTE=T3hGamerDK;36338213]It's a moon.[/QUOTE] that's no moon
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