The Prospects for Alien Life on Titan Keep Getting Better

[jimmy olsen]

Sweet!

http://gizmodo.com/the-prospects-for-alien-life-on-titan-keep-getting-bett-1783222440

The Prospects for Alien Life on Titan Keep Getting Better

Maddie Stone
Wednesday 4:20pm
· Filed to: astrobiology

Saturn's moon Titan is a frigid hellscape by Earth standards, but it's also one of the most hopeful spots for discovering alien life in our solar system. A new scientific paper hints that conditions on Titan's surface might be favorable for the chemistry of life to emerge.

Titan is the only other world we know of whose surface is shaped by lakes, rivers, and rainfall. Except deep in Saturn's rings, it's not water that flows, but methane. Even so, Titan's remarkably Earth-like appearance has led astrobiologists to wonder whether some sort of cold-adapted, non water-based life form could emerge.

But before we can seriously talk about life on Titan, we need to take a step back and establish whether certain basic conditions exist. Even at temperatures of -290 degrees Fahrenheit (-179 degrees Celsius), there needs to be enough available energy for life's building blocks to form.

"In order for anything to happen on Titan, you need to be able to do chemistry at a low temperature," Cornell chemist Martin Rahm told Gizmodo. Rahm's latest research, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, identifies a mechanism by which energy from the faint sun might be absorbed through Titan's cloudy atmosphere.

One of the key molecules the Cassini and Huygens missions have identified in Titan's atmosphere is hydrogen cyanide (HCN), an important precursor to life on Earth. Prior studies indicated that on Titan's surface, HCN can react to form long chains, or polymers, called polyimine. Now, Rahm's models are showing that under Titan-like environmental conditions, polyimine is both flexible and good at absorbing sunlight.

"It turns out, different conformations of this material absorb different wavelengths of light, including wavelengths that are accessible on the surface of Titan," Rahm said. "This could provide energy."

Cornell astronomer and co-author Jonathan Lunine noted that nine years ago, a National Academies of Sciences report concluded, "If life is an intrinsic property of chemical reactivity, life should exist on Titan." The polyimine result, he added, is interesting enough "that it merits a search for such polymers on Titan's surface—which will have to be done in the exploration of Titan beyond Cassini."

In other words, it's time to go alien hunting on Titan.

[Admiral Yi]

Timmy, you need to start a megathread in which you post stories that belong in megathreads you already started.

[jimmy olsen]

Timmy, you need to start a megathread in which you post stories that belong in megathreads you already started.

I don't think I have a megathread on Titan.

[Caliga]

 

Why would it be so exciting to find bacteria on Titan?  Is there anyone non-retarded out there who still thinks life could only possibly exist on Earth?

[mongers]

Timmy, you need to start a megathread in which you post stories that belong in megathreads you already started.

I know I started one for all of the news stories that Tim missed, but it got lost in the deluge of Timmay threads. 

[garbon]

Timmy, you need to start a megathread in which you post stories that belong in megathreads you already started.

I know I started one for all of the news stories that Tim missed, but it got lost in the deluge of Timmay threads. 

Well you've been pretty good as of late at starting a slew of your own nonsensical threads.

[Valmy]

Why would it be so exciting to find bacteria on Titan?  Is there anyone non-retarded out there who still thinks life could only possibly exist on Earth?

Raz? We had a discussion about extra-terrestrial bacteria at some point.

[Tamas]

I really hope they don't fine any signs of life in our solar system. We need to prospect and industrialise it ASAP, and it won't happen if there is a risk of stepping on some obscure Mars bacteria

[Ed Anger]

Tamas awaits the discovery of sentient beets.

[The Brain]

Why would it be so exciting to find bacteria on Titan?  Is there anyone non-retarded out there who still thinks life could only possibly exist on Earth?

Proof is nice, and what Tampax said.

[fromtia]

I'm only interested if it's the green lady that does it with Captain Kirk. Is it her?

[lustindarkness]

We can send Timmy to Titan. That way there would be life in Titan. Easy.

[Razgovory]

I fail to see why this is a good thing.

[Valmy]

I fail to see why this is a good thing.

How is it a bad thing? I think it is just a thing.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Why would it be so exciting to find bacteria on Titan?  Is there anyone non-retarded out there who still thinks life could only possibly exist on Earth?

It would indicate that life was very common as otherwise it would be highly unlikely for a single planetary system to have developed life twice. Also, given that life is common, we would then wonder why we are so isolated, perhaps life is common but intelligent life rare, perhaps advanced civilisations are very transitory. Just a few crappy bacteria woyuld greatly extend our knowledge on this topic.