Water on Saturn's Moon

[The Fish]

According to this article in the NY Times, they have definitive proof of water on one of Saturn's moons, and it is possible that extraterretrial life exists there (microbes, if at all). This is an extremely exciting discovery, as it is the first hard evidence anyone has ever gathered of an environment that could be capable of supporting life. The fact that its in our own solar system is also amazing, since this means that there could be literally mililions of similar planets throughout the universe that could harbor life.

[Ahiga]

There's a question about this. Are we going to sit back, regardless of the million if not billion of years required for life to grow, or are we going to be so incessant in messing with that water that we will destroy any chance of life?

Though, the achievement, if it's true, would be very great.

Except it says 'what may be'.

I've kind of realized there is water in the milky way, if we've found it frozen in Mars, and some sort of liquid elsewhere in our solar system.

[Sétanta]

Well, there is probably life here, there, triton, mars, and a hundred other places in the solar system

[hjernespiser]

There's a question about this. Are we going to sit back, regardless of the million if not billion of years required for life to grow, or are we going to be so incessant in messing with that water that we will destroy any chance of life?

I'm not quite sure what you mean here. Deep space probes in general are sterilized before being shot into space. Or do you mean we are going to mess up any future life that may evolve from the microbes possibly living in that water? I'm not even sure why that would be an ethical dilema. It seems to me a bit like crying over the salt block that may fall from the rafters and kill the baby that may be laying underneath from the mother who isn't even pregnant and married yet (from a folktale).

[Siblesz]

Water in liquid form that far away from the Sun? I find it hard to believe, but let's see.

[bdh]

Water in liquid form that far away from the Sun? I find it hard to believe, but let's see.

Well, we really must keep in mind volcanic activity.

[Drunken]

Well, we really must keep in mind volcanic activity.

Do you get volcanic activity on moons ?

There's a question about this. Are we going to sit back, regardless of the million if not billion of years required for life to grow, or are we going to be so incessant in messing with that water that we will destroy any chance of life?

Eventually we may destroy life there, either through finding resources, or just examining the life thats there.

[Dutchpower]

Do you get volcanic activity on moons ?

Yeah the closer to the sun the beter.

[Ummon]

Do you get volcanic activity on moons ?

Yes as a consequence of gravitational strains: tidal forces may heat the satellite core and cause volcanic activity if the said satellite orbits a gas giant with an accentric or nearby orbit and/or has other big bodies passing around it at any interval (that is the case with Jupiter's satellite Io).

[Sam]

Do you get volcanic activity on moons ?

Yeah, look at Io, one of Jupiter's moons. I think its very likely that there is liquid water beyond Jupiter, even a cold moon/planet can have a hot core, and its likely that there could be pockets or layers where the temperature is right for water.

[Removed_user_012521]

Why wouldn't you get Volcanic Activity? A moon is just another planet that orbits a Planet, som have atmosphers and some don't (doesn't Titan have an Atmosphere?)

[MasterAdnin]

Water in liquid form that far away from the Sun? I find it hard to believe, but let's see.

Believe it. I think I saw this on national georaphic channel. There's supposed to be an ocean of it under ice. Theyre going to send a probe there pretty soon.

Adnan

[Ahiga]

The question of 'messing' with the evolutionary setting is rather incosequential, in the way one/two of you have described. But it should bring up an interesting question. When and if we discover greater forms of life, will we be so up in their business that they fail to be able to evolve by themselves, the way we had?

I mean less about sterilizing and more about future progress on that planet. Perhaps leaving greater probes there, that kind of thing.

Sure, right now, and for millions of years, it will mean nothing to interrupt the progress on that planet, but what if another race had taken the same view when we were just amoebas?

[Sidus Preclarum]

when I heard the news , I thought "Huygens-Cassini found Water on Titan, how's that news ?"
then I realize they weren't speaking about Titan, but Enceladus.
Kewl.

about the volcanism on Enceladus :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encelad...#Cryovolcanism

[Syron]

Theyre going to send a probe there pretty soon.

No they're thinking about sending one to Europa, a Jovian moon but that wont get there for a long time even if they decide to.

[Primvs Sextvs Loverlord]

I say we should listen to all the Miss Worlds from 1990 to 2005 and resolve more important issues such as 'global peace', 'global poverty', 'women's rights' and 'global warming' first and then we should colonize space.

[Syron]

:laughing:

I like a good joke...........

[Ummon]

It is nonetheless true that there are many places suitable for partial colonization in the solar system, aside from Mars. Opening a new thread on this infact.

[LSJ]

I believe that there is life, no matter how small, in most solar systems. Why do people always say that if there are no aliens with space ships that there is no life anywhere else?
What if we humans are the most advanced in the universe, and that every other planet with micro organisms is just at that stage now? Why do the aliens have to be better than us? They could just as likely be millions of years behind, and humans are the supreme species of the universe (until we get killed by our own super bombs and pollution).

[kid]

The question of heat isn't so much relevant to water, only to life. Life needs heat, but water, to be in liquid form, does not always need 0-100 degrees celcius. The temperatures at which water changes phase varies along with pressure. That's how a pressure cooker works. It can heat the water to beyond 100 degrees by keeping the lid very tight, letting pressure build. This pressure keeps the water liquid at temperatures beyond 100.

As contenders for life go, isn't Titan very close to the conditions of primordial earth? Same chemical makeup of the atmosphere as ours before life started feeding on hydrogen and releasing oxygen.