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[Ned Flanders]

I've been watching this briefing on the NASA channel regarding Cassini-Hyguens and am increasingly finding myself more and more giddy with the thought of the potential for a major discovery on Titan. The dense hydrocarbon atmosphere, the methane, possibly a liquid surface; it just all seems like a great "cocktail" for some kind of unique life.

Even microbial life would obviously be a staggering discovery, but I think it would be extremely cool if there were some kind of strange aquatic type of animals (assuming the surface is in fact liquid)...something like whales or squid etc. Liquid environments seem to make for the most fascinating forms of life (jellyfish, eels, anemonies, rays etc), and one can only imagine what Titan could produce.

I'm trying to imagine what would happen if in fact a discovery like that were made...would we immediately begin preparation on another research probe or would we go straight to some kind of recovery thing? Could we design a probe to recover and deliver something like that or would we need a manned mission? Would we respect life that much less considering the probabilities of it being elsewhere in the universe would be drastically increased after discovering it in our solar system?

The more I think about this thing the more I can't wait for next January..

 

[Thaedolus]

With current technology, I'm guessing recover would be impossible. Landing a ship on our moon and returning it is one thing, launching to a moon hundreds of millions of miles away is quite another story.

I say we land on Mars before sending anyone beyond the asteroid belt

 

[Neo_ZX]

I'm all for keeping outside shit off the earth. If we had a moon base or space station I'd have little problem with that, but bringing something directly to Earth is just asking for trouble.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

I'm all for keeping outside shit off the earth. If we had a moon base or space station I'd have little problem with that, but bringing something directly to Earth is just asking for trouble.

I'm sure NASA would handle it well, but I have to agree with you. If there was some sort of marine animal on Titan, I wouldn't want it on earth. I'm not saying it would call in abckup and attack us, I would just be worried about something like a virus of some sorts. But I'm stepping way to far ahead. I would be happy if they just found some bacteria or something...

 

[gofreak]

The chances are really really slim. I think from the latest photos of Titan, they were saying that they can't see the lakes and seas of liquid that they were expecting (though they can't tell for sure at this stage). But who knows, there is a really small chance..it'd be very cool, the repurcussions for everyone would simply be enormous. Hopefully such a discsovery would change things for the better here.

 

[Ill Saint]

I'm sure NASA would handle it well, but I have to agree with you. If there was some sort of marine animal on Titan, I wouldn't want it on earth. I'm not saying it would call in abckup and attack us, I would just be worried about something like a virus of some sorts. But I'm stepping way to far ahead. I would be happy if they just found some bacteria or something...

Why not? I think a little alien outbreak of some sort would be a great distraction from the usual human programme of blowing the shit out of each other.

 

[sc0la]

Why not? I think a little alien outbreak of some sort would be a great distraction from the usual human programme of blowing the shit out of each other.

I like this thinking.

 

[Saturnman]

They expect the probe to last 30 minutes down there...

 

[Smiles and Cries]

Why not? I think a little alien outbreak of some sort would be a great distraction from the usual human programme of blowing the shit out of each other.

amen

 

[Hitokage]

Of course, it's also extremely cold on Titan, so there's a good chance that any possible life would find Earth's environment extremely inhospitable. We also have a highly oxygenated atmosphere which was poisonous to life at first.


....AND LOTS OF WATER TOO FOR IDIOT ALIENS.

 

[gofreak]

They expect the probe to last 30 minutes down there...

30 minutes once it hits the surface? Cos I've heard they expect the descent to take two and a half hours, and then beyond that they don't know, depending on what they hit etc. (but yeah, it won't be very long at all). Anything beyond the descent will be a bonus.

OK, it's really terribly unlikely we're going to find marine life swimming about etc., but if there is microscopic life there, how likely is the probe to pick up on it if its time on the surface is so limited? Will it be able to detect it from the descent?

 

[heavy liquid]

30 minutes once it hits the surface? Cos I've heard they expect the descent to take two and a half hours, and then beyond that they don't know, depending on what they hit etc. (but yeah, it won't be very long at all). Anything beyond the descent will be a bonus.

If it survives the landing, the probe is expected to have only enough battery to transmit signals for around 30 minutes.

 

[Willco]

I hope the probe lands and some alien comes over with a baseball bat and beats the shit out of it.

 

[MetatronM]

Of course, it's also extremely cold on Titan, so there's a good chance that any possible life would find Earth's environment extremely inhospitable. We also have a highly oxygenated atmosphere which was poisonous to life at first.


....AND LOTS OF WATER TOO FOR IDIOT ALIENS.

It's amazing what simple water can do. It can destroy invading aliens AND adequately contain nuclear fusion. Unbelievable, no?

Regardless, Europa is still the best bet for extraterrestrial life within our solar system. That being said, I don't think life exists anywhere else in the solar system. The circumstances were just too perfect on Earth for it to be possible anywhere else. Aliens would be cool/terrifying, though.

 

[Cherubae]

I'm all for keeping outside shit off the earth. If we had a moon base or space station I'd have little problem with that, but bringing something directly to Earth is just asking for trouble.

*spooky voice* You're toooo laaaaaatte

http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/top.html

 

[-=DoAvl=-]

I hope the probe lands and some alien comes over with a baseball bat and beats the shit out of it.

That's just silly.... why would they send a probe with shit in it? eh!?!!





I think i've missed the point.

 

[sprsk]

I hope the probe lands and some alien comes over with a baseball bat and beats the shit out of it.

 

[heavy liquid]

I thought they don't expect to find any kind of life on Titan as it's simply too cold (-180 degrees)? But from what I've read, they believe that the atmosphere is what Earth's was like billions of years ago, and by studying Titan, they may get clues as to how life evolved here.

Another interesting quote I read is that one of the scientists described the surface of Titan as "a melting ice cream sundae". Ha.

There are also some great photos that Cassini has taken of Titan, but they've had to apply filters and manipulate them in order to peer beneath the dense and reflective atmosphere. And the photos were taken from a great distance, over 200,000 miles. In October, it will pass as close as 750 or 600 miles to Titan, and we should receive some great information then!

 

[gofreak]

Yeah, they don't expect to find any life. I'm sure there is some TINY possibility, though? They've compared the environment to earth billions of years before life evolved (though new revelations from Cassini's findings may change their mind about that).


The pics from Titan were pretty impressive. Though I'm slightly disappointed at the lack of colour shots we've been getting..there's the odd ones here and there, but the vast majority of the pics seem to be b&w.

edit - found this in an article:

"The Cassini spacecraft has for the first time made a mineral map of Titan and found water ice and hydrocarbons on its surface. It has also shown a diverse, irregular surface, including a possible crater and linear features that could be evidence of geological activity.

Cassini science-team member Dr Kevin Baines from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California described the results as "different from expected."

"At some wavelengths, we see dark regions of relatively pure water ice and brighter regions with a much higher amount of non-ice materials, such as simple hydrocarbons," he said.

"It's preliminary, but it may change the way we interpret light and dark areas on Titan."

Not sure how this affects the chances of any life...though I'm sure they're still negligible. The article also mentions that the Huygens probe is more suited for work with liquids than solids, so if the oceans of methane aren't there that they expected, it may be a little bit of a negative as far as the probe's concerned. Fully article is here: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20040705/titan.html

second edit - hmm, I'm somehow only seeing this picture now:

It's cassini's latest shot of Titan, and more like what I was expecting (resolution aside - I'm sure that'll be better when the probe is closer). For those that are interested, yellow/orange = hydrocarbon rich areas, green = icier areas.