![]() |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
![]()
Okay, getting all "xeno" for a moment, what would it take to have "life" on
Titan? Mean surface temperature is around -178 degrees C, at about 1.5 Earth atmospheres pressure. There would need to be something like enzymatic activity based on the available carbon chemistry, which we don't know much about. There's nothing like that on Earth, but there doesn't need to be. This would have to sustain some kind of organic heat engine to power whatever the putative organism was, but it should only need a differential of temperatures for that. Then it's only a small step to sludge-farming Amazons who have never seen stars. Setting that aside as perhaps far-fetched, there are obviously unique organic chemical processes in the Titan environment. How much thought has been given to the possible impact of the Huygens probe on these processes? What is the surface temperature of the probe after atmospheric ntry? ---And the probe will be carrying some of the unique carbon chemistry of Earth. Could it possibly be boiling away or otherwise contaminating the chemical processes that make Titan interesting to us? |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
![]() |
||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Titan issues | jjrobinson2 | Policy | 46 | November 15th 04 12:30 AM |
UA's Cassini Scientists Ready for First Close Titan Flyby | er | Amateur Astronomy | 0 | October 26th 04 07:14 AM |
UA's Cassini Scientists Ready for First Close Titan Flyby | Ron | Astronomy Misc | 0 | October 25th 04 08:35 PM |
New Detailed Images of Titan | Ron | Astronomy Misc | 0 | April 1st 04 08:05 PM |
Titan 4s costly | AllanStern | Space Shuttle | 9 | February 17th 04 05:02 AM |