You Vote -1st Choice in Search for Extraterrestrial Life: Titan or Europa?
Extraterrestrial life is the most
interesting thing ever, bar nothing, and if you disagree you're either
a terribly limited person or misread the start of the sentence. We're
incredibly lucky to even exist, and on top of that we have two possible
life-locations right here on our solar system doorstep - but we have to
choose which to check. We want to go everywhere, but with a price-tag
of billions of dollars per outer-planet probe we have to decide and
flipping a coin just won't cut it.
Option Number One is Europa, the favored satellite son of many exobiologists and even Arthur C. Clarke himself. While distinctly non-Terran, huge sub-surface lakes probably heated by tidal stresses, and even an extremely tenuous oxygen atmosphere make it a leading contender. Hot water and even some air? Is there a more likely life-site without tiny bacteria-sized jacuzzis?
Number Two is Titan, a very-Terran option whose surface lakes, shorelines, seasons and relatively thick nitrogen atmosphere mean it's viewed as an early-model Earth. And 100% of all know Earths have awesome life on them! The significantly lower temperature is a bit of a stumbling block (it's ten times as far from the sun as us), but the possibility of subterranean microbial life - or even a prebiotic "Life could happen!" environment - would be a massive result.
Remember, most of space is empty. Either "not enough there to even count as dead" or "hard radiation sterilized space that would make a bucket of bleach in a blender look like a life-form holiday home". There's life out there somewhere, and anybody who says otherwise simply doesn't understand how big the universe is, but having three such suitable environments in one (stellar scale) space? The solar system is three winning lottery tickets delivered by a trained unicorn and we'd be fools not to collect.
Right now having to choose is hard. But being able to choose is incredible.
Posted by Luke McKinney.
I find it extremely perplexing that Enceladus isn't a prime contender over Titan.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=saturns-moon-enceladus-spews-clues-2009-06-24
While Titan sounds promising in some ways, exploring a frozen iceball of nitrogen with oil lakes doesn't sound quite as promising as yet another iceball with underground heated water lakes JUST like Europa only with possible evidence of sodium. Too waterworlds covered in ice or an Oily Methane Nitrogen iceball? Hmmmmm....
Posted by: Cosmogeist | July 07, 2009 at 01:28 AM
I actually like the idea of Europa and Titan as the primary targets. Enceladus is definitely interesting (and anywhere you can have confirmed liquid water sure does seem like a good place to look for life) but Europa's potential of having an actual large OCEAN with tidal heating and mixing of materials where one might even (and I say might with as much weight as possible, like 99% unlikely but still not out of the question) imagine multi-cellular life existing there is just too tempting to pass up in my mind. So that covers the water based search for life. Titan is a whole different animal all together, where the processes seem similar to earth but the materials and temperatures differ greatly. As people try to get out of their earth-centric "all life must exist in these temperatures and these conditions" way of thinking, I personally cannot help but get excited by the idea that MAYBE life can develop under completely different sets of circumstances than the ones we know to be familiar. If that is the case, even though the odds seem against it (based on our one and only example-us), then Pandora's cover just got blown the hell off `cause now you're definitely talking about life springing up twice in one run of the mill solar system out of two completely different systems. No panspermia or cross contamination argument to be had, just two places where life sprang up from the ingredients in the soup. If it happens twice here, in two similar yet so different environments, well, the concept of life elsewhere goes from the debated "YES THERE IS LIFE/NO THERE ISN'T LIFE" outside our solar system to "yeah, ok, there's probably life elsewhere. Now lets hurry up and get there to teach them the word of our God before they read the Koran".
Posted by: keith | July 07, 2009 at 05:47 AM
Europa! What lurks beneath?
Posted by: jim | July 07, 2009 at 02:02 PM
I think there are 5 serious contenders for other life in our solar system, including
1) Europa
2) Enceladus (Close second)
3) Ceres (Ceres is a mini-planet just after Mars)
4) Titan
5) Mars
The cheapest mission would likely be to Ceres. Ceres has tons and tons of water -- it may contain more fresh water than Earth.
Thus I say we go for Ceres first.
Ceres would be a perfect destination for the first human colony off Earth.
Ceres is probably a much better choice for our first off-Earth colony than Mars or the Moon -- given it's lower gravity and tons of available water. (Mars would be a significantly more difficult and expensive location to colonize with present technology.)
As a first mission to Ceres we can send an orbiter with a high resolution camera, to start photographing the place, and get communications and Internet connection going with Ceres.
Secondly we should send a rover.
Third we should send humans, not long after. Ceres would then be a perfect jumping off point to fuel future missions to Europa or Mars... since it is inbetween both of those points.
Posted by: Velocity Wave | July 07, 2009 at 02:53 PM
There are NO serious contenders for life in our solar system except this planet. No amount of wishing is going to make it so.
Hydrothermal vents produced life here because we have an active tectonic crust. The rest of the planets and moons in our solar system simply do not, in any way whatsoever, have an active tectonic crust, nor do they exist in our star's lifezone. A moon that heats up because of tidal gravitational stresses doesn't qualify. A planet that has no active core does not qualify.
Altho it is commendable that our species is looking for extremophiles, and I hope we continue to send probes and robots to every nook and cranny of our solar system, I'm not going to hold my breath for even a HINT of life ever being found above our atmosphere, not even a bacteria. We are ALONE in our solar system and there is no possibility of life existing anywhere else - now or ever in the past - except here on Earth.
Posted by: Mark | July 07, 2009 at 04:32 PM
lets land on a comet and see what kind of stuff we can dig up. that might provide a clue of where to look next. the way we keep finding life in unexpected places on earth is incredible. its almost as if everything is alive or on its way to being alive.
Posted by: dirk alan | July 07, 2009 at 06:26 PM
Ooooh... difficult choice. I think I'll plump for Enceladus!
We've got to go after the water so Europa should be the main target. Titan is a very interesting place but might be a too early Earth to find any life.
Also keep looking closer to home, what we discover about life on this planet will inform where we look for life elsewhere.
Posted by: WeirdScienceBlog | July 07, 2009 at 11:39 PM
Europa, Titan, NOW Enceladus.
I think people have been distracted by Mars simply because it LOOKS terrestrial, & people don't even want to consider an " alien " world like the three listed above.
I think that any 3 of those worlds would be likely habitats for life. What the heck, let's include Mars anyway, maybe there are at least fossils / microfossils.
Mark - We are aalone in the Solar System ? Wait for all the votes to come in & evidence to be compiled before making such a blanket remark. The reason that we look for extra - terrestrial life is because evidence of it or proof of it would give us a perspective of our place in the Scheme of Things.
dirk alan - Comets might bear the seeds of life on them & agents in the process of panspermia, if that indeed took place. Great idea. Terran viruses on Lunar rovers are proof that life can survive in even the most unlikely & harshest of environments.
Maybe we shouldn't totally discount Mars.....
Posted by: EvilCosmicMonkeyfrom Knoxville | July 08, 2009 at 03:57 PM
Try with Europa 1st and 2nd with Enceladus........
Frozen lakes of methane and ammonia do not seem to be the place to host organic and complex life forms.....
Europa interior oceans even if warmed by tremendous tidal force from Juppiter can reveal to be 'difficult' to be explored in details.
On the other side Enceladus seems pretty cold and is far from sun as Titan is....
Triton may be a nice place to think for life forms ....but it is extremely cold on the surface....
Moons of solar system host forms of life......how much evolved nobody knows yet.
regards
Posted by: claudio | July 10, 2009 at 10:53 PM
The idea of life in such inhospitable environs - On Earth there are extremeophile life forms that thrive ( like in the oceans & places like Mono Lake ) where humans & other life forms wouldn't have a chance, let alone a niche.
Anaerobic bacteria / viruses ( ? ) do quite well in environments sans oxygen.
There are viruses that could survive radiation, but can be killed by bleach.
& survivor species like the lowly & butt - ugly cockroach that could very likely survive a nuclear attack, but can be dispatched by a blow from a heavy, blunt object.
These examples are very likely what we could expect on the moons of the outer planets.
Has there been ANY speculation about what would happen if terrestrial viruses were released in the atmosphere of a gas giant ? Would such transplantion be possible or viable ?
Posted by: EvilCosmicMonkeyfrom Knoxville | July 11, 2009 at 12:40 PM