Posted on 04/25/2005 7:49:18 PM PDT by Flavius
PASADENA, Calif. - A close flyby of Saturn's big moon Titan by the international Cassini spacecraft revealed an upper atmosphere brimming with complex organic material, a finding that could hold clues to how life arose on Earth, scientists said Monday.
Cassini flew within 638 miles of Titan's frozen surface on April 16 and discovered a hydrocarbon-laced upper atmosphere.
Titan's atmosphere is mainly made up of nitrogen and methane, the simplest type of hydrocarbon. But scientists were surprised to find complex organic material in the latest flyby. Because Titan is extremely cold — about minus 290 degrees — scientists expected the organic material to condense and rain down to the surface.
"We are beginning to appreciate the role of the upper atmosphere in the complex carbon cycle that occurs on Titan," said Hunter Waite, a professor at the University of Michigan.
Scientists believe Titan's atmosphere may be similar to that of the primordial Earth and studying it could provide clues to how life began.
The $3.3 billion Cassini mission, funded by NASA and the European and Italian space agencies, was launched in 1997 and took seven years to reach Saturn. The European Huygens probe carried aboard Cassini was released on Dec. 24 and plunged to the surface of Titan in January.
The best. Better long term yield than you'll get from George Soros.
I suspect it IS a lot.
"What a wonderful Universe God created for us to play in."
Great comment!
If heaven can partly be what we want it to be, I would like part of it to be the opportunity to explore the entire created universe inch by inch, never having to worry about packing a lunch, always able to return (at a moment's notice to the presence of God), given free reign to live out my curiousity.
Unrealistic, maybe. But, that's what I would want.
Read again. The point was that complex organics have also been found in the upper atmosphere.
Personally, I believe He was speaking of Gentiles.
well old George will not give me anything i belive he actually had something to do with the high oil prices
Why not? Is there an actual substance to your opinion or is it more like one of those pulled-it-out-my-*** kind of things?
PS. Since methane dissipates without constant replenishment and since the only thing we know of to create such atmospheric mixtures (acetylene, ethane, methane, and carbon dioxide) is biology, what we know bodes quite well for something to call Titan home.
Thats the beauty of it everyone is right and all the angles are covered...
obscure to no end...
I wasn't look to outwit you. Just interested in your interesting theology.
PPS. There are two bodies in the solar system with atmospheric properties that at this point in time we only know how to explain via biology, and surprising enough neither of them is Mars. They are Venus and Titan.
Not counting Earth, of course!
Did you post this for its informative content, or just to announce the bible as obsolete?
Titan is just the Mormon II planet. ;^)
Great story, but Saturn gives off so much radiation that Titan will never have life. Earth is in the sweet spot of the solar system because God ordained it to be so.
Why not? Every kook belief needs a place to call home.
I have an uncle that believes God is going to make him some kind of grand poobah over inhabited planets during the millenium. I toss him in the same bin as any other mental defective.
It's always interesting how the pulled-out-my-*** phenomenon takes off whenever science might conflict with someone's theology. In any case, the Titanian atmosphere would absorb most of the radiation thereby protecting organics on the surface from harm.
The huge impediment to life emerging and advancing on Titan is the intense cold that would slow down chemical reactions. The 'no life on Titan' crowd really should be hitching their wagon to that.
Our traveller had a marvellous grasp of the laws of gravity and all of the forces of attraction and repulsion. He put them to such good use that he and his retinue managed, sometimes with the help of a sunbeam, sometimes by means of a convenient comet, to proceed from globe to globe like a bird flitting from branch to branch.
Micromegas, by Voltaire
I remember reading in a geology publication not long ago an article in which a scientist was discussing the production of abiotic methane, and that it may very well occur in large amounts deep within Earth's crust and stored in hydrates at the bottom of the ocean. The existence and production of abiotic methane is proven, the only controversy is the amounts.
Life on Titan would have had to evolve in temperatures near -300 F, while life on Earth is thought to have evolved in temperatures near 1000 C, in an environment not unlike the Mid-Atlantic ridge of today. If we found life on Titan, chacnes are we wouldn't recognize it.
Thanks.
I don't think Jesus needs UFO's at all.
On the other hand, if He wants to use them--HE'S THE BOSS.
PARAGRAPHS ARE OUR FRIENDS.
PARAGRAPHS ARE OUR FRIENDS.
PARAGRAPHS ARE OUR FRIENDS.
Besides that, There's nothing in the Bible to preclude civilizations on other planets regardless of what some narrow, rigid Christians assert.
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