Water signs on Saturn moon raises possibility of extra-terrestrial life

AFP ^ | March 10, 2006

[FormerACLUmember]

[EagleUSA]

The latest report I heard was that they determined that the geysers were not water, but pure GIN. Right after that, Teddy Kennedy announced complete funding for a mission to the Saturn moon, which he has unoffically named "WC".

[rhombus]

he latest report I heard was that they determined that the geysers were not water, but pure GIN. Right after that, Teddy Kennedy announced complete funding for a mission to the Saturn moon

No way, Ted's holding out for the Scotch planet.

[sheik yerbouty]

The planet "Orca"..

[frogjerk]

"Instead, scientists have found evidence for a much more exciting possibility. The jets might be erupting from near-surface pockets of liquid water above 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), like cold versions of the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone."

It's that "warm" on Enceladus?

[FreedomNeocon]

The question of IF there is extraterrestrial life is not a hard one to answer.

OF COURSE there is life outside earth. We've studied like 4 planets... we've "glanced" a dozen more. And on those we've already found evidence of water and rivers, and microbiological organisms in the planets past, and now geysers currently on moons of Saturn shooting water into the air.

There ere are billions of billions of billions of planets in the in the universe, we've seen .00000000000000000000000000000000000001% of them, and 'discovered' even less.

The question of "is there no life other than Earth" is an absurd one... it is virtually guaranteed mathematically. Most people just aren't able to conceive of just how large the universe actually is. I would also argue is it virtually guaranteed (if you factor in passage of time greater towards the center of the universe) that intelligent life is much more rare, but also guaranteed.

The better questions, is how can intelligent species ever hope to traverse the IMMENSE distance between solar systems and galaxies, where even 'light' takes hundreds and thousands of light years (at the short end), which gets into bending space-time by exploiting 'weak' force emitted from decaying element255 bombarded with specific radiation. (or at least so the urban legend goes... ;) )

[Angus MacGregor]

I'm guessing that with this "discovery" NASA will need another,oh lets say, $995,000,000,000,000.

[frogjerk]

OF COURSE there is life outside earth. We've studied like 4 planets... we've "glanced" a dozen more. And on those we've already found evidence of water and rivers, and microbiological organisms in the planets past, and now geysers currently on moons of Saturn shooting water into the air.

We have found definitive evidence of microbiological organisms (past or present)on other planets? Do you have a link to this definitive claim?

[Red Badger]

Fold space. Einstein says it will..........

[aligncare]

Whoa, dude. Space is "Far out, man!"

[Migraine]

"However, if we are right, we have significantly broadened the diversity of solar system environments where we might possibly have conditions suitable for living organisms,"

Why is it always about extraterrestrial life? I mean, in the utter absence of the slightest evidence of it, why are "living organisms" always at the core of interest? Why not: "there may be postage stamps up there", or something equally desultory? The only possible explanation for this obsession has to be the faith-based axioms, postulates and corollaries of evolutionary thought.
I say, let's just explore all the places we can explore, find what we can find, and announce our findings -- regardless of what those findings are. Because it's there. Knowledge is good, as long as it's true. No agendas allowed, though. No need to interpolate spontaneous life elsewhere just because it supposedly happened here.

[Muleteam1]

>>High-resolution images of Enceladus from Cassini "show icy jets and towering plumes ejecting large quantities of particles at high speed," NASA said. <<

Enceladian whales perhaps?

[aligncare]

Sorry, sometimes the hippie in me will out.

[freebilly]

[FreedomNeocon]

We have found definitive evidence of microbiological organisms (past or present)on other planets? Do you have a link to this definitive claim?

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_life_050216.html http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/17/creature.features/ http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/opportunity_news_040302.html

[FreedomNeocon]

We have found definitive evidence of microbiological organisms (past or present)on other planets? Do you have a link to this definitive claim?

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_life_050216.html

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/17/creature.features/

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/opportunity_news_040302.html

[frogjerk]

from the article you linked http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/17/creature.features/:

"So far there have been no shouts of "eureka!" from Mars rover scientists spotting a signature of past or present life."

[frogjerk]

From :http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/opportunity_news_040302.html

Stephen Squyres, principal scientist for the MER mission, said NASA researchers do believe Meridiani Planum, the broader area where Opportunity landed, had a habitable climate for some period of time.

"It doesn't mean life was there," Squyres said. "But this was a habitable place."

None of the links you provided have any definitive proof I requested. I understand you want this to be true and may come true sometime in the future but it is disengenious of you to report conjecture and possible theories as truth.

[FreedomNeocon]

Yep, its proven mathematically. Not just by Einstein either, living people have worked it out.

Empierically, you can observe that an atomic clock will observe 'time' as moving at different rates atop a huge mountain, than it does at sea-level. The theory being, that the minute difference in gravitational force is fundamental in what we perceive as the passage of time (the actual '4th' dimension).

The whole 'weak' force as we know it is the 'force' that holds atoms together. We only have it because scientists have said it is different than the 'strong' force because it attenuates MUCH faster than the 'strong' force as you move away from the proton center.

Well the theory is that the 'gravitational force' that exists on the atomic scale is so immense, that it creates an atomic 'spcae-time bubble' where the passage of what we call "time" is 'faster', so our equations m = v*t has a multiplier on the 't' part, which explains from our perspective (outside the space-time bubble) the force attenuates so much faster.

Anyway, the whole 'warp drive' and bending space time, involved expanding this 'bubble' around an already 'moving' ship or whatever. That way the 'ship' can be going, say 1/2 the speed of light, but 'bend' space around it so they can effectively 'multiply' that speed by a factor (heh... you can call it the 'warp factor') but its all based on the same thing.

The 'rumor' part is that Element 255, due to its atomic structure has an unusually large 'weak' force, and is very stable because of its atomic number. Bismuth is the 2nd best that is currently available, Elemenet255 would be the next 'tier' element that fits the bill.

The 'rumor' is that if you bombard element255 with specific radiation, it get ionized to element 256 or something, and then decays back down to 255 or something lower, and in that process producing enough 'weak' force to be used in the process.

Of course its all theoretical... at least for now.