Lakes on Titan

Cassini has sent back pictures of Lakes on Titan.
OK, so they are super cooled Nitrogen...wear a dry suit.

Seriously - IMO Titan and Europa are the most likely candidates for off-earth life in the solar system.

Opinions?

saturn.jpl.nasa.gov...

How do we know those are lakes? They could be a Caldera Plain(from vulcanism).

I agree that Titan and Europa are the most likely candidates for other life in our own solar system. In fact, it's entirely likely that there is some kind of microbial life on Titan - if there's anything like geysers on Titan.

Life (as we know it) needs heat. Not for surviving, but to get started in the first place. The chemicals that make up life need the heat in order to spark change. Life developed on earth because lightning and UV-light destroyed organic molecules (in almost the exact same composition as Titan), which then recombined again into more complex patterns, which eventually were capable of at least a limited form of replication.

Without heat, that cycle would never got off the ground - or if it did, it wouldn't stay above ground for long (we need gradually increasing complexity).

Europa is still a GREAT candidate then, since Jupiter might incite volcanic activity beneath its icy crust. Heat + water + organic chemicals (which are nearly everywhere in the galaxy) equals a really great chance for life.

Even finding just the simplest extraterrestrial micro-organism would be a world-changing event.

According to John Lear, every planet in our system has life! On top of that we regularly travel to them as well.

When you look at the infrared pics of Titan it starts looking like a nice place.



Other great pictures of Titan.


saturn.jpl.nasa.gov... images.cfm?startImage=49&categoryID=4&subCategoryID=10

[edit on 2-10-2006 by Farzai]

Originally posted by deadbang
According to John Lear, every planet in our system has life! On top of that we regularly travel to them as well.

Deadbang, according to a number of people, including myself, John Lear is a fake. But that's me. It's my word over his, and in all honesty, both are worth the exact same - so the best course of action is to view the hard facts for yourself and come to your own beliefs.

Besides, I can pull up a few VERY good reasons why many places in our solar system would NOT be supporting life.