Xmas on Mars

[ace00]

It's snowing!

NASA Mars Lander Sees Falling Snow, Soil Data Suggest Liquid Past
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ph...-20080929.html

[TimberWolf]

We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground.

Well if snow has a chance of making it to the ground, rain has an even better chance (a lot of rain we get once started as ice higher in the atmosphere which melted on the way down).

[AtW]

[ace00]

Well if snow has a chance of making it to the ground, rain has an even better chance (a lot of rain we get once started as ice higher in the atmosphere which melted on the way down).

I'm afraid that rain would evaporate before reaching the surface.
I think the underground seas would be interesting though.

[AlfredJPruffock]

There seems to be water lakes on Titan (a moon of Saturn) - perhaps the most likely member of the solar system to be able to sustain organic life.

[ace00]

There seems to be water lakes on Titan (a moon of Saturn) - perhaps the most likely member of the solar system to be able to sustain organic life.

Nope - perhaps I should rename this thread science with ace00 - Titan is way, way too cold for liquid surface water. However there are Oceans of methanol / ethanol (don't drop a match!) & volcanoes of ice water. Ice volcanoes, amazing.
The most likely spot for life is still Mars. It was once quite similar to Siberia by all accounts. We really need to get down into the sub-surface seas to have a look about.

[Churchill]

Nope - perhaps I should rename this thread science with ace00 - Titan is way, way too cold for liquid surface water. However there are Oceans of methanol / ethanol (don't drop a match!) & volcanoes of ice water. Ice volcanoes, amazing.
The most likely spot for life is still Mars. It was once quite similar to Siberia by all accounts. We really need to get down into the sub-surface seas to have a look about.

Why? Is there any oxygen?

[AlfredJPruffock]

Nope - perhaps I should rename this thread science with ace00 - Titan is way, way too cold for liquid surface water. However there are Oceans of methanol / ethanol (don't drop a match!) & volcanoes of ice water. Ice volcanoes, amazing.

The most likely spot for life is still Mars. It was once quite similar to Siberia by all accounts. We really need to get down into the sub-surface seas to have a look about.

If you read this extract then perhaps you might review your stance on the matter - Time Will Tell - the key here being Titans internal ocean - anyway I hope it is of interest .

Outside of the Solar System I would venture Solaris as being the best candidate.




Titan is highly complementary with Mars in origins of life questions, in that Mars is an oxygen- and water-rich body, with little if any organic carbon, while Titan is an organic-rich body with little available oxygen.

Europa is at least water-rich, but its formation history likely prevented the incorporation of much carbon.

A significant geophysical difference with Europa is that on Titan the liquid water is not presently in contact with a silicate core (on present Titan the core is isolated from the ocean by a layer of a high-pressure ice phase, although in the past there would have been intimate mixing of silicates with liquid).

The surface of Titan appears (like the surface of Mars or Europa) an unlikely location for extant life, at least terrestrial-type life. However, it has been noted (Fortes 2004) that Titan’s internal water ocean might support terrestrial-type life that had been introduced there previously or formed when liquid water was in contact with silicates early in Titan’s history.


McKay and Smith (2005), have noted that there are photochemically derived sources of free energy on Titan’s surface which could support life, which would have to be an exotic type of life using liquid hydrocarbons as solvents (Committee on the Origin and Evolution of Life 2007).

In a similar vein, Stoker et al. (1990) observed that terrestrial bacteria can in fact derive their energy and carbon needs by ‘eating’ tholin. In this sense, a methane-rich atmosphere may act as a ‘poor-planet’s photosynthesis’, providing a means to capture the free energy from ultraviolet light and make it available for metabolic reactions

[Diver]

But the big question is:

Is there intelligent life in this solar system?

[Churchill]

But the big question is:

Is there intelligent life in this solar system?

Don't you worry your pretty head about that Diver!