Titan, the new Earth (SCIENCE!)

[A176]

Dunes, Mountains, Volcanism, Coasts (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2203)
Rivers, Channels (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2208)
Lakes. (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2214) (must see)

totally awesome. the expectations of life have increased considerably.

[Retroboy]

Bit chilly though. If I go, do I get a free parka?

-- Retro

[Fiirks]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_%28Stephen_Baxter%29

Yeah baby.

[Busby]

O noz teh Chinese r gong to kilz us alllzzz!!!111eleven

[AceRimmer]

Now if only they could do something about the temperature over there.

It's a small universe after all ;)

[Noname_MiB]

If I remember correctly, that book was less than optimistic about our future.

[Alliance]

Andoria, here we come!

[Inq]

In Baxter's novel, America is ruled by a fundamentalist Christian president who is so hostile to science that he believes Earth is the centre of the universe and orders the equal treatment of the Ptolemaic model of the solar system in high school curricula. China, meanwhile, is engaged in a ferociously determined bid to gain mastery of space.

My God! This Stephen guy COULD SEE THE FUTURE!

[Nurizeko]

Nostradamus got nothing on that author bloke...

[BmB]

Titan A.E. suddenly got a whole new meaning...

[Fiirks]

I thought the end of Titan was good, though the idea of the chinese killing everybody was bleak, to say the least.

[Beelzebuddy]

If Stephen Baxter came across a glass at 50% capacity, he'd blame human shortsightedness for accepting half-empty glasses as the norm.

[Dimension]

though the idea of the chinese killing everybody was bleak, to say the least.

if push comes to shove, I'm just glad I'm quarter asian. gg :F

Anyways, interesting new finds

[grdja]

Uh, no... In the book everyone dies. Baxter likes to invent interesting new ways to kill mankind.

USA was developing geneticly targeted bioweapons so Chinese droped a rock into Atlantic. A big rock. With the polution already there by humans it triggered phytoplankton dieoff. Puff, there goes the basis of the foodchain. It doesent exactly specify, but as far as i remember the extinction is worse than K-T, maybe as bad as Permain, or even worse. No new intelligent life evolves on earth till sun dies.

[Beelzebuddy]

Heh. In Baxter's Evolution, the world elects to focus on earthly issues (fighting each other) rather than fund space exploration, and humanity gradually evolves away from intelligence, eventually splitting into neo-monkies and mole people, the former dying out and the latter forming a symbiotic relationship with certain trees. But, Von Neumann devices seeded by us on Mars also evolve, and eventually conquer the universe by proxy. No new intelligent life evolves on earth until the sun dies.

[Elukka]

I'm surprised... No "Science!" yet. I shall fix it.
SCIENCE!

The pics are cool. But how is the life expectancy increased there, as from what i read, it isn't exactly water?

[snrjefe]

Given the presence of organic compounds on the surface, there are the raw materials of 'life' on Titan. It's the conditions that aren't conducive. Any life wouldn't be on the surface, but it might be under the crust where the core's heat could support a more palatable environment for some form of life to occur.

[A176]

life can exist anywhere, surely you know that by now.

[Busby]

Life can exist inside the Sun then, or in deep space?

[ZellFish]

Assuming the creatures are made of nuclear plasma, sure. And in deep space, if they're pre-decompressed, need no oxygen, and have no use for eye-site or skin. Yes.

[Fiirks]

Moons are often tidally heated by the forces exerted on them by the planets they orbit. Take Europa for example. Its widely thought by scientists to contain liquid water underneath its surface.

[Zepherian]

I would love to see a probe successfully ice-fish in Europa before I die. Would bring a tear to an old man's eye :)

[ceejayoz]

Busby suffers from "they have to be like us" syndrome.

[Fiirks]

Zeph, they're currently working on that idea and are going to test it on lake vostok. Vostok has yet to be penetrated (its virginal!) and scientists are trying to work out a way to get a probe down there without any contamination. That technique will be used in a possible trip to europa (was planned by NASA but has since been slashed because of President Nero's great moon colony LOL plan) on a larger scale (thicker ice).

[Busby]

I don't think I suffer from "they have to be like us" syndrome, as much has I suffer from the "water is the key to life" syndrome.

[Noname_MiB]

Water is for wusses.

Seriously though, water might make it easier for life to arise, but I don't think it requires it by any means. Given the right circumstances, plenty of molecules could take its place. Might even arise without a chemical that acts in the place of water. Nothings impossible, just highly improbable :sci:

Ammonia is perhaps the most commonly proposed alternative. Numerous chemical reactions are possible in an ammonia solution, and liquid ammonia has some chemical similarities with water. Ammonia can dissolve most organic molecules at least as well as water does, and in addition it is capable of dissolving many elemental metals. Given this set of chemical properties it has been theorized that ammonia-based life forms might be possible.

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_biochemistry#Non-water_solvents) - It also points out a few disadvantages to water, but life can still work without water.

Anyways my (and wikipedias) 2c. I'm exhausted and its 3am, time for sleep

[Question]

Indeed i dont understand why life must have oxygen, water, etc to evolve. Everytime you see a show on TV or a report or whatever commenting on the possibility of life some professor or such always goes "Oh, no terran like atmosphere here, so no life. Nuff said."

[Nurizeko]

By any chance does that baxter bloke have fantasies about mankind becomming extinct?.

[Handarazuur]

That professor obviously never read anything by Michael Crichton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain).

-Hand

[Starfisher]

I don't think I suffer from "they have to be like us" syndrome, as much has I suffer from the "water is the key to life" syndrome.That's the "they have to be like us" syndrome. If the definition of life is reduced to some level of selfawareness, you could have a sufficiently complex magnetic field be alive.

[Mithie]

That black patch over there must be where they buried all those Grey Knights!