Cassini Shatters Titan Theories 461
Dozix007 writes "The Herald reports: Cassini pierced
the haze around Titan, Saturn's biggest moon, revealing details
that have shattered theories about its composition. It has
atmosphere and soil similar to primordial Earth and may contain the
building blocks of life. Scientists believed bright patches
on its surface seen earlier were pure water ice. But the first infrared
images
taken by Cassini revealed water ice as dark patches because it is mixed
with material that may be organic, raining on to the surface."
Interesting (Score:3, Insightful)
I knew it! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Interesting (Score:3, Informative)
NASA Funding (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:NASA Funding (Score:3, Funny)
Easy, I'm Canadian
Re:NASA Funding (Score:4, Insightful)
Admit it, it's true.
Re:NASA Funding (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:NASA Funding (Score:4, Insightful)
Look at what happened to Apollo
Similarly with the Shuttle.
The only things that got people reinterested were calamity (Apollo 13, Challenger, Columbia) or aberation (John Glenn).
Congress is only treating NASA and similar topics with the same general disdain that the majority of the public want. That's how a democracy works. Until/unless we discover -life- out there, not just the possibility, or have some new massive breakthrough that invigorates the public, these programs will continue to fight for their lives.
Let's face it, if you counted the number of people who were watching the Mars rover landings live on TV a few years ago and then subtracted everyone you had 3 degrees or less connection to, you would probably have wiped out 90% of the viewers.
If you watched live the recent Burt Rutan plane make it into space a couple of weeks ago and subtracted anyone who reads Slashdot or knows someone who does, you'd probably have wiped out 90% of -those- viewers.
We simply are not in anywhere near a majority when it comes to exploration enthusiasm.
Re:NASA Funding (Score:5, Funny)
Surely with the combined brainpower(tm) of all slashdotters, we should be able to come up with something.
Lets see, by combining all the brainpower of Slashdot, we have a database of hot grits, natalie portman, goatse, monty python, simpson, south park, Soviet Russia, and 3. Profit!! references, plus hundreds of trolls, thousands of single, educated men who actually own (and use) pocket protectors, and a few dozen people who simply go around correcting everyone elses grammar and spelling. Oh, and 500,000 pot smokers.
We might not be up to the task. I'm afraid half would quit, mid-task, and return to their online game and half would go back to building their "girl" robot. And the other 10% are too stoned to do basic math...
Re:NASA Funding (Score:3, Funny)
Blue Trane: Well Mister Robber, what you are presenting to me is a logical fallacy known as a "false dichotomo". It is a fallacy, because in this situation there are actually several options besides the two you gave. For example, I could plead for my life, or I could...
Robber: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! (and he runs away, leaving you alive)
Hmmmm, I suppose you are right. +1 insightful.
Re:NASA Funding (Score:3, Informative)
Re:NASA Funding (Score:3, Informative)
JPL is part of NASA, it's just run by the folks from UC (yes, that's an anomaly and in this case it seems to work very well). They get their funding from the same places the rest of us [nasa.gov] do, ie the overall NASA budget which has slightly increased this year if I recall correctly.
Re:NASA Funding (Score:5, Informative)
JPL is part of NASA, it's just run by the folks from UC
Actually, JPL is run by [nasa.gov] Caltech [caltech.edu] for NASA. Funding for JPL comes from NASA.
Re:NASA Funding (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:NASA Funding (Score:5, Insightful)
Interestingly, the converse is true: Too little funding does prevent good work.
In principle you're right: throwing money at something doesn't guarantee success. But in the technical fields, throwing money does up the odds. And while there might be a point when NASA is getting so much funding that its productivity suffers as a result, no rational oberserver could state we're at or even near that point.
Put a NASA Donation box on the Tax Forms (Score:5, Interesting)
If this were made possible I'm sure thousands of people would gladly donate money every year.
What good would that do? (Score:4, Informative)
Supposing "thousands" did donate money every year... let's be amazingly optimistic and say that 10,000 people donated $100 apiece (which is probably an order of magnitude too high).
That would raise $1,000,000 for NASA. Which is absolutely peanuts. That's enough to replace a few space shuttle tiles, or complete half of a small mission feasibility study.
NASA is a government agency. Government agencies waste a titanic amount of money in bureaucratic overhead. Donating money to a government agency is a waste of money.
Lets try realistic numbers. (Score:5, Interesting)
The real issue is that the current admin (and probably other ones) will fight this. They want total control of how money is spent.
We have a similar check-off here in colorado for a number of things as well as we have passed bills that says that the state is to put x dollars into education (we were once one of the tops, now in 7 years we have slid to a level == to Texas; Pretty bad). Now that Owens can not put the money where he wants to, he is upset and try to get the bill repealed, but the citizens are fighting him.
Re:Lets try realistic numbers. (Score:4, Informative)
To start with, the population of the United States of America is approximately 293 million as of July 2004. The number of individual taxpayers is significantly less, because large portions of that 293 million do not file a federal personal income tax return (because they are minors, because they have no income, or for some other reason). Your figure of 300 million potential donors is thus unrealistically high.
But, let us say for the sake of argument that your figures are correct, and that this donations campaign raised $30 million. How much would that "help"?
Well, it would fund 1% of the annual cost of the Shuttle program. Or about 0.92% of the Cassini mission. Or about 0.3% of a space elevator. As I said, peanuts.
The real issue is that the current admin (and probably other ones) will fight this. They want total control of how money is spent.
I would earnestly hope that this or any other Presidential administration would have 'total control' over how its employees were spending their budgets. Wouldn't you?
Re:Lets try realistic numbers. (Score:5, Informative)
Congress is in charge of allocating NASA's budget. The President is in charge of overseeing its expenditure. That's the difference between the legislative and the executive functions.
Re:What good would that do? (Score:3, Insightful)
This would likely not force any budget changes unless a really popular movement got underway to unfund some project or other. Of course, groups would be calling for this all the time (Jessie Jackson comes to mind as someone who would likely be quite vocal about suggestions I would think).
But it would let people feel good about stiffing their pet peeve projects and would give government new data they could use to track citi
Re:NASA Funding (Score:4, Insightful)
Its always hard to justify givng money to pure science. Its a noble endeavour, but how can you calculate the ROI of knowing the composition of rocks on Mars? Would most people care? If Cassini didn't go to Saturn until, 30 years from now, would it make any difference.
We should always have a well funded space agency, but don't get outraged when there are cuts to the program.
NASA still gets $15.5 billion [nasa.gov] this year ($91M less than last year). And where is that money going? Well NOAA is getting a $190M increase [noaa.gov] in funding. Different scientists, but still science research, with more likely more immediate impact.
Re:NASA Funding (Score:4, Insightful)
However, with the short-term mentality most corporations have these days and the desire to immediately satiate stockholder desires, putting money into long-term investment (which is what orbit manufacture would require) will never happen, so it falls to the "public" sector to fund the development/launch of projects, which are constantly undermined by the need for military funding to fight wars for blood or oil or land or whatever it is we're fighting for
Re:NASA Funding (Score:3, Funny)
I'm guessing it has something to do with the fact that none of Bush's family work for NASA... Maybe if they were discovering new and interesting ways to blow planets up they might be in with a shot at extra funding...
Re:NASA Funding (Score:5, Funny)
Re:NASA Funding (Score:3, Interesting)
That would be awesome, everyone comes out a winner!
Ethical questions (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Ethical questions (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Ethical questions (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Ethical questions (Score:3, Interesting)
Ha! Would you care to bet money on that? I'm wondering where you think liquid water is on a planet whose surface is 95 degrees K, 178 degrees below the freezing point of water.
Re:Ethical questions (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Ethical questions (Score:4, Insightful)
Slashdot is supposed to be the nexus, the singularity, the haven of geekdom. Where thoughts and ideas are as open as the source you constantly support with your contributions and hours.
Heat? Who says that life needs heat? Have you taken part in an extended tour of the solar system and all points beyond making a survey of all life from the humblest single celled organism to the most fantastic species of methane-breathing halophiles?
Life comes in many shapes, sizes and forms living in environments which are just as or more diverse. From reading this thread I'm under the assumption that you're expecting to dig a few feet under the soot and ice of Titan in hopes of finding pixies living in communes. Would it be so bad if humanity's first contact is with creatures who live on a timescale that is slower than our own, creatures who live in an environment hostile to earthly life?
Viva la difference!
Re:Ethical questions (Score:3, Insightful)
It is possible that liquid water cannot exist under these conditions, it depends on where the triple point [chemistrycoach.com] is. The solid water may just sublime to a gas
Re:Ethical questions (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ethical questions (Score:3, Interesting)
It's quite significant, since many of the complex organic compounds on Titan are very similar to those that would have been raining down on the primordial Earth before that began evolving. Spectroscopy ha
Red Giant = No Atmosphere (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Ethical questions (Score:5, Insightful)
A common rule of thumb is that the rate of chemical reactions doubles for every 10C increase in temperature. Going the other way, that means they halve for every 10C decrease.
A place as bitterly cold as Titan would see chemistry taking place at a crawl - if at all. There may not have been time to assembled complex molecules at such temperatures.
Furthermore, there are precious few solvents that could dissolve complex molecules that remain liquid at Titanian temperatures. Life as we know it requires polar solvents (those that dissolve ionic compounds (such as salt) or covalent compounds that ionise in solution) - I'm trying to think of any that are liquid down there - liquid ammonia perhaps.
But you still run into the lack of energy.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Re:Ethical questions (Score:4, Insightful)
Point two... you seem to think that our ethics apply to other worlds - remember, they are our believes/values. Applying them to another world doesn't make sense. What we should really do is study from afar, and if we can determine that our efforts can be non intrusive to the development of the natural processes, then we should take every opportunity to do such and learn all we can.
Bill
Re:Ethical questions (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ethical questions (Score:5, Insightful)
The real danger is that we crash something with bacteria on it that manages to find a way to proliferate and kill existing life. This is a danger probably with considering, but more for the purposes of making sure we don't contaminate such a bed of science. It would be nice to know if life exists somewhere else that isn't from Earth. Spreading around Earth microbes will inhibit our ability to pick out life from earth and life that originated from elsewhere.
This all leads to a much bigger ethical question. Is it our duty to spread life throughout what could potentially be a dead galaxy, or do we let it take its natural course, which might very well mean a complete lack of life. Personally, I think that it is foolish to magically exclude humans from the grand design of the galaxy simply because we are human. Suns exploding and planets forming are no more or less natural then humans jumping into space ships and spreading life around. Humans are a creation of this universe, it seems silly to exclude ourselves now that we have a chance to influence the universe.
I personally think that we should fling life to every part of the galaxy until it is teeming with life. Certainly look for life that is already there and try and avoid ruining the life that might exist, but if after a reasonable search it looks like some place is devoid of life, I think we should go spread the seed of life to that barren and dead place. A Mars or Titan teeming with life is a far more interesting place then a chemical laboratory.
Re:Ethical questions (Score:5, Insightful)
we're life after all, a lot of people seem to forget that.
Re:Ethical questions (Score:5, Insightful)
humans are animals wanted you it or not, we're not the first (and most probably not the last) species to 'change' our environment either. we just happen to be quite adaptable thanks to the big chunk of brains we have.
but the point is this: for an outside observer everything man made is 'nature'.
Re:Ethical questions (Score:5, Insightful)
And what if that life did turn out to be (subjective) better than ours? What of it? Should we all say "Oh well, they're better, let's go kill ourselves"? What I find odd about people who make statements like these is that they hate humans. They view them as a virus, not as a natural inhabitant. Self-loathing creatures.
So humans are intelligent, that makes us special? Great. The way I view it: nature decided that it got tired of constantly going back to the drawing board (dinosaurs, whatever) to build a lifeform that could withstand extreme conditions. Nature said "Screw this, the next lifeform is going to be smart enough that I can go on vacation, and not have to worry about some stray asteroid/ice age obliterating them".
So you lose a few species along the way. Stuff happens, even with us not around (see above). Hell, we're not even responsible for the worst stuff. We change the environment to suit our needs (kill off predators, domesticate the rest). Happens with all species.
Your view seems to be: humans destroy the 'natural' environment around them, and need to be destroyed/smacked-down/whatever. My view: the surrounding environment serves as a temporary infrastructure for nature's greatest accomplishment (to date): a thinking machine: man. Everything else is expendable.
In 100 million years (or whenever our sun expands), it will be the humans that carry life (our own human lives, plus other species) forth from this planet, to show the universe what has been accomplished. Breaking down our homes, living among nature, serves no purpose when there is a higher calling.
Keep in mind I do not condone wonton destruction of our environment (or others). If Titan has life, we'll be careful there as well. But as far as nature goes, we are the benchmark. No other creature has the ability to create and destory as we do. I'm only pointing out the obvious, and as we learn more about our environment, we learn to enhance it and mitigate our effects. You'll notice that smoke stacks are less numerous these days (see Industrial Revolution). Humans learn, "Hey, we're poisoning our air, let's do something about that". We learn, we move on. Deal.
Re:Ethical questions (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ethical questions (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ethical questions (Score:5, Interesting)
The core of the problem is that life needs one thing above all else to survive: Energy. The star we call our Sun pumps terrawatts upon terrawatts of power into the Earth each day. Plants and some forms of microbes are able to take this energy and convert it into fuel stores. These fuel stores are then used to power all other life on the planet.
The problem with Titan is that it's probably lacking the energy necessary to sustain life. While the soil may be rich in "organic compounds" (i.e. the elements and minerals necessary for life as we know it) those compounds are of zero use if there isn't a sustainable energy source. And the Sun can't be that energy source since barely a few kilowatts of its energy reach Titan. That's not to say that Titan doesn't have some other energy source at its interior, but it is somewhat unlikely. In the end, it may be that Titan would make an excellent place from which to acquire raw materials as man expands into space. Difficult to find materials such as Nitrogen could be hurled from high up in the Sun's gravity well, to lower points such as Mars.
Re:Ethical questions (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Ethical questions (Score:4, Interesting)
There is no prime directive... (Score:4, Interesting)
Second, was there a big bang? How did it all happen? These questions are relevent in how we think about our life and morality. Did life form on earth based on what was on earth, or was there some comet which had a fragment with the building blocks of life fall down to earth? What does it mean in terms of our religious beliefs? Perhaps science can bring all people together.
Re:There is no prime directive... (Score:3, Insightful)
Um
It's an ethical question we've already answered (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ethical questions (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Ethical questions (Score:3, Interesting)
The other thint is that, because Huygens was being built for insertion on Titan I believe that some special effort was taken to minimize the possibility of contamination. This is the main reason why Galileo was ordered to deep-6 itself... it wasn't constructed with the poss
Re:Please drop the human == BAD viewpoint (Score:4, Interesting)
What, are you kidding? A man's gotta eat, and you can't just walk around letting whomever and whatever take advantage of you and/or get in your way.
Consider this analysis of the Wiccan Rede [paganlibrary.com]. You can't get too much accomplished if you never break any rules (like the Prime Directive, or the local ordinances of your town, or social mores), but minimizing any "harm" that is done is always wise. (written in quotes because what is "harmful" is very subject to interpretation!)
The point is, it's never good to set in stone what you should or should not do. Many have tried to write a "complete code of ethics" that covers every situation, but such a thing will never exist, because there are new twists to every situation, and nobody can think of every possibility.
Should we interfere with developing life in the Universe? Well, quite possibly, yes! Wouldn't you be disappointed if the SETI project failed for no other reason than all the other life out there had decided not to fuck with us because, well, maybe we were still "developing?"
But then again, nobody should go aronud stomping blindly where they might be important developments occuring underfoot.
Humans are powerful creatures, in the sense that we have the capability to do an awful lot of change very quickly, if we so desire. With great power comes great responsibility, to quote a recent blockbuster release...
2001 (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:2001 (Score:3, Interesting)
It might well hold some surprises [unisci.com].
Re:2001 (Score:4, Interesting)
As for the "Easy Bake Oven Mix" theory, what you Nomeites don't seem to realize is that most terrestrial style life prefers a slightly warmer climate. Nasa elides over this small matter, though, as mentioning the word "life' seems to be a good way of attracting favourable media attention and its attendant appropriations.
Re:2001 (Score:3, Informative)
In the book of 2001: A Space Odyssey, they do go to Saturn. The plot is more or less the same as the movie, with Arthur C. Clarke's bonus technical details, except that the monolith is located on th
Re:2001 (Score:3)
Hello? Rings? A good deal more spectacular than Jupiter, in my opinion.
building blocks of life.... again... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:building blocks of life.... again... (Score:3, Insightful)
BTW, oversight is a good thing, but it just goes to show what a bad job we are doing in science education that research agencies need to do flashy publicity to keep the public's and congress'
Re:building blocks of life.... again... (Score:5, Insightful)
Nobody is expecting to find life on Titan! The search is not as much a search for life, but how life started here on Earth. The conditions on Titan is thought to be similar to how it was here on Earth just after it was created. And since the temperature out there is so low, most of the chemical and bio-chemical conditions is still intact and will provide valuable knowledge about the conditions in the newly created solarsystem, aand on how life started back home on Earth.
Re:building blocks of life.... again... (Score:3, Insightful)
Not just life, understanding planetary environment (Score:5, Interesting)
Suppose we find evidence of fossilized life on Mars, and that Mars was once a warm, wet world. What went wrong? Was it simply that Mars was colder, or is something more subtle going on?
On worlds where "life may once have been", we also have an excellent opportunity to examine worlds in many ways like Earth that failed to produce life. Mars, Venus, Titan... These could potentially be what Earth looks like millions of years from now. Exactly what nudges a world in that direction? Carbon Dioxide? Hydrocarbons in the air? Something else we don't even know about yet?
I believe that examining the chemosystems and environments of non-Earths is immensely valuable. And in my opinion, the knowledge gained far outweighs the (negligable) risk of using nuclear RTG for the trip, something we've all happily forgotten after Cassini passed Earth for the last time. If understanding Titan gives us a better knowledge of our own environment, we need to use this argument next time someone protests using an RTG on a launch vehicle.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:building blocks of life.... again... (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree. But finding life on another planet will finally let us "get over it." It's as important as (well, maybe not quite as) finding and verifying an extra-solar Earth-like planet.
It'll shut up all those people trying to say there's nothing out there worth the trip.
As for interstellar exploration, we need a financial incentive, much like the X-Prize. Only, in this case, first company sponsoring a colonization mission to an Earth-like planet, claims it. Besides obvious objections from the natives, are there any international treaties which would bar such a claim, assuming that someone who has just traveled 700 light-years will give a flying rip about international treaties of a planet he left umpteen hundred years ago?
Re:building blocks of life.... again... (Score:5, Informative)
Temperature to Support Life? (Score:5, Insightful)
Damn, we need "warp drives."
GroupShares Inc. [groupshares.com]
Re:Temperature to Support Life? (Score:3, Funny)
Sapmelas.
KFG
Re:Temperature to Support Life? (Score:5, Funny)
Three possible beneficiaries of Titanian space race:
1) Big Pharma - Think of the patents, man!
2) Defense Industry - There must be some way to "weaponize" a microbe that survives at -180C.
3) Big Oil -- Excuse me, did you just say hydrocarbons ?
Of course, your tax dollars will bankroll any exploration. Don't expect to see any of the profits, though.
Send organic matter for company (Score:4, Funny)
"rain down liquid methane" (Score:4, Funny)
Re:"rain down liquid methane" (Score:3, Informative)
Of course, you're still being hit by flying methane, not very pleasant, I suppose. Probably not so healthy either...
Cassini Shatters Titan Theories (Score:3, Funny)
KFG
subsurface life (Score:5, Insightful)
If we bacteria living in 100+ C, H2S environments, or in liquid brine solutions at the bottom of the ocean, or in outer space (fungus on Mir), then there's no reason that they COULDN'T be living on Titan.
I wonder if Winston Niles Rumfoord lives there?
Europa vs Titan (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Europa vs Titan (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Europa vs Titan (Score:5, Informative)
With Huygens, they can be much more confident they will not accidentally contaminate anything.
Re:Europa vs Titan (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.space.com/searchforlife/lifesigns_spot
a quibble and some other comments (Score:5, Informative)
These certainly are not the first infrared images taken by Cassini, not even the first of Titan [nasa.gov], which were taken in mid April.
It was the earlier images, earth-based images, and the errant idea that the dark areas were ethane oceans which convinced the Cassini-huygens team to choose this landing ellipse [nasa.gov]. Now that they know different, one wonders whether they'll modify the plan.
Re:a quibble and some other comments (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:a quibble and some other comments (Score:3, Informative)
You are also quite mistaken about the probe. The Surface Science Package is entirely devoted to studying the surface. Other Hu
Just wanted to extend my appreciation, Cassini... (Score:5, Interesting)
zerg (Score:3, Funny)
Clouds vs Surface (Score:3, Informative)
This 3 frame image [nasa.gov] prepared by the Cassini team, for their press conference yesterday, shows the surface definition through visual and infrared spectra, defining the areas of surface features, ices, and possible hydrocarbons.
Who owns it? (Score:3, Interesting)
Titan _Will_ eventually become privatly owned by some rich tycoons/corperations/religions looking to make money off it, and whatever life is there will be subject to their bulldozing mercy.
Might be far fetched, but remember you can buy plots of land on mars here [marsshop.com]
Re:Who owns it? (Score:3, Informative)
In other words; a total waste of time & money.
Stupid metric system (Score:3, Funny)
Are these units part of the metric system?
Can somebody please translate into more familiar units such as size of Texas or Volkswagen bugs?
Re:Stupid metric system (Score:3, Informative)
So it's about half the size of Texas
VW Bugs, now that's for someone else to work out
Lucky they didn't measure it in MCGs (Score:3, Interesting)
The real question is what inspired them to suddenly think of running something from the other side of the asteroid belt. Must have been the ultimate slow news day.
Newspaper site Slashdotted! Text of article below: (Score:3, Informative)
Flash on the Titan
05jul04
A PROBE has pierced the haze around Titan, Saturn's biggest moon, revealing details that have shattered theories about its composition.
The Cassini space probe, launched nearly seven years ago by an international team, became the first craft to orbit Saturn and its rings and moons on Wednesday.
It performed so flawlessly on its 3.5 billion kilometre trek to Saturn that scientists scrapped an orbit correction.
On its first trip past Titan on Thursday, the robot probe snapped infrared images that left scientists puzzled.
"This is the best view of the surface yet and we don't know what to make of it," scientist Elizabeth Turtle said at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Photos taken at 340,000km above Titan show a murky landscape with fuzzy linear structures, which could be mountains, rivers or faults.
They will get a better shot at Titan in October, when Cassini descends to 1200km to snap close-ups of the moon.
It has atmosphere and soil similar to primordial Earth and may contain the building blocks of life.
Scientists believed bright patches on its surface seen earlier were pure water ice.
But the first infrared images taken by Cassini revealed water ice as dark patches because it is mixed with material that may be organic, raining on to the surface.
The infrared map showed a mass of clouds the size of Victoria and Tasmania in the southern hemisphere, which may rain down liquid methane and be linked to storms or an upthrust on its surface.
Cassini also mapped inter action between the huge magnetic bubble that surrounds the Saturn system, and Titan's dynamic atmosphere.
The 80,000km-wide gas cloud follows Titan and is evidence the moon's upper atmosphere is breaking down.
Reuters
privacy © Herald and Weekly Times
This just in (Score:5, Funny)
what is life anyway? (Score:4, Interesting)
When arguing about life on Titan we must first remember what we know about life in general. The only thing that comes to mind - life is omni-present, once it takes hold there is no stopping to what it evolves.
I am always sceptical reading about possible ET life as bunch of miserable bacteria somewhere under the ice of Europa or rocks of Titan. Make no mistake - if there is life on Titan, it will be teaming with it.
And it is very possible. I would be very surprised if Titan is life-less. It would be a major "for" argument for the Creationism.
Titan is the most Earth-like place in the Solar system. Titan has complex organic muleculae, heat from tectonics and athmosperic electricity. They talked about surface features not caused by meteoric bombardment. It means: mountains, rivers, erosion (soil),etc.
How much we would learn about life on Earth by taking couple of hazy pics from 300000 km out? Keep your eyes open and I think we will be in for a big surprise come October (flyby) and January (probe).
RTFA: "may" contain building blocks of life (Score:5, Insightful)
The probe can't tell the difference between mountains and rivers, and yet you want to believe it's found the "building blocks of life" --- what are "building blocks of life" to mean? The savvy science-journalist doesn't say, because even atoms (heck, even protons and electrons) are "building blocks of life". Think about it, if they found amino acids, they'd just say so. Get a grip, people.
Wouldn't it be embarassing if... (Score:3, Funny)
BTM
Only if you're Valid... (Score:3, Funny)
Sincerely,
Jerome
Navigator
Error in headline ... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:holy crap!!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Hello Neighbor!
Strong source of energy... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:If there IS life out there... (Score:5, Funny)