Microbes Found in Earth's Deep Ocean Might Grow on Saturn's Moon Enceladus (theverge.com) 69
Life as we know it needs three things: energy, water and chemistry. Saturn's icy moon Enceladus has them all, as NASA spacecraft Cassini confirmed in the final years of its mission to that planet. From a report: Scientists have successfully cultivated a few of these tiny organisms in the lab under the same conditions that are thought to exist on the distant moon, opening up the possibility that life might be lurking under the world's surface. Enceladus is one of the most intriguing places in the Solar System since it has many crucial ingredients needed for life to thrive. For one, it has lots of water. NASA's Cassini spacecraft -- which explored the Saturn system from 2004 to 2017 -- found that plumes of gas and particles erupt from the south pole of Enceladus, and these geysers stem from a global liquid water ocean underneath the moon's crust. Scientists think that there may be hot vents in this ocean, too -- cracks in the sea floor where heated rock mingles with the frigid waters. This mixing of hot and cold material seems to be creating a soup of chemical compounds that might support life.
Obligatory A.C. Clarke (Score:3)
"All these worlds are yours, except Europa."
And Enceladus, it seems....
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Does Enceladus have chemistry? I heard life needs chemistry.
Re:Obligatory A.C. Clarke (Score:5, Funny)
Does Enceladus have chemistry? I heard life needs chemistry.
Well, TF summary mentions it has soup. That's good enough for me.
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Well, TF summary mentions it has soup. That's good enough for me.
Please notify me once you discover a planet that has pizza. And where anchovies are extinct.
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Everything has chemistry.
Or should we say (Score:2)
I may be coming in from left field with this, but maybe it is time to use that phrase Life as we know it
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I may be coming in from left field with this, but maybe it is time to use that phrase Life as we know it
Now, now. There's no reason to drag Katherine Heigl into this [wikipedia.org].
[ Left field is where I live. :-) ]
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Bringing her in could have Side Effects [wikipedia.org].
Or should we say (Score:2)
Maybe it is time we start using the phrase Life as we know it
Life as we know it needs one thing (Score:4, Insightful)
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Just like the concept that the universe came from nothing (this is the point of origin to true Atheists.) By definition nothing cannot produce something nor can nothing have a greater definition than nothing otherwise it is more than nothing.
Even though there is speculation that life can come from non life there is no experimental proof and even if we could create life from non l
Re:Life as we know it needs one thing (Score:4, Insightful)
There could hardly be anything less wild. We see all the different components of life developing as non-life. We even have intermediate forms that we're not sure whether to call life or not. Pointing out that we don't see a non-life-form actually changing into life is no different than shouting "missing link!" at human evolution when we have dozens of links. Humans are not omniscient, so we will never have every single piece to the puzzle -- that doesn't mean we can't tell what the puzzle is a picture of on a large scale.
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I hope you are not currently on a Jury and that you are not a judge.
shouting "missing link" is the right approach (I was not shouting) if there is one. Back at parent I think this is the clear statement which is disagreed on semantics, such as the possibility that aliens brought life to earth perhaps. But the concept of aliens either in the solar system or outside of it remains specul
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It takes a few minutes to get started, but here's a (very) basic vid on abiogenesis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
And another https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
They don't break down, but your suggesting they do simply shows that you're not a biologist and you don't have an understanding of the material (nor are you act
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The youtube link by the way then leads in to Darwin and natural selection as evolution. This is not evolution, let me make a little plain description of natural selection.
In the existing gene there is a
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You can be as stupid as you want to be, but it means nothing other than you're stupid. You have no understanding of science, and you seem to think that because you're stupider than fuck, that other people are as well. Some are, most aren't. I honestly don't understand why people who c
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The concept that Life comes from Non-life is speculation which I would call wild.
I look around and conclude that either Life came from Non-life, or it was seeded from elsewhere that had life.
That second option also has the same conclusion.
Somewhere in the universe either Life came from non-Life, or there was extra-universe intervention by an outside agent (which again has the same two options for where they came from).
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Because you don't believe in God? So to be fair you can say it is one of three, otherwise it is not science since options are excluded due to pre-bias. This kind of bias is exactly what stops science IMO, however then the accusation is made that Creationist scientists are biased. Fine but lets say everyone is biased.
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Life as we know it need one thing: a starting point of Earth.
As we can't be sure of the starting point of life on Earth, that's a rather large nope.
Life on Enceladus? (Score:3)
I wonder if it's tasty.
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I prefer drinking fresh mango juice. With goldfish shoals nibbling at my toes. Fun, fun, fun.
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Probably. But the proteins are probably misfolded [neurophage.com]
Finally somebody believes me (Score:1)
I have been saying for years that ANY planet with a large body of liquid water is pretty much guaranteed to have life. There is simply too much varied, insane, completely-cut-off-from-the-sun life in our oceans that it's simply ridiculous to believe there isn't something similar on another planet or large moon.
And the discovery of even a single non-terrestrial microbe swimming around completely alone on another planet/moon in the solar system is definitive proof that there is life elsewhere in the universe
Crack you own insight! (Score:1)
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It's one thing to take some extremophiles that descended from more cushy conditions on Earth, and get them to grow in a similar environment to the one they evolved to match here. But they had the luxury of evolving from things which first arose in more hospitable situations.
It's another thing to start the life process out from scratch. At the moment, we don't know how likely that is or isn't. One thing the Earth had going for it is really great conditions for a long period of time, and a large scale, so lots of random chances to do whatever-it-is that has to get done. Time and scale both seem likely to help.
For all we know, Earth is a fluke, and life is a statistical rarity, existing on only a few lucky planets in an average galaxy. Or for all we know, it happens almost everywhere conditions work out to support it, but if so, we haven't found any signs of exoplanetary intelligence yet. (Of course we haven't looked very much, either).
I want there to be microbial life found elsewhere in the solar system, but I would not bet in favor of it. I might - barely - bet in favor of past life on a system like Mars which went extinct when conditions there took a turn for the worse.
Almost exactly what I came to say. Life much more likely starts in mild friendly conditions, and if it thrives some of it evolves to take on the extremes.
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The hydrothermal ocean vents with extreme pressure and no light where we call life "extremophiles" are commonly thought to be where life began. In reality, we're the extremophiles -- nature's weirdest experiments that haven't died yet, living in the harshly varied surface conditions instead of in the safety of the unchanging depths of the ocean. The so-called extremophiles are the easiest f
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The hydrothermal ocean vents with extreme pressure and no light where we call life "extremophiles" are commonly thought to be where life began
Warm waters, even at deep ocean pressures, are conditions that would be considered mild and friendly.
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Does your definition of "friendly" include the presence of free oxygen?
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Does your definition of "friendly" include the presence of free oxygen?
Not necessarily. More a place where the building blocks can come together (warm enough, calm enough) without immediately being torn apart.
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You dodged the obvious trap, but "enough" is still somewhat subjective. Organisms that live around hydrothermal vents probably wouldn't find the surface of the Mediterranean "warm enough", though plenty of algae love it.
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I was thinking the same thing. GP's premise seems to be based on the assumption that the Earth has always been how it is now. I can think of one pretty major thing where that definitely isn't the case.
In fact, the definition of extremophile is largely subjective. They could say the same about us: how do they cope with the cold, and all that poison in the air?
Maybe, maybe not (Score:2)
are thought to
the possibility that
might be
Scientists think that
there may be
l seems to be
might support
Just quoting.
Panspermia You (Score:3)
What is really surprising is bacteria has been found growing in space, on the outside of the International Space Station. Is it possible that our exploration of space could inadvertently be leaving a trail of life in its entirety, or at least highly developed constituent parts? If it doesn't yet exist, Earth might become the origin of extraterrestrial life.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/11/mars-soil-earthworm-agriculture-science-spd/ [nationalgeographic.com]
http://www.iflscience.com/space/cosmonauts-find-live-bacteria-on-the-hull-of-the-iss/ [iflscience.com]
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/12/1219_TVsugarmeteors.html [nationalgeographic.com]
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Getting some of Earth's microbes living on Enceladus would be exciting, but not surprising.
Wow! Invasive species . . . Solar System Enterprise Edition!
Yes, we should definitely take a few test tubes of some Earth microbes when we go there, and plant them. Then we can return in a few thousand years, and see how they are doing . . .
. . . or . . . maybe they will have evolved in that time, and they will come looking to see how we are doing . . . and how we taste.
Maybe something sent there by us will have some unintentional "stowaways" . . . microbes picked up in the Earth atmosphere and sticki
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Getting some of Earth's microbes living on Enceladus would be exciting, but not surprising.
Wow! Invasive species . . . Solar System Enterprise Edition!
Yes, we should definitely take a few test tubes of some Earth microbes when we go there, and plant them. Then we can return in a few thousand years, and see how they are doing . . .
. . . or . . . maybe they will have evolved in that time, and they will come looking to see how we are doing . . . and how we taste.
Maybe something sent there by us will have some unintentional "stowaways" . . . microbes picked up in the Earth atmosphere and sticking to the outside of the spacecraft . . . and we will get the same effect.
Point taken. The scientists' think life is possible there - they are not intentionally sending life there. I was off. The bit of the story that said, "This mixing of hot and cold material... might support life," allowed my mind to wander, and wonder: if life ain't already there, we might be the ones bringing life to suitable extraterrestrial habitats like Encleadus. And yes, it might be done by means of, as you say, "unintentional stowaways".
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Earthworms can grow in simulated Martian soil
Unless the medium contains simulated organic material, no; no, they can't (fauna - including earthworms - require more than water, minerals and energy).
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...Earthworms can grow in simulated Martian soil...
Unless the medium contains simulated organic material, no; no, they can't (fauna - including earthworms - require more than water, minerals and energy).
You are right - Wieger Wamelink adds pig manure. The experiment slightly raises the chance of life already existing on Mars, and the greater possibility of colony sustainability. The point being that, either way, life is possible there. https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/888415/life-on-mars-nasa-space-red-planet-humans-to-mars-elon-musk-earthworm [express.co.uk]
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That's why NASA has gone to great lengths to sterilize spacecraft headed to places like Mars. There's even a planetary protection officer.
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Is it possible that our exploration of space could inadvertently be leaving a trail of life
That's why NASA has gone to great lengths to sterilize spacecraft headed to places like Mars. There's even a planetary protection officer.
I've heard the US signed an international treaty to that effect. Alcohol sterilization, course correction to avoid the rocket's third stage hitting Mars, and spacecraft are not allowed to carry more than 300,000 bacterial spores. I'm sure NASA is doing a fine job, but they ain't the only ones sending stuff to space.
The microbes on the surface of the ISS may or may not come from the atmosphere, but that they stay alive while in space suggests that life could 'go forth and multiply' by those
Energy gradient, way of storing information (Score:2)
The landing team (Score:2)
'You in the red shirt!'
'What part of Phasers on stun did you not understand??'
Underground Microbes Live on Radioactivity (Score:4, Informative)
A Princeton-led research group has discovered (http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S16/13/72E53/index.xml?section=newsreleases) an isolated community of bacteria nearly two miles underground that derives all of its energy from the decay of radioactive rocks rather than from sunlight. According to members of the team, the finding suggests life might exist in similarly extreme conditions even on other worlds.
Scientists say (Score:1)
[random natural property on Earth] has the same basic elements [we _think_ since we have no proof other than pictures] of another [planet/moon/asteroid] that humanity will never make it to! Isn't science great?
Worthless tripe. Pale blue dot. All there is, all there was, all there ever will be.