Life elsewhere in the Solar System

[Cyder]

Leaving the woo woo stuff well alone in this thread I'm intrigued about the possibility of life (other than on earth) in the solar system.

For example, 4-5 years ago I was on a work placement at a satellite manufacturer and we attended a talk given by someone involved in a Mars rover program (I forget who, or which one). He said that if you could get a rover onto the surface of Mars and dig down it was quite conceivable that there could be simple life in the form of algae/moss/bacterial(?) life (probably not little green men).

He backed the theory up by showing how life can survive in the most uninhabitable places on earth, and comparing them to the Mars surface.

Also you have places like Saturn's moon that is covered in ice (Io?). Scientists believe there to be a vast ocean under the ice. Could there be life there too?

What about the other planets?

Please bear in mind, I'm quite open minded with all of this and my views/opinions aren't set in stone whatsoever, they're merely musings!

[SystemParanoia]

Jupiters moons Ganemede and Europa not IO is a possibility, as they are ice moons and there is potentially a liquid ocean beneath the ice.

IO is the only volcanically active moon in the solar system.

[Cyder]

Drat, I wasn't sure which one it was and am far too lazy to use search t'interweb for it!

[SystemParanoia]

i was litterally talking to the kids about the solarsystem this weekend so its all fresh lol


if you want to read something really strange.. google up about Saturns moon Epimetheus and Janus highlight of the solarsystem for me

[Eric Mc]

SystemParanoia said:

Jupiters moons Ganemede and Europa not IO is a possibility, as they are ice moons and there is potentially a liquid ocean beneath the ice.

IO is the only volcanically active moon in the solar system.

Nope. Io is ONE of the volcanically active moons in the solar system. There is significant volcanic activity occuring on Triton (a moon of Neptune) and Enceladus (a moon of Saturn).
There is probably volcanic activity on Titan too.

Regarding life elsewhere in the Solar System. Mars is still a possibility. Europa, Ganymede, Titan and possibly Enceladus are all worth a look.

[SystemParanoia]

oooo new info.. time to hit google

[Eric Mc]

Well, if you consider 23 years old information new The geysers of Triton were discovered by the Voyager fly by of 1989.

The fountains of Enceladus were discovered about six or seven years ago by the Cassini probe.

[tankslappa]

Haven't they confirmed that there are traces of gypsum on Mars, which is only formed in liquid water. Suppose we'll have to wait until Curiosity get there for further investigations.

Talking about Saturn, some of these photo's are spectacular

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/halloffame/

[Cyder]

I believe so, and didn't I also read that there are fairly regular releases of Methane from vents in the surface that could be attributed to life?

[jmorgan]

I know Titan is a tad chilly but there is some interesting stuff going on there, lends hope to the others in that system.


Edit

Encladus piccy gassing out link

And this place is amazing
http://www.ciclops.org/ir_index_main/Cassini

Maybe an idea for links section?

Edited by jmorgan on Monday 30th January 18:29

[TheHeretic]

Even the vaguest notion of bacterial, fungal, etc, would be huge news, and it would make my toes curl. Europa is an interesting one...

(PS, anyone seen that black spot on Jupiter? It seems to be getting bigger...)

[jbudgie]

TheHeretic said:

Even the vaguest notion of bacterial, fungal, etc, would be huge news, and it would make my toes curl. Europa is an interesting one...

(PS, anyone seen that black spot on Jupiter? It seems to be getting bigger...)

Think they said it was caused by an impact of some sort.

[R300will]

Odds are where there is liquid water there are conditions for life. So Io and mars have promise.

[Caruso]

I think it's odds on that there is some other sort of life in the solar system, so long as you a accept a sufficiently loose definition of life e.g. Prions.

[BarnatosGhost]

Does our moon have a name? Every other moon does.

For that matter, does our sun have a name?

[TheHeretic]

Caruso said:

I think it's odds on that there is some other sort of life in the solar system, so long as you a accept a sufficiently loose definition of life e.g. Prions.

Do we have a planet in our solar system called Prio?

[callyman]

BarnatosGhost said:

Does our moon have a name? Every other moon does.

For that matter, does our sun have a name?

Our moon is called 'the moon' and our star is called 'the sun'

[TheHeretic]

callyman said:

Our moon is called 'the moon' and our star is called 'the sun'

'Sol'?

[NDA]

Highly likely that there is life out there - there are more suns in our single galaxy than there are grains of sand on earth. But is would take tens of thousands of years to visit them or for them to visit us. The earth will have ceased to be before we are the discoverers or discovered.

[tankslappa]

BarnatosGhost said:

Does our moon have a name? Every other moon does.

For that matter, does our sun have a name?

I believe the moon is sometimes referred to Luna which is it's latin name.

Similarly the sun is sometimes referred to as Sol.