NASA scientists discover evidences of life on Saturn's moon, Titan

NASA scientists have discovered evidences of life on Saturn's moon, Titan.

Analyzed data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft suggest a primitive, exotic form of life or precursor to life on Titan's surface breath with a dense atmosphere around the planet and feed with a complex chemistry on the surface of the moon.

"One key finding comes from a paper online now in the journal Icarus that shows hydrogen molecules flowing down through Titan's atmosphere and disappearing at the surface," NASA website says. "Another paper online now in the Journal of Geophysical Research maps hydrocarbons on the Titan surface and finds a lack of acetylene."

An astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center Chris McKay said the lack of acetylene is significant as this chemical would likely be the best energy source for a methane-based life on Titan.

He said that hydrocarbon might be consumed as food adding that the flow of hydrogen is even more critical because all of the proposed mechanisms involved the consumption of hydrogen.

http://www.en.rian.ru/science/20100605/159318120.html

It might be far more common, though less active, than an oxygen-based metabolism like ours.

By PHIL PLAIT - BAD ASTRONOMY
Added: Tuesday, 08 June 2010 at 01:58 PM

There has been a bit of an uproar the past day or so that scientists have found evidence of life on Saturn’s giant moon Titan. As soon as I saw the press release I knew this was going to be a problem. So let’s be clear:

First, have we found life on Titan? No.

Have we found evidence that there might be life on Titan? Sorta. The results are preliminary and not yet confirmed; in fact, some of the evidence is from computer modeling and has not been directly observed.

Bear in mind as well that evidence is not proof. Evidence just means an observation was made that is consistent with life on the moon, but doesn’t say much else. There are non-biological explanations for the observations as well.

Of course, speculation is running rampant, so much so that Chris McKay, an exobiologist who studies Titan, has released an article clearing things up.

More:
http://richarddawkins.net/articles/478067-has-life-on-titan-been-discovered-no

I hate this sort of science reporting. They found a phenomenon that they can't explain well. So, some science writer determines that there's life on Titan, based on one possible explanation for the phenomenon. Hydrogen combines with many things. It's a very active little molecule. Maybe it's life that's causing it to disappear at Titan's surface. Maybe it's something completely different. Here on Earth, free hydrogen is almost non-existant. That's because it combines with oxygen under almost all conditions. Other things also combine with hydrogen readily.

Is there life on Titan? Could be. Might not be. Nobody knows at this time. Indeed, we may never know, since we appear to be abandoning our space program as quickly as we can.