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Europa and Titan Life in the Outer Solar System. How does life begin?. The general idea for chemical evolution is: Organic matter + Liquid water + Energy = Life…Maybe. When looking for life…. Follow the Water. This is Europa. Sixth moon of Jupiter - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Europa and TitanLife in the Outer Solar System
How does life begin?The general idea for chemical evolution is:Organic matter + Liquid water + Energy
= Life…Maybe
When looking for life…
Follow the Water
This is Europa• Sixth moon of Jupiter• 3,100 km in diameter (slightly smaller than our moon)
Why Europa?Possible ocean below the icy surfacePossibility of hydrothermal vents (energy)OrganicsConditions on Europa could have fostered
life at one time
Galileo SpacecraftLaunched in 1989 Ended in 2003Jupiter MissionMagnetic data provided evidence that Europa
may have a salt water ocean.
Europa Surface
This is Titan•Largest moon of Saturn•About 80% more massive than our moon
Why Titan?Possibility of liquid waterDense atmosphereOrganicsMethane or Ethane Lakes
How will we find out?Europa
Hyrdrobot/CryobotNASA-JIMO (Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter)
TitanCassini-Huygens Mission
What will we look for?Hydrobot/Cryobot (Proposed, not planned)
Drill through ice crustRelease “Hyrdobot” into hypothetical oceanSearch for hydrothermal vents and micro-
organismsNASA-JIMO (Canceled in 2005)
Orbit Europa and map the planetLook for signatures of life
ESA’s Europa Jupiter System Mission?We’ll know in 2013
Hydrobot/Cryobot
What will we look for?Cassini-Huygens :
Cassini: Saturn OrbiterHuygens: Titan ProbeObserve the surface
Volcanoes, lakes, seasWaterOrganic profiles
Cassini-HuygensLaunched in 1997Cassini still functioning Huygens probe landed on Titan in 2005Found: Methane and/or Ethane LakesHydrocarbon Sand DunesPossibility of internal liquid water-ammonia
ocean
Titan Sand Dunes
Earth Sand Dunes
Methane and/or Ethane Lakes
Methane and/or Ethane LakesTheorized that dark areas were liquidCassini’s radar beams were reflected which
usually indicates liquidsAt 94K, liquids were mostly likely to be
methane and/or ethaneTitan’s atmosphere contains methane
Ontario Lacus•Contains Ethane•Determined by Spectroscopy
IssuesOceans on Europa are still theoreticalDirect investigation of ocean’s could lead
to contaminationTitan is very cold (94 K), and unlikely to
support life