LIFE ON SATURN

Researchers believe they have discovered vital clues that indicate that primitive aliens could be living on one of

Saturn’s moons. Project by30 seconds to the Moon

The Cassini probe, launched in 1997, began orbiting Saturn in 2004. Cassini was designed to study Saturn, its rings, and its moons and to drop a probe called Huygens into the atmosphere of the moon Titan.

Data from Nasa's Cassini probe has analysed the complex chemistry on the surface of Titan, which experts say is the only moon around the planet to have a dense atmosphere. They suggest that life forms may have been breathing in the planet’s atmosphere and also feeding on its surface’s fuel.

Astronomers claim the moon is generally too cold to support even liquid water on its surface.

Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at Nasa Ames Research Centre, at Moffett Field, California who led the research, said: “We suggested hydrogen consumption because it's the obvious gas for life to consume on Titan, similar to the way we consume oxygen on Earth.

The research has been detailedinto 2 different studies. • The first paper, in the journal

Icarus, shows that hydrogen gas flowing throughout the planet’s atmosphere disappeared at the surface. This suggested that alien forms could in fact breathe.

• The second paper, in the Journal of Geophysical Research, concluded that there was lack of the chemical on the surface.

Scientists were then led to believe it had been possibly consumed by life. Researchers had expected sunlight interacting with chemicals in the atmosphere to produce acetylene gas. But the Cassini probe did not detect any such gas.

Observations with the spacecraft's Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer and its Composite Infrared Spectrometer revealed that hydrogen produced by UV-triggered chemical reactions in the atmosphere is flowing both upwards and off into space as well as down towards the surface.

Yet the hydrogen is not accumulating near the

surface, hinting that something may be

consuming it there. The results reveal very

unusual and currently unexplained chemistry, It

is possible that the hydrogen is combining

with carbon in molecules on Titan's surface to make

methane.

It is possible that the hydrogen is combining with carbon in molecules on Titan's surface to make methane.

But at the low temperatures prevalent on Titan, these reactions would normally occur too slowly to account for the disappearing hydrogen.

The Material composition of the Universe

More information on Saturn’s moon, Titan can be found here at Nasa’s website.

Project mady by Cojocariu Oana and Ivan Monica(30 seconds to the Moon)