Cassini probe shows that Enceladus is able to support life!!!

[Master Disaster]

Straight off the bat let's make it very clear that they haven't found any life, if they had it would be huge news on every channel right now.

 

As some of you will know Cassini is reaching the end of its useful life and NASA has decided to send it on a few very risky trips before they ditch it into Saturn.

 

The first of these trips was a journey through Enceladus' polar water jets that are spewing water into space. On its way through Cassini took some sample readings and the news is very good indeed. The chemical analysis strongly indicates that Enceladus has sub surface hot water vents on the ocean floor similar to those found on earth. These vents on earth are always teeming with life so its a good indication that Enceladus might have life in its oceans.

 

Quote

Saturn's ice-crusted moon Enceladus may now be the single best place to go to look for life beyond Earth.

 

The assessment comes on the heels of new observations at the 500km-wide world made by the Cassini probe.

 

It has flown through and sampled the waters from a subsurface ocean that is being jetted into space.

 

Cassini’s chemistry analysis strongly suggests the Enceladean seafloor has hot fluid vents - places that on Earth are known to teem with life.

As I said previously, these vents are no guarantee that life exists, Enceladus might he a dead world still but this discovery warrants further investigation for sure.

Quote

To be clear: the existence of such hydrothermal systems is not a guarantee that organisms are present on the little moon; its environment may still be sterile. But the new results make a compelling case to return to this world with more sophisticated instrumentation - technologies that can re-sample the ejected water for clear evidence that biology is also at play.

 

"We're pretty darn sure that the internal ocean of Enceladus is habitable and we need to go back and investigate it further," said Cassini scientist Dr Hunter Waite from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.

 

"If there is no life there, why not? And if there is, all the better. But you certainly want to ask the question because it's almost as equally as interesting if there is no life there, given the conditions," he told BBC News.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39592059 <--- Please read, goes into much greater detail!!!

 

Holy shit, this is pretty big news!!! If they find life on Enceladus it massively increases the chances of there being intelligent life out there somewhere and would prove that life in space is actually fairly common.

 

I really hope I'm alive for the discovery of alien life.

 

Thoughts and opinions.

[Prysin]

looking at all the stupid on earth, i dont think we will find intelligent life... we will find life, but not intelligent.

[christianled59]

32 minutes ago, Prysin said:

looking at all the stupid on earth, i dont think we will find intelligent life... we will find life, but not intelligent.

I'd be happy to see life at least as advanced as a small rodent on earth. 

[MoonSpot]

Whats more is water and the ice-shell themselves make for fairly decent protection against radiation, coupled with the sheer size/strength of the magnetospheres of Saturn & Jupiter and we quickly start running out of the big reasons why life couldn't be there.  There are plenty of reasons why life might not be there obviously, but planetary-wide stable systems are a really big deal if life is to have a shot in hell at taking hold, IMO.

[Orangeator]

35 minutes ago, Prysin said:

  Some old white house in Washington DC.

It's actually not all that old taking renovations into account.

[ARikozuM]

1 minute ago, Orangeator said:

It's actually not all that old taking renovations into account.

And other buildings in the world. The White House is only 200 years old. There are buildings in New Jersey like the Nathaniel Bonnell and Sip Manor that pre-date the WH by decades and centuries.

[Sauron]

7 minutes ago, christianled59 said:

I'd be happy to see life at least as advanced as a small rodent on earth. 

Rodents are pretty damn complex as far as life forms go.

[Godlygamer23]

9 minutes ago, christianled59 said:

I'd be happy to see life at least as advanced as a small rodent on earth. 

I'd just be happy to see single-celled organisms at all. 

[ARikozuM]

1 minute ago, Sauron said:

Rodents are pretty damn complex as far as life forms go.

Especially when you work closely with animals... 

[Prysin]

5 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

I'd just be happy to see single-celled organisms at all. 

just put your underwear under a microscope. You'll see more then you want.

[Godlygamer23]

Just now, Prysin said:

just put your underwear under a microscope. You'll see more then you want.

I'm referring to Enceladus, not just single-celled organisms on random surfaces, including my underwear. 

[Orangeator]

5 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Especially when you work closely with animals... 

Yeah... Rats are some of the smartest little animals, very intelligent considering brain size.

[RagnarokDel]

28 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

And other buildings in the world. The White House is only 200 years old. There are buildings in New Jersey like the Nathaniel Bonnell and Sip Manor that pre-date the WH by decades and centuries.

Oxford is older then the Mayan civilization.

[Master Disaster]

32 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

I'd just be happy to see single-celled organisms at all. 

Its pretty generally excepted that single celled life exists somewhere in space, I mean they live in boiling water, freezing water (something that was considered impossible just a few years ago) and water that's being used to cool the cores of nuclear power stations so whats out there shouldn't pose to much of a challenge.

 

Single celled life is harder to detect than more complex life and AFAIK would require samples be returned to earth (which is never going to happen) as I don't think they can miniaturise the necessary equipment enough so send it into space. That said I'm sure they'll try everything they can when they go to Enceladus and if the mission is 10 years away (10 years is just a guess) they have plenty of time to work out how to send what they need.

 

This really is going to be an exciting time ahead of us though, in 20 to 30 years time we should have regular space tourism and may have discovered life outside of Earth.

[Fonzie92]

19 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Its pretty generally excepted that single celled life exists somewhere in space, I mean they live in boiling water, freezing water (something that was considered impossible .

Don't want to be that guy, but it's accepted*

[ARikozuM]

Just now, Fonzie92 said:

Don't want to be that guy, but it's accepted*

I'll except your correction...

[Master Disaster]

8 minutes ago, Fonzie92 said:

Don't want to be that guy, but it's accepted*

Damn, I don't believe I made that mistake, my spelling is usually good? Guess I got confused with expected but why didn't autocorrect pick that one up? #blamegoogle

 

Turns out excepted is actually a word which is why autocorrect didn't flag it, its the adjective form of exception. Who knew...

[ARikozuM]

2 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Damn, I don't believe I made that mistake, my spelling is usually good? Guess I got confused with expected but why didn't autocorrect pick that one up? #blamegoogle

Make sure you limit your errors so that it doesn't effect your record.

Spoiler

There is an error. Can you spot it?

 

[Master Disaster]

5 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Make sure you limit your errors so that it doesn't effect your record.

  Reveal hidden contents

There is an error. Can you spot it?

 

You error didn't affect me at all.

[Prysin]

3 hours ago, Godlygamer23 said:

I'm referring to Enceladus, not just single-celled organisms on random surfaces, including my underwear. 

ooooooooh. Those single cell organisms

[N3v3r3nding_N3wb]

7 hours ago, Prysin said:

just put your underwear under a microscope. You'll see more then you want.

What if I don't wear underwear? :Ninja:

[Bit_Guardian]

10 hours ago, Prysin said:

just put your underwear under a microscope. You'll see more then you want.

Someone has experience in this department

[TidaLWaveZ]

On 4/14/2017 at 5:10 PM, Prysin said:

looking at all the stupid on earth, i dont think we will find intelligent life... we will find life, but not intelligent.

Because if anything out there is that intelligent, they're staying as far as they can from earth.

[Prysin]

6 hours ago, TidaLWaveZ said:

Because if anything out there is that intelligent, they're staying as far as they can from earth.

pretty much

[Godlygamer23]

7 hours ago, TidaLWaveZ said:

Because if anything out there is that intelligent, they're staying as far as they can from earth.

That might be true, but if an advanced civilization is out there, are they observing us, or simply paying no mind?