Wednesday, April 9, 2014

A moon with life? instead of Mars


Being able to check our moon and realizing its almost impossible for it to hold life; but can a moon that orbits another planet be able to? Well thats the question David J. Stevenson, a professor of planetary sciences at the California institute of technology. Many scientists are stuck with the fact that there mars is able to hold life. O course it could be true, but they are stuck with one planet instead of spreading out and searching elsewhere in the solar system. Well luckily for professor Stevenson, if he is able to prove that there is life way beyond mars. It will be an even greater discovery than finding life on mars. The search that he had done, with the help of NASA; he was able to find living organisms in a moon that orbits Jupiter. They were able to prove existing geysers on the moon measuring over 300 miles wide. As science grows so does the one factor that makes science possible, technology. The fact that NASA has a specific radio telescope that is able to orbit around space and transmit radio frequencies to detect density to show life or anything unusual is the key to finding life in our solar system. The fact that the frequency transmitted when orbiting the south pole was as follows, the density was large and the mass was low and when mass is low gravity is low as well. 
Yet when looking at this each scientist involved with professor Stevenson showed that the moon must be compensating for a loss of some sort and they listed different candidates that could be logical and in the end the one that was more clearer to be was water. Water was living under those geysers. Yet there is so many factors that goes in play when thinking the moon also known as Enceladus could carry life is a long ways from now. the fact that the temperature is at freezing temperature and the light is almost none. These are factors that can prevent life. Yet scientists believe its a process that earth took and then formed into a planet that can carry life. This process is thought to be very soon. 



Picture url: http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/04/04/science/04saturn/04saturn-master495.jpg
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2014/04/04/enceladus/2f937c04073fd3b4f60173b3ade5f86e3f49b049/enceladus-artboard_1.png

Article url: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/04/science/space/a-moon-of-saturn-has-a-sea-scientists-say.html?hpw&rref=science

1 comment:

  1. Enceladus is one of the best candidate for detecting life or its remnants. There are many bacteria that can live in the cold with no light, so there are possibilities.

    ReplyDelete