Phoenix Launched

[NickD]

Titan's atmosphere is full of naturally-occuring organic materials, such as methane. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Iapetus, Enceladus, Uranus, Ariel, Oberon, Titania, Miranda, Umbriel, Neptune, Triton all also have organics on them, in varying amounts.

My bad. I read your message as organic life rather than organic molecules. And of course, we're back to how likely life springs from organic molecules through strong emergence, which is likened to magic.

Putting that aside, Titan's a moon, not a planet as I said. And how do we really know that Titan atmosphere and body is composed of so much methane? I mean, we've only looked at the moon through telescopes and cameras on probes, so anything there is purely conjecture as well. It could be materials that behave like methane but are either something we've never seen before or are something we have seen before but behave differently on Titan.

[Mulu]

And of course, we're back to how likely life springs from organic molecules through strong emergence, which is likened to magic.

Yes, anything we don't understand fully gets likened to magic, or an act of God. Funny that.

And how do we really know that Titan atmosphere and body is composed of so much methane?

Spectral analysis works. Remember, we've sent probes into space too. Specifically the Cassini-Huygens mission, which included an Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer and Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer. Cassini sampled Titan's atmosphere, covering the uppermost atmosphere down to the surface.

The days of guessing that the Universe is composed of air, earth, fire and water are long gone, you know. Early science was disproved because it was largely based on speculation, not because humans are incapable of making good observations, and certainly not because fundamental atomic and electron properties change as you travel through space, because if they *did* then our space probes wouldn't work once they left the Earth.... Think about it. Cassini was right next to Titan, using fuel and computers according to chemical and physical calculations made right here on Earth. Can you imagine what the Moon Shot would have been like if physical laws changed once you left the Earth?

"Houston, we have a problem, my water has just turned into rock, and I have a splitting headache. Houston? Why is the sun now blue?"

[Grand Fromage]

The stupidity... blinding... must struggle... past...

Another cool probe launching soon is Dawn. I've always wanted to see Ceres up close. If it hadn't been for Jupiter's gravity it probably would've formed a proper planet instead of just being stuck as a big asteroid. Poor Ceres. :(

[Mulu]

An interesting article on emergence in plasma. Plasma DNA

The new computer simulations suggest that in the gravity-free environment of space, the plasma particles will bead together to form string-like filaments that then twist into corkscrew shapes. The helical strands resemble DNA and are themselves electrically charged and attracted to one another.


The computer-modeled plasma particles can also divide to form two copies of the original structure and even "evolve" into more stable structures that are better able to survive in the plasma.