Life in Saturn´s Titan?

Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is a mysterious place. Its thick atmosphere is rich in organic compounds. Some of them would be signs of life if they were on our planet.

How do they form on Titan? Will they help us to discover how life began on Earth?
Titan's atmosphere is mostly nitrogen but there are also methane and many other organic compounds. Organic compounds form when sunlight destroys methane. If sunlight is continuously destroying methane, how is methane getting into the atmosphere?

On Earth today, it is life itself that refreshes the methane supply. Methane is a by-product of the metabolism of many organisms. On Earth, the simplest biological sources, such as those associated with peat bogs, rice fields and ruminant animals, continuously supply fresh gas to replace that destroyed by oxidation. Could this mean there is life on Titan?

Titan is not a pleasant place for life. It is far too cold for liquid water to exist, and all known forms of life need liquid water. Titan's surface is -180°C. According to one exotic theory, long ago, the impact of a meteorite, for example, might have provided enough heat to liquify water for perhaps a few hundred or thousand years.

However, it is unlikely that Titan is a site for life today. But scientists are still currently puzzled by the amount of methane that persists in Titan's atmosphere. Could there be oceans of methane on or under the surface?

ESA

Quizá se descubre Vida en Titán en pocas semanas

Hola Amigos

En muy poco tiempo la nave Huygens ESA se separará de la nave madre Cassini NASA y aterrizará o amerizará.

Parece que es un mundo de mares de metano, etano y muchas substancias con carbono)...

¿Habrá vida?

Las condiciones de Titán son muy semejantes a las de la Tierra desde su formación y durante muchos millones de años permaneció similar a la del satélite Titán.
No había oxígeno producido por las plantas como ocurre actualmente.

Quiizá no estamos tan solos en en Universo.

Abrazos
Sergio Germán Stinco
The Planetary Society Coordinator

PLUTÓN New Horizons Mission News

New Horizons Mission News
June 9, 2004

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu

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Instrument Profile: SWAP to Determine Where Sun and Ice Worlds Meet


The New Horizons spacecraft design includes six distinct instruments and a student-built dust counter -- this is the "payload" New Horizons plans to carry to Pluto and beyond. Our New Horizons instrument profiles continue with a look at the Solar Wind Around Pluto, or SWAP. The instrument is designed to measure the interactions of Pluto and Charon with the solar wind, the high-speed stream of charged particles flowing out from the Sun. Understanding these interactions will expand our knowledge of the astrophysical processes affecting these bodies and that part of the solar system.


Click here to learn more about SWAP's role on the mission, or visit: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/060804.htm.

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New Horizons is the first mission to Pluto, its moon, Charon, and the Kuiper Belt of rocky, icy objects beyond. Principal Investigator Dr. Alan Stern, director of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) Space Studies Department, Boulder, Colo., leads a mission team that includes major partners at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md.; Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.; Ball Aerospace Corp., Boulder; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.



For more information on the mission, visit the New Horizons Web site at http://pluto.jhuapl.edu. More information on Pluto-Charon and the Kuiper Belt is available at http://www.plutoportal.net.

Impactos de meteoritos y cometas

Excelentes trabajos sobre Impactos de meteoritos y cometas de Maximiliano Rocca

Los abstracts aceptados para el congreso anual de la Meteoritical Society estan on line en el sitio:

www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/metsoc2004

Abrazos
Sergio

A Galaxy swallowed another one

A Galaxy swallowed another one in a really big meal!

Please, check this page out.

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/

Cheers
Sergio

CASSINI-HUYGENS TO SATURN

Hi Friends

Please, visit this NASA/JPL Jet Propulsion Lab Pages to learn more about the amazing Cassini-Huygens spaceship.

She will arrive to Saturn on June 30, 2004.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/

Best
Sergio

Ciencia y Educación - Science and Education

Bienvenidos Amigos - Welcome Friends

A partir de hoy compartiremos muchos temas educativos, científicos y de actualidad.
Nos asombraremos juntos de las maravillas del Universo...o debería decir...¿Universos?

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Today, June 2 , 2004, we will begin to share many interesting things about Science and Education.
We will amaze together about the wonders of the Universe...or should I say Universes?

Please visit

http://planetary.org
www.espacial.org
www.conae.gov.ar
www.nasa.gov.ar
www.esa.int
www.proyectodino.com.ar
www.sergiostinco.mascotia.com
http://web.icq.com/wwp?Uin=225576056



Abrazos
Sergio Germán Stinco
The Planetary Society Coordinator - NASA and Many Institutions Volunteer and Coordinator
sergiosaurio@hotmail.com