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Though it's not clear from the article, I think they aren't concerned about the physical material. This organic matter could be an energy source for life and th

Though it's not clear from the article, I think they aren't concerned about the physical material. This organic matter could be an energy source for life and they're saying that it's not enough energy. Even if a lot of stored energy had accumulated, it's not sustainable, and life exhibits exponential growth when food is plentiful.

pvaldes 3y ago
If the water on Titan is liquid [1], by definition some source of energy is warming it over zero Celsius degrees. And if there are huge oceans of liquid water, the source of energy somewhere must be huge also. This is all that life needs to thrive. Entire ecosystems on Earth developed at high pressures, close to catastrophic scorching temperatures, without the need of any sunlight or photosynthesis, just using chemical energy from hydrothermal vents. This does not prove that Titan has life, but life has proven several times that can flourish in such circumstances. I'm not an astrobiologist and can miss essential details about the moon, but in my opinion being isolated under a several km layer of ice, with cold and absolute obscurity, does not prevent life on Titan at all, because it didn't prevented it on Earth. Bioluminiscence still ranks among the more common methods of communication on Earth. [1] (Having salt on the water could help a lot with that liquid state. I assume that we could find easily several layers of saltwater and also methane) But after some good replies above, it seems that the real question here is not "if the water is liquid" as much as "if the liquid is water". That changes the game totally.
- nearbuy 3y ago
  > by definition some source of energy is warming it over zero Celsius degrees. And if there are huge oceans of liquid water, the source of energy somewhere must be huge also. This is all that life needs to thrive. Unless you're counting the warmth itself as the energy source warming it, I don't think this has to be true. Earth's core is hot mostly from residual heat from the Earths formation. It's cooling. It just takes a long time. Thermodynamics won't let you extract useable energy from the ambient temperature. Lifeforms could extract energy from a strong temperature gradient, but not from something like 1°C per kilometer. The energy source for deep ocean life on Earth is life from near the ocean's surface that dies and falls down. The study in the article was investigating if something similar could happen on Titan due to surface impacts.

pvaldes 3y ago

If the water on Titan is liquid [1], by definition some source of energy is warming it over zero Celsius degrees. And if there are huge oceans of liquid water, the source of energy somewhere must be huge also. This is all that life needs to thrive. Entire ecosystems on Earth developed at high pressures, close to catastrophic scorching temperatures, without the need of any sunlight or photosynthesis, just using chemical energy from hydrothermal vents. This does not prove that Titan has life, but life has proven several times that can flourish in such circumstances. I'm not an astrobiologist and can miss essential details about the moon, but in my opinion being isolated under a several km layer of ice, with cold and absolute obscurity, does not prevent life on Titan at all, because it didn't prevented it on Earth. Bioluminiscence still ranks among the more common methods of communication on Earth. [1] (Having salt on the water could help a lot with that liquid state. I assume that we could find easily several layers of saltwater and also methane) But after some good replies above, it seems that the real question here is not "if the water is liquid" as much as "if the liquid is water". That changes the game totally.

nearbuy 3y ago
> by definition some source of energy is warming it over zero Celsius degrees. And if there are huge oceans of liquid water, the source of energy somewhere must be huge also. This is all that life needs to thrive. Unless you're counting the warmth itself as the energy source warming it, I don't think this has to be true. Earth's core is hot mostly from residual heat from the Earths formation. It's cooling. It just takes a long time. Thermodynamics won't let you extract useable energy from the ambient temperature. Lifeforms could extract energy from a strong temperature gradient, but not from something like 1°C per kilometer. The energy source for deep ocean life on Earth is life from near the ocean's surface that dies and falls down. The study in the article was investigating if something similar could happen on Titan due to surface impacts.