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From the article: “Methane is a product of biology. For methane to be in Mars' atmosphere, there has to be a replenishable source”. From http://en.wikipedia.or
by thamer 18y ago
From the article: “Methane is a product of biology. For methane to be in Mars' atmosphere, there has to be a replenishable source”.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakes_of_Titan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakes_of_Titan :
The lakes of Titan, a moon of Saturn, are bodies of liquid methane that have been detected by the Cassini space probe, and had been suspected long before.
Why would methane be a product of life on one body and not on another? What is special about Titan?
- froo 18y agoI thought scientists had already been arguing about the existance of life on Titan? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon) or more specifically http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7716 http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7716
- rbanffy 18y agoThere is no amount of life that could generate those, forgive me, titanic amounts of methane ;-) If there is some life there, it must be either very efficient in generating methane or very good at hiding itself ;-)
- thamer 18y agoWell, the Earth itself has been transformed by life! Most of the oxygen in the atmosphere comes from billions of years of photosynthesis: - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Earth#Photosynthesis_and_oxygen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Earth#Photosynthesis... - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_atmosphere#Evolution_of_Earth.27s_Atmosphere http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_atmosphere#Evolution_...
- rbanffy 18y agoMost probably, a big chunk of the oxygen in the atmosphere comes from last month's photosynthesis - we use it to make CO2 and green stuff converts it back, so, it's always brand-new oxygen we see. But free oxygen indicates a far more active biosphere than lots of methane would and I get your point - methane makers are much lower profile than oxygen makers. As for Titan being covered with life... We really don't know if the lakes we see from space aren't giant amoebas waiting patiently to eat any humans that land on their beaches and just cleverly pretending to be lakes. ;-)