• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

NASA finds evidence of life-supporting conditions on Saturn’s moon Enceladus

Status
Not open for further replies.

Morts

Member
I'm still waiting to contribute to the first space probe kickstarter that's finally going to drill into one of these Jovian moons.
 

TyrantII

Member
What's really interesting is if the moon is sterile, we could probably seed life there ourselves as a lifeboat for life.

Maybe in a billion years it be looking back at dusty red/yellow earth wondering if it ever supported life and how the runaway greenhouse started.
 

akira28

Member
sorry, not having sex with some alien manatee. Keep looking Nasa. Find some land based life forms. bipedal, humanoid, hot.
 
sorry, not having sex with some alien manatee. Keep looking Nasa. Find some land based life forms. bipedal, humanoid, hot.

Tentacles, bruh

latest
 

jchap

Member
They found the most abundant element in the universe! Celebrate!

/s Great science. A good focus for future missions.
 

Fish and whales are what they are because of the series of random mutations that occurred starting with the initial life on Earth. A similar string of mutations occurring in another part of the universe seems very highly unlikely to me, so fish and whales being on Enceladus would blow my mind. From what I understand, it's most likely that life in other places won't resemble life on Earth except maybe the most primative organisms.
 
Fish and whales are what they are because of the series of random mutations that occurred starting with the initial life on Earth. A similar string of mutations occurring in another part of the universe seems very highly unlikely to me, so fish and whales being on Enceladus would blow my mind. From what I understand, it's most likely that life in other places won't resemble life on Earth except maybe the most primative organisms.

But you can expect similar functions to evolve, like mouth and anus, likely eyes, and possibly other senses, which in a primitive state, may be very similar to in simple earth organisms.

Whether or not things like bone structure evolve, physics is the same across the universe, barring differences like planet gravity, etc, so the need for locomotion could result in very similar structures to, on a larger scale, fins, legs, wings.

Think of how similar sharks, dolphins, and extinct marine reptiles are structurally, because of their shared environments, despite remarkably different ancestors.

So I think if the day arrives when we do discover life (on an earth like planet) we'll possibly see more similarities than differences, again, assuming similar origin conditions.

But yeah, it will never ever be the discovery of fish, or humans, or anything in the exact biological structure as on earth.
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Crazy thing is that we have like, three, maybe four worlds in this solar system alone, that may be capable of supporting CARBON based life. We don't even have the scientific context to consider other flavors. But what this says is that life may be common and inevitable. Or rather, the correct chemical and geological ingredients.
 

sazzy

Member
If there were a significant quantity and variety of underwater life (ranging from microbes to fish-like species) on Enceladus, would they have been detected through the ice sheet by the instruments NASA has sent so far? Or will NASA have to eventually send something to dig through the ice sheet and stick a light and a camera under there to prove some form of life exists underwater?
 

Starfield

Member
All they need to do is find a new element there that gives us near unlimited energy so we can go back there but manned and farm this shit.
 

Usobuko

Banned
Isn't evidence of life one of the worst possible scenario we could have discovered in our solar system according to Fermi Paradox?
 

III-V

Member
They found Cthulhu.

that would be something, indeed.

When I reflect on our own discoveries within our solar system, even within the deepest parts of the ocean, it is easy to remember there is so much more to learn.

And I can't wait

Isn't evidence of life one of the worst possible scenario we could have discovered in our solar system according to Fermi Paradox?

Nah, just more evidence for panspermia, which I am partial to agree with.
 

aaaaa0

Member
Isn't evidence of life one of the worst possible scenario we could have discovered in our solar system according to Fermi Paradox?

It is. This scenario implies life is plentiful in the universe, but technogical civilizations that survive past our stage of development are extremely rare. In other words, we have yet to encounter the great filter.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
"But can I move my carrier missle squads to these oceans and fire tomahawk missles on the aliens nearby missing them completely?"
---Donald Trump

Ain't NASA funding actually bigger under Trump compared to Obama? Or maybe I am mistaken.

Anyways, imagine if we find Alien life right here in our Solar System. Would be crazy.
 
Ain't NASA funding actually bigger under Trump compared to Obama? Or maybe I am mistaken.
The budget is like $19.5 billion compared to $19.3 billion last year. So barely. He added things like lifetime healthcare for astronauts but took away from things like earth sciences dealing with things like climate change.
 

Burt

Member
It is. This scenario implies life is plentiful in the universe, but technogical civilizations that survive past our stage of development are extremely rare. In other words, we have yet to encounter the great filter.

giphy.gif


We're living it, baby.

Isn't one of the steps of the Fermi Paradox the conditions for intelligent life?
I'm going to put my head in the sand and believe that's the winner and we're already past it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom