APOD: Huygens Lands on Titan (2015 Jan 16)

[Chris Peterson]

Establishing off-world colonies to protect ourselves from ourselves would indeed be absurd, if that was the only reason. Protecting our race from the universe is more to the point. We don't want to be watching the approach of the killer asteroid while thinking, "Gee, I guess we should have started a Mars colony years ago. Oh well, too late now!"

If we had a colony on Mars and the Earth was hit by a killer asteroid, everyone on Mars would be dead before long, as well. We are very far from having the technology to survive on Mars indefinitely without a great deal of support from Earth.

Your argument is fine when we're considering the distant future. But I'd laugh at somebody proposing we spend money for a manned Mars mission for the purpose of taking all our eggs out of a single basket.

[Chris Peterson]

I wonder if an asteroid-stricken Earth would still be easier to survive than Mars?

Almost certainly. We are a very resilient species. It would take one heck of a hit (much bigger than what took out the dinosaurs) to kill us off. Sure, it would wipe out our civilization and probably set us back a few hundred or even a few thousand years. But I'm sure enough humans would survive that we'd still have much greater genetic diversity on Earth than we'd see on Mars for a very long time.

And the Earth at its worst after an impact is certainly going to be a better environment for survival than Mars, which is as inhospitable and deadly to humans as the Moon or space.

[Boomer12k]

Gosh!! Has it been ten years???
I was so sick back then, I don't remember much I guess.....darn squirrels....

:---[===] *

[Guest12]

I wonder if an asteroid-stricken Earth would still be easier to survive than Mars?

Almost certainly. We are a very resilient species. It would take one heck of a hit (much bigger than what took out the dinosaurs) to kill us off. Sure, it would wipe out our civilization and probably set us back a few hundred or even a few thousand years. But I'm sure enough humans would survive that we'd still have much greater genetic diversity on Earth than we'd see on Mars for a very long time.

And the Earth at its worst after an impact is certainly going to be a better environment for survival than Mars, which is as inhospitable and deadly to humans as the Moon or space.

Y'all have great conversations and debates here. I thoroughly enjoy reading them. I appreciate how most of you are polite and go out of your way to help educate the readers. Thanks.

[MarkBour]

The Huygens images are truly beautiful. Titan looks like a glistening penny in these fish-eye images.

So, if you have a whole world teeming with "complex chemistry of organic molecules", and if Titan does turn out to have a subsurface liquid ocean, then do you have all of the ingredients for life as we know it? What would you say that such a world lacks that is essential? If it lacks the ability to form carbon-based life, does it at least have the ability to form truly complex molecules? What is the best it can produce?

[Red in Blue]

-290 is obviously F. even still, to say: " The Huygens data and a decade of exploration by Cassini have shown Titan to be a tantalizing world hosting a complex chemistry of organic compounds, dynamic landforms, lakes, seas, and a possible subsurface ocean of liquid water. Really!?

Ditto here.

What does "absolute" in "Absolute Zero" mean anyway, if -273 F can be breached?

[Chris Peterson]

-290 is obviously F. even still, to say: " The Huygens data and a decade of exploration by Cassini have shown Titan to be a tantalizing world hosting a complex chemistry of organic compounds, dynamic landforms, lakes, seas, and a possible subsurface ocean of liquid water. Really!?

Ditto here.

What does "absolute" in "Absolute Zero" mean anyway, if -273 F can be breached?

Absolute zero essentially describes the temperature of a system whose constituent particles are at a minimum kinetic energy level, and therefore can't get any colder. That occurs at −459.67° F.

[BDanielMayfield]

-290 is obviously F. even still, to say: " The Huygens data and a decade of exploration by Cassini have shown Titan to be a tantalizing world hosting a complex chemistry of organic compounds, dynamic landforms, lakes, seas, and a possible subsurface ocean of liquid water. Really!?

Yeah, the "complex chemistry of organic compounds" would have to be "complex" relative to other bodies in our solar system apart from Earth. If we could compare complete lists of all the cabon containing compounds found in both Titan and Earth Titan's list would seem simple indeed.

The "possible subsurface ocean of liquid water" is very plausible though. H₂O is abundant in the outer solar system, and the interiors of large bodies at this point in time are always warmer than their surfaces.

Bruce