Transcript Europa and Titan Life in the Outer Solar System

How does life begin?
 The general idea for chemical evolution is:
 Organic matter + Liquid water + Energy =
Life…Maybe
This is Europa
• Sixth moon of Jupiter
• 3,100 km in diameter
(slightly smaller than our
moon)
Why Europa?
 Possible ocean below the icy surface
 Possibility of hydrothermal vents (energy)
 Organics
 Conditions on Europa could have fostered life at
one time
Galileo Spacecraft
 Launched in 1989
 Ended in 2003
 Jupiter Mission
 Magnetic data provided evidence that Europa may
have a salt water ocean.
Europa Surface
This is Titan
•Largest moon of Saturn
•About 80% more massive
than our moon
Why Titan?
 Possibility of liquid water
 Dense atmosphere
 Organics
 Methane or Ethane Lakes
How will we find out?
 Europa
 Hyrdrobot/Cryobot
 NASA-JIMO (Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter)
 Titan
 Cassini-Huygens Mission
What will we look for?
 Hydrobot/Cryobot (Proposed, not planned)
 Drill through ice crust
 Release “Hyrdobot” into hypothetical ocean
 Search for hydrothermal vents and micro-organisms
 NASA-JIMO (Canceled in 2005)
 Orbit Europa and map the planet
 Look for signatures of life
 ESA’s Europa Jupiter System Mission?
 We’ll know in 2013
Hydrobot/Cryobot
What will we look for?
 Cassini-Huygens :
 Cassini: Saturn Orbiter
 Huygens: Titan Probe
 Observe the surface
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Volcanoes, lakes, seas
Water
Organic profiles
Cassini-Huygens
 Launched in 1997
 Cassini still functioning
 Huygens probe landed on Titan in 2005
 Found:
 Methane and/or Ethane Lakes
 Hydrocarbon Sand Dunes
 Possibility of internal liquid water-ammonia ocean
Titan Sand Dunes
Earth Sand Dunes
Methane and/or Ethane Lakes
Methane and/or Ethane Lakes
 Theorized that dark areas were liquid
 Cassini’s radar beams were reflected which usually
indicates liquids
 At 94K, liquids were mostly likely to be methane
and/or ethane
 Titan’s atmosphere contains methane
Ontario Lacus
•Contains Ethane
•Determined by Spectroscopy
Issues
 Oceans on Europa are still theoretical
 Direct investigation of ocean’s could lead to
contamination
 Titan is very cold (94 K), and unlikely to support
life