Saturn's Titan home to life's building blocks


	Saturn's Titan home to life's building blocks

pokkets

12-5-2007 3:54 AM

373 views

tags:

saturn, titan, moon, life, organic, chemicals

pokkets says:

With a little heat, anything could evolve

Add a Comment

Login to Comment. Not a member yet? Sign up

View the Top Clips from December 5, 2007

Embed This Clip In Your Site...

<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/4d1771cb-8be8-4540-9efb-a62c8ed7fa48/581EA76A-4D2F-4D8B-BE53-ECD6E61A5AF3/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/12/05/2110063.htm?site=science&topic=space" href="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/12/05/2110063.htm?site=science&topic=space" style="font-size: 11px;">www.abc.net.au</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/12/05/2110063.htm?site=science&topic=space"><P class="first">Scientists don't know how it happened, but the oxygen-starved atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan contains chemicals that on Earth can serve as building blocks for complex organic molecules.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/12/05/2110063.htm?site=science&topic=space"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.abc.net.au/img/BF62CDA5-DFEA-4D45-8002-15AD85DA7C0A" alt="Titan" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/12/05/2110063.htm?site=science&topic=space"><P>Scientists used an instrument on the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft and found heavy negatively charged ions in Titan's upper atmosphere, despite the absence of oxygen.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/12/05/2110063.htm?site=science&topic=space"><P>On Earth, oxygen is needed to ionise molecules in the lower ionosphere.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/12/05/2110063.htm?site=science&topic=space">Titan's atmosphere is mostly nitrogen and methane</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/12/05/2110063.htm?site=science&topic=space">leaving scientists wondering how the negative ions, which have 10,000 times the mass of hydrogen, formed.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/12/05/2110063.htm?site=science&topic=space"><P>"Their existence poses questions about the processes involved in atmospheric chemistry and aerosol formation," says Dr Andrew Coates, with <A target="_blank" href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/">University College London</A>'s <A target="_blank" href="http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk">Mullard Space Science Laboratory</A>.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/12/05/2110063.htm?site=science&topic=space"><P>The molecules have additional rings of carbon and can become what are called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/12/05/2110063.htm?site=science&topic=space"><P>Scientists believe these polycyclic molecules can serve as a starting point for simple microbial life.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/581EA76A-4D2F-4D8B-BE53-ECD6E61A5AF3/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>