Still Waters Posted March 2, 2012 #1 Share Posted March 2, 2012 A Nasa spacecraft has detected oxygen around one of Saturn's icy moons, Dione.The discovery supports a theory that suggests all of the moons near Saturn and Jupiter might have oxygen around them. Researchers say that their finding increases the likelihood of finding the ingredients for life on one of the moons orbiting gas giants. Read more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pandachoko Posted March 3, 2012 #2 Share Posted March 3, 2012 it would be awesome ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Ford Posted March 3, 2012 #3 Share Posted March 3, 2012 Best news all week! shame so.much of the world is in a financial crisis though otherwise we'd have more and better probes out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
27vet Posted March 3, 2012 #4 Share Posted March 3, 2012 From the NASA website: NASA's Cassini spacecraft has "sniffed" molecular oxygen ions around Saturn's icy moon Dione for the first time, confirming the presence of a very tenuous atmosphere. The oxygen ions are quite sparse – one for every 0.67 cubic inches of space (one for every 11 cubic centimeters of space) or about 2,550 per cubic foot (90,000 per cubic meter) – show that Dione has an extremely thin neutral atmosphere. At the Dione surface, this atmosphere would only be as dense as Earth's atmosphere 300 miles (480 kilometers) above the surface. The detection of this faint atmosphere, known as an exosphere, is described in a recent issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Read more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kryso Posted March 3, 2012 #5 Share Posted March 3, 2012 Amazing whats in our own back yard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeaselsRippedMyFlesh Posted March 3, 2012 #6 Share Posted March 3, 2012 If only we can travel at the Speed of light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spectre1979 Posted March 3, 2012 #7 Share Posted March 3, 2012 Cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeman88 Posted March 4, 2012 #8 Share Posted March 4, 2012 (edited) i was randomly on the nasa website last night reading about this. what they actually said was; "The oxygen ions are quite sparse – one for every 0.67 cubic inches of space (one for every 11 cubic centimeters of space) or about 2,550 per cubic foot (90,000 per cubic meter) – show that Dione has an extremely thin neutral atmosphere." "We now know that Dione, in addition to Saturn's rings and the moon Rhea, is a source of oxygen molecules," said Robert Tokar, a Cassini team member based at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M., and the lead author of the paper. "This shows that molecular oxygen is actually common in the Saturn system and reinforces that it can come from a process that doesn't involve life." "Several solid solar system bodies – including Earth, Venus, Mars and Saturn's largest moon Titan – have atmospheres. But they tend to be typically much denser than what has been found around Dione. However, Cassini scientists did detect a thin exosphere around Saturn's moon Rhea in 2010, very similar to Dione. The density of oxygen at the surfaces of Dione and Rhea is around 5 trillion times less dense than that at Earth's surface." linky Edited March 4, 2012 by freeman88 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeman88 Posted March 4, 2012 #9 Share Posted March 4, 2012 (edited) i see someone else already linked the nasa article, i missed that. Edited March 4, 2012 by freeman88 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollyhw45 Posted March 4, 2012 #10 Share Posted March 4, 2012 how can they have liquid waters being so far from the sun? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeman88 Posted March 4, 2012 #11 Share Posted March 4, 2012 how can they have liquid waters being so far from the sun? they are bodies of liquid methane and ethane of which are only possible at very low temp and high pressure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xanthurion2 Posted March 4, 2012 #12 Share Posted March 4, 2012 awesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
27vet Posted March 5, 2012 #13 Share Posted March 5, 2012 If there is water (which seems to have been found in various places), then there is oxygen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abramelin Posted March 5, 2012 #14 Share Posted March 5, 2012 how can they have liquid waters being so far from the sun? By socalled tidal forces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jules99 Posted March 6, 2012 #15 Share Posted March 6, 2012 how can they have liquid waters being so far from the sun? Hi; As Abe said, tidal forces, check out Jupiters moon Io for tidal volcanism and Europa for possible liquid ocean under ice .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_%28moon%29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UniqueWolf Posted March 28, 2012 #16 Share Posted March 28, 2012 We may be able to find planets near us that could hold life. Instead of out own. Though I highly doubt we would find life. For how big the universe is (or so scientists tell us) it would be impossible for us (us meaning humans, other animals, and any other living thing) to be the only living creatures in the universe. But with the universe being so big the chances of that other planet with living creatures in it is, well, pretty near impossible. If there is any alien reading this (for some odd reason) I beg you to prove me wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
space11498 Posted March 31, 2012 #17 Share Posted March 31, 2012 how can they have liquid waters being so far from the sun? Because the core ofany planet is hot so with its heat the water can be liquid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted April 1, 2012 #18 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Because the core ofany planet is hot so with its heat the water can be liquid. Not true. The correct explanation (tidal forces) had already been given. Earth has an extremely hot core, but (unless you happen to be close to a volcano) the temperature st the surface is down to energy from the sun. Only on the case of the gas giants is internal temperature a significant factor in determining the surface temperature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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