Comments on: Life’s cauldron may be bubbling underneath Enceladus

By: Enceladus! | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine

Enceladus! | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:46:16 +0000

[...] the geysers are noticeably warmer than the rest of the Enceladan surface. The material spewed out contains organic materials, [...]

By: Russell

Russell — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:35:00 +0000

It is possible that bacteria (or archaea) that ride outward on the jets would not necessarily ‘die’ as we identify death, but rather exist in a super-stasis. It is becoming more recognized that extremeophile prokaryotes on Earth can live in super-stasis for incredibly long periods of time. (This would extend the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ into the fourth dimension, eh?)
Regardless, the latest finds are truly extraordinary and shows that the science team can still pull off amazing feats if supported by the government. Thanks for the nice synopsis.

By: andy

andy — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:18:12 +0000

OMG=Oh My Gosh, surely?

By: susan brown

susan brown — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:37:21 +0000

Is their leader the Big Enchalada?

By: Harold

Harold — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:13:03 +0000

I’m slightly disappointed that the first illustration didn’t have the word “Baby” floating in the subsurface water, beneath the “Ice Ice”.

By: Torbjörn Larsson, OM

Torbjörn Larsson, OM — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:27:51 +0000

Jupiters moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto could all have sub-surface oceans of H20. Saturn’s moons Enceladus and Titan could also have sub-surface oceans of H20.

IIRC, The Planetary Society published an article detailing ~ 10 candidates for subsurface liquid water moons a few years back. YMMV.

@ Philip:

many of the people posting here seem to know the answer to this namely the spontaneous start to life from an organic soup.

No, it is generally acknowledged that it is an open question how it started. That life started is pretty established.

I am also amaged how many of you use ” OMG” even though you do not believe in God

Now you are equivocating between science and atheism. They are different phenomena.

By: Bruce G.

Bruce G. — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:24:27 +0000

“Makes me wonder if we will not soon be able to find “real” extraterrestrial life forms and shut up “CR” & “ID” people for good!!. On the other hand , they would not be convinced by anything revealed by scientists . At most they would “pray for guidance”. ”

Actually, belief in life on other planets is not at all incompatible with Christianity. If God can do on one planet, he/she/it can do it on every planet. See the arch-apologist C.S. Lewis’ space trilogy “Out of the Silent Planet.”