With the recent discovery of "lakes or seas" on Titan (one of Saturn's moons) supposedly made up of methane or ethane compounds that we call "biological compounds", do we start looking for "life"? Is it not possible for these compounds to occur naturally without the presence of life as we know it in our unexplained limited knowledge of the cosmos?
2007-03-14 12:06:01 · 8 answers · asked by Lab 7 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Why do they insist on calling it "biological compounds"?
2007-03-14 12:18:48 · update #1
These lakes are very likely non-biological in origin. But the reason to search for life there is that these compounds can be used by life.
Even though life as we know it can't live on Titan, having complex hydrocarbon compounds readily available means that some form of life that we could probably recognize could live there.
2007-03-14 12:17:00 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
The term "biological compounds" is a way of emphasizing that methane and ethane are "organic" compounds. In the strictest sense, organic means only that the compound contains carbon. Methane and ethane are special in that they are known to have been components of Earth's primordial atmosphere and are considered precursor chemicals for the natural generation of the twenty amino acids essential to life. While this is true, the environments of Titian's cryogenic sea and Earth's primal waters are vastly different. All the successful carbon based life forms that we know of exist at temperatures where water is a liquid. It is impossible to imagine how the same carbon chemistry could perform the same miracle in a sea of liquid methane.
2007-03-14 13:32:41 · answer #2 · answered by Diogenes 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think the term is organic compounds. This term is applied to the myriads of combinations of C, H and O.
All life on earth is made up of molecules that combine these three elements in various combinations. They are the basis of carbo-hydrates, proteins and fats, but also millions of other organic compounds that includes petroleum, alcohol and the two mentioned above, methane and ethane, that exist on Titan.
It is assumed that the basic organic compounds existed on Earth prior to life spawning. However, scientists still do not know how you go from basic organic molecules to the much more complex ones that make life. They don;t know what actually "sparks" life.
So, with these unknowns, it is only assumption that because there are organic molecules on Titan, that there may be some form of life there.
You should read Hoyle and Wickramesinghe. Interstellar space is also misted with organic molecules, and these two astronomers (Hoyle has passed on now) theorised that these organics are brought to the planets by comets (comets have been found to have lots of organics).
An extension of their theories says that the most complex organic molecule we know of, the DNA that drives all life and evolution, is too complex to have formed in one pass of the universe, and that complex molecules are passed from one iteration of the universe to the next, the molecules in space getting ever more complex from their nurturing on suitable planets.
This could mean that our universe is the first to have developed molecules complex enough for the benevolent Earth to have created DNA - hence, we may at this stage be the only life in the universe.
2007-03-14 13:00:18 · answer #3 · answered by nick s 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Science says that possibilities are endless or very
large. However, designs in life systems follow the
rules of optimization because survival is essential for
each the species.
Oxygen is essential for life and it has to be obtained
from some source to supply every cell of an organism
with it. Grill or lungs, which are present in large
living beings, are not present in multi-cellular
organisms.
Even though humans are the highest in creation, their
ability to hear weak sounds is much inferior to that of
animals. So also is the case with the sense of smell.
Since humans are provided with the highest of creation,
the best mind, they can cope up with inferiorities in
sense organs for survival. The law of optimization in
nature is not to provide the best of every thing in one
living being.
Even though some conditions may allow existence of life
in other planets, they are most optimized on earth.
Life is beyond chance probabilities, because it is
Life! Scince will know in the decades to come that
simple laws of inert matter can not be applied to Life.
Life is unique!
Modern science could not create evern a single cell
living organism from inert matter. Nor was it able to
define what is Life. It has raised more questions
than what it has answered.
2007-03-14 12:43:43 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Of course it is. These gases occur in the universe quite independent of anything we consider "biological". Methane can be produced by living or decaying carbon based life forms, but that is not the ONLY way. No life as we know it could survive at the temperatures required to keep these gasses in a liquid state.
2007-03-14 12:11:44 · answer #5 · answered by The Oldest Man In The World 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It is possible for these chemicals to have a non-biological origin. In fact I think that is most likely the case on Titan, given the extreme cold. Life as we know it cannot exist at such cold temperatures.
2007-03-14 12:11:20 · answer #6 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
anything can be biological. Water compunds mayb be biological for us, but can be poisionous for another species.
2007-03-15 09:57:14 · answer #7 · answered by Adam B 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
lindajune is right, they're not saying these compounds come from life, rather that life can use these compunds.
2007-03-14 12:59:07 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋