The Potential for Life: Europa, Ceres and Enceladus

[TilveranNavarre]

Good effort; the subject is amazingly exciting.

This century will be the one in which we discover life on one or all of those moons, it's only a question of time. "Dawn" is scheduled to reach Ceres in 2015. EJSM is slated to take off in 2020 and reach Europa by ~2026. So perhaps within 20 years, well within our lifetimes. Then everything changes.

Only thing I will say about the video production is do plenty of dry runs to get a natural delivery, like an informal chat. Look at Brian Cox =)

[CaptainScarlet2006]

very nice

I like the Music ,what mix is this?

[Joeykm1972]

Europa is not the largest moon in the Jovian system. The honors really go to Ganymede.

[snow1leopard3]

The music is a mix of Bette Davis Eyes from Kim Carnes and Waiting For a Star to Fall from Boy Meets Girl, both hits from the 80's.

[MrToiletface]

volume sucks in this so does the music bunch of garbage

[Nanotech92]

That fuckin music is more anoyin than your dull voice

[deadsnoopy1]

Great information marred by crappy disco music which makes no sense in this context. What about some hawkwind instead?

[dartter50]

thumbs down because you sound fucking retarded

[clintdelicious]

sorry but whats with all the long random pauses?!?! It sounds mad!

[clintdelicious]

lol 'Europa has a THICK.................crust of ICE!' what is with the way you are talking?!?!? Good vid tho, I cant believe I never heard that Ceres had potential to support life before. Its almost never spoken about in mainstream media

[Nightlight35]

Enough about this microbe shit, when do we see aliens?

[mjiscool99]

@Nightlight35 LOL by the way, if microbes originate and live somewhere other than Earth, they are aliens.....

[MrToiletface]

this music sucks monkey poo

[fpsd0minat0r]

cant we crash more asteroids into ceres to make it massive, increase its gravity and hope it makes an atmosphere?

[mjiscool99]

@fpsd0minat0r That doesn't make sense whatsoever....

[Glonoby]

i think ceres probably has life, if it has at least some internal heat

[mewdude98]

Ceres is probably a dead rock but the other two have a very high percentage for life to exist and thrive

[mjiscool99]

@mewdude98 Actually, Ceres is warmer than Mars most of the time, at -36 degrees Fahrenheit, yet is farther away from the sun. It may have an atmosphere already, though it would probably consist mainly of water vapor. So Ceres has a lot of chance for life,either on the surface or in its (supposed) underwater ocean. So...

[mewdude98]

@mjiscool99 -36 degres fahrenheit is still far to cold to have water on the surface. and Ceres is to small to have kept it's internal heat for a long time, so the underground ocean theory seems not to work. Unless tidal heating is at work but there isnt anything big enough to do this to the dwarf planet. But the fact that it may have an atmosphere perplexes me. Maybe there could be methane lakes like titan. However it may be to warm for that.

[mjiscool99]

@mewdude98 The atmosphere could consist of water vapor. I mean, there must be a reason that Ceres is warmer than even Mars, which has an atmosphere. And if you look at the BLURRY pictures of Ceres, there seems to be scattered bodies of bluish, maybe liquid, "stuff." Maybe asteroids are orbiting around Ceres, creating heat and maybe enough mass to create an atmosphere? And by the way, -36 degrees is way too warm for liquid methane..... so I believe life may exist on Ceres.

[mewdude98]

@mjiscool99 Well, The earth doesn't gain any heat from the moon orbiting it. So I doubt that Ceres would gain heat from tiny asteroids orbiting it. But perhaps it does have an atmosphere of water vapor that acts as sort of like a warm blanket. But Ceres is too small to have a magnetic flied around it to protect it's atmosphere from CMEs. But from the pictures of Ceres that I have seen it does look like there is an atmosphere. Also I wonder if this liquid "stuff" is liquid or just depressions.

[mjiscool99]

@mewdude98 The asteroids would probably orbit around Ceres much faster than Earth's moon orbits it, perhaps making an effect like kneading clay, or stretching the dwarf planet in and out. This could create internal heat. Scientists believe this is how Europa might get its source of heat as well. And Ceres is quite small. Miracles can happen...

By the way, don't you wish they knew a little more about Ceres?

[mewdude98]

@mjiscool99 Yes, but it is different with europa because there is a much larger body at work. This just might be able to happen if Ceres had a large moon (100-200 miles in diameter would probably be a good size) because it could create a tidal "bump" on the planet creating a very small amount of heat.

And yes, I do wish scientists knew much more about Ceres. Then the question of an atmosphere, an underground ocean and a large moon would finally be answered.

[mjiscool99]

@mewdude98 Vesta 9 (the the second most massive object in the asteroid belt) is very close to Ceres and could provide heat, and it is larger than 100-200 KM. There are possibly water volcanoes, but that would depend on the gravity pushing down (this is because too low gravity would let all the precious minerals of water float off into the emptiness of space.) The only thing that's worrying me is the gravity.

Anyways, we'll find out more in 2015, when the probe NASA sent will land on Ceres.

[mewdude98]

@mjiscool99 Really? I thought the dawn mission got cancelled along with constellation. Anyway if vesta is a moon of Ceres than that would be great. But, unfortunately Vesta appears to be on an independent orbit. However I guess it could be possible that Ceres is slowly sucking in Vesta 9 to be it's moon. This is of course very unlikely but there still is a chance that it could happen. This could be a bit more likely if Vesta 9's orbit is slowing down. But as far as I know this is not happening.

[mjiscool99]

@mewdude98 Actually, Vesta was not cancelled, despite many rumors. Constellation was, though.

Anyways, I was just making rumors. Vesta probably won't ever be Ceres' moon, at least not for the next billions of years. Anyways, the water volcanoes on Ceres are actually very likely. What do you think?

[mjiscool99]

@mewdude98 Actually, the Dawn mission was not formally canceled. I believe it was just a rumor. It actually went into orbit in 2006. Constellation was cancelled, though. And anyways, I'm just making theories. Vesta is actually very close to Ceres, but that does not mean it will be its moon.

[Darkspy946]

I'm not sure about Ceres.. but Europa I am convinced.

[spudmustang]

Pay no attention to the haters. This was very interesting and informative. Thanks for posting it!

[TKgeniusHELLTX]

dude, you are not Carl Sagan. Stop with the choppy voice, and conduct better research rather than wickipedia.

[Qulopuaa]

we will see if europa has life...-its already clear due to the orange stuff at the edges on the broken ice-sheets and faults .Its the same stuff as on earth in polarregions with heavy icesheets.They dont anounce that just for the sake of greting someone and make money and fame from it. ehh .They know it already dude

[bogdan1231]

i hate how choppy you talk

and your inconsistent volume makes it hard to listen

[jakerideout]

lol, dude you have to much free time, x