https://nitter.1d4.us/NASAJPL/status/1669056455901851648
Great filter critics: :picard-excited:
Great filter adherents :blob-on-fire:
Tweet’s kinda misleading. Scientists found sodium phosphates in ice particles in Saturn’s E-ring, which is mostly composed of water ejected from Enceladus’ ocean. We still don’t have direct confirmation of phosphorus compounds in that ocean, and the relevant study points out that the phosphates in the ocean, if they’re there, are probably unevenly distributed.
:volcel-vanguard: Please do not eject vital essences
why’s it essential for life? the ATP in the Krebs cycle or something deeper?
In addition to what TerminalEncounter said, just more simply, it’s a major part of DNA. No phosphorus, no DNA. Here’s some general info on its importance to life.
PO bonds are super useful for biochemistry. If you bond a bunch of phosphate groups together it’s like storing energy in a battery or spring or whatever - earth life (feels weird to quantify it this way but whatever) uses ATP to store energy but any alien biochemistry is probably gonna use it too, well maybe any alien biochemistry that is in liquid water. Dunno about those more wacky liquid methane or whatever ones they were speculating could live on Titan.
Is it actually or is this like Venus?
My understanding is that this doesn’t actually say anything about whether or not life exists on Enceladus. It’s just that the presence of phosphorous is something life as we know it on Earth requires, so seeing it on Enceladus checks another box like the presence of water does. It doesn’t necessarily imply the existence of life on its own.
The whole life on Venus fiasco was a bit different. Astronomers thought they had detected phosphine on Venus, which is a chemical that we don’t believe could exist naturally under those conditions unless it was catalyzed by the metabolism of potential microbes. Unfortunately it turned out these astronomers hadn’t actually detected phosphine.
It would 100% be possible for humans to live on Venus. You would just need to live on a blimp in the sky (so the pressure on the surface does not crush you), and bring your own oxygen. You could even walk around without a space suit on the deck of your blimp-house, because the temperature high in Venus’ atmosphere is around 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit at earth’s pressure.
Of course, it would be logistically insane to bring enough air/water/food to Venus to support trillion-dollar steampunk blimp houses, but it is technically possible. You can’t walk around without a spacesuit on Mars (the atmosphere is too thin), and on Enceladus or Europa you would have to live underwater. Or, really, under ice. Under maybe a mile of ice (which is terrifying to me).
the fact that Cassini died 6 years ago but they’re still analysing its data is interesting. it’s like poring over the hand scribbled notes of some wise old eccentric who died trying to decipher the secrets of the universe
