ESA science release, 30-11-2005

[thechemist]

ESA has released today a huge amount of results from Mars Express and Huygens<br />Lots of reading to do <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>I feel better than James Brown.</em> </div>

 

[thechemist]

Huygens articles at Nature's advanced online publication page. <br />MARSIS articles at ScienceXpress.<br /><br />Abstracts are available to everyone. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>I feel better than James Brown.</em> </div>

 

[mikeemmert]

Thanks. I've been waiting for the analysis of Titan's atmosphere and surface for some time.<br /><br />Quite a surprlse that pyrolysis of the atmospheric aerosols released ammonia and cyanide. Nitrogen must play an important role in the methane cycle. Apparently the aerosols are not simply hydrocarbon polymers.<br /><br />Since the reflectance spectra of the surface does not match anything known, we will have to send a new, more sophisticated probe. Sample return would be ideal, though rather difficult to achieve. This might take nuclear power. Fortunately, Titan's dense atmosphere and low gravity could support some kind of an airplane, a nuclear White Knight.<br /><br />Could anybody explain anything in this article that rules out some kind of microbe in the air or on the ground? And NOT some idea that this cannot be DNA based chemistry. It's obviously fairly complex chemistry. I would not profess to know what that chemistry is. What it isn't is pretty obvious.