Would NASA reveal it if life was found on Titan?

Now it's on its way: the Huyghens probe has left Cassini and is traveling towards Titan, one of the most mysterious worlds of our star system... Titan is the only satellite which has an atmosphere, and actually, it is very much like a planet. Saturn's biggest satelite is very similar to what our own planet Earth was at the very beginning of the development of life here...

It is only speculation, but under the thick clouds that hide the surface of Titan, there could be life. Maybe only amoeba, microbes or viruses or even unicellular life, but what a tantalizing possibility!

What do you think?... Would NASA reveal it? If Huyghens would send us the proof that life is found on another celestial body than the earth, would we know? That amazingly important discovery could be hidden or revealed... I don't know. I'd love to hear that Titan harbors life... I think it would not be first time if NASA holds that discovery. What do you really think?

Since Huyghens is not a NASA but a ESA probe, it would need to be covered up by the ESA too. The cassini craft is the NASA-build part, and the Huyghens data is received at ESA control in Darmstadt( Germany) too, or even before. so if someone wants to cover up the results of that probe, it's the european space agency + the italian space agency + NASA. a big cover up for a few microbes i think

but noone knows what will happen..Huyghens could land in a big sea of nothing interesting and send only few data home to earth.

www.esa.int...

Originally posted by Hannah
(...)Huyghens is not a NASA but a ESA probe(...)

Apologies for that... The incredible is that I actually knew it, I don't know what happened with me! My mind I believe was on another planet!!

At the most there will be single celled lifeforms! But to say there are complex lifeforms i dunno about that!

I think if they did find microbes they would tell us. I am also excited about this and with the recent announcement of microbial life on Mars possibly.
Could you imagine 2 more places with life in our Solar System. It would just be one more step to the realization that life is very common in the universe. Couple that with how big the Universe is and we probably can not even imagine how stange it is.

I don't see why they would keep the information from the world. If anything, life somewhere else would probably spur interest in the space programs again.

Depends one what they found if they just found small microbes etc then I'm sure they would reveal that however if they found some huge city or summut then there would be no way that would get out and as with Apollo mission alot of the people involved would suddenly have accidents

But they wouldnt know if there are microbes etc when using the hyugens.

There is more chance of the possibilty of finding life as we "dont" know it.

We might see totally different species/life forms that will totally amaze everyone, il leave it to your own imagination, and i really do hope we find discover something new, but i really dont see us discovering other life forms in out life time.

Originally posted by markjaxson
But they wouldnt know if there are microbes etc when using the hyugens.

There is more chance of the possibilty of finding life as we "dont" know it.

We might see totally different species/life forms that will totally amaze everyone, il leave it to your own imagination, and i really do hope we find discover something new, but i really dont see us discovering other life forms in out life time.

How old are you?

I don't believe there is much of a chance for any kind of life on Titan.. after all Titan does have an atmosphere 1.5 times as dense as Earth's and does contain organic compounds, oceans or seas of liquid methane and ethane. Titan is also a very cold place with temps as low as minus-289 degrees Fahrenheit.

At that extreme cold I don't think anything living would have a chance, it is so cold there that methane gas rains like water to form oceans of liquid gas, it is so far from the sun that it is a very dark place.

If any form of life exists on Titan it would have to be some form of life that would be unlike anything we'd understand or have anything to compare it too.

My bet.. NOT A CHANCE .. no life on Titan.

Gazz

Originally posted by swordfish

Originally posted by markjaxson
But they wouldnt know if there are microbes etc when using the hyugens.

There is more chance of the possibilty of finding life as we "dont" know it.

We might see totally different species/life forms that will totally amaze everyone, il leave it to your own imagination, and i really do hope we find discover something new, but i really dont see us discovering other life forms in out life time.

How old are you?

Why? Your not trying to hit on me are you, i am 27, and quite drunk at the moment so if my comment did not make any sense to you then thats not my fault...its the alcohol.

Ahh, i have just read my post again and see quite a few spelling mistakes, but i am not going to edit them.

Infact im laughing at it right now!

I think by far the better chance of finding life in this solar system is on Europa. If we find any life there I bet it would be like what we have living near the thermal vents here on earth something like tubeworms and shrimp,fish, ect...

I think they would tell us because a mission to drill under the ice will cost alot and even if they find alien tubeworms or fish I dont see it effecting anyones belief system. No reason to hide a discovery like that but great incentive for NASA because I bet there funding would double it the found even basic alien life.

It is highly unlikely that NASA will announce that life exists on Titan, since they are not announcing the discovery of life on Mars. On Mars what you think and see is isn't and what you think and see isn't is. RikRiley

Mars or Europa are a better bet than Titan.

Although I would not doubt covering up INTELLIGENT Aliens I think simple life forms would NOT be covered up, at least not for long. For one thing we have been conditioned not to even think IF any more but WHEN we find life. A few germs and Lichens or such would be the best way to start breaking the "news" of alien life. Not to even mention NASAs budget going through the roof. How much could be bleed off for "other" research?

Also science is growing to the point that privite enterprise will be close on the heals of and maybe surpassing "government" projects, not to even mention Russia, Europe, Japan, China, India, etc all jumping into the space race

All in all I think if life was "found" in our solar system it would be on every TV set in the world as soon as they got the story right.

Originally posted by markjaxson

Originally posted by swordfish

Originally posted by markjaxson
But they wouldnt know if there are microbes etc when using the hyugens.

There is more chance of the possibilty of finding life as we "dont" know it.

We might see totally different species/life forms that will totally amaze everyone, il leave it to your own imagination, and i really do hope we find discover something new, but i really dont see us discovering other life forms in out life time.

How old are you?

Why? Your not trying to hit on me are you, i am 27, and quite drunk at the moment so if my comment did not make any sense to you then thats not my fault...its the alcohol.

Ahh, i have just read my post again and see quite a few spelling mistakes, but i am not going to edit them.

Infact im laughing at it right now!

No, I just find it odd that you don't think we will discover life in "our" lifetime especially now that I know you are 27. I am 24 and I think if I can hang around till about 100 years of age that will be sufficient time for our civilization to discover life elsewhere. Especially with all of the technological advances that will happen. As I type this scientists are developing telescopes so powerful they will be able to detect if other planets in the Milky Way have life.

No, I just find it odd that you don't think we will discover life in "our" lifetime especially now that I know you are 27. I am 24 and I think if I can hang around till about 100 years of age that will be sufficient time for our civilization to discover life elsewhere. Especially with all of the technological advances that will happen. As I type this scientists are developing telescopes so powerful they will be able to detect if other planets in the Milky Way have life.

Ahh i see, i seriously do not think we will discover other types of life ( I take it we are talking either about ET's or microbes etc) We may discover microscopic life on some planet within our solar system but i highly doubt we will discover "Intelligent Life" even with these new telescopes. I have many reasons to back this up but i wont as of yet but will if needed.(Its all to do with how long light has travelled from the planet to the telescope etc.)

Originally posted by markjaxson
Ahh i see, i seriously do not think we will discover other types of life ( I take it we are talking either about ET's or microbes etc) We may discover microscopic life on some planet within our solar system but i highly doubt we will discover "Intelligent Life"

I agree with this to a degree. I doubt if indigenous intelligent life is on any other planet in or solar system. There is a fair chance of a few Microbes or Lichens or maybe something slightly more evolved but not much more. We have found life on Earth in places that we would have NEVER thought possible and life here evolved under MUCH worse conditions then are present today. I have read articles and watched programs that claim that some of earths life forms could exist on Mars now.

But the flip side of intelligent life in our solar system is HIGHLY doubtful unless it was imported from somewhere else. In other words though there is a possibility, no matter how small, that there could be, say, a Alien outpost underground on the moon or mars indigenous intelligent life could be spotted with a child's telescope or picked up on a radio. Earths oceans and forests are hard to miss and what about light from cities and radio "noise"?

I would be willing to bet even odds that SOME form of life has evolved in our solar system other than us. But I doubt they are flying UFOs

Yeah if is 1 light year away thats that planet might not even exist now because the light was sent like 1000 normal years ago its all about the light

Originally posted by yuanshao101
Yeah if is 1 light year away thats that planet might not even exist now because the light was sent like 1000 normal years ago its all about the light

Uhhh

No

If it was one light year away the light was sent ONE YEAR ago. Hence the term "light year" the length of time it takes light to travel one year.

So, are you suggesting the government would spend millions of dollars sending probes to mars and titan trying to find life, and then cover up the evidence? I don't understand, what would be the point?