NASA's Cassini Discovers Potential Liquid Water on Enceladus

http://www.saturntoday.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=19208
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11744581/

Now, as popularized by Sir Arthur C. Clarke in his novel
2010, the golly-gee-whiz-what-if-it's-true? idea is that
the life forms found on Earth around the Galapagos black
smokers
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/abyss/life/extremes.html
could be a plausible model for life forms living
in seas of liquid water under the frozen
surface of, say Europa.
http://uanews.opi.arizona.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/UANews.woa/wa/SRStoryDetails?ArticleID=4950

But Charles Pelligrino, in his FLYING TO VALHALLA and
THE KILLING STAR goes further. He says it is not impossible
for such life to develop on Europa, Enceladus, Ganymede and Titan.
Using our solar system as a (sample size of one) example,
if all other things remain equal (a questionable assumption, that)
it implies that among the planets of our galaxy where life
could arise, there is about a four to one advantage of
ice-encased-sea worlds over liquid water worlds.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Lecture Series of the Week
    ... Looking for Life in All The Wrong Places ... require liquid water, and Mars has been a dry and desolate, at least on ... turning to the moons of the outer planets 25 years ago, ... Europa makes two trips and Io makes exactly four. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Lecture of the Week Series
    ... Looking for Life in All The Wrong Places ... require liquid water, and Mars has been a dry and desolate, at least on ... turning to the moons of the outer planets 25 years ago, ... Europa makes two trips and Io makes exactly four. ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Lecture Series of the Week
    ... Looking for Life in All The Wrong Places ... require liquid water, and Mars has been a dry and desolate, at least on ... turning to the moons of the outer planets 25 years ago, ... Europa makes two trips and Io makes exactly four. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Looking for life on Jupiters moon Europa (Forwarded)
    ... Looking for life on Jupiter's moon Europa ... With years of experience studying life in the Antarctic and Arctic ice, ...
    (sci.astro)
  • Public Event: Europa - Life Beneath the Ice?
    ... Projects: Europa Mission Campaign ... Europa: Life Beneath the Ice? ... Almost certainly, a liquid water ocean. ... Bruce Betts, Moderator, The Planetary Society, Director of Projects ...
    (sci.space.news)
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