New Titan Photos

[SubJunk]

I agree with Ophiolite that "life as we know it" is the key phrase for all these arguments.

What we're arguing are theories, and theories can be proved wrong, and very often are, at least partially.

 

"Water is a necessary prerequisite for life and so in the event that no water exists on Titan then there will be NO life there."

 

Just because everything we know points to this being true doesn't make it true.

[Ophiolite]

finding peptides doesnt prove life exists. Indeed slam a mix of most chemicals involved (N, C, H, O etc) at a planet and they will form a peptide.

I seem to have been unclear. Bernstein said this

However the key to this issue is understanding that certain compounds important to the formation of aminoacids, and other biochemical matter, important for the formation of life existed here when conditions here were supposedly similiar to those found on Titan today. This means that on Titan these prelife compounds may turn up under scientific scrutiny.

I was agreeing with him in principal, but with the caveat that I would be impressed by peptides and above, but not merely by amino acids. Of course the peptides would not prove life exists, they would merely demosntrate that they could be produced in an environment with similarities to the early Earth.

And I think you greatly oversimplify the ease by which peptides might be created in such a pre-biotic setting.

[ed84c]

i was just making a point but peptides have been made by simulating asteriod collision environments with aimons on them