• Question: do you think that there would be life on saturn ?

    Asked by gabbyandchloe to Ed, Sam, Steve on 23 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Sam Tazzyman

      Sam Tazzyman answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      I don’t think Saturn could support life – there’s hardly any water, and the temperatures and pressures are pretty extreme. I think scientists believe that the conditions for life could exist on some of Saturn’s moons, however.

    • Photo: Steven Daly

      Steven Daly answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      Sam is right, Saturn is not suited for life, at least not life as we know it on Earth. Saturn’s moon Titan is currently thought of as probably the best place to search for life in the solar system (along with Jupiter’s moon Europa). This is because it contains a lot of molecules from which things like amino acids could be formed. Titan is very interesting, it is very similar to Earth in that it has lakes, seas, rivers and rain. The big difference is that instead of water these are made from methane (natural gas)!! That is because it is so cold on Titan that water would all be frozen. We don’t know if life can survive in such conditions, and I think there are space missions that are going to Titan in the near future, so maybe we can find out!

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