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Jaren Wilkey, Brigham Young University
BYU Associate Professor Janie Radebaugh, pictured in 2017, has been named to contribute to an ambitious quest for the kind of chemistry that can lead to life ("pre-biotic chemistry") – and possibly signs of life – on Titan, the moon of Saturn.
Editor's note: a version of it has already been published on the Internet author's website.
Jani Radebaugh of Brigham Young University has been selected to take part in an ambitious quest for the kind of chemistry that can lead to life ("pre-biotic chemistry") – and possibly signs of life – on Titan, Saturn's moon. On June 27, NASA announced the Dragonfly project, stating that the probe will fly in 2026 and arrive at Titan in 2034.
BYU posted a note on the university homepage stating that Radebaugh will work on the project.
This author has approached Dragonfly about a proposal, in March 2017. Blog 9 asked readers to "Imagine an" artificial "dragonfly" from a robotic lab traversing the orange atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's moon, where scientists want it, could fly over the lakes, photograph the steep valleys of the rivers that cross the mountains and settle on the landscape to taste an extraterrestrial chemistry. "
NASA / Johns Hopkins University-Laboratory of Applied Physics
An illustration of what Dragonfly would look like landing on Titan.
The proposal is now firmly committed to reality, with the announcement by NASA that "our next destination in the solar system is the unique Titan, a world rich in organic matter." We continue our search for fundamental elements of life, the Dragonfly mission will perform multiple exits sampling and examining the sites around the icy moon of Saturn. "The supernatural plane, which will function as a UAV with eight rotors, will fly around the moon and sample the sights from the dunes up to the bottom of an impact crater where liquid water and complex organic chemicals could exist for tens of thousands of years. .
The space agency adds: "Titan is a very ancient Earth analogue and can provide clues to life on our planet. (Dragonfly) will also study the atmospheric and surface properties of the moon, as well as its liquid and oceanic reservoirs. In addition, the instruments will look for chemical evidence of past or existing life. "
The National Association of Earth Science Teachers notes that Titan has a thick atmosphere and a diameter of 3,200 miles, larger than the planet Mercury and the planet downgraded Pluto. The largest single moon is Jupiter's Ganymede, 3,270 miles in diameter. These are much larger than the moon of the Earth, whose diameter is 2160 km. Titan is the only moon with a substantial atmosphere; its surface and atmosphere are full of oily organic matter and liquid methane falls as rain.
NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory / Institute of Space Science
The second largest planet in the solar system, Saturn, is orbited by the second largest moon, Titan, in this photo taken in 2008 by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The frozen planet may contain traces of chemical predecessors to life, even evidence of life itself.
Radebaugh said she was part of the Dragonfly project science team, one of 20 scientists charged with learning as much as possible about Titan's history and current conditions.
"My expertise is in surface landscapes and geology, so I will study the images returned by the spacecraft, both from far and near," she said. His greatest hope is to see the images of a handful of sand Titan closely, because the sand says a lot about the processes and landscapes, even those that are not nearby.
"Secondly, in my wildest dreams, I imagine finding compelling biosignatures, revealing that the Earth is not the only planet to have harbored life – but it's a distant hope!"
BYU has created a link to a video in which Radebaugh explains the importance of getting to know Titan.
On the surface, she said, "there is erosion, there are lakes, dunes and mountains, so there are a lot of similarities between Titan and the Earth. main thing we want to do with this plane (dragonfly) is to: study this diversity of Titan ". The atmospheric pressure is the same as that of this planet, she said, but the atmosphere is four times denser. Light gravity and the heavy atmosphere can combine to make the moon fly over imminently.
"It's the only other body in the solar system apart from the Earth that has liquid inside the lake basins, but since Titan is ten times farther away from the sun than the Earth, it's freezing cold. liquid, "she said.
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