Life on Triton

[KerikBalm]

Everyone seems to acknowledge the very real possibility of life on Europa due to the continued tidal heating of its interior.

Enceledus is also looked at favorably.

Some other icy moons are considered, although their crust would be much much thicker (like ganymede).

But what of Triton?

In the past, it had very large tidal heating, enough to keep its interior liquid for about a billion years.

I wonder if its composition would be more favorable to life, as it didn't form alongside a planet, which may have depleted some of the icy moons of heavier elements.

Its probably completely frozen now... but if it had life in the past, how would be the best way to go about trying to find evidence of it?

[Bill Phil]

Landing on it, obviously.

[MoeKitsune]

You've got a point there. NASA, Y U no send a mission to Neptune and Triton? But what about the geysers if something was to land on there? Maybe there can be a shield or something? Also, they could have a scoop and a drilling bit, like the InSight lander.

[Bill Phil]

You've got a point there. NASA, Y U no send a mission to Neptune and Triton? But what about the geysers if something was to land on there? Maybe there can be a shield or something? Also, they could have a scoop and a drilling bit, like the InSight lander.

Neptune has only been visited once. If we did send a mission there, we should start with a Cassini like mission, perhaps named after the guys who discovered it?

Then we could consider a Triton landing, probably with a heavy launcher such as SLS or Falcon-Heavy.

[MoeKitsune]

Dude, Cassini had a lander. It's called Huygens. But you're right. Starting with a Juno/Galileo/Cassini/Dawn/New Horizons/All those probes around Mars/All those asteroid missions/This is too long would make more sense.

[Bill Phil]

You've got a point there. NASA, Y U no send a mission to Neptune and Triton? But what about the geysers if something was to land on there? Maybe there can be a shield or something? Also, they could have a scoop and a drilling bit, like the InSight lander.

Dude, Cassini had a lander. It's called Huygens. But you're right. Starting with a Juno/Galileo/Cassini/Dawn/New Horizons/All those probes around Mars/All those asteroid missions/This is too long would make more sense.

Cassini had a lander with a parachute, and I'm not sure that'll help with Triton. But I see your point. We could mix them together into one launch.

[MoeKitsune]

Maybe they could make an impactor that could go into one of Triton's geysers before landing the actual lander. You know, to take some readings of what the lander could potentially unearth, and also take some readings of under the crust, to make sure they're not landing on a geyser ready to blow.

[KerikBalm]

Landing on it, obviously.

The interesting stuff would likely be kilometers under the crust.

I suppose it depends on how thick the crust was when tidal heating made the interior liquid.

I doubt a simple landing could do it.

I do like the other suggestion for an impactor... if it went deep enough, and an orbiter could scoop up particles and do mass spec on them, we might find surprisingly complex organics... but would the organics last that long? would they survive the heating from the impactor... hmmmm

[Kryten]

I doubt 'complex organic molecules' would mean very much even if we found them. It's got all the right conditions for natural tholin production.

[MoeKitsune]

But what can we use tholins for, if we can even use it? Also, some bacteria are able to use tholins as their sole carbon source.

Edited November 8, 2014 by TheJewelOfJool

[NERVAfan]

I think the best near-term chance to find life in the Solar System is sampling the plumes of Europa/Enceladus - much more accessible than fossils on Triton. It wouldn't even require a landing if the probe could fly through a part of the plume thin enough to survive a flyby.

[Bill Phil]

The interesting stuff would likely be kilometers under the crust.

I suppose it depends on how thick the crust was when tidal heating made the interior liquid.

I doubt a simple landing could do it.

I do like the other suggestion for an impactor... if it went deep enough, and an orbiter could scoop up particles and do mass spec on them, we might find surprisingly complex organics... but would the organics last that long? would they survive the heating from the impactor... hmmmm

You're probably right about that, but it depends where you land. If you landed near a geyser and then sent a small rover to it, a sample could be done that way.

Wait, if it has geysers, then wouldn't it still have tidal heating? Maybe not an ocean but you never know... We were only there for a few days at most.

[KerikBalm]

I think the best near-term chance to find life in the Solar System is sampling the plumes of Europa/Enceladus - much more accessible than fossils on Triton. It wouldn't even require a landing if the probe could fly through a part of the plume thin enough to survive a flyby.

Oh of course, First we'd want to check out Europa and Enceledus -> the moons that due to tidal heating (although IIRC, Enceledus must have some other heat source because tidal heating wasn't predicted to be sufficient) have liquid water *right now*

I'm just wondering about other places that life might have arisen, and evidence may still be preserved. I'm not suggesting it should be a higher priority target.

It would be much harder - Europa could have life right now. That would be much more readily detectable than signs of what is very likely extinct life (if it ever existed in the first place)

I doubt 'complex organic molecules' would mean very much even if we found them. It's got all the right conditions for natural tholin production.

Well, it would depend on the specific complex organics detected.

PAHs wouldn't mean much. Long amino acid chains on the other hand....

In our favor is that triton has the coldest measured temperature of any body in the solar system (this will probably change with the pluto flyby, followed by another KBO)

Tholins aren't that complex anyway...