Chris McKay is one if my favorite science orators. He demonstrates how a very intelligent person can deliver an entertaining and informative talk without even a hint of condescension. We need more scientists like Chris.

Chris McKay is the ultimate science speaker. He is interesting and obviously intelligent, but never acting superior and looking down on the audience. The way he engages questions is awesome.

I love where he says looking at earth from titan, earth would look too hot to support life

9 years later the Dragonfly drone has been approved. In 2034 we will see images from the surface of Titan.

Found this channel. Very excited about this channel. Thank you NASA.

Very interesting lecture, Titan has always made me dream! However, 2 problems… First, the Hydrogen depletion. Dr. Mc Kay suggest that it is due to “consumption” by biology, because no other chemical process at these temperatures can explain it… Yet, there are also physical processes, more accurately adsorption processes. Although Hydrogen atoms cannot adsorb well on ice, Hydrogen molecules feel quite comfortable doing that. That could initiate “an hydrogen cycle”. The hydrogen would eventually desorb at a favor of a seasonal change. A full seasonal year on Titan, with repeating temperature cycles, is 29,5Yrs based on that of Saturn. We have only been around Titan for a short while… I would use Occam’s razor here… especially after considering the 2nd problem. I am a physical-chemist (PhD, post-doc), and the first thing I thought about when the lecture started was that CH4 is not a polar solvent… That puts a serious blow to the complexity needed in biological systems. This was mentioned during the questions, so I am not the only one to think that. The suggestion of a low solubility of ammonia in liquid methane at these Temperatures (Like carbonates in water in terms of solubility), does keep a little hope, but it does feel a lot like a “patch” and the lecturer feels it too. Otherwise, thanks for the wonderful journey! It was very enjoyable! Edouard

Thank you Chris. I enjoy your lecture and your intelligence. I am a huge Titan fan, and enjoy so much your information and humor tied with it. Keep em coming!!

That was a fascinating presentation. I am struck at how intelligent this guy is.

This lecture is excellent. I'm also impressed at the well thought out the audience questions. Very thought provoking discussion :)

Chris McKay so inspiring. Thank you

You didn't quite get it... carbon life requires liquid water to "function". If there is life on Titan, it would probably be using liquid methane instead of water and some other element(or combination of elements) to act as carbon does in our kind of life.

Wow ! Wonderfully explained intriguing possibility ! And wonderful style of delivery ! Provocative and thought provoking , even for us none chemists !

It is the first time I have seen him talk, I loved the chemistry stuff a lot, and that is what I have missed most from other science nonfiction films or talks

I love this series and this one is my favorite.

I'm not saying that microbial life in Titan wouldn't be exciting, but I still think it's a bit of stretch to compare it to earth life in terms of rarity and level of excitement. At least until we've actually found it. Judging by the exos we've found so far, earth seems to indeed be rare, even if worlds like Titan and Europa are not. It is possible that geo locking the Earth instantly would successfully wipe life out because of the extreme new weather that would cause as one side froze solid and the other evaporated in the heat. Even with the planet full of life at the outset, it might not be able to survive that. That's just one of the many flukes making the earth as pleasant as it is. And if that spin came from the hypothesized Thea impact, along with the moon and possibly plate tectonics, it might be almost impossibly rare all on its own. Certainly if the angle of the impact, relative mass etc matters. Most of the "earth like" planets we have detected do not have moons as far as we know, and most of them are either tidally locked, too hot, too cold, too dry, too big, too small, too wet or any number of other significant problems. This is still the only sample we have, and therefore what it makes the most sense to look for.

Fantastic lecture! Give Chris the funds to send a couple of probes to Titan and Enceladus!

superb presentation McKay2020

As for the question at 59:53 Any more trips planned to Titan? (I can answer that in 2020), Yes we have one planned called Dragonfly. Should arrive there early in the 2030s based on current planning. If someone sees this comment from the 2030s leave a comment on how it is going. BTW, he is right on his dates. This was filmed in 2013 and Dragonfly is scheduled to arrive in 2034, 21 years.

they should have a department on titan so they can get started

My new favorite speaker! So interesting ..Thankyou! Funny too😄

Very interesting talk! The possibilities....

Professor.. why don’t we make ourselves a challenge to make sometime survive in a brine pools in space. I believe somewhere spinning cool in space could be nice.

Lecture starts at 3:00 you can skip the intro

In Earths oceans water is cycled through hot spots in the depths of the oceans, could the same thing be happening on Titan but with liquid methane cycling through water magma hot spots? Could this be the way oxygen is obtained? In addendum if the frozen H2O "rock" is as impure as the SiO2 rock on earth is the Titan equivalent of black smokers could add quite a bit to the chemistry of the liquid CH4...

Couldn’t we have an experiment like the haze for Mars? Could be cool. 😎

How does the picture get here, what is the power source? Is it a RF signal, what powers the signal? Does the prob have a battery? Solar Panels? What are the mechanics of sending a radio signal this distance?

It’s like a guide to cloud life.

Have you searched in the universe for similar “listening” of the atmospheric haze?

Ben BOVA said...FLAMMABLE SAND DUNES.

Could anyone give me a clear explanation what causes Titan's orange haze? Is it just due to the Nitrogen and Methane forming and is that what creates the haze?

How, again... did you see the atmospheric haze in Titan?

11:42 Energy, only 2 types used on Earth, Sunlight, mostly & Chemical you say. Hmm, one other perhaps, radiosynthesis? some fungi around Chernobyl have been found to be using this. 13:46 no liquid water? no chance at all it's on our tree of life?, subsurface there's liquid water isn't there? with its less than circular orbit around Titan tidal forces must provide a lot of energy to take the place of sunlight so you might look there for more familiar water based life.

So Is This Means That Life Could Synthesize In Any Environment of a Atmosphere or Any Landscape !! Such as If A Life Form Live in Titan !! Basically It Would Be Possible That They Have Adapted To Those Environment Conditions Such as -180 Degrees Celsius

How does a Tricorder work? Very well thank you....

CHRISTOPHER MCKAY GREAT SOLAR SYSTEM KNOWLEDGE AND SEARCH FOR LIFE IN UNIVERSE

love the rare titan concept so true hoooray for diversity

Very interesting

Meanwhile we are spending hundreds of millions of dollars taking pictures of a dead rock in the Kuiper belt.

1:19:24 that's what she said

It's funny, if i think about it... that that element that can replace carbon might be water, since water on the Titanian environment behaves like silicon(silicon which is a close friend to carbon) does here on earth.

I wonder if we actually found life, would we try to capture a specimen in the future? I would find it pretty ironic, humans being the abductos.

If there is intelligent life on titan, it's a very new civilization because any advanced or at least our level of advancement would notice an unknown satellite orbiting there world

Agua sin congelar en una luna de un planeta tan lejana al sol ? será que el sol que le da el calor está en otra galaxia cercana y desconocida ?

Does my gas tank look infected to you 🤔???

I don’t think is so difficult, it’s just we’ve tried to find by our same exactly looks. I don’t think I look like an ape. Although sometimes I’m reminded that i do.

If they find life anywhere in the galaxy, you will be the last to know

🤔 a sort of kinda cool stuff. A Cosmo biological LHCB

Are animals and plants, 2 completely different life forms? I am not sure that animals could exist with plants but I thinks plants could exist without animals?

There's no life on Titan since The Endgame

I love how his PowerPoint is so awful. xD

this lexture begs the question... could there actually be life on Uranus?

For life to exist in a physical context, it only needs energy, no matter where it comes from! The other important thing is consciousness, which is certainly important for higher life forms. Even though our body is composed of billions of cells each of which lives only for a few years at the most and can be even made to live independently in a petri dish, we have a consciousness of our own that is independent our cells!

Can’t we create storms? ☺️

nearly every sphere capable of harboring life does so...cold is a human concept....if you evolve in cold it is normal.

It's the tenth planet I know others have this same thought it is not a moon.

"this slide intentionally left banke" banke?

How can you sat it dose bot happwb

is there ocean in titan ?

2:30 mins in , apparently with put humans on Titan.... eehhhhh

Rare Titan xD

life may exist there in frozen conditions, is jut too cold there... no humans could survive...

Haiti might send the first man on Titan.

it's"easy" to check this out for yourself: just get yourself abducted by one of the alien ufos which obviously exist right above our tiny, little propeller- beanied heads

BEYOND EARTH MOONS WITH VERY GOLD ICY MOONS THERE COULD BE LIVE BUT 300 BLOW --0 -- HUMAN COULD BE IMPOSSIBLE TO LIVE ----IF LIFE EXISTS IN ANOTHER PLANET MOON THERE IS LIFE IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE

Hmm 🤔 Brime pools have water... they kill creature 💔

THEY HAVE TO AIR

C'MON GUYS THERE IS NO LIFE OUT THERE. IT STARTS WITH EARTH. WE ARE THE "ALIENS"

I agree. ☝️. New technology needed. I believe we’ve known about the it just don’t want to show it. There’s Saturn’s Rings.

That’s 😎 what they eat

There are mutants

slide intentionally left banke...

In the ocean around the world. The ppl there kno u and theyre staying out there. You r awesome but plz b careful

Titan will be the easiest to settle. Bet money I could go outside on titan and run 1/2 mile with just a gas mask and coat. I'm not going to bet money now they would probably have me carry 1000 lbs of weights.

Why are you no toys

Or so

this is what earth would look like after humans have destroyed it and aliens come looking... a dried up shrivel of a promising land

☺️

the powerpoint is useless, illegible and god-knows-what

What if they drink something different 🤭

Life is organisation. Life is not to seperate even from rocks :-) Respect for the ideology comment.

I mean for the love of God. You make it sound like it’s nothing. 🤭

titan would smell like a pig farm; if you could sniff the atmosphere without killing the sniffer!

It's now 8 years on and there's no river and or lakes in Titan... All this talk about nothing for nothing...

As long as it rejects the possibility of life being designed it is scientific. LOL!

Ng

it is interesting how they have the scenery of the buildings like 22.10 look to the bright spot lower right of scene. those who have 42 inch screens and above will see them clearly . but this is not the first time these documentaries show genuine photos but then air brush things out.. why. i have solid proof in color photos of the same buildings on our moon, except these are in full color and download them and study them. you will see now things every time you look at them. facebook.com/meatandpotatoesofnews/photos_stream now if i can show you lit up structures and lit up landing pad, GLASS domes surrounded by bluish light. i will attempt another try and replace the blurry photos because the camera i was using had a plastic protector and it smeared there bright lights but ill fix this soon as i can. anyhow so when these people make these nasa documentaries they pay nasa for the footage and photos but if you record this video and play it at your pace and see the hidden structures.

Star trek imposibble

🤔 I think alien should mean pre or after our understanding of our own evolution in the universe... considering our understanding of TIME, which also means, we should treat time only as a particle, that helps us measure our own evolution. 🤔 considering that. Nothing is alien, if it’s biochemically different I’ll be more interested in how to evolve to get to that state. ☺️ It’s much more interesting and fun. Why bother if they’re aliens or not. I’ll prefer to find how they’ve evolve... Imagine you’re a dinosaur and find a human. He won’t care. As long as you’re tasty. 😋

How stupid will chris mckay feel when he find out there is alien life on earth and that they have been coming here for years and years and the goverment and nasa, which he works for, has known about it for over 60 years? Or just maybe hes already knows and is in on the cover up.

☺️