Why is saturn uninhabitable

You can see the grey and tan colors. This is a picture of Saturn and its moons Tethys and Dione. Voyager 1 took this picture as it passed by. You can see seven of its moons and its inner rings. In the background you can also see Earth. A portrait looking down on Saturn and its rings. It was put together by amateur image processor and Cassini fan Gordan Ugarkovic.

The temperature of Saturn's clouds are approximately negative degrees Celsius negative degrees Fahrenheit , but the temperature increases as you go lower within the atmosphere. The low levels of water and the huge pressures found there make it unlikely for life to exist within the planet itself. Hydrocarbon molecules, dissolved in liquid water, form the basis of life on Earth. Scientists believe that these two ingredients are essential to life, and they use such criteria when searching for life on other bodies within the solar system.

Saturn's core consists of liquid hydrogen, molten rock and melted ice. Although there is melted ice, the pressure near the core is estimated to be 5 million atmospheres 5,, bar , which is beyond the pressure that can be tolerated by any known extremophile organism that lives in an extreme environment.

Saturn has only trace amounts of water in its atmosphere, and these are tied up within clouds in the upper atmosphere. The temperatures in these clouds are estimated to be negative 20 degrees Celsius minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit , and the pressure is approximately 7.

These conditions may be tolerable to life, since bacteria on Earth have been found living in ice. Even so, the lack of complex organic molecules makes life in Saturn's atmosphere unlikely.

Titan possesses the largest diameter of any of Saturn's moons and, surprisingly, is also larger than the planet Mercury. Titan's large size gives it sufficient gravity to maintain an atmosphere consisting of nitrogen and methane. A scientific study carried out by the NASA Cassini spacecraft suggests extraterrestrial life may be present on the elusive moon.

The research found that hydrogen was flowing down from the atmosphere to the ground and then disappearing. This suggests that hydrogen is being used up in an unknown chemical or biological process.

But aside from these features, Titan is pretty flat, and lacks the numerous craters and giant mountains seen elsewhere in the solar system. With formations that are only several hundreds of yards high, "you're not going to set records climbing mountains on Titan," McKay said. But because of Titan's low gravity it's about 14 percent of Earth normal and dense atmosphere, you could jump off a high spot and use your coat to glide down.

The sky on Titan is a perpetual hazy orange during the day Titan's day is about 16 Earth days. If you lived on the side of the moon permanently facing Saturn, you could see the massive planet through the haze. Titan's thick clouds occasionally rain down liquid methane.

During the moon's long summer Saturn takes 30 years to orbit the sun , its polar regions experience "Texaslike thunderstorms," McKay said. However, the moon doesn't have any tornadoes or other cyclones. Living on Titan, you'd also be safe from cosmic rays and moonquakes.

Similar to Titan, the main danger of living on Enceladus is the frigid cold. The moon's icy surface reflects most sunlight, resulting in temperatures averaging minus F minus C throughout the day 1. Unlike Titan, Enceladus only has a very tenuous atmosphere, so it has no weather or air pressure.