The Ice Machine on the Outskirts of the Solar System
 

Anyone interested in the possibility of extraterrestrial life must be optimistic when water, or ice, is discovered anywhere other than Earth. There has already been much speculation about Saturn's moon Titan harboring primitive extraterrestrial life due to cryovolcanoes erupting with water.

Cryovolcanoes form on icy moons, and instead of erupting with magma they erupt with a generally liquid water, ammonia, methane, or a mixture of these three.

The Gemini Observatory in Hawaii's Mauna Key have shown indications of ice and ammonia hydrates spread out across Charon, a satellite of Pluto. This indicates that liquid water exists under Charon's crust, and is being pushed out along with the ammonia hydrate through similar cryovolcanoes in short periods of time.

There are many mechanisms that can explain the ice on Charon's surface, such as remnants of primordial ice or impact "gardening" by meteorites, but the evidence produces a much stronger case for cryovolcanism. Primordial ice formed along with the solar system should have lost its crystalline structure over a period of a few thousand years due to ultraviolet radiation bombardment, and the impact gardening hypothesis is not supported by the chemical fingerprints of the ammonia and ice on Charon.

The only mechanism that is known that will erupt liquids and gases in an ultra-gold environment is cryovolcanism. The freezing process of water may be impeded by the ammonia hydrate, which acts as a natural anti-freeze.

Though there have not been any suggestions of extraterrestrial life in or on Charon, water found elsewhere is always an optimistic sign. Furthermore, the existence of cryovolcanoes on Charon could have profound implications about the existence of cryovolcanoes on other similar bodies in the Kuiper Belt, a region of the solar system beyond Neptune's orbit which contains many small bodies.

Read http://www.gemini.edu/index.php?opti...sk=view&id=244 for a more in-depth explanation.

See, this is the reason we need to keep exploring, it sucks there are hardly any other competitors in the space race besides the top 3.. I'm sure scientists will convince other countries to spend some money one of these days to better our world.. :)

I doubt that would happen until the world is a lot more unified than it is.

Also, MJ, if you can, check out an article on Europa, it actually is rumored to have a liquid ocean below an icy crust.

Which means in all reality, something catastrophic needs to happen in order for that to occur...

That's more likely than people actually learning about each other, developing tolerance, and attempting to get along.