Mythologies of the Solar System: Part Two

The names of the moons, planets and of course the Sun itself are not just household names unassociated with anything but these celestial bodies, but bodies usually named after selected characters from ancient Greek and Roman mythology. There are tales to be told about them; some fleshing out to do. These are just a few of the highlights.

The planets of the solar system are named after gods and goddesses and are known by their Roman, not Greek names. Here I’ll put the Greek equivalents in brackets afterwards. The satellites of these planets for the most part tend to be the Greek names associated in one form or another with the parent body or the god/goddess in question. Moons (and major asteroids) are identified with an asterisk.

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

MYTHOLOGY AND THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM

JUPITER (Zeus) was king of the mountain – Mount Olympus that is. He, after a series of ‘wars in heaven’ (with the Titans) and on earth (with the Giants) and finally with the daddy of all monsters, Typhon, claimed the right to be worshiped as King of the Gods, by all lesser gods and goddesses, demigods and demigoddesses, as well as all of the great unwashed – the mortals comprising humanity. Apart from being fast on the draw with his trademark thunderbolts, he’s most noted for being even faster on the draw with his private parts. No Mounties or bounty hunters ever perused their quarry better or with more determination than our always horny Jupiter/Zeus, as we shall see immediately below (though with over five dozen satellites, only a few can be entered into in this short essay).

*Amalthea: Jupiter (Zeus) as a young infant, was spirited and hidden away in Crete by his mother, Rhea from his daddy, Saturn (Cronus) because daddy didn’t want any sons of his eventually growing up and challenging him for supreme power. Saturn thus kept them out of his harms way by swallowing them. Rhea saved the last (Jupiter) by trickery. Anyway, young Jupiter was reared and looked after by local nymphs on Crete, especially by Amalthea. She’s also known for having a horn, the ‘Horn of Plenty’ a cornucopia that provided limitless food and drink for whoever possessed it.  

*Ananke, the goddess of inevitability and personification of destiny, necessity and fate was the mother of the Moirai by Zeus. The Moirai, also known as The Fates, were the trio that spun the thread of life of mortals from birth to death and thus controlled everyone’s destiny. Even Zeus was powerless against their will.

*Callisto was the daughter of the King of Arcady, and she had the misfortune to have Zeus fall for her. Callisto was associated with the virgin goddess Artemis. When Zeus raped Callisto, she got in a family way (in mythology, every rape results in a pregnancy otherwise there’s no point to the rape in the first place). This rape ultimately produces a son, Arcas. Artemis, being the virgin, was livid and banished Callisto from any further association with her. Hera (Mrs. Zeus) in the meantime assumed Callisto was a willing partner to her wayward hubby and in revenge turned Callisto into a bear. Years later, Arcas, out hunting, ran across that bear and not realizing that it was mom, shot her dead. Zeus then placed Callisto into the zodiac as Ursa Major, the Great Bear (or the Big Dipper); Arcas ultimately got his place in the heavens too as the Little Bear (or the Little Dipper).

*Carme was the mother by Zeus (who else?) of the virginal huntress Britomartis, a Minoan or Cretan goddess. Carme assisted in the harvest of the grain.

*Elara was the mother of the giant, Tityos. Tityos was fathered by you know who – randy Zeus. Tityos met a bad end, killed on the behest of Hera by Artemis and Apollo, and forever tortured in Tartarus (a subdivision of Hades) by a couple of vultures who liked liver for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Fortunately for the vultures, Tityos’s liver kept regenerating so they never lacked for food.

*Europa was the daughter of a Phoenician king. Zeus got the hots for her and turned himself into a snow-white bull (gods can shape-shift; it’s one of their major superpowers and that’s no bull) and approached Europa in that form. Europa playfully climbs on the Zeus-as-bull’s back. Zeus-the-bull then dives into the sea with Europa on his back and swims out to Crete. Once there he reverts back into his ‘human’ form and they made mad passionate love together and in the fullness of time Europa gave birth to triplets, one of which she named Minos. Zeus, ever thoughtful, also gave her some other gifts as well for her troubles. Europa ultimately married the king of Crete. Ultimately her son, Minos, assumed or claimed the throne. That’s why Crete’s ancient civilization is called the Minoan society. Europa is the only person having an entire continent named after them – Europe. As an aside, Europa is one of the few celestial bodies of interest to those on the lookout for potential sites where extraterrestrial life might exist.

*Ganymede: Abductions by the gods are by no means unknown or uncommon. In Greek mythology, a young handsome lad was Ganymede. He was abducted by Zeus, shape-shifted in the form of an eagle. Zeus favored the ladies, goddesses, demigoddesses, even mortal women, but for a catamite change of pace now and again… Ganymede was rewarded for his services by eternal youth and immortality, eventually placed in the sky as the constellation Aquarius. His daddy (Tros) was also compensated with a gift of fine horses.

*Himalia was a nymph who bore a trio of sons to Zeus or of course the Roman equivalent, Jupiter.

*Io was the daughter of the first king of Argos (what’s it about kings and their daughters already – that plot device has reached its use by date). She of course caught the lustful eye of Zeus. Hera (Mrs. Zeus) got suspicious, so Zeus turned Io into a cow as a disguise. Hera (knowing full well what was afoot) of course assumed the cow was a gift for her from her hubby since he obviously had no use for a cow, so Zeus had no option but to agree that that of course was what he had intended all along. Hera then had the cow guarded by the multi-eyed giant Argus. Zeus, needing to get Io back, got Hermes (Mercury to the Romans) to kill Argus. Hera in revenge plagued Io-the-cow with a hornet. Finally a truce was called. Zeus promised to behave (pull the other one) and Io was reverted back to human form and reunited with her worried daddy – the king.  

*Leda was of course the daughter of a king, and in turn married a king, in this case a king of Sparta. Zeus, of course, took a shine to Leda, and took the form of a swan and flew into Leda’s arms seeking ‘protection’ from another predatory bird – that’s his story and he’s sticking to it. Anyway, somehow or other (Zeus may have turned her into a goose) this cuddle made Leda pregnant and from this pregnancy she gave birth – she laid an egg, obviously! The egg hatched and out popped beautiful Helen. Helen, later known as Helen of Troy, was the face that launched a thousand ships (and then some). This was Zeus’s contribution to the Trojan War. In another version, the egg was the union between Zeus and the goddess of revenge, Nemesis. They gave the egg to Leda to hatch and raise the offspring up as her own. Leda had another child by Zeus – one of a pair of twins actually, Castor (by Zeus) and Pollux (by her husband) but known as the ‘Boys of Zeus’ or the ‘Heavenly Twins’ who eventually sailed with Jason as part of the Argonaut crew. 

*Lysithea was the daughter of Oceanus (a Titan, product of Gaia and Uranus) and one of Zeus’s many, many lovers.

*Pasiphae was the wife of King Minos of Crete, who, via a rather strange mating arrangement gave birth to the Minotaur. The rather remote connection to Jupiter is that Jupiter’s brother, Neptune, was behind all of this. Neptune was offended because Minos didn’t offer up as a sacrifice to Neptune a favorite bull, so in retaliation, Neptune saw to it that Minos’s wife became infatuated with, and lusted after a bull, the offspring being that well known hybrid, the Minotaur. 

*Thyone was once known as Semele, a lover of Zeus, who produced as offspring Dionysus, the god of wine and all around fun times. When Semele died as a result of Zeus revealing to her his true appearance – all the result of Hera’s trickery - and went to Hades, Dionysus rescued her from the underworld and brought her to Olympus, made her into a goddess along with providing the change of name. 

To be continued…

Jovian Life: The Moons Versus the Planets: Part Two

In our solar system, the planets are divided between the inner terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars and of course the Earth) and the outer gas giants, collectively called the Jovian planets (after Jupiter, but including Saturn, Uranus and Neptune), which along with their many moons form the Jovian system. Since it’s easier to look in our own planetary backyard neighbourhood first for alien life, there’s been much speculation about what pieces of solar system real estate, if any, might be suitable abodes for extraterrestrial life. While Mars has always been top-of-the-pops, a once heavily favoured Venus fell by the wayside a while back, only to be replaced with a few bits of real estate somewhat further out. It’s those “somewhat further out” bits of real estate that are now under-the-gun. While most speculation is on selected Jovian satellites, I put the accent on the parent bodies.

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

Now on to the major players! It’s time to introduce the main players, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and those four essentials: CHON, environment, mixing and energy. If there is life-as-we-know-it on these four planets, then we need CHON, we need a proper environment, we need mixing to bring essentials together at one time and place, and we need a source(s) of energy.

One clarification is in order first. Although the Jovian planets are usually called “gas giants”, that is a slight misnaming. While it’s true that relative to Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, the Jovian planets are indeed great big balls of gas, they still must have at their centre a solid rocky core, due to, if for no other reason, that over 4.5 billion years of their existence, asteroids, maybe even small planets, meteors, dust, and comets have all slammed into them. The rocky stuff, ultimately, must sink to the bottom forming a solid heavy element core. With that clarification made, let’s see what there is to be speculated upon. 

Jupiter: CHON: Jupiter, a gas giant, is composed mainly of molecular hydrogen (the H in CHON) and helium (much like the Sun’s composition and in roughly the same ratios). There are certainly ammonia (probably as ice crystals) and ammonia compounds (like ammonium hydrosulphide) in the atmosphere, adding nitrogen (the N in CHON) to the mix. Methane (which contains the C in CHON), as does the carbon contained in carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are also present in the upper atmosphere. Water vapour (the O in CHON) is certainly present, even though in small proportions relative to hydrogen and helium. The colourful bands of latitude could easily be suggestive of complex, even organic chemistry involving not only CHON but sulphur and phosphorus and other trace elements. The upper atmosphere of Jupiter contains small amounts of simple hydrocarbons such as ethane and acetylene, which forms from methane under the influence of the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation and the highly charged particles incoming from the Jupiter’s magnetosphere.   

Jupiter: Environment: There’s no disputing that the cloud tops are bitterly cold; the deep interior is way too hot. But, that alone suggests that there will be a Goldilocks area in-between, probably extending vertically for hundreds of kilometres, and extending as well horizontally around the globe. That volume, given Jupiter’s size, comprises a lot of Goldilocks territory. 

Jupiter: Mixing: Since Jupiter has a very hot interior core and the top of the atmosphere is extremely cold, and since heat rises and cold descends, that alone suggests that mixing in Jupiter’s primarily gaseous/quasi-fluid body must take place. Quite apart from that, all one needs to do is view time-lapse photography of Jupiter’s upper atmosphere to see all the turbulent motion that takes place. A tranquil pond Jupiter isn’t.

Jupiter: Energy – Solar energy is highly unlikely to drive any Jovian biology because the atmosphere is very thick, and just like with our terrestrial oceans, things get very dark very quickly as one descends. However, chemical energy is a possibility, like that which drives terrestrial hydrothermal vent communities. Then there’s infrared (instead of visible) radiation. Jupiter radiates much more heat that it receives from the Sun, the heat being slowly radiated outward from Jupiter’s original quota of primordial heat energy largely stored in the core of the planet.  Jupiter is a fantastic place to visit if you’re fond of thunderstorms. Lightning really lights up the Jupiter’s skies. Lightning is a prime source of energy for driving chemical reactions. Translated, all up, Jupiter is awash with potentially useful energy sources to drive any local biology.

Saturn: CHON: The atmosphere of Saturn (which is what the mainly planet is – a ball of gas) consists of one hell of a lot of molecular hydrogen and some helium, a really skewed ratio relative to those elements found in the Sun, but that’s another story. However, it does explain why Saturn, if you could find a freshwater ‘pond’ large enough, would float in it! That aside, the atmosphere contains trace amounts of ammonia (there’s your nitrogen), acetylene, ethane and methane (and your carbon), plus phosphine - all have been detected. The upper atmosphere has clouds composed of ammonia crystals, while the lower atmospheric clouds appear to be composed of ammonium hydrosulfide and/or water (thus some oxygen).

Saturn: Environment: The same discussion that applies to Jupiter applies to Saturn, although because Saturn is a smaller planet (albeit massive relative to Earth) the habitable volume of Saturn’s quasi-liquid atmosphere will be somewhat less.

Saturn: Mixing: Saturn also has that hot interior, cold exterior dichotomy that exists in this gaseous/fluid planetary ball. It’s akin to the convection that occurs when you heat water on your stove. Hot water rises; cooler water descends. And while not as dramatic as time-lapse films of Jupiter’s atmosphere, it’s also obvious that Saturn’s visual ‘surface’ is anything but tranquil. In fact the winds on Saturn are among the highest of any planetary body in the solar system. However, being farther from the Sun, Saturn’s chemistry is not going to be quite as dramatic as closer-in Jupiter, and thus Saturn’s atmospheric ‘surface’ is a lot blander appearing.

Saturn: Energy – As is the case for Jupiter, and for much the same reason, solar energy (photosynthesis) is out on Saturn; chemical energy and infrared radiation (heat energy) will be the way to go. Saturn also radiates more heat that it receives from the Sun – two and a half times more in fact; Saturn is also a fantastic place to visit if you’re fond of thunderstorms. Lightning also lights up the skies of Saturn.

To be continued...

Exobiology: Life in the Outer Solar System: The Smaller Bodies

Exobiology was the original term given to the sciences central to the question of life-in-the-Universe. It’s now been largely replaced by Astrobiology, but I’ll stick with the original. To investigate life-in-the-Universe perhaps we should start a bit closer to home and look to our own outer solar system and some of the smaller abodes. Apart from Planet Earth, we have no absolute proof positive to date that any other life, albeit relatively simple forms compared to terrestrial life forms such as ourselves and associated companion animals and plants, exists within the confines of our solar system. However, the odds are fairly high, almost certain in fact; those other, extraterrestrial life forms do exist in our immediate cosmic neighbourhood. 

Europa (A Satellite of Jupiter): Europa is, apart from Mars, the current darling of the exobiology (astrobiology) set. There is evidence that Europa has a liquid water ocean underneath a thick ice cap that is kept from freezing solid by the flexing action imposed on the moon by its parent planet, Jupiter. If you have liquid water, an energy source, you therefore have possible life, or so goes the thinking.  I’m not quite as optimistic. The ice cap is thick enough so that any energy source available for life won’t be solar. The ocean will be in eternal darkness. That is however not a death blow as not all critters on Earth rely on solar energy. There could be hydrothermal vents, with associated living communities on Europa as there is on Earth. But, with the ice cap, there would be little in the way of resources added to the ocean from outside; that’s not the case on Earth. All chemicals that would sustain such life would have to be efficiently recycled. Life on Europa – possible, but it’s going to prove to be very difficult to explore that ocean, so I’m not expecting a definitive answer any time real soon.

However, there remains the possibility that materials contained within that hypothetical ocean may, due to tidal stresses, may be squeezed through cracks in the ice and find their way to rest on the surface. It’s therefore possible that a robotic craft that lands on the icy surface might detect organics and/or fossil or frozen solid microbes or even dead multicellular life forms resting on the surface.

[Note: To avoid unnecessary repeats, as a general rule of thumb, any satellite around Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune that has a substantial part of it’s crust made up of ice, and is subject to extreme tidal heating by it’s parent planetary body (i.e. – you get a liquid ocean underneath a thin covering of ice), you have the potential for, as in the case of Europa, a habitable water-rich environment.]

Titan (A Satellite of Saturn): The satellite of Saturn, Titan, is one of the largest moons in the solar system, and in fact, if it existed all by its lonesome, could be considered a planet in its own right. Titan has, fairly unique among satellites, a dense atmosphere. It’s denser in fact than our own atmosphere. It also has the right sorts of chemicals that we identify as having a strong connection with organic and biochemistry. Were Titan the same distance from the Sun that Earth is, well, you could have a real twin of Earth, unlike our false twin, Venus.

Unfortunately, Titan is way, way, way – far away – from the solar energy source that makes Earth such a relative paradise. Thus, Titan is Earth, but an Earth in slow motion because Titan is so cold compared to Earth. If you think of Earth as liquid water at the equator, Titan is molasses at the poles!

Comets, Asteroids/Planetoids, Meteors: These relative tiny bodies can’t really qualify as habitable abodes to life, except, there’s evidence that not only can some of the above be rich in the sorts of chemicals associated with life (water, carbon compounds and organic chemistry), they could indeed be environments that could house dormant life forms or fossil life forms of a unicellular kind. Meteorites which have been gathered up and analysed on Earth (like ALH 84001) have yielded if not fossilised bacteria, then at least enough chemical evidence to suggest that they could have had a close connection with contributions towards an origin of life event.

Exobiology: Life in the Outer Solar System: The Gas Giants and Pluto

Exobiology was the original term given to the sciences central to the question of life-in-the-Universe. It’s now been largely replaced by Astrobiology, but I’ll stick with the original. To investigate life-in-the-Universe perhaps we should start a bit closer to home and look to our own outer solar system, starting with the gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) and Pluto. Apart from Planet Earth, we have no absolute proof positive to date that any other life, albeit relatively simple forms compared to terrestrial life forms such as ourselves and associated companion animals and plants, exists within the confines of our solar system. However, the odds are fairly high, almost certain in fact; those other, extraterrestrial life forms do exist in our immediate cosmic neighbourhood. 

Taking each of the four gas giant abodes (the Jovian planets) in the outer solar system followed by Pluto in turn…

Jupiter (The Giant Planet): Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system, but composed mainly of gas. In fact, Jupiter has been insulted by being compared to our Sun, but a failed Sun. If Jupiter had been a fair few masses larger, it would have ignited in a ball of thermonuclear fusion and become a second stellar object in our solar system, turning it into a binary star system. Jupiter however is still solar enough such that it emits more energy than it receives from the Sun. Jupiter, because of the intense gravity, compresses its own stuff, and compression produces heat. Important point number one: Jupiter has its own internal energy source.

Important points two, three and four: Secondly, Jupiter’s atmosphere is composed of the right sorts of chemicals that one identifies with origin of life events – hydrogen, methane, ammonia, water vapour, etc. Thirdly, Jupiter’s atmosphere is turbulent such that there is a lot of mixing of those elements and compounds. Fourthly, the atmospheric bands of Jupiter are highly coloured, an indication that there’s lots of complex chemistry including organic chemistry going on within.   

The upshot of all of this is that it is not implausible that within the upper reaches of Jupiter’s atmosphere, as per the case of Venus, simple life forms couldn’t exist, survive and thrive. You have the chemistry – you have the energy. And maybe Carl Sagan was right and that something more complex than just a unicellular ecosystem could exist in Jupiter’s atmosphere. But it would have to be an atmospheric ecology.

Saturn (The Ringed Planet): Saturn is a quasi twin of Jupiter. Although slightly smaller and farther away from the Sun than Jupiter, the same general arguments that apply to Jupiter apply to Saturn. That is to say, Saturn has the right sorts of chemistry – and an internal energy supply. It’s however slightly less dense than the other gas giants, such that if you could find an ocean big enough, Saturn would float! That however has no bearing on the issue of finding an atmosphere-based ecosystem there.

Uranus: Uranus is a poor cousin compared to the likes of Jupiter and Saturn. It’s mainly a gas planet, albeit way smaller, but so far out from where it’s all happening that it isn’t too likely that even simple life could flourish in the atmospheric depths, although the chemistry isn’t dissimilar to that of the closer-in Jovian planets of Jupiter and Saturn.

Neptune: The same sorts of arguments apply in general to Neptune as to Uranus, with one slight exception. Although farther out, Neptune, like Jupiter and Saturn, radiates out excess energy. It’s solar independent, at least as far as any life forms might describe their environment and energy supply.

Pluto: The planetoid Pluto was recently officially demoted from strict planetary status, and is no longer acceptable to refer to it as the ninth planet. However, when I was growing up, it was the ninth planet, and so I say buggers to astronomical officialdom. That rant aside, Pluto is hardly top rock for vacation seekers. It’s cold. I mean it’s really cold. It makes Antarctica seem absolutely tropical in comparison. I mean polar bears would freeze to death on Pluto, not that there’s anything reasonably resembling an atmosphere as we know it for them to breathe. Again, Pluto is too cold to allow for the high temperature chemistry we associate with life-as-we-know-it. If you’re looking for life in our solar system, Pluto wouldn’t be your first port of call.