Ocean Worlds: The Search for Life

Inspired by the "Visions of the Future" poster series created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, this inspirational video imagines a time when space tourists flock to the Moon, vacation in the clouds of Venus, kayak on Saturn’s moon Titan, and visit planets beyond our solar system.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) and NASA/JPL-CaltechMusic: "Life Choices" from Universal Production MusicWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. Side-by-side views of the original JPL travel posters and their animated versions. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) and NASA/JPL-CaltechMusic: "Luminance" from Universal Production MusicWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. Behind the scenes views of models shot in the studio and the final effect in the video.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) and NASA/JPL-CaltechMusic: "Downloading Landscapes" from Universal Production MusicWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. Comparison of the original green screen footage and the final effect.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) and NASA/JPL-Caltech Comparison of the original green screen footage and the final effect.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) and NASA/JPL-Caltech Comparison of the original green screen footage and the final effect.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) and NASA/JPL-Caltech A fictional spacecraft approaches the Moon, which is peppered with lights from settlements on the surface.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) A parent and child watch from their home on Mars as a rocket lifts off in the distance in this illustration.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) Toursists take in the view from a fictional observatory floating among the clouds of Venus. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) and NASA/JPL-Caltech A small, fictional spacecraft approaches Enceladus from afar as passengers watch geysers erupt.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) and NASA/JPL-Caltech This illustration shows a space kayaker paddling in the oceans of Saturn's moon Titan.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) and NASA/JPL-Caltech A thrill seeker skydives in the atmosphere of HD 40307 g, an exoplanet with 7.1 times Earth's mass, in this illustration. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) and NASA/JPL-CaltechOriginal poster Suspended by balloons and protected by a clear bubble, tourists observe the seething surface of "lava world" 55 Cancri e in this illustration.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) and NASA/JPL-CaltechOriginal Poster A fictional spacecraft passes by exoplanet GJ 367 d, a world that could potentially hold liquid water on its surface.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) At NASA, our mission is to explore. We visit destinations in our solar system and study worlds beyond to better understand big questions. How did we get here? Where are we headed? Are we alone? While our robotic explorers have toured our solar system, the only place beyond Earth where humans have stood is the Moon. That’s also the next place we’ll send astronauts. But not the last! While humans haven’t yet visited Mars, we’re planning to add boot prints to the rover tire tracks there now.We also dream of traveling to distant worlds, and what they might be like. This video shows fanciful, imagined adventures to real places we’ve studied. Inspired by a series of travel posters produced by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, NASA Goddard video maven Chris Smith employed green screens and computer graphics to bring these scenes to life. For More InformationSee [https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galleries/visions-of-the-future](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galleries/visions-of-the-future) Related pages

Dragonfly’s suite of science instruments will investigate the chemistry and habitability of Titan.Universal Production Music: “Clediss” by Thomas Stempfle and Tom Sue, “Downloading Landscapes” by Andrew Michael Britton and David Stephen GoldsmithWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. Dragonfly is a NASA mission to explore the chemistry and habitability of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. The fourth mission in the New Frontiers line, Dragonfly will send an autonomously-operated rotorcraft to visit dozens of sites on Titan, investigating the moon’s surface and shallow subsurface for organic molecules and possible biosignatures.To carry out its mission, Dragonfly is equipped with a neutron spectrometer, a drill system, and a mass spectrometer, allowing scientists to make a detailed survey of Titan’s chemical makeup. Dragonfly is scheduled to launch in 2026 and arrive at Titan in 2034.Learn more about Dragonfly from NASA and Johns Hopkins APL. For More InformationSee [NASA.gov](https://www.nasa.gov/dragonfly) Related pages

Since arriving at Saturn in 2004, Cassini has used its Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) to study the ringed planet and its moons in heat radiation. Complete transcript available.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Music provided by Killer Tracks: "Particle Waves," "Odyssey," "Solaris," "Expansive,""Horizon Ahead," "Ion Bridge," "Outer Space" "Directors Cut" version with extended intro and conclusion. Complete transcript available.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Music provided by Killer Tracks: "Journey in the Milky Way," "Odyssey," "Solaris," "Expansive," "Horizon Ahead," "Ion Bridge," "Outer Space" Opening the Cassini CIRS engineering model inside its clean tent at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. This model is a twin of the CIRS instrument on the Cassini spacecraft. The Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) engineering model. The CIRS engineering model up close. Another view of the CIRS model with mirror and moving parts. The CIRS computer station, where instrument commands are tested before they are sent to JPL for transmission to the Cassini spacecraft. The Cassini-Huygens mission arrived at Saturn in 2004, beginning an epic thirteen-year tour of the ringed planet and its many moons. Cassini and its companion probe, Huygens, were an international collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). Cassini carried an impressive array of scientific instruments, including the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) built at Goddard Space Flight Center. By studying the Saturn system in heat radiation, CIRS observed hot spots in a giant Saturn storm, discovered a new hydrocarbon in Titan's smoggy atmosphere, found unexpected surface heating on Mimas and Tethys, and even detected evidence of a liquid water ocean under the icy shell of Enceladus. This video explores Cassini CIRS' greatest hits, as told by instrument team members Michael Flasar, Conor Nixon, and Carrie Anderson. Learn more about the CIRS instrument and team. For More InformationSee [NASA.gov](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html) Related pages

NASA Planetary Scientist Conor Nixon explains his discovery of propylene on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Scientists have known about the presence of atmospheric hydrocarbons on Titan since Voyager 1 flew by in 1980, but one molecule, propylene, was curiously missing. Now, thanks to new data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, propylene has been detected for the first time on Titan.For complete transcript, click here.Watch this video on the NASAexplorer YouTube channel. With a thick atmosphere, clouds, a rain cycle and giant lakes, Saturn's large moon Titan is a surprisingly Earthlike place. But unlike on Earth, Titan's surface is far too cold for liquid water - instead, Titan's clouds, rain, and lakes consist of liquid hydrocarbons like methane and ethane (which exist as gases here on Earth). When these hydrocarbons evaporate and encounter ultraviolet radiation in Titan's upper atmosphere, some of the molecules are broken apart and reassembled into longer hydrocarbons like ethylene and propane.NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft first revealed the presence of several species of atmospheric hydrocarbons when it flew by Titan in 1980, but one molecule was curiously missing - propylene, the main ingredient in plastic number 5. Now, thanks to NASA's Cassini spacecraft, scientists have detected propylene on Titan for the first time, solving a long-standing mystery about the solar system's most Earthlike moon. For More InformationSee [http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasas-cassini-spacecraft-finds-ingredient-of-household-plastic-in-space](http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasas-cassini-spacecraft-finds-ingredient-of-household-plastic-in-space) Related pages