Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, has long been thought of as one of the better possibilities for life beyond the Earth. The moon is larger than Mercury and our moon, although not as massive, and was discovered in 1655 by the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens. The moon has a geologically diverse landscape, featuring liquid hypercarbon or methane lakes at its polar regions. Its rich nitrogen atmosphere makes it even more similar to earth, although its low temperature (only about 90 degrees above absolute zero). Recently, astronomers were able to penetrate the thick atmosphere of Titan to photograph its landscape, and from 2005-2007 they began mapping its geological features. On a later flyby, however, they discovered that these features had shifted as much as 19 miles; for such a dramatic plate shift in such a short time, scientists theorize that the surface may be shifting over a giant ocean, possibly water (much of the planet is made up of water-ice). ""We believe that about 62 miles beneath the ice and organic-rich surface is an internal ocean of liquid water mixed with ammonia," says Bryan Stiles of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)." See the full story here.
Image Credit: Titan, imaged above, may have an ocean beneath its crust. JPL/NASA
No comments:
Post a Comment