Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and one of the locations in the Solar System that is thought to possess the ingredients for life.
In photos taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, it appears as a smooth brown orb because of its thick atmosphere clouded with gaseous nitrogen and hydrocarbons.
However, radar images from Cassini show that it has a surface crust made of water ice and drenched in liquid hydrocarbons.
On Titan, methane and ethane fall from the sky as rain, fill deep seas and lakes, and are possibly spewed into the air by icy volcanoes called cryovolcanoes.
“The atmosphere of Titan is very complex, and it does synthesize complex organic molecules — the bricks of life,” said lead author Dr. Cyril Grima, a research associate at the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas at Austin.
“It may act as a laboratory of sorts, where you can see how basic molecules can be transformed into more complex molecules that could eventually lead to life.”
“On top of that, it’s also thought to have an ocean of liquid water beneath its icy crust.”
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