Saturn moon Titan's wonderfully wierd terrain and possibility of life make it so very Earth-like
5 years, 4 months ago

Saturn moon Titan's wonderfully wierd terrain and possibility of life make it so very Earth-like

Firstpost  

In the same way that Earth has a water cycle, an atmosphere, dunes, plains and lakes, the frigid moon of Saturn, Titan, has methane cycles, liquid lakes, and a diverse terrain spanning its entire surface. It shows vast plains, dunes of frozen organic material, lakes of liquid methane, illuminating an exotic world considered a strong candidate in the search for life beyond our home planet in the solar system. While water rains down from clouds and fills the Earth’s rivers, lakes, and oceans, things work a little differently on Titan, where large clouds spew hydrocarbons — in liquid form. The geological map that Cassini has helped piece together comes seven years before the launch of the Dragonfly mission, which is also hosting a multi-rotor drone to study how suitable Titan’s chemistry is for life — human and otherwise.

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History of this topic

Scientists Map Path of Liquid Methane, Ethane Rivers on Titan, Saturn's Largest Moon
3 years, 5 months ago

Scientists Map Path of Liquid Methane, Ethane Rivers on Titan, Saturn's Largest Moon

News 18  

Adding to the wealth of information on the solar system and its planets, a recent study by astronomers at Cornell University has published the final maps of Saturn’s moon Titan’s liquid methane rivers and tributaries. NASA’s upcoming Dragonfly mission will fly multiple sorties to sample and examine sites around Titan and the recent study may help provide context for the …

Unusual molecule found in atmosphere on Saturn’s moon Titan
4 years, 4 months ago

Unusual molecule found in atmosphere on Saturn’s moon Titan

CNN  

CNN — Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is the only moon in our solar system that has a thick atmosphere. This radio telescope observatory captures a range of light signatures, which revealed the molecule among the unique chemistry of Titan’s atmosphere. of Nantes/JPL-Caltech/NASA When the researchers discovered cyclopropenylidene in Titan’s atmosphere, they looked over data captured by NASA’s Cassini mission. “Every …

Lakes on Saturn's moon Titan can stratify like those on Earth
4 years, 5 months ago

Lakes on Saturn's moon Titan can stratify like those on Earth

India TV News  

Lakes on Saturn's moon - Titan - composed of methane, ethane, and nitrogen rather than water, experience density-driven stratification, forming layers similar to lakes on Earth. However, whereas lakes on Earth stratify in response to temperature, Titan's lakes stratify solely due to the strange chemical interactions between its surface liquids and atmosphere, says a paper by Planetary Science Institute Research …

Studying Saturn's moon Titan may offer insights into climate on Earth: Study
5 years, 3 months ago

Studying Saturn's moon Titan may offer insights into climate on Earth: Study

India Today  

Researchers have found that Saturn's largest moon Titan undergoes significant seasonal changes in its energy budget -- the amount of solar energy it absorbs, and the heat it emits -- an advance that may lead to new insights about climate fluctuations on the Earth. The researchers, including those from the University of Houston in the US, said Titan's dynamically-varying energy …

First-ever map of Saturn's moon reveals its Martian landscape
5 years, 4 months ago

First-ever map of Saturn's moon reveals its Martian landscape

Daily Mail  

A map has revealed the dynamic landscape of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The chart highlights its Martian landscape of mountains, lakes, plains, craters, valleys and 'labyrinth terrains' Rosaly Lopes, a planetary geologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and lead author of new research used to develop the map said: 'Titan has an active methane-based hydrologic cycle that …

Saturn's moon Titan is a lot like Earth, new research finds
5 years, 4 months ago

Saturn's moon Titan is a lot like Earth, new research finds

Salon  

When you think of a moon, you may think of a rocky, crater-filled barren surface with little to do besides wander about in your rover and collect rocks. Using newly analyzed data from NASA’s Cassini mission, astronomers published a study in Nature Astronomy this week regarding a new map of the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. “Despite the differences …

Saturn's moon Titan was shaped by similar geological processes as Earth: study
5 years, 4 months ago

Saturn's moon Titan was shaped by similar geological processes as Earth: study

Firstpost  

The dunes and lakes on Titan were relatively young while mountainous terrain appeared older. The largest of Saturn’s many moons has lakes, mountains and dunes, with its surface scarred and crafted by many of the same forces which have shaped Earth, scientists said Monday. A team led by Rosaly Lopes at the California Institute of Technology said Titan’s visible exterior …

Saturn’s moon Titan is largely covered in organic material, new evidence shows
5 years, 4 months ago

Saturn’s moon Titan is largely covered in organic material, new evidence shows

CNN  

CNN — Before NASA’s Cassini mission ended its study of Saturn in 2017, it also flew by Saturn’s moon, Titan. “People tend to know more about and study the more ‘interesting’ features on Titan, such as lakes,” Lopes said. They have largely been covered over by the organic plains and the dunes.” Earlier this year, NASA announced that the Dragonfly …

Origin of dust dunes on Saturn's moon Titan, their chemical composition unraveled
5 years, 5 months ago

Origin of dust dunes on Saturn's moon Titan, their chemical composition unraveled

Firstpost  

Titan is the only body in our solar system besides Earth, to have a solid surface, lakes, and a thick atmosphere. Scientists have found the chemical composition of organic dust dunes present on Saturn’s moon Titan — an advance that sheds more light on the mechanism by which carbon-based structures form in extremely cold environments in space. The researchers exposed …

Lakes on Saturn’s moon may be explosion craters
5 years, 6 months ago

Lakes on Saturn’s moon may be explosion craters

CNN  

CNN — Saturn’s moon Titan is a curiosity in our solar system, the only other body besides Earth to host liquid water on its surface. Now, the researchers who studied these images propose that areas of liquid nitrogen within Titan’s crust became explosive when they warmed up, creating towering, steep rims around craters where liquid methane could reside. “These lakes …

NASA's Cassini help scientists describe methane lakes, landscape on Saturn's Titan
5 years, 11 months ago

NASA's Cassini help scientists describe methane lakes, landscape on Saturn's Titan

Firstpost  

Scientists on Monday provided the most comprehensive look to date at one of the solar system’s most exotic features: prime lakeside property in the northern polar region of Saturn’s moon Titan — if you like lakes made of stuff like liquid methane. Using data obtained by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft before that mission ended in 2017 with a deliberate plunge into …

Craters on Titan are prime locations to search for building blocks of life: Study
6 years, 8 months ago

Craters on Titan are prime locations to search for building blocks of life: Study

Firstpost  

Large craters on Titan, are the prime locations to search for the building blocks of life. Large craters on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, are the prime locations to search for the building blocks of life, according to a study. The surface of Titan has abundant carbon-rich molecules that have been shown to form amino acids, the building blocks of proteins …

Saturn's largest moon Titan has intense methane rainstorms that create massive floods
7 years, 5 months ago

Saturn's largest moon Titan has intense methane rainstorms that create massive floods

Firstpost  

Scientists have found that intense methane rainstorms batter Saturn’s largest moon Titan much more frequently than expected, creating massive floods in terrain that are otherwise deserts. The storms occur less than once per Titan year — which is 29-and-a-half Earth years — but they appear to have a key role in shaping Titan’s icy surface, said the study published in …

Saturn’s moon Titan may harbour simple life forms – and reveal how organisms first formed on Earth
7 years, 7 months ago

Saturn’s moon Titan may harbour simple life forms – and reveal how organisms first formed on Earth

The Independent  

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Using data from the Nasa/ESA Cassini mission, we have now discovered molecules on Saturn’s largest …

There could be alien life on one of Saturn's moon
7 years, 7 months ago

There could be alien life on one of Saturn's moon

ABP News  

Washington D.C., Jul 30 : Saturn's moon Titan could be home to alien life, according to a recent study. The Cornell University research provided the first indisputable evidence of the presence of a molecule - acrylonitrile - on Titan, which researchers theorized could be key to life on the methane-based, oxygen-free moon of Saturn. This is a step forward in …

Cassini finds building blocks of life in our own solar system, on Saturn's moon Titan
7 years, 7 months ago

Cassini finds building blocks of life in our own solar system, on Saturn's moon Titan

The Independent  

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Cassini is conducting the grand finale before it plunges to its death, which will see it plunge …

How life may find a way on Saturn’s moon
7 years, 7 months ago

How life may find a way on Saturn’s moon

CNN  

Story highlights Vinyl cyanide, a complex organic molecule, was detected on Titan The molecule is capable of forming spheres like cell membranes CNN — It may not be like the alien life in science fiction, but researchers have just confirmed the presence of something that may lead to life on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, according to a study published Friday …

NASA’s submarine could explore life on Saturn’s moon Titan
8 years, 6 months ago

NASA’s submarine could explore life on Saturn’s moon Titan

India TV News  

US space agency NASA has unveiled plans to send a submarine into the depths of Kraken Mare, the largest on Saturn’s moon Titan, which is the only body outside the Earth with liquid lakes and seas on its surface. The Titanian seas, however, are not composed of water, like Earth's seas, but are seas of liquid hydrocarbons and one of …

Saturn’s moon Titan can possibly support life, even without water: study
8 years, 8 months ago

Saturn’s moon Titan can possibly support life, even without water: study

India TV News  

Los Angeles: A new study by scientists at Cornell University indicates that the chemical composition found on Saturn’s biggest moon Titan might breed life, even without water. Reporting in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers look at the presence of hydrogen cyanide in the planet's atmosphere and speculate that it could become …

The Distant Shores Of Titan Beckon
12 years, 3 months ago

The Distant Shores Of Titan Beckon

NPR  

The Distant Shores Of Titan Beckon Your boots crunch on the icy surface as you climb the long, wind-swept dunes. Welcome to Titan, the solar system's second-largest moon and home to the Great Lakes of liquid methane. The direct exploration of our solar system via robot space probes has, however, shown us that moons matter too. In the outer parts …

Scientists discover 'tropical' lake of methane near equator of Saturn's largest moon Titan (not bad for a planet with a surface temperature of -279F)
12 years, 9 months ago

Scientists discover 'tropical' lake of methane near equator of Saturn's largest moon Titan (not bad for a planet with a surface temperature of -279F)

Daily Mail  

Scientists discover 'tropical' lake of methane near equator of Saturn's largest moon Titan It was previously believed that bodies of liquid could not exist at Titan's midsection because energy from the sun would cause pools to evaporate Scientists have discovered a methane-rich tropical lake and several ponds near the equator of Saturn's largest moon Titan. Lakes were previously spied near …

Titan: A Wet World Not Far From Earth
13 years, 2 months ago

Titan: A Wet World Not Far From Earth

Wired  

sea-of-ligeia Sea of Ligeia Astronomers weekly announce the discovery of new exoplanets, some similar in size or temperature to our planet –- but Earth-like worlds are not always far away. Though Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is a small, cold world orbiting on the outskirts of the solar system, it actually boasts many familiar features. “Titan is fascinating because it has …

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