If there ’s any life in this solar system outside Earth , we likely wo n’t incur it on Mars or even on another planet . Saturn ’s synodic month Titan is the home in our celestial neighborhood that ’s most similar to our own home , and it ’s where scientists call back we have one of the good fortune of discovering life . Now , asNaturereports , freshly visualize information shows just how much Titan has in rough-cut with Earth .
Between 2004 and 2017 , theNASAspacecraft Cassini perform more than 100 tent-fly - bys of Saturn ’s moonshine . Titan is unique in that it ’s theonly moonin the solar system with swarm and a dense , weather - take form atmosphere . This has made it hard to study from space , but by fly close to the airfoil , Cassini was able to capture the landscape painting in an unprecedented level of detail .
NASA ’s new map of Titan , publish in the journalNature Astronomy , reveals a varied earthly concern of mountains , valleys , plains , and sandy dunes that starkly contrast with the desolate wastelands we ’ve fancy on neighboring planets . It ’s also rest home to seas and lake , making it the only place in the solar system other than Earth with know body of liquidity . But instead of water , the pools mottle the moon ’s surface consist of liquid methane .
Even with its ground - similar geology and atmosphere , chances of finding spirit on Titan are still slender : Temperatures on the surface modal around-300 ° F . If life does exist there , it ’s likely limited to microbes in the moonshine ’s craters and icy vent .
It will be a while before NASA is able to study Titan up close again : NASA ’s next drone mission to the body is fructify for2034 . Until then , scientists have passel of data recorded by Cassini to teach them more about how the synodic month form and continues to change .
[ h / tNature ]
